From house arrest and imprisonment without trial to banning the right to protest, the government is trying to roll back rights established over centuries. The Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill will criminalise peaceful protest in and around Parliament Square.

 

Anti-war protest is its first target.  Brian Haw’s extraordinary and visually impressive three-and-a-half-year, 24-hour-a-day, peace camp.  And the two-year weekly Community Speakout of the Global Women’s Strike which has given a voice to many who refuse to be killers or condone killing, in Iraq or elsewhere.  The government wants to deny Mr Haw’s precedent-setting court victory under the Human Rights Act (Mr Justice Gray’s judgement, 4 October 2002), which established everyone’s right to protest. 

 

For over 350 years, people have exercised their right to speak out in and around Parliament Square: Chartists, Suffragettes, and more recently the long-running picket for the extradition and trial of Chilean dictator Pinochet (shamefully freed by then Home Secretary Jack Straw).

 

There is enormous opposition to these measures.  Legal Action for Women’s 18 Jan briefing in the Commons was packed.  The Community Speakout, jointly with Brian Haw and 30 organisations, called for a demonstration on 7 February while the Bill was in the Commons.  A number of MPs from all parties raised serious concerns -- 86 voted against the Bill. 

 

Despite the government’s guillotine of discussion on this contentious bill, protesters and MPs feel that the ban can and must be defeated.

 

            

 

 

 

John McDonnell (Labour):

If I get permission to hold a demonstration and someone sees me… and thinks, "I'll join him", that person would be committing an offence [and] I might have committed the crime of incitement. So I could go down for 51 weeks or a year, not for organising the but for incitement.

 

Any police officer, of any rank, can change the conditions at will at any time during a demonstration in Parliament square… We are seeing a small but significant part of our democratic tradition being chiselled away… 

 

Part of the motivation behind this legislation is that some people cannot come to terms with the illegality and immorality of their actions in this place.

 

Glenda Jackson (Labour):

Has any representative of an environmental body attempted to measure the level of noise from the demonstrators in Parliament square? Does it in fact exceed the noise that exudes from Big Ben every 15 minutes? . . . What [Caroline Flint] and other Hon. Members regard as unbearable noise — I regard it as the voice of democracy.

 

Alex Salmond (SNP):

Does the Minister think that a £5,000 fine for using a loudspeaker is proportionate to the offence?

 

Jeremy Corbyn (Labour):

Why on earth should many public buildings in this area be included [in the ban], as well as Trafalgar square, which is a traditional place of protest and demonstration?

 

Mr. Grieve (Conservative):

If in response to an emergency, Parliament was about to vote to go to war, it would not be possible for demonstrators to stand in Parliament square to express their view. I simply cannot accept that it will require six days for the police to decide on such an authorisation.

 

David Heath (Lib Dems):

How do we define disruption to the life of the community of Parliament square? I thought that the life of Parliament square was demonstrations. I thought that Parliament square was the centre where we expressed our political differences with the Government of the day.

 

Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru):

The majority of people in Wales oppose both the war in Iraq and the continued occupation. Plaid Cymru MPs give praise to Brian Haw and the weekly Community Speakout for giving a voice to this opposition.  For those of us inside the House who voted against the war, their visible presence is vital, making clear to those in power that it is only inside Westminster that they are the majority.

  

Lembit Opik (LibDems):

Introducing legislation to outlaw protest is in itself a crime.

 

Caroline Lucas MEP (Green Party):

This legislation – criminalizing protesters against everything from animal cruelty to genocide – is designed to stifle the real change we so desperately need under New Labour’s increasingly authoritarian regime.

      

Niki Adams, Legal Action for Women:

The police themselves have gone over to Parliament and tested the sound, and told us that it is not loud enough to disrupt the workings of Parliament.  Now they are using the excuse that some terrorist could be hiding a bomb behind a placard to get rid of the peace encampment.

 

John Nott, Green Party, Peace and Defence:

When the Government tries to legitimise war and criminalise protest, it’s clear that they do not represent the people. 

 

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, Muslim Parliament of GB:

Our civil liberties & human rights are being trampled on.

 

Michael Kalmanovitz, Payday:

On the 60^th anniversary of Auschwitz, people are asking “how was it allowed to happen.”  It happened because people didn’t speak out in protest.  We will not be silent nor be silenced.

 

Chris Coverdale, Action Against War:

We can use the International Criminal Court Act 2001 to go on tax strike against genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

 

Brian Haw, Parliament Square Peace Campaign:
What is the sound level that is permissible to cry out against genocide?

 

Maria Gallastegui, Parliament Square Church:

No matter what it takes, how long it takes, or whatever the cost, we have no intention whatsoever of leaving Parliament Square.

 

Michael Culver, actor:

Our prime minister is a genocidal psychopath.

 

Ernest Rodker, Campaign to Free Vanunu:

35 years ago Peter Hain defended civil disobedience and direct action against apartheid, he’s now the perpetrator of this amendment to the Bill, trying to stop peaceful protest in Parliament Square.

 

Corin Redgrave, actor:

The Government has parked its conscience in the cloakroom and thrown away the ticket – I’m totally opposed to this legislation and applaud the efforts of all who want to maintain our liberties.

 

Kay Chapman, Parliament Sq Anti-war Speakout:
Over 160 organisations have signed the Petition to defend everyone’s right to Protest.