Civil liberties

1 December 2006Review

JNV Publishing, 2006; ISBN 9 7819 04527 10 7; 96pp; £8

In October 2005, Maya Evans was arrested for reading out the names of British soldiers killed in Iraq during a remembrance ceremony at the Cenotaph on Whitehall. She was charged with taking part in an “unauthorised demonstration” in a “designated area” under section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) and on 7 December 2005 she became the first person to be convicted under this Act.

The case attracted huge attention in the mainstream media as well as being…

3 November 2006Comment

For the past month a renewed debate about citizenship, religious freedom and gender has been raging in Britain. Marieme Helie Lucas offers her perspective and throws down a few challenges to the "coward Left".

In the controversy over the veil sparked by Jack Straw, there is one thing that is ignored both by his supporters and his detractors: “The veil” (singular) is not a dress code rooted in culture or religion. The form of veiling that we now see spreading all over European and North American countries comes from nowhere: it is a recent syncretic outfit, picking up from various traditions, that has been invented by fundamentalists as their political uniform, as their very visible flag.

1 November 2006News

As more observant readers will have noticed, parliament was not sacked on 9 October. However several hundred people did turn up to show their opposition to the war on Iraq and to challenge the ludicrous provisions of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA).

The day started slowly, with more journalists and bystanders than protesters. But by 1.30pm around 100 people had gathered in Parliament Square, all expectantly waiting to see if anything would happen... and sure…

1 November 2006News in Brief

Helen John and Sylvia Boyes, both charged under the Serious Organised Crime Act for breaking into Menwith Hill, the US spy base in North Yorkshire, will go to trial on the from 9 to 11 January 2007.

The pair were arrested on 1 April 12006, as the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (S128) came into force for additional designated sites - criminalising trespass at a number of military and nuclear facilities across Britain. Both women had visited the North Yorkshire spy base to…

16 October 2006Feature

Stupid, repressive laws require creative and surreal responses. On 22 September, more than 100 “lone protesters” gathered simultaneously in London's Parliament Square in response to the ongoing criminalisation of protest within 1km of the Houses of Parliament - under provisions contained in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act. In a bid to overwhelm the Metropolitan Police with paperwork, those involved had all applied - and received permission - for their individual protests. The…

1 July 2006Feature

There was a mood of celebration - and also relief - on the well attended Critical Mass cycle ride in central London on 30 June, following a High Court ruling a few days earlier that a police attempt to declare the event “unlawful” should have “had the benefit of sounder legal advice”.
Participants in the Central London ride last September - when they met on the South Bank at 6pm on the last Friday of the month as usual - were handed letters by the police saying that the event was not…

1 July 2006News

On 1 April 2006, two peace campaigners from Yorkshire were arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA). They face up to a year in prison, or a maximum #5,000 fine, after protesting against the law, sections of which criminalise trespass and remove the automatic right to peaceful demonstrations.

The two women, Helen John, 68, and Sylvia Boyes, 62, were arrested after walking 15 feet past the patrol line at Menwith Hill, a US military spy base in North Yorkshire…

16 June 2006Feature

Just before 3am on Tuesday 23 May, around 50 police swooped on Brian Haw and his supporters in Parliament Square. Their instructions were to remove most of the anti-war display.

They brought a lorry and freight container, and unceremoniously dumped placards, cuttings, models, religious items and donated artworks, in a crammed heap into it.
    Two supporters climbed on top of the container and held up the police until they were overpowered…

16 June 2006Feature

On 8 May, Brian Haw's exemption from the ban on unauthorised protest under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) came to an end.

The Home Office won an appeal against last year's High Court decision that the Act could not be applied retrospectively and Brian's protest has, in theory, been brought under police control.

Attempts at control

Despite media headlines to the effect that this would be the end of Brian's epic stand against this government's foreign…

3 June 2006Comment

Governmental attempts to soften up public opinion for an announcement of more nuclear power stations have their parallel in the nuclear industry itself.

The British Nuclear Group - they're the people who oversee the radioactive waste mountains at Windscale/Sellafield - are advertising for “environmental specialists” at salaries of up to #43,000 pa. Amongst the work needing doing is coming up with strategies for contaminated land. Dealing with contamination sounds worthy; but you…

3 June 2006Comment

It's been a rough few weeks for the Home Office. The furore over foreign criminals, followed by a row over the monitoring of newly released criminals on probation, a defeat over abuse of power in the Afghan hijackers case, and then, to cap it all, an ill judged remark over the number of illegal immigrants in Britain sparks a spat over immigration. Liz Norman reflects on how this catalogue of woes is being used to reinforce the ID card debate.

The government's response to the recent Home Office debacles has become all too predictable over the last nine years - promise new legislation, promise the repeal of the poor old Human Rights Act, and promise an ID card. This is a reactive government, not a proactive one.

The first two of these promises are easily dealt with; new legislation is likely to have little or no effect, and repeal of the Human Rights Act will still leave us subject to the European Convention on Human Rights…

16 May 2006Feature

Every Sunday afternoon, campaigners stage an open picnic on Parliament Square to plan ideas to subvert or test the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (section 132). SOCPA requires advance written police permission for demonstrations around parliament, thus criminalising spontaneous protest.

Dozens of people have been arrested since this law's inception last August (see PNs), but its operational enforcement appears related to the size of the demonstration and media…

1 April 2006News

In the early afternoon of Sunday 26 March, Brian Haw was standing with fellow campaigner Barbara Tucker when the police came by and decided that a crime was being committed. Barbara was wearing a pink sparkly banner that read “Bliar, war criminal” and was not keen to give her name and address for no good reason. This was enough to get her arrested under the new law banning unauthorised protest near parliament.

Brian Haw was then arrested on “suspicion of obstructing police” for…

1 April 2006News

On 16 March, Milan Rai, author, activist and founder of Justice Not Vengeance, went on trial for organising an unauthorised demonstration within the 1-km exclusion zone around parliament on 25 October 2005, contrary to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA). If found guilty, Rai faces a fine of up to #3,000 and/or three months imprisonment.

The “demonstration” in question consisted of Milan and one other person, Maya Evans, reading the names of those who have died in the…

3 March 2006Comment

This occasional column is a continuation of the one I wrote for Nonviolent Action and it's timely to revisit an issue that arose at NvA.

I'm still smarting from the spiking of one of my columns because (as I recall) “it would cause offence to our American staff”. During the build-up to the invasion of Iraq I submitted a poem in place of prose. I hoped A hymn of hate to America might provoke a response. It did.

A challenging idea

The poem was…