Civil liberties, justice, crime

Barristers strike indefinitely from 5 September

Criminal defence barristers are beginning indefinite strike action for increased legal aid fees and related demands – and about the future of the court and criminal justice system. Striking barrister Hannah Webb spoke to Solidarity,

Bristol protestors face 74 years jail

On the 6 August in Bristol, a protest in solidarity with the prisoners charged after attending Kill the Bill protests will be taking place. Under the demands “drop the charges” and “free the prisoners”, the protest is the the first demo to be planned for some time - the initial movement fizzled out following intense State repression - a worrying and sobering new development that is likely to continue with the Police, Crime and Sentencing bill becoming an act in April this year. The repression began, at first, with police violence against a largely non-violent crowd of about 200, the remnants...

Oppose the extradition

On 17 June Priti Patel approved Julian Assange’s extradition to the US on “espionage” charges. Assange is going to appeal the decision and legal struggles could go on for several years. As we have said many times over many years, Assange is no political hero. That is irrelevant to the extradition issue. Assange faces prosecution under the US’s Espionage Act, and spending the rest of his life in prison there, because of his work, as founder of WikiLeaks, helping to expose the machinations and crimes of powerful states including the US and UK. The drive to get Assange is part of the trend...

Stop the Rwanda scheme, oppose new Tory Bill

The government is not actually proposing to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Human Rights that arbitrates it; but it is proposing to seriously curb the UK’s commitment to these institutions. This is yet another front of the accelerated push, from 2019, to shift the UK in the direction of an authoritarian nationalist regime. The labour movement must fight to stop it, and develop clear proposals to reverse it if it goes through. The Rwanda deportation policy, greenlighted by UK courts but shredded by determined campaigning before it was...

Barristers on strike

Barristers involved in criminal cases struck for two days in the week of 27 June 2022; they are set to strike an extra day each week up to a five-day strike in the week of 18 July. The immediate issue is the government fees barristers get for legal aid cases, which have been cut and held down over three decades (including under Labour governments). The government is proposing a 15% increase in October, which the strikers say would help little in the context of inflation. They want 25% sooner. Since 11 April barristers have also been refusing to do the “return work” – stepping in to pick up...

Tories push to curb human rights

European Court of Human Rights building, Strasbourg Ever since the 1998 Human Rights Act incorporated the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) into UK law, there have been noises from disgruntled right-wing politicians about scrapping it. Now, in its push to clear the way for its scheme to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda, this government is proposing to do it. It claims to believe that European Court of Human Rights has Brits by the neck, suppressing our rights. In reality getting rid of the Human Rights Act would leave many vulnerable groups with their backs against the door. Over fifty...

Tories’ "extremism" adviser airbrushes far right

Last year 22% of referrals to the government’s “Prevent” strategy for countering “extremism” concerned Islamist radicalisation; 25% concerned the white nationalist far right. (Larger numbers for “mixed, unstable or unclear ideology”; only a very few referrals for far left ideas.) Seven years ago the Islamist figure was about five times higher than the far right one (and five times higher than it is now). Of “Channel” cases concerning “radicalisation of vulnerable individuals”, 46% concerned far-right ideas and 22% Islamist ones. Some more radical Islamists engage in violence; but there have...

Patel facilitates racist harassment

Following up fast on the passing of the Police Act , and the announcement of yet more repressive legislation to come, Home Secretary Priti Patel is expanding police powers to harass people in the street through “stop and search”. She has announced changes to use of Section 60 of the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. Now instead of a senior officer being able to declare they believe serious violence will take place in a given area, thus allowing searches without reasonable grounds, it will be a matter of declaring that violence “may” occur. The length of time the powers can be in...

Curb the police! Labour activists and trade unionists must raise Police Act at Labour conference

Now that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill has become law we will face two pressures – to buckle under to the restrictions on protest it introduces, and to accept that they are permanent. We don’t know yet exactly how the new law be used to stop protests in practice – but we know that it will be and how in broad outline. The labour movement and others campaigning for justice, equality and democratic control need to organise many more and more vibrant and militant protests, not fewer and quieter. Meanwhile we need to find ways to start discussion about how to defy repression. As un...

Police Act: defy, demand repeal!

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act became law on 28 April, after the House of Lords accepted the government’s insistence on reinstating authoritarian measures the Lords previously ameliorated. The resistance of the Lords, which did sink attempts to make the law even worse, came after a late wave of lively — though not particularly big — protests. Bigger protests, and mobilisation by the labour movement, could have pushed the Tories back much more. As it is the Act is very similar to what was first proposed in March last year. The first thing is to argue and organise in the labour...

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