Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

SOCPA Delegation to Downing Street 9th January- Support Welcome

SB | 08.01.2008 20:13 | SOCPA

Parliamentarians, campaigners, comedians, artists join forces to highlight new threat to freedom to protest. Your support and participation welcome tomorrow Wednesday 9th January,outside Downing Street at 10am.

PRESS RELEASE, IMMEDIATE

CROSS-PARTY PARLIAMENTARIANS HIGHLIGHT NEW THREAT TO FREEDOM TO PROTEST

10am, Wednesday 9 January 2008, outside Downing Street, London


Liberal Democrat Peer, Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer, Labour MP John McDonnell, Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski and Plaid MP Adam Price will be part of a group assembling at Downing Street on Wednesday morning to hand in a petition as a response to the Government's consultation on the controversial law banning unauthorised protest near Parliament [1]. Baroness Miller recently introduced a private members bill to repeal the law prohibiting protest [2]. Mr Kawczynski was recently threatened with arrest for holding a small placard outside Downing Street without police permission.

The group will also include Maya Evans (tbc), Walter Wolfgang, Brian Haw, Mark Wallinger, Mark Thomas and Jenny Jones, Green Party member on the Greater London Authority. Maya Evans was the first person to be convicted under the law when she read out names of British soldiers killed in Iraq [3]. Walter Wolfgang was charged under the Terrorism Act after being removed from the Labour Party conference in 2005 for saying ‘Nonsense” out loud during the Home Secretary’s speech.[4] Comedian Mark Thomas has been staging “Mass Lone Protests” in the SOCPA area. [8]

The gathering wish to highlight the ominous signs that the Government is planning to further restrict the rights of demonstrators across the UK. The consultation looks set to recommend increasing police powers to control, or even to ban, public assemblies, under the guise of “harmonising” the laws regarding static demonstrations in line those governing public marches. Police permission could be required (6 days in advance) for groups of as few as 2 people to assemble or hold any placard anywhere in the country. [5]

Some of the group will read the names of protestors arrested under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which bans any demonstration that has not received prior authorisation by the police. The legislation was originally introduced to remove Brian Haw's continuous peace protest from Parliament Square but many peaceful protestors have been criminalised as a result [6].

Baroness Miller, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Home Affairs, said: “'Harmonisation' of the marching/assembly laws would lead to stricter rules for demonstrations in London and across England and Wales. This is unacceptable and should not be considered in the context of a review designed to relax the rules governing demonstrations around Parliament.” [7]

Maya Evans said: “The danger is that the Government will be able to score media points for repealing unnecessary and draconian legislation, whilst in reality further tightening the screws on protest and dissent around the UK.”


FOR MORE INFORMATION
 http://www.repeal-socpa.info


NOTES

1. The Home Office consultation, 'Managing Protest Around Parliament', is available from:
 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/cons-2007-managing-protest.

2. The Public Demonstrations (Repeals) Bill [HL 12] was introduced in November 2006 by Baroness Miller,  http://tinyurl.com/2s6avm

3. See ‘MPs condemn arrest of woman who spoke out’, Daily Mail, 8 December 2005,  http://tinyurl.com/zoep7. Maya Evans was the winner of the Human Rights Award 2007 For her campaigning work and commitment to the cause of liberty. For her courage in standing up for our fundamental rights to peaceful protest and freedom of speech,  http://tinyurl.com/3eylcg

4. Heckler returns to hero's welcome, The Guardian, September 29, 2005,  http://tinyurl.com/8rhfb. Walter Wolfgang is now a member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee.

5. For an analysis of the Government's consultation document see:
 http://www.repeal-socpa.info/briefing.htm

6. For more on the history of SOCPA, see:
 http://www.repeal-socpa.info/SOCPA.htm

7. The full text of Baroness Miller's response to the Government consultation on 'Managing Protest around Parliament' can be read at:
 http://www.repeal-socpa.info/Baroness_Miller_response.pdf

8. www.markthomasinfo.com/

SB
- Homepage: http://www.repeal-socpa.info/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech