UK Protests Against Austerity Result In Protest Restrictions

Incorporated with the coalition government’s pro-business austerity agenda, the right to protest has faced severe cuts in Britain.

Recent examples include:

– This month, arms protesters face legal hearings after blocking the world’s largest security and defense event on September 13 – though no one inside the arms fair was charged for selling illegal weaponry.

– Two recently released videos capture British police assaulting members of the public during protests. One shows a police officer punching a student, while the other shows an assault on a live-streamer in Barton Moss, an anti-fracking protection camp.

– The British government is aiming to deport anti-inequality one-time protester Trenton Oldfield, who interrupted a boat race and has already been sent to jail. The government insists on pursuing its goal to deport Oldfield even after an immigration judge’s decision comprehensively dismissed the case.

Additionally, the Home Secretary who called for this move also wants Britain to scrap the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to protest among other civil liberties.

– The UN has repeatedly criticized the UK government for clamping down on peaceful protest groups, including environmentalists, and infiltrating these groups with spies who contribute to their being falsely labeled as domestic extremists.

Student Protests Growing

More recently, the crackdown against continued student protests in Birmingham fits the model presented by Naomi Klein in her 2007 book, Shock Doctrine, where she asserts that cuts to public services and privatizations are frequently maintained by state oppression against protest.

On January 29, Birmingham hosted a national rally as part of the growing UK student movement. The clock tower, Big Joe, was reoccupied in the afternoon, repeating the long-held student protest tradition of sit-ins and occupations.

This time, however, security guards sought to throw the students out of the building and their aggressive entry wascaptured on film.

Once they were forced outside, the students were kettled by police – an act which the police denied, but whose denial is directly contradicted in this footage of students chanting, “Let us out!”

An interview with the senior officer on duty revealed that protesters were forced to give their names in order to leave the kettle. The use of kettling for intelligence gathering purposes has been condemned by the UN and judged unlawful in the British High Court.

After some four hours, 13 students were arrested for refusing to give their personal details. They were charged on suspicion of criminal damage, aggravated trespass and assault – and three were charged with violent disorder, which carries a potential eight year prison sentence.

All have also been given draconian bail conditions – they must sleep every night at their home address and they are no longer permitted to gather publicly in groups of 10 or more, nor to enter any educational buildings.

Of the group of arrested students, five from the University of Birmingham were automatically suspended from their studies. The university has stated they cannot appeal this decision.

This type of collaboration between the State and university management replicates the Sussex occupation, which is being pinpointed as the incident that galvanized the recent national student movement against austerity.

In that case, the five suspended Sussex students were eventually reinstated. The disciplinary hearing fell apart when the human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC, representing the students on a pro bono basis, argued that the university had set up an impartial trial.

Law Versus Order

Looking ahead at the wave of student protests expected in 2014, proposals have been forwarded to allow water cannons on Britain’s streets – though these are falling under heavy public criticism. The plan is being pushed by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, the Metropolitan Police and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) – the last of which is a private company, rather than an official government body, though politicians and the media frequently elevate it to that position.

Sir Hugh Orde, the president of ACPO, has said the water cannon weaponry will “fill the gap in the police’s armory and enable the police to deal with rioting”. His statement is directly contradicted, though, by an ACPO report which states that in fast-moving situations of rioting, water cannons have limited use.

Deeper in the report, the crucial rationale for water cannons becomes clear: they are viewed, and supported, as a further reinforcement for government to use State force as a means to quell tension. The report says: “It would be fair to assume that the ongoing and potential future austerity measures are likely to lead to continued protest,” and the next sentence refers to the 2010 student fee protests as an example.

ACPO has been accused of installing undercover officers and agents provocateur in protest groups, the most high profile of which was Mark Kennedy. The company’s president in 2011 publicly called for more extreme measures to be used against protesters; he supported horse charges into crowds as a “very useful” tactic, and also defended the use of kettling.

But in a show of resistance, five out of six major police force commissioners have rejected receiving the weaponry, echoing strong public concerns about the violent consequences of employing water cannons – as depicted in this graphic image of a man protesting in Germany who had his eyeballs detached by the cannon.

A focal point for the austerity opposition campaign has become the petition on 38 degrees, a UK social justice site that is calling on government to reverse its security plans, explaining that it will only curb people’s civil rights to protest.

“If you need to use water cannons to suppress your population, then perhaps you should take a second look at your policies,” said one signer of the petition. Another wrote: “This will only cause anger and more violence. What’s needed is the government to listen to the people of this country and to stop creating poverty with their greed. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Civil disobedience will be inevitable and the government will only have themselves to blame.”

But Mayor Johnson has come out strongly in favor of deploying the water cannons, and will share the decision on when, how and where the weaponry is deployed. Johnson is also in favor of the highly controversial and much protested plans to frack Britain – even calling for fracking under the City of London.

In response to protests against wealth inequality in London, Johnson has argued, in all seriousness, that the super rich are a put upon minority who deserve public sympathy.

Criticism of the British government’s efforts to curb peaceful, public dissent is not limited to protests. In January, a Lobbying Bill was passed that has become known as the Gagging Law, which limits spending by NGOs, charities, campaign groups and trade unions, hampering their ability to push forward their messages and challenge government.

Meanwhile, analysis by the Independent shows how the bill permits corporate lobbyists to continue their spending activities unabated.