“It’s time to stand up for everyone’s freedom to leaflet, picket, assemble and march against injustice and oppression. Such rights and freedoms have not been handed down by the powers-that-be, but won through struggles over the last 100 years or more.” – Freedom To Protest Conference (see below).

Last week 600 people were stopped and searched in Brighton under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, during the Labour Party Conference in Brighton. According to the Home Office, “Stop and search under Section 44 is an important tool in the on-going fight against terrorism” and that the use of the powers was “intelligence-led and based on an assessment of the threat against the UK.” But with 600 searches and no terrorists arrested, SchNEWS reckon that’s a pretty poor level of intelligence. So for four days we got a taste of what black and Muslim communities have been experiencing for years.

The widespread use of the Terrorism Act to stifle dissent has only come to media attention thanks to the silencing of 82 year old Walter Wolfgang during Jack Straw’s speech at the party conference. Wolfgang’s unprompted ad-lib ruined the Neo-Labour choreographed political theatre production. So he was thrown out and then detained for a search under Section 44 to stop him getting back in. Sussex Police apologised to him of course - but only because they were getting grief for it in the Daily Mail. The other 599 searched can get stuffed. What the public got was a glimpse of something that SchNEWS has been banging on about for years.

Without hammering home the obvious, Section 44 has nothing to do with stopping terrorism, it’s just another tool the cops can use to push people back into line – people who have the wrong ideas about democracy or who live in a community under suspicion. But it’s not like the Terrorism Act is the only thing that police have been using to batter anyone who protests over the past few years. From Anti-Social Behaviour Orders to the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 etc etc. New laws have been enacted and old laws dusted off and reviewed to snuff out dissent. Any gathering of two or more people can be made subject to police control under a recent (2003) modification of the 1981 Public Order Act - and still they want more.

Laws are coming in that will not just hinder free movement and assembly but will firmly infringe on freedom of speech. The government proposes to make the ‘glorification of terrorism’ - (whatever that means) a criminal offence. That has serious implications for anyone writing about why our society finds itself at war.

Here’s a snapshot of the 21st century liberty clampdown:

* Injunctions under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 creating exclusion zones around vivisection labs and arms factories. Examples include Smash EDO’s campaign against Brighton arms manufacturer EDO-MBM (www.smashedo.org.uk), (where two protesters face prison for breaching the injunction) and several animal rights groups including Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (www.shac.net) and Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs (not that it stopped them winning! see SchNEWS 509)

* Sections 145 & 146 of the Serious Organised Crime Act 2005 specifically criminalised protest outside ‘animal research’ facilities. Seven people are awaiting trial on this offence.

* In 2003 when RAF Fairford was used as a launch base for bombing raids on Iraq, cops used Section 44 powers on demonstrators 995 times, with some people being searched multiple times.

* This September, six students and graduates of Lancaster University – the George Fox 6 - were convicted of “aggravated trespass” – for handing out leaflets at a corporate/academia cosy-up on the campus featuring suits from BAE Systems, Shell, GlaxoSmithKline, et al gathered to talk about how to “commercialise university research”. So handing out a leaflet is now ‘disruption’.

* Gate Gourmet workers are attacked under Thatcher-era Trade Union Laws (See SchNEWS 510).

* The government can now declare exclusion zones at will with Section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime Act. Since August 1st this year when the law came into force, the square kilometre around parliament has become such an exclusion zone, with all protests without prior police permission banned. Regular ‘picnics’ are being held there to hamper the law, with seventeen arrested so far, but the snacking goes on. (see www1.atwiki.com/picnic)

From ASBOs to Guantanamo… if you wanted to list all the infringements of civil liberties by UK Plc in the last ten years you’d have to write a book.

But the fight back for civil liberties is gaining momentum. Activists and communities have always resisted repressive laws and now coalitions of those most affected by this repression are being built. As the Freedom to Protest conference organisers say “We believe that oppressive laws can be made unworkable by determination and solidarity among those affected, by mass defiance, and by turning the tables on those who would try to silence and suppress dissent.”

*Top legal advice for all activists freeB.E.A.G.L.E.S. www.freebeagles.org

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Freedom To Protest Conference

Sharing experiences, and promoting mutual aid & co-ordination between protestors threatened by repressive laws and to develop effective strategies for standing up for our freedom to protest The Resource Centre, 356 Holloway Road, London, N7. October 23rd, 11am-5pm. To get involved in the conference contact them – see www.freedomtoprotest.org.uk

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For the rest of this weeks issue go to:
 http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news515.htm