A timeline of legislation and precedents that have led to the moment where police banned the Palestine demonstration on 18 January from marching to the BBC and mass arrested 77 people:
This made the Prevent duty a legal obligation in public institutions, particularly in schools, healthcare and local authorities, despite overwhelming evidence that it was Islamophobic and effectively criminalised solidarity with Palestine.
Children as young as three-years old have been referred to Prevent, and year on year the highest age group referred is eleven to fifteen years old. Since Oct 2023, we saw cases of children being questioned by Prevent agents without an adult present and for simply attending a Palestine march.
This was further bolstered by the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 and Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2021. Under these anti-terror laws the Stansted 15 were charged, pro-Palestine journalists like Richard Medhurst, Asa Winstanley and Sarah Wilkinson have been detained and activists have had their houses raided and electronics seized.
This gave the police, intelligence agencies and other state authorities the power to ‘bulk hack’, monitor and store emails, calls, texts, location data and internet history of anyone, even without suspicion of criminality.
In 2019, the Metropolitan Police used Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to ban Extinction Rebellion protests, raided their warehouses and forcibly removed protesters (who had previously been given permission) from Trafalgar Square.
In 2020, a police counter-terrorism handbook listed the Stop the War Coalition, climate and anti-racist organisations as ‘extremist’, and listed them alongside actual neo-Nazi groups. This followed the government launching an investigation of ‘left-wing extremism’.
In 2020, the Police Federation publicly lobbied the government to ban Black Lives Matter in the same way they had Extinction Rebellion. Priti Patel, then Home Secretary, called BLM protesters thugs and criminals and authorised harsh policing which saw 135 arrested at one protest.
This authorised agents of the state (from the police to intelligence services to the Food Standards Agency) to commit murder, rape and torture legally while undercover.
This bill was proposed and passed through Parliament while the SpyCops Inquiry was ongoing, exposing how undercover police officers infiltrated left-wing groups and justice campaigns, deceived women into relationships and reported on the personal details of activists’ lives.
In March 2021, Metropolitan Police officers violently attacked, pinned to the ground and detained mainly women gathering at a vigil for Sarah Everard, who was murdered by a police officer. A directive to ban the vigil came from the Home Secretary Priti Patel.
This drastically increased police powers to restrict and stop protests, and effectively criminalised the way of life of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, already among the most persecuted and marginalised in society.
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 created a two-tier citizenship whereby the Home Secretary can strip someone of their citizenship, on vague grounds and without notice, if you may be eligible for citizenship in another country, i.e. mainly black and brown people. The law also legalised the ‘offshoring’ of refugees and criminalised rescuing drowning refugees, in violation of international law.
In 2022, police in Brighton arrested three trade unionists from GMB while on a picket line of bin workers striking for fair pay. They were charged with obstructing a highway. This marked a shift nationally in policing to enforce conditions on picketing strictly.
This further expanded police powers on prohibiting protests, including measures against ‘locking on’ and banning protest that could cause ‘serious disruption’ (determined at police discretion).
Days after the new Public Order Act came into effect, the Met arrested organisers of the Republic protest at the coronation, under the pretext that the cable ties on their placards were ‘lock-on devices’. The previous night at 2am, they arrested Westminster Night Safety volunteers for carrying rape alarms. On the day, protesters were kettled and stopped from entering the agreed protest area.
It’s this Public Order Act that is the most pernicious so far and has been used to exclude any protest at the Israeli Embassy permanently, to place strict restrictions on the route of every Palestine demo in fifteen months, and to charge Chris Nineham, Ben Jamal and others.
The Minimum Service Levels (Strikes) Act 2023 outlawed effective strike action by public-sector workers in key industries. It is in the process of being repealed through the Employment Rights Bill going through parliament right now.
The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill 2023 is an attempt to ban local councils and public bodies from divesting from companies involved in Israel’s occupation and genocide, or fossil fuels abroad etc. The bill hadn’t passed by the time the election was called.
These last two, although not law, show the still continuing trajectory of authoritarianism, and focused on the two biggest challenges to the state over the last two years: the strike wave and the Palestine movement.
The judiciary is also a key part of this repressive state apparatus. Judges have increasingly handed down massive sentences to Kill the Bill, XR, Just Stop Oil, Palestine Action and other protesters for what should be seen as political crimes.
All these bits of law and precedent in and of themselves curtail our right to free speech, freedom of assembly and to protest. Taken together, they are serious affronts to our basic democratic rights, and make up some of the most draconian anti-protest laws in Europe.
As Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer’s Labour Party whipped its MPs to abstain on most of these laws, leaving the Tories unchallenged as they stripped away our rights and expanded police powers. Now, with waning popularity and having cut his teeth purging the left from the Labour Party, Starmer is very much on board with this new authoritarianism. His government is desperate to be on the good side of the financial elite and of Trump as a junior partner to US imperialism.
Campaigning to drop the charges from last Saturday, to repeal the Public Order Act and insisting on our right to mobilise for Palestine, to oppose genocide and occupation, and to hold our government, that is facilitating them, to account is the minimum we must do.
We have a big fight on our hands to protect our democratic rights. It was mass protest and concerted organising that won us the right to protest, to organise in trade unions and to vote. It will be mass protest and concerted organising that will stop them from taking these rights away.
Join the protest at 12:30pm on 13 February outside Westminster Magistrate’s Court to defend Chris Nineham, look out for details for the next Palestine national demonstration and join the Stop the War Coalition.
Source: Counterfire