Under Keir Starmer’s Labour government, our democratic rights have come increasingly under attack, with the arrests of peaceful Palestine Action supporters providing yet another example of growing repression.
By Cerys Burch
The UK-based activist group Defend Our Juries was formed in 2020 to highlight the vital constitutional safeguard juries provide and to prevent the undermining of the UK’s legal process by government dishonesty and corporate greed. In early October, they joined Palestine Action in a mass act of defiance held in Trafalgar Square, protesting the ban on the group imposed by the then Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper.
Despite the clearly non-violent nature of these protests, police arrested just under 500 people under the 2000 Terrorism Act for holding placards reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. This contrasts dramatically with only 24 arrests made at the Tommy Robinson rally on 13 September, where 26 police officers were injured by protesters. Since July, Defend Our Juries reports that over 2,000 people across the UK have been arrested for supporting Palestine Action, showing the rise of authoritarianism in the Labour government. This cannot simply be ignored. Their treatment of Palestine Action poses a serious threat to civil and democratic rights.
However, on Friday 17 October, the Home Office’s bid to halt the judicial review of Palestine Action’s legal challenge against the government’s ban on the group as a terror organisation was dismissed in a ruling by Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, bringing a landmark victory for the case. The repression against Palestine Action and its supporters has had a chilling effect on protests, with the police overreaching themselves by harassing and even arresting protesters unconnected with the direct action. It aligns with other actions of this government, such as the planned introduction of digital ID cards and increasing use of facial recognition tools to police demonstrations.
These legal and operational changes are a threat to workers’ movement as a whole, including socialists. Building a dynamic, radical and struggle-based Your Party, which Socialist Alternative is campaigning for, will be necessary in order to resist this outcome. The recent strikes which took place in Italy against genocide in Gaza resulted in the largest ports being blocked and demonstrations in over 75 cities. Crucially, it was the trade unions who had the potential to shut down Europe, showing the potential for collective action against repressive governments.
Trade unions and the incipient Your Party can’t just oppose the ban itself – it must actively build the resistance against it. The only way to challenge Labour’s repression is to build struggle, alongside the trade unions, to defend the right to protest. A mass movement in defiance of the ban could make the current laws completely unworkable and force the government to retreat. It would also show that Your Party is different to the parties of the capitalist establishment – a party of struggle, based in the movements of workers and young people against this government.
