UK - Defend The Right To Protest

DEFEND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST
Planning meeting: Thursday 5 May, London

Protest: STOP THESE ATTACKS ON OUR RIGHT TO PROTEST
Monday 9 MAY, 9am, City Westminster Court

http://defendtherighttoprotest.org/

The right to protest has been dealt serious blows in recent weeks. Dozens have been raided and arrested simply for planning to protest on the day of the royal wedding.

Meanwhile, police raided squats with the excuse that they might also somehow spoil the royals’ big day.

The group Defend the Right to Protest has called several events to organise opposition to these attacks on our civil liberties.

On Thursday the group has called an emergency open meeting in London on how to respond to the attacks. Speakers include Alfie Meadows, who was given brain damage after being beaten by police on the student protests last year, and was later arrested; John McDonnell MP, a Fortnum and Masons occupier, and others.

This from the Defend the Right to Protest Facebook group:

THURS 5 MAY, 6.30PM
CENTRAL LONDON VENUE TBC
Preemptive raids on protesters before the Royal Wedding.....Alfie Meadows who underwent surgery after been hit by a police baton charged with violent disorder......Fortnum and Masons protesters charged with aggravated trespass. This must stop! Please come along and help organise a response to these attacks on our right to protest

"These raids and arrests are outrageously disproportionate and demonstrate the decline that has taken place in the protection of civil liberties in this country. Those arrested must be defended and supported by us all". JOHN McDONNELL MP

"This appears to be a worrying extension of police using powers preemptively to stop people protesting. They claim to be independent and facilitate peaceful protest its difficult to see how they can justify those statements in light of what they are doing" MATT FOOT CAMPAIGNING LAWYER

This will be followed on Monday 9 May with a protest at City Westminster Court, where Fortnum and Mason occupiers have their hearing. 140 were arrested and detained following the occupation on 26 March.

STOP THESE ATTACKS ON OUR RIGHT TO PROTEST
MONDAY 9 MAY, 9AM, CITY WESTMINSTER COURT
Protest outside the hearing of Fortnum & Mason occupiers.
On 26 March, around 140 people were arrested and detained for taking part in the occupation of Fortnum & Mason to highlight tax avoidance. Their protest was peaceful, as documented by eyewitness reports and video footage. They were told by police that they were free to leave – but as soon as the protestors left the building they were arrested. The occupiers now face charges of aggravated trespass and the possibility of a prison sentence.

The Fortnum and Mason arrests are part of a much wider project that threatens the right to protest. The student demonstrations of November and December were regularly kettled and charged by mounted officers or uniformed thugs wielding batons and shields. Tahmeena Bax and Alfie Meadows were peaceful protestors hospitalised by police. Alfie now faces charges of violent disorder – unlike the officers responsible for the brain haemorrhage that nearly killed him.

Faced with unprecedented cuts that threaten to decimate the welfare state, now more than ever we must defend and assert our right to protest. On Monday 9 May join us outside the first of the Fortnum & Mason hearing to defend the protestors facing charges and to remind the government and the police that we can and will exercise our protest without fear of arrest or intimidation.

Stay up to date with our campaign:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Defend-the-Right-to-Protest/178594298855659

http://defendtherighttoprotest.org/

26 March Anti-Cuts Demo, London

AIM Scotland member Rainbow Castro joined hundreds of thousands of others in London this weekend at protest against the cuts being made by the UK government. She is not able to write her own account of her experiences there but has submitted the below article as she feels it is the most concise and truthful account she has come across.

Taken from an article written by Laurie Penny and published in NewStatesman

"We're fucked," says the young man in the hoodie, staring out through the police cordon of Trafalgar Square, towards parliament. "Who's going to listen to us now?"

It's midnight on 26 March, a day that saw almost half a million students, trades unionists, parents, children and concerned citizens from all over Britain demonstrate against the government's austerity programme. All day, street fights across London between anti-cuts protestors and the police have turned this city into a little warzone. Barricades burned in Piccadilly as militant groups escalated the vandalism; the shopfronts of major banks and tax-avoiding companies have been smashed and daubed with graffiti, and Oxford Street was occupied and turned into a mass street party. Now, night is falling on the Trafalgar kettle, and the square stinks of cordite, emptied kidneys and anxiety. We've been here for three hours, and it's freezing; we burn placards and share cigarettes to maintain an illusion of warmth.

Commander Bob Broadhurst, who was in charge of the Metropolitan Police operation on the day, later states that the clashes in Trafalgar square began because "for some reason one of [the protestors] made an attack on the Olympic clock." That is not what happened. Instead, I witness the attempted snatch arrest of a 23 year-old man who they suspect of damaging the shop front of a major chain bank earlier in the day.

It starts when a handful of police officers moved through the quiet crowd, past circles of young people sharing snacks, smoking, playing guitars and chatting. They move in to grab the young man, but his friends scrambled to prevent the arrest being made, dragging him away from the police by his legs. Batons are drawn; a scuffle breaks out, and that scuffle becomes a fight, and then suddenly hundreds of armoured riot police are swarming in, seemingly from nowhere, sweeping up the steps of the National Gallery, beating back protesters as they go.

Things escalate very quickly. In the space of a minute and a half, the police find themselves surrounded on both sides by enraged young people who had gathered for a peaceful sit-in at the end of the largest workers' protest in a generation. The riot line advances on both sides, forcing protesters back into the square; police officers are bellowing and laying into the demonstrators with their shields.

Both sides begin to panic. Some of them start to throw sticks, and as the police surge forward, shouting and raising their weapons, others band together to charge the lines with heavy pieces of metal railing, which hit several protestors on their way past. Next to me, young people are raising their hands and screaming "don't hit us!"; some are yelling at the armoured police - "shame on you! Your job's next!"

 

I find myself in front of the riot line, taking a blow to the head and a kick to the shin; I am dragged to my feet by a girl with blue hair who squeezes my arm and then raises a union flag defiantly at the cops. "We are peaceful, what are you?" chant the protestors. I'm chanting it too, my head ringing with pain and rage and adrenaline; a boy with dreadlocks puts an arm around me. "Don't scream at them," he says. "We're peaceful, so let's not provoke."

A clear-eyed young man called Martin throws himself between the kids and the cops, his hands raised, telling us all to calm down, stand firm,stop throwing things and link arms; the police grab him, mistaking him for a rabble-rouser and toss him violently back into the line. The cops seal off the square. Those of us behind the lines are kettled, trapped in the sterile zone, shoved back towards Nelson's column as flares are lit and the fires begin to go out.

It would be naive to suggest that small numbers of people did not come to London today intent on breaking windows should the opportunity arise. It would be equally naive to suggest that no other groups had action plans that involved rather more than munching houmous in Hyde park and listening to some speeches. Few of those plans, however, come to fruition: however the papers choose to report the events of 26 March, there is no organised minority kicking things in for the hell of it. Instead, a few passionate, peaceful protest groups attempt to carry out direct action plans, plans that quickly become overwhelmed by crowds of angry, unaffiliated young people and a handful of genuinely violent agitators.

Those young people are from all over the country, and when the word goes out at 2pm that something was happening in Oxford Street, they headed down in their thousands. By the time the twenty-foot-high Trojan Horse arrives at Oxford Circus in the early afternoon, a full-blown rave is under way, coherent politics subsumed by the sheer defiant energy of the crowd. Chants about saving public services and education quickly merge into a thunderous, wordless cheer, erupting every time the traffic light countdowns flash towards. "Five-Four-Three-Two-One..." hollers the crowd, as bank branches are shut down, paint bombs thrown at the police, and small scuffles break out.

When UK Uncut's well-publicised secret occupation plan kicks into action at 3.30pm, the numbers and the energy quickly become overwhelming. As we follow the high-profile direct action group's red umbrella down Regent Street, we learn that the target is Fortnum and Mason's - the "Royal grocer's", as the news are now insisting on calling it, as though the stunt were a yobbish personal assault on the Queen's marmalade. The crowd is too big to stop, and protesters stream into the store, rushing past the police who are too late to barricade the doors.

Once inside, squeezing each other in shock at their own daring, everyone does a bit of excited chanting and then down for a polite impromptu picnic. Placards are erected by the famously opulent coffee counters, and tape wound around displays of expensive truffles imprecating the holding company to pay all its taxes. Tax avoidance is the ostensible reason for this occupation; the class factor remains unspoken, but deeply felt.

The posh sweets, however, remain untouched, as do all the other luxury goodies in the store, as protestors share prepacked crisps and squash and decide that it'd be rude to smoke indoors. When someone accidentally-on-purpose knocks over a display of chocolate bunny rabbits, priced at fifteen pounds each, two girls sternly advise them to clear up the mess without delay. "It's just unnecessary."

Refined middle-aged couples who had been having quiet cream teas in Fortnum's downstairs restaurant stare blinkingly at the occupiers, who are organising themselves into a non-hierarchial consensus-building team. "I oppose the cuts, I'm a socialist, but I think this type of thing is too much," says property manager Kat, 32. "There are old ladies upstairs. And I just came in to buy some fresh marshmallows, and now I can't."

Outside the building, the crowd is going wild. Some scale the building and scrawl slogans onto the brickwork; others turn their attention to the bank branches across the road. I leave Fortnum's and make my way down Piccadilly under a leaden sky, past the ruined fronts of Lloyds and Santander, to Picadilly Circus, where the riots - and make no mistake, these are now riots - have momentarily descended into an eerie standoff. The police raise their batons; the crowd yells abuse at them. Noone is chanting about government cuts anymore: instead, they are chanting about police violence. "No justice, no peace, fuck the police!' yells a middle-aged man in a wheelchair. I scramble onto some railings for safety as a cohort of riot police move into the crowd, find themselves surrounded and are beaten back by thrown sticks. Someone yells that a police officer is being stretchered to safety. Flares and crackers are let off; red smoke trails in the air.

 

"A riot," said martin Luther King Jr, "is the language of the unheard." There are an awful lot of unheard voices in this country. What differentiates the rioters in Picadilly and Oxford Circus from the rally attendees in Hyde Park is not the fact that the latter are "real" protestors and the former merely "anarchists" (still an unthinking synonym for "hooligans" in the language of the press). The difference is that many unions and affiliated citizens still hold out hope that if they behave civilly, this government will do likewise.

The younger generation in particular, who reached puberty just in time to see a huge, peaceful march in 2003 change absolutely nothing, can't be expected to have any such confidence. We can hardly blame a cohort that has been roundly sold out, priced out, ignored, and now shoved onto the dole as the Chancellor announces yet another tax break for bankers, for such skepticism. If they do not believe the government cares one jot about what young or working-class people really think, it may be because any evidence of such concern is sorely lacking.

A large number of young people in Britain have become radicalised in a hurry, and not all of their energies are properly directed, explaining in part the confusion on the streets yesterday. Among their number, however, are many principled, determined and peaceful groups working to affect change and build resistance in any way they can.

One of these groups is UK Uncut. I return to Fortnum's in time to see dozens of key members of the group herded in front of the store and let out one by one, to be photographed, handcuffed and arrested. With the handful of real, random agitators easy to identify as they tear through the streets of Mayfair, the met has chosen instead to concentrate its energies on UK Uncut - the most successful, high-profile and democratic anti-cuts group in Britain.

UK Uncut has embarrassed both the government and the police with its gentle, inclusive, imaginative direct action days over the past six months. As its members are manhandled onto police coaches, waiting patiently to be taken to jail whilst career troublemakers run free and unarrested in the streets outside, one has to ask oneself why.

Shaken, I make my way through the streets of Mayfair towards Trafalgar to meet friends and debrief. In the dark, groups of people wearing trades union tabards and carrying placards wander hither and thither down burning sidestreets as oblivious shoppers eat salad in Pret A manger.

By 8pm, there's a party going on under Nelson's Column. Groups of anti-cuts protestors, many of whom have come down from Hyde Park, have congregated in the square to eat biscuits, drink cheap supermarket wine, share stories and socialise after a long and confusing day.

‘'These young people are right to be angry. I don't think people are angry enough, actually, given that the NHS is being destroyed before our eyes," says Barry, 61, a retired social worker. "The rally was alright, but a huge march didn't make Tony Blair change his mind about Iraq, and another huge march isn't going to make David Cameron change his mind now. So what are people supposed to do?"

That's a tough question in a country where almost every form of political dissent apart from shuffling in an orderly queue from one march point to the other is now a crime.

"I don't have a problem with people smashing up banks, I think that's fine, given that the banks have done so much damage to the country," says Barry, getting into his stride. "Violence against real people - that's wrong."

Minutes after the fights begin in Trafalgar square, so does the backlash. Radio broadcasters imply that anyone who left the pre-ordained march route is a hooligan, and police chiefs rush to assure the public that this "mindless violence" has "nothing to do with protest."

The young people being battered in Trafalgar square, however, are neither mindless nor violent. In front of the lines, a teenage girl is crying and shaking after being shoved to the ground. "I'm not moving, I'm not moving," she mutters, her face smeared with tears and makeup. "I've been on every protest, I won't let this government destroy our future without a fight. I won't stand back, I'm not moving." A police officer charges, smacking her with his baton as she flings up her hands.

The cops cram us further back into the square, pushing people off the plinths where they have tried to scramble for safety. By now there are about 150 young people left in the square, and only one trained medic, who has just been batoned in the face; his friends hold him up as he blacks out, and carry him to the police lines, but they won't let him leave. By the makeshift fire, I meet the young man whose attempted arrest started all this. "I feel responsible," he said, "I never wanted any of this. None of us did"

Back on the column, a boy in a black hoodie and facerag hollers through his hands to his friends, who have linked arms in front of the police line. "This is what they want!" he yells, pointing at the Houses of Parliament. "They want us to fight each other. They want us to fight each other!

“They're laughing all the way to the bank!"

One Law For All Update From Maryam Namazie

Hello

Thank you so much to those of you who sent in donations following our December appeal for One Law for All. We managed to raise £2,700 and now have ten 100Club donors supporting us every month.

With the money we’ve raised we are sending out letters to all Members of Parliament (including Peers) calling for an amendment to the Arbitration Act in order to stop Sharia courts from dealing with civil, family, and criminal matters and violating civil rights. We shall also be holding a debate in the Houses of Parliament to highlight the issues and gain support amongst MPs. In our next letter we shall be asking you for help in contacting your MP in order to secure support for our campaign and give you further information on the meeting in Parliament.

In the meantime, we have organised an International Conference on Women’s Rights, Sharia Law and Secularism on 12 March at the University of London Union from 10.00-19.00. The one-day conference marking International Women’s Day will discuss religion’s impact on women’s rights; religion and secularism and religion and the law. Speakers include Philosopher A.C. Grayling, Honorary Speaker of the Belgian Senate Anne-Marie Lizin; National Secular Society Vice President Elizabeth O'Casey; and women’s rights campaigner Yasmin Rehman. There will also be a showing of Ghazi Rabihavi’s play, Stoning, which Harold Pinter has described as ‘a very strong and powerful piece of work, beautifully constructed.’ You can find out more about the conference and booking a space via our website: 


http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/12-march-2010-international-conference-on-women%e2%80%99s-rights-sharia-law-and-secularism-london/. 
You may register on the day at the door but it would help us if you could pre-register.

Other recent activities that may be of interest to you are: a letter we have written to the Prime Minister; a Seminar entitled Enemies not Allies that was recently held in January (a report is forthcoming); a press release exposing the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal as liars after our correspondence with the Director of Public Prosecutions; and finally, a statement on the Channel 4 Dispatches: Lessons in Hate and Violence as well as on solicitors offering Sharia advice. Links to all of these can be found in the notes below.

I want to personally thank you again for your donations and/or support. Please do continue to support our work - every penny does make a real difference to us. And nothing we do would be possible were it not for your help.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope to see you at our 12 March event. 

Warmest wishes

Maryam

Maryam Namazie

Spokesperson

NOTES:

1. Find out more about our most recent activities here:

* One Law for All’s Fury as Firm of Solicitors offers Sharia advice: http://www.secularism.org.uk/127264.html

* Our joint statement with the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain on Channel 4’s Despatches: Lessons on Hate and Violence on Islamic schools: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/on-channel-4%e2%80%99s-dispatches-lessons-in-hate-and-violence/

* Anne Marie Water’s Letter to the Prime Minister: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/one-law-for-alls-letter-to-the-prime-minister/

* Letter from Director of Public Prosecutions to Spokesperson Anne Marie Waters on the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal’s deceptive claims regarding decriminalisation of domestic violence and marital rape and our press release on it: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/the-muslim-arbitration-tribunal-as-liars/

* Video footage of Enemies not Allies Seminar: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/videos-seminar-on-enemies-not-allies/

2. Our International Conference on Women’s Rights, Sharia Law and Secularism will be held at the University of London Union, The Venue, Malet Street, London WC1E, on 12 March from 1000-1900 (Registration begins at 10am for a 1030am start). The one day conference marking International Women’s Day will discuss Religion’s Impact on Women’s Rights; Religion and Secularism and Religion and the Law. Philosopher AC Grayling will give the keynote address. Speakers include: Helle Merete Brix (Journalist); Patty Debonitas (Iran Solidarity); Nadia Geerts (Rappel); Maria Hagberg (Network against Honour-related Violence); Anne-Marie Lizin (Honorary Speaker of Belgian Senate); Maryam Namazie (One Law for All and Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain); Elizabeth O'Casey (National Secular Society); Yasmin Rehman (Women’s Rights Activist); Gita Sahgal (Women’s Rights Campaigner); Nina Sankari (European Feminist Initiative Poland); Sohaila Sharifi (Equal Rights Now); Annie Sugier (la ligue du Droit International des Femmes); Michele Vianes (Regard des Femmes); Anne Marie Waters (one Law for All); and others. There will also be a showing of Ghazi Rabihavi’s play Stoning. Entry fee: £10 individuals; £3 unwaged and students. To register, click here: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/12-march-2010-international-conference-on-women%e2%80%99s-rights-sharia-law-and-secularism-london/

3. To donate to the crucial work of One Law for All, please either send a cheque made payable to One Law for All to BM Box 2387, London WC1N 3XX, UK or pay via Paypal by visiting: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/donate/.

We need regular support that we can rely on and are asking for supporters to commit to giving at least £5-10 a month via direct debit. You can find out more about how to join the 100 Club here: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/donate/.

4. The One Law for All Campaign was launched on 10 December 2008, International Human Rights Day, to call on the UK Government to recognise that Sharia and religious courts are arbitrary and discriminatory against women and children in particular and that citizenship and human rights are non-negotiable. To join the campaign, sign our petition here: http://onelawforallpetition.com/onelaw/onela300.php?nr=40155035. The petition has already been signed by over 27000 individuals and organisations.

5. For further information contact:

Maryam Namazie

Spokesperson

One Law for All

BM Box 2387

London WC1N 3XX, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 7719166731

onelawforall@gmail.com

www.onelawforall.org.uk

BLR / AIM - 7/7 Acapella (I Want Justice)

Shalom! When the Anti Injustice Movement hosted the Capital X & Jehuniko "I Want Justice Tour" in October, we stayed at a hotel in Tavistock place... just around the corner from Tavistock Square, the site of the bus bombing on 7/7. On the morning of our London show a few of us set out to film some footage at a few of the locations of the bombings on 7/7... here is a take from Russell Square tube station.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDyhhevr7YA

Brent Lee Regan performs a verse from Bin Laden 7/7 off his False Flags & Patsies EP outside Russell Square. This video is dedicated to all of the victims and families affected by the tragedy of July 7th, 2005 and to the family and friends of Jean Charles de Menezes.

More info @ http://www.JulySeventh.co.uk - http://www.Justice4Jean.org

Brent Lee Regan is a Frontline Raptivist from The Anti Injustice Movement, a member of Guerilla Republik UK and also runs Truth Music Directory

REVOLUTION

As UK students continue to protest the planned rise in the cost of further education and cuts to primary and secondary education, one protester says it how it is on Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

You can smell the revolution in the air!

London Procession Of Remembrance for Those Who Have Died In Custody

 

The United Families and Friends Campaign will be making their twelfth annual procession of remembrance for people who have died in custody this weekend.

Assemble at 12noon on Saturday 30 October at Trafalgar Square for a march to 10 Downing Street. Please dress in black. More information can be found here: http://uffc-campaigncentral.net/

UFFC includes members of the families of Roger Sylvester, Leon Patterson, Rocky Bennett, Alton Manning, Christopher Alder, Brian Douglas, Joy Gardner, Aseta Simms, Ricky Bishop, Paul Jemmott, Harry Stanley, Glenn Howard, Mikey Powell, Jason Mcpherson and Sean Rigg - all of whom have died in custody.

You can also join the event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160780920605213&index=1

--
INQUEST
89-93 Fonthill Road, London N4 3JH
Registered Charity No 1046650 | Registered Company No 03054853
- Awarded the Longford Prize 2009 and Liberty and JUSTICE Human Rights Award 2007
- Visit our website at www.inquest.org.uk
- Follow INQUEST on Twitter - www.twitter.com/INQUEST_ORG
- INQUEST on Facebook - http://bit.ly/INQUEST_fb
- Raise money for INQUEST as you search the web with Everyclick.com - www.everyclick.com/inquest