Pressure on protest is an issue for everyone
JVL Introduction
George Monbiot outlines some of the ways in which protest is being more and more constrained with draconian measures against those broadly on the left, objecting to the use of fossil foils and its impact on the climate and the environment as well, of course, on those protesting this government’s support for the genocidal actions of the Israeli goveernment in Gaza – and the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In whose interests are the heavy deployment of the country’s police forces against a small group meeting to discuss possible actions in a Quaker Meeting House? In whose interests are the new, draconian plans to stop protest where the “effect” may be to make people wanting to go to places of worship feel intimidated unless you are a Quaker presumably)?
Of course, this is not only happening in the UK, with Germany and the US being particularly brutal, but the right to peaceful protest was hard won and is in danger of being lost.
LL
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Thu 3 Apr 2025. Read the original here.
Vilified, arrested, held incommunicado: that’s the price of protest in Britain today
It seems to me that whatever the charges facing the activists at the Quaker meeting house raid, their fundamental crime is dissent
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Now departed, former Comrade Tony Benn [MP], always pointed out, that the rights we exercise today weren’t given as a gift from a benign, benevolent, philanthropic ruling class. They had to be fought and died for. From the Levellers, the Chartists, the Suffragettes and struggles by the Labour Movement, time and again those rights have been upheld by continually fighting, in whatever way we can, to prevent those rights from being taken away. “Freedom” is a phrase laundered by the elite when it suits them, and doesn’t ultimately challenge their precious privilege. It’s no surprise that Kier Starmer and his cabal of genocide-enablers, preside over the most draconian, authoritarian, crack-down, on dissenters, especially in order to protect a foreign genocidal state. Starmers Government, which intimidates and imprisons dissenters, represents a state which thinks it can act with impunity. It is a sign of their weakness: the veil of “democracy” is off. We have to prepare for even more attacks from the state, and to defend our right to dissent. The tighter the screw the State turns, the more we will organise and fight back. United we stand. More so now than ever.
3.4.25 – I watched a (livestreamed) YouTube showing of a crowded, lively Youth Demand meeting (again at Westminster Quaker Meeting House) that took place one week after the Met Police had raided their first meeting.
All kudos to the courage and determination of all those at the meeting who refused to be intimidated by their terrifying experiences of the week before.
Grateful thanks also to Westminster Meeting for continuing to host these meetings and for being so resolute in upholding those who peacefully protest against horrific wrongs.
MP puts question in Parliament to the Leader of the Commons (Hansard 4.4.25)
Ellie Chowns – Green Party MP (North Herefordshire)
Last night I attended the meeting for worship at Westminster Quaker Meeting House. Last Thursday, that place of worship was forcefully raided by 20 police officers, equipped with tasers, and they arrested six women and charged them in relation to planning a peaceful protest. That raises important questions about the criminalisation of public protest, and indeed religious freedom.
May we have a debate in Government time about the need to repeal those elements of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 that have such a repressive effect on the right to peaceful protest, which is a cornerstone of British democracy?
Lucy Powell – Leader of the House of Commons
I am sure the hon. Lady would not expect me to comment on that particular case, as that is an operational matter for the police, but she is right to say that the right to protest is a fundamental part of our democracy, and one that we hold dear. We also have to balance the right to protest with protecting the right of the law-abiding majority to go about their daily lives, free from disruption, and that is the comment I will make in that regard.
(Calls for reform in badly written, repressive protest laws continue. Quakers and members of the public held a 40 minute long silent Meeting / protest surrounding Met Police HQ, Twenty-five other well-attended silent Meetings / protests took place in Bristol, Lancaster and other cities across the UK)