[ssf] Caroline Lucas

[@mparo]

Hello.... This is past now but it looks as if the DefyID -no2id are not
alone... remember the comments about the "serious organized crime" bill?
well... read on....

> 
> 
> “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”
> Caroline Lucas MEP (Green Party)



We refuse to be silenced!

Defend the right to protest in Parliament Sq

Monday 7 February, 2-8pm, Parliament Sq.



Jointly called by: Action Against War, African Liberation Support
Campaign, All African Women’s Group, Campaign Against the Arms Trade,
CAMPACC, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, the Global Women’s Strike,
Greater London Pensioners Association, the Green Party (Barnet, Camden,
Wandsworth & National), Legal Action for Women, Military Families
Against War, Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, Network for Economic
and Political Democracy, Orpington CND, Payday, Parliament Square
Church, Peace and Human Rights Trust, Peace & Progress, South Somerset
Peace Group, SOS – Save Our Speech: Parliament Square supporters of
Brian Haw, Stop the War Coalition, Voices in the Wilderness, Wimbledon
Disarmament Coalition/CND, Women in Black, Rev Francis Ackroyd, Michael
Culver, Trishia Goddard, Brian Haw, John McDonnell MP, Lembit Opik MP,
Nabil Shaban, Corin Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave, Tahrir Swift, Amanda Ward.

  The government wants to END THE RIGHT TO PROTEST in Parliament Square
by rushing through the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill which
will be debated in the House of Commons on 7 Feb.

  Anti-war protest is their first target: Brian Haw’s extraordinary and
visually impressive three-and-a-half-year, 24-hour-a-day peace campaign.
Also under threat is the two-year old Community Speakout of the Global
Women’s Strike.  “Some Members do not like to be reminded of what they
have done, voting for war and death.”  John McDonnell MP.



They want to deny Mr Haw’s High court victory under the Human Rights
Act, a precedent establishing all of our right to protest.



Under the Bill:

·         ·        Even a police constable would have the power to say,
how many, how loud, if and when we can protest. If the demonstration is
judged “illegal” we can be jailed for a year.

·         ·        We may all face arrest for “spoiling the view” if we
protest within a kilometre of Parliament Square – that’s as far as
Trafalgar Square, Waterloo Station or Buckingham Palace.

  The government’s dismantling of fundamental rights – detaining people
indefinitely without charge, the power to hold suspects incommunicado
and proposing house arrest for any one of us – makes it urgent to act
now, before we wake up in a police State, compliments of Parliament.

  For over 350 years, people have exercised their right to speak out in
Parliament Square: Chartists, Suffragettes, trade unionists, pensioners,
lesbian and gay rights activists, asylum seekers & refugees, anti-racist
campaigners, nurses, anti-poll tax campaigners, people with
disabilities, single mothers … as well as the long-running picket for
the extradition of Chilean dictator Pinochet (shamefully freed by then
Home Secretary Jack Straw).

Parliamentary opposition



“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.”  Elfyn Llwyd MP (Plaid Cymru)



“There should be additional rights to demonstrate around Parliament, not
less. We should want people to demonstrate around here; the time to
worry is when no body can be bothered to do so” Alex Salmond MP (SNP)



Introducing legislation to outlaw protest is in itself a crime”. Lembit
Opik MP (Lib Dem).



“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”
Caroline Lucas MEP (Green Party)



They “want to create an antiseptic tourist attraction that has nothing
to do with democracy or participation.” Jeremy Corbyn MP (Labour)



For more information: www.globalwomenstrike.net 020 7482 2496
womenstrike8m at server101.com   www.parliament-square.org.uk