Edward Woollard, the student who threw a fire extinguisher off the roof of Tory party HQ at the 10 November student demonstration, hurting no-one, has been sentenced to 32 months in jail.
For a foolish but harmless act, an 18 year old will have key years of his whole life blighted. And the cop who bludgeoned Alfie Meadows on 9 December, so that he had to have emergency surgery to save his life? Nothing.
The three security guards who killed Jimmy Mubenga in October? They have been interviewed by police, but not charged.
The cops who killed Jean Charles de Menezes? Nothing.
On Sunday 9 January, school students in Witney, Oxfordshire, joined a protest against privatisation organised by the post and telecom union CWU at David Cameron’s constituency office. Among the speakers was 12 year old student Nicky Wishart, who was threatened with arrest and even shooting by the police, when he used Facebook to organise a protest outside Cameron’s office late last year.
Many other school students across the country are still dealing with the threat of expulsion for participating in last year’s walkouts.
And as students plan another day of walkouts on 26 January and 29 January, they may meet a violent police response. They will be planning ways of staying safe on their demonstrations.
The Right to Resist campaign has been set up to mobilise the student movement and the labour movement to fight politically against police powers of repression. We want to end the practice of kettling. We will co-ordinate protests against victimisations of student protestors. Right to Resist is producing activist briefings on how to fight victimisations, stay safe on demonstrations and know your rights in case of arrests; and collecting stories and images of police violence and repression.
Please pass the Right to Resist model motion in your trade union branch, Constituency Labour Party, anti-cuts committee or student union.
