Civil liberties, justice, crime

Tory demagogues turn on dissent

The Tory government is adding layer upon layer of restriction and suppression of protest. Its next move is a new definition of "extremism", to be announced on 14 March.

Repeal all the anti-protest laws!

On top of Tory threats of new legislation, their “independent adviser” Lord Walney (John Woodcock) has made another proposal apparently designed not to change the law but rather to press Labour leaders to police Labour’s own MPs and councillors more tightly. In a 2 March op-ed in the Sun , based on an official report he had made to the government, Walney said Starmer (and, for form’s sake, Sunak too) “should instruct their MPs and councillors not to engage with anyone from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign until they get they get their house in order and cut the hate from their marches [or...

Don’t extradite Assange!

On 20 and 21 February, the High Court is considering whether to allow a final full appeal against extradition by Julian Assange. Assange is too ill, in jail, to attend. If his lawyers lose this time, he could be extradited to the USA. Facing prosecution there under the US’s Espionage Act, because of his work with WikiLeaks to expose state machinations, he could face a long sentence. Despite Assange being no sort of political hero, we must oppose his extradition and support his right to return home to Australia.

Removing Can Atalay from parliament is an attack on the working class

Can Atalay was elected as the Member of Parliament for Hatay from the Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) in the 2023 election. Since 2022, he has been serving an 18-year prison sentence for his involvement in the Gezi Park protests in 2013. We have translated this article from Marxist Tutum. Can Atalay’s court case has bounced back and forth between the Constitutional and Supreme Courts like a tennis ball, but the regime has once more shown its open contempt for the law and the Constitution by finally removing the TİP MP for Hatay from Parliament. Before the reading of the Supreme Court’s verdict...

A note on brothel-keeping

Between Parades (pictured) is from Caroline Coon's collection Brothel Series , which depict her experiences as a sex worker. These paintings focus on the friendships forged by sex workers; a feminist answer to brothel scenes painted by artists such as Picasso and Manet. Decrim The English Collective of Prostitutes' new report, Proceed Without Caution (2023), highlights how, under current laws, sex workers are forced to choose between keeping themselves safe and risking arrest, or avoiding a criminal record and putting themselves in danger. It is an offence for a person to loiter or solicit in...

Abolition revolution

Abolition Revolution by Shanice McBean and Aviah Sarah Day is an attempt to bridge the gap between revolutionary politics and police and prison abolition — to use abolition as “a tool to re-imagine revolutionary politics.” It was published in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 and the eruption of activism and intellectual output that followed it. The book consists of 16 theses, each a stand-alone argument, allowing each chapter to be read on its own. Abolition Revolution ’s structure offers an easy means to explore the authors’ ideas. The first thesis is a blunt reminder that...

The fight for justice

Sukhdev Reel spoke at our socialist feminist day school All The Rage in London in November 2023. In 1997 Sukhdev’s son, Ricky, was killed in a racist attack in Kingston-upon-Thames, in London. The police failed to properly investigate Ricky's death. While campaigning for justice, she and her family were spied on by undercover officers. Her book, Ricky Reel: Silence is Not an Option , was published in 2022. On 21 October 1997, Sukhdev was told by the police that the body of her son, Ricky, had been found in the river Thames. She describes the moment: “Engulfed… I could not see, hear or think...

Free Joe Outlaw! End IPP sentences!

Joe Outlaw is in solitary confinement, and in jail indefinitely, despite his actual sentence, 12 years ago, being what would normally result in four and a half years jail. On 21 June he got out of a caged yard and climbed onto the roof of HMP Frankland, in Durham. He was protesting about the treatment of prisoners on “imprisonment for public protection” (IPP) sentences, who have no set date for release. Tony Blair launched IPP sentences in 2005, claiming they would protect the public from serious offenders whose crimes did not merit a life sentence. They were abolished in 2012 after evidence...

Free the HK 47! Free Jimmy Lai!

The Hong Kong-based tycoon Jimmy Lai has pleaded not guilty to two charges of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security, and publishing seditious material in Apple Daily, the tabloid newspaper he founded, in his trial which began on 18 December. This is an extraordinary delay, well over three years (1084 days) after he was first arrested for collusion on 10 August 2020 under the National Security Law. Lai is currently serving a five year sentence for fraud (accommodating a consultancy firm inside Apple/Next Media HQ without informing the landlord), and had already served an...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.