Civil liberties, justice, crime

“Secret letter” scandal exposes fragile power-sharing

The recent crisis in Northern Ireland over secret letters from the British Government to republican “On the Runs” (OTRs) underscores the fragility of the power-sharing institutions. The crisis emerged after the trial of John Downey, accused of the 1982 Hyde Park bombing, collapsed. It emerged that he received a letter in 2007 from the British Government telling him he would not face trial. Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Peter Robinson, threatened to collapse the power-sharing Executive if the British Government failed to call a judge-led inquiry into the “get out of jail free cards” (in...

Students will rally on 6 February against police crackdown

A national student meeting hosted by Birmingham Defend Education on 29 January was attended by around two hundred activists from all over the country. It was called by anti-cuts groups involved in student occupations last term. The meeting agreed a number of demands to orient the student movement and around which local groups can agitate. These include free education with living grants, the writing off of student debt, and support for better pay and conditions for higher education workers. Responding to the wave of repression on universities last term, during which dozens of students were...

Court rules against Royal Wedding arrestees

From the "Pageantry and Precrime" blog On 22 January, the Court of Appeal ruled against the test cases of "precrime" royal wedding arrestees. The Metropolitan Police pre-emptively arrested dozens of people shortly before and on the day of the Royal Wedding in 2011, including a people from a "zombie" flash-mob in Soho Square, a group of 10 republican protesters at Charing Cross Station , and one man who was "a known anarchist" walking in central London. Many were detained for hours, and all were released without charge. Some of the arrestees pursued a Judicial Review against the Metropolitan...

How to get cops off campus

Recent collusion between management and the police at the University of London during student solidarity with striking university workers has raised the question of university autonomy from state intrusion. Michéal MacEoin looks at a rich history from Latin America. Spanish and, later, Spanish-American institutions in Latin America based themselves on the medieval University of Bologna in Italy. They conceived of themselves as corporate communities of scholars. This contrasted with a different medieval model, from Paris: controlled by masters, with students as academic and political...

Duggan verdict: no justice

A statement from the Black Power Caucus of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) on the verdict from the inquest into Mark Duggan’s death. Azelle Rodney, Jean Charles de Menezes, Mark Duggan; these are the names of just a few of the people that have died at the hands of the Metropolitan Police, an organisation that is apparently there to protect the people of London. To many people in the city however, it has always been nothing more than an aggressive and institutionally racist organisation, solely dedicated to preserving the unjust status quo, quelling any dissent and unafraid...

Barristers walk out

Criminal barristers refused to work for half a day on Monday 6 January, in protest at government cuts to legal aid, causing disruption across Britain’s courts. The Justice Secretary Chris Grayling plans to cut £220 million from the legal aid budget. As well as restricting barristers’ pay, the cuts will make it harder for ordinary people to access top-quality legal representation or bring cases against powerful institutions. Solicitor Matt Foot said: “There is widespread opposition to Grayling's proposals. They will have a devastating effect on the rights of ordinary people in this country and...

Duggan inquest jury to reconvene

The jury in the inquest into the killing of Mark Duggan by armed police is due to reconvene on 7 January. The killing, which took place in August 2011 in Tottenham, led to a local protest and then rioting on a nationwide scale. The public inquest was set up to uncover the truth surrounding the killing, but it has been characterised by confused and contradictory evidence from the police. Officers have variously claimed that Duggan had a gun, that he shot first, and that the gun “disappeared” once he was dead. The jury had been adjourned in December after failing to reach a conclusion.

Police riot as University of London calls cops on students supporting outsourced workers

4 December: A peaceful student occupation of Senate House, University of London's headquarters, was violently evicted by the police this evening. When hundreds of students demonstrated in protest, they were assaulted by the cops. Around 3pm, about a hundred students occupied Senate House in support of the 3 Cosas struggle being waged by the university's outsourced cleaning, security and maintenance workers, the 3 December HE workers' strike for decent pay, the campaign to prevent the shutting down of University of London Union and other demands . They included students from a wide range of...

Defend the whistleblowers! Stop spying on us!

Revelations of US and other state espionage on their own and foreign citizens has taken a farcical turn with the claim by Der Spiegel magazine that the US National Security Agency (NSA) monitored the mobile phone of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The NSA is accused of spying on several European and other government communications. The US and UK ambassadors in Berlin have been summoned for questioning. The huge scale of spying became clear in June 2013 when the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers published evidence provided by whistle-blower Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and...

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