THOUSANDS of anti-racists took to the streets of Britain at the weekend as part of worldwide events in 21 countries and 80 cities marking the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In Britain, there were marches and rallies in London and Glasgow on Saturday and Cardiff yesterday against the background of outrage over revelations that police in London strip-searched a black girl while she was on her period.

She suffered the humiliating ordeal, which included making her remove her sanitary towel, after teachers at her school, acting on a suspicion of drug possession, called police.

The weekend’s protests were organised by Stand Up to Racism.

At the London rally, Chantelle Lunt of Merseyside Black Lives Matter demanded justice for the schoolgirl, who as been identified only as Child Q.

She said: “She is every one of our children. She’s not just someone else. She is our child and we have to fight for her.

“She is all of our children. So when we talk about black lives matter, we mean it. Our lives matter, our lives matter and it matters how you treat our children.”

Protester Danielle Parker said: “My niece is black and she’s 15 years old and I can’t imagine her going through something like that, it’s life-scarring, life-changing.”

Another attendee, Claire Wormald, described the incident as “absolutely barbaric.”

Labour MPs Diane Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Richard Burgon and union general secretaries Kevin Courtney and Matt Wrack, of the National Education Union and Fire Brigades Union respectively, sent messages of solidarity to the girl.

Stand Up to Racism co-convener Sabby Dhalu said: “The message from the marches were clear: the best way to defeat racism is to unite trade unions and all communities subjected to racism.”

Her fellow co-convener, Weyman Bennett, added: “Ten thousand of us marched against racism in London.

“We marched against the government’s attempt to divide and rule using racism. We marched to welcome all refugees — from Ukraine, Afghanistan to Eritrea.

“We marched against the government’s attempt to deny the existence of institutional racism, the ongoing institutional racism that leads to children being strip-searched in schools. 

“We marched against the Nationality and Borders Bill and Policing Bill, both of which attack black communities.”

Scotland Yard has apologised for the strip-search of the schoolgirl and said that the incident “should never have happened.”