Civil liberties, justice, crime

Fighting the death penalty in Singapore

On Sunday 3 April, around 250 to 400 protesters gathered at Hong Lim Park to demand the abolition of the death penalty in Singapore. Hong Lim Park, the only place in Singapore where protests can legally be held, recently reopened for protests after being shut for two years during the pandemic. The protest was almost entirely made up of young people. It was organised by activists Jolovan Wham and Kokila Annamalai, both of whom have previously been arrested for protesting illegally. Workers Party — the only Opposition party in Parliament — was nowhere to be seen. Ananth Tambyah of the Singapore...

Police out of schools!

Police officers in schools are called “safer schools officers”. But as many students point out, these officers make schools less safe for them. A 15 year old girl, Child Q, was assaulted at her school by Metropolitan Police officers two years ago under the premise of a strip search after a (false) accusation that she had cannabis. A local safeguarding review noted that racism contributed to the decision to strip search Child Q, who is Black. Over 5,000 children have been strip searched in London schools in the last three years. That figure only includes strip searches that took place after...

Police Bill: prepare to defy and repeal!

On 28 February the Tory majority in the House of Commons voted to reverse ameliorating amendments the House of Lords made to the Police Bill (though they didn’t try to reintroduce the drastic worsening amendments Tories put in the Lords which were defeated there). The Bill now goes back to the Lords, which might reinstate some of the ameliorating amendments. Soon, though, the Bill will become law, and substantially as first introduced in March 2021. We need to discuss how to drag the labour movement, largely absent from the fight to stop the Bill despite opposing it on paper, into defiance. As...

Picketing curbs pushed back

Negotiations between bosses at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) in central London and the United Voices of the World union (UVW) have blunted some of the sharper edges of a high court injunction obtained by GOSH to restrict pickets by striking security guards at the hospital. The injunction had prohibited strikers and supporters from “waving banners”, “playing music”, “shouting”, making “rapid or dramatic movements”, making “loud noises”, engaging in “vigorous dancing”, or “photographing or videoing” within 200 metres of the hospital. Following negotiations, the area in which the injunction...

Met chief ousted; now stop Police Bill!

It’s good that the Labour leadership has effectively pushed out Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick, and is saying that the police need changes. Sadiq Khan seems to have decided, presumably in consultation with Keir Starmer, to pick a fight with Priti Patel over policing. Dick goes with a £575,000 payoff and up to three pensions totalling £160,000 a year . But last year Khan and Starmer refused to call for Dick’s resignation following the Met’s attack on the Sarah Everard vigil on Clapham Common. So the very fact that Khan and Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper have now criticised...

Women's Fightback: Focus on prevention and support, not penalties

There has been an increasing push back in feminist politics against overly relying on police and prisons, which reinforce state violence, as the solution to gender-based violence. The attention given to racism, misogyny and violence from police forces has broadened the criticism of carceral feminism. The police are not a neutral body there to protect us; they are a violent force working in the service of the state. Their role in part is racial and social exclusion and oppression. We live in a world where justice is viewed through retribution: to not punish is to not recognise wrongdoing. This...

Strikers challenge dancing ban

Bosses at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital have obtained a High Court injunction to block striking security guards from effective picketing. The order prevents strikers and supporters from “waving banners”, “playing music”, “shouting”, making “rapid or dramatic movements”, making “loud noises”, engaging in “vigorous dancing”, or “photographing or videoing” within 200 metres of the hospital. Breaching the conditions could lead to criminal charges. Outsourced security guards are striking to win parity with NHS workers’ conditions, and had held lively rallies and picket lines at the hospital...

Women's Fightback: Changing the culture in football

The Football Association and Premier League have been called on to improve players’ education on consent and healthy relationships. An open letter from women’s groups called on chief executives Mark Bullingham and Richard Masters “to confront a culture of gender-based violence”. The letter was signed by The End Violence Against Women Coalition, The Three Hijabis and Level Up. It comes after the arrest of Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood on suspicion of sexual assault and threats to kill. He is not the only Premiership player accused of sexual assault. Manchester City footballer...

The poison in the prison system

Currently 79,412 people are in UK prisons. That is over twice as many, per population , as the Netherlands, Norway, or Finland, though only one-fifth the rate of the USA. The number is likely to increase with an increase in the sentencing powers of magistrates’ courts and laws such as the Police and Crime Bill that will criminalise more people. The government aims to imprison more people and new prisons are currently being planned. The media and government portray prisoners as monstrous people. We are told that the purpose of prisons is to lock up dangerous people, to keep us safe that prisons...

Out with Johnson! Out with Johnson’s policies!

Boris Johnson’s bubble has burst. Most people accept that the government has had to issue instructions over Covid: self-isolate, test, reduce social contact in various ways, all the rest. All governments have done fairly similar, in one way or another, and varying with different geographical conditions. Most people even accept that the governments, dealing with a new virus, will be bound to make mis-steps. Even those, like us on Solidarity , who are political opponents of all the existing governments, recognise that on Covid it is better that we all follow even flawed rules, to give us all...

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