Starmer’s push to crush protest rights on Israel’s behalf reaches final stage

Keir Starmer’s government has moved closer than ever to crushing our protest rights in the UK, with his highly controversial Crime and Policing Bill moving to the final stages. And amid Israel’s ongoing war crimes throughout the Middle East, it seems crystal clear that Starmer’s efforts aim primarily to silence criticism of UK complicity.

Starmer’s Crime and Policing Bill seeking to ‘kill protest rights’ on Israel’s behalf

Starmer has already shown his authoritarian instincts openly. But Amendment 312 to the Crime and Policing Bill would let police effectively shut down protests via a vague concept of “cumulative disruption”. And despite opposition, MPs voted on 14 April to move the massive bill to its final stage.

Civil society groups have criticised the bill for ‘hollowing out‘ our right to protest and turning it into a ‘privilege’ that governments can simply take away when it doesn’t suit them. Faith leaders and a UN expert have joined them in calling it out too. And countless politicians have been vocal, with Labour peer Peter Hain saying:

this is a wholly unnecessary and damaging course of action that the government does not need to be taking

Labour MP Apsana Begum, meanwhile, clarified that:

The expansive police powers in the Crime and Policing Bill are a direct response to the demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine.

This connection is essentially common knowledge. And Your Party claimed Starmer’s moves show his cabinet is “desperate to repress the movement for Palestine“, with Jeremy Corbyn saying:

The government is fed up with people protesting about genocide.

Pro-Israel lobbyists have played a key role in securing Starmer and other right-wingers’ control of the Labour Party in recent years. And as Liberal Democrat peer Paul Strasburger has insisted:

in its attempts to crack down on pro-Palestinian protest, the government is eroding our democratic freedoms more broadly

Strasburger also mentioned the unlawful proscription of non-violent direct-action group Palestine Action, saying:

The authoritarian protest measures in the Crime and Policing Bill, and the misuse of terrorist proscription powers in the case of Palestine Action, are not isolated developments.

This isn’t just about Palestine. It’s about democracy itself

Labour MP Andy McDonald led opposition in parliament to Amendment 312. Begum joined him, along with MPs like Mary Kelly Foy, Kim Johnson, and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell. Johnson slammed how the “vast expansion of anti-protest powers” had:

sneakily come through the back door

And McDonnell echoed this, highlighting the dangers of rushing the amendment through alongside “many amendments that were supportable”. The government, he lamented, was contributing to the ongoing:

erosion of basic civil liberties won by people protesting over centuries

As Labour MP Clive Lewis stressed, the government:

knew this wouldn’t survive proper scrutiny – so they denied MPs the time to give it any.

The Independent reported that:

The change was written in to the Bill by the Government during its House of Lords stages, meaning MPs had not been able to scrutinise it in the chamber until Tuesday.

Numerous politicians highlighted how the crackdown on protest rights today would have limited the Suffragettes or anti-apartheid campaigners of the past. And they warned of how a government even further to the right may use such powers in the future. As Strasburger stressed, the consequences of the government’s crackdown:

extend far beyond any single movement.

The measures, he asserted:

are part of a wider shift in how protest is being treated in Britain, from a protected democratic right to something increasingly conditional on the judgement of those in power at the time and local police.

And if we don’t stop Starmer’s cabal from “killing free speech” now, he warned, citizens in the future may remember us as:

the generation that let it slip away

As the House of Lords considers the amendments and parliament moves to approve a final draft of the bill, we must all do our best to avoid becoming that generation.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

Source link