Manifesto

Abstract

Under the guise of protecting the public, New Labour has brought in a raft of new laws which have been used to restrict the right to protest. These laws, and the legislation that they extend, must be struck from the statute book -and until they are abolished, they should be defied.One notable example is Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which revives police stop and search powers -supposedly to prevent terrorism. In the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, protesters at the US B-52 bomber base at Fairford, Gloucestershire, were stopped and searched half a dozen times a day under Section 44. One of them was 11-year-old Isabelle Ellis Cockcroft.At the 2005 Labour Party Conference in Brighton, over 600 people were stopped and searched under Section 44. John Catt, a war veteran then aged 80, was stopped for wearing a T-shirt that said: 'Bush Blair Sharon to be tried for war crimes torture human rights abuse'. The police issued him with a Section 44 notice saying he had been stopped for 'carrying plackard [sic] and T-shirt with anti-Blair info'.At the same Labour Party Conference, Walter Wolfgang, then 82, was roughly ejected from the conference for shouting 'nonsense' at the foreign secretary, Jack Straw. When he tried to re-enter the building (he was a fully accredited delegate), Mr Wolfgang was stopped under Section 44, but was not searched for any 'terrorist' items (the ostensible purpose of the section), demonstrating that the Terrorism Act was being used for repressive rather than protective purposes.Walter Wolfgang later returned to the conference hall to a hero's welcome, and has since been elected to the Labour Party National Executive Committee. The government has not had it all its own way.Another dramatic reverse involved the 'Fairford Coach Case'. On 22 March 2003, three coaches carrying 120 anti-war protesters from London to the US airbase at Fairford were stopped by the police, searched and then forced to return to London under police escort. (The police said they feared a breach of the peace would occur otherwise.) On 13 December 2006, the Law Lords ruled that the police had violated the protesters' rights to freedom of expression and lawful assembly.In my own case, I am appealing to the European Court of Human Rights against my conviction under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, which restricts protest around Parliament. In April 2006 I was found guilty of the crime of organising a remembrance ceremony without police permission for Iraqi civilians and British soldiers who have died as a result of the invasion of Iraq.