Banning a protest group as authoritarian as it gets

The National

3 hours ago

It has been a defining catchphrase of his leadership: denigrating protest movements and using it to criticise any form of solidarity or direct action from Labour members and elected representatives – up to and including banning his Cabinet members from joining striking workers on picket lines.
It's all part of this right-wing Labour Government's attempts to erode the basic democratic right to protest, whether through its refusal to repeal authoritarian anti-protest and anti-trade union laws brought in by the Conservatives, or their use of these laws – and even anti-terrorism laws – to silence and restrict pro-Palestine voices who are speaking out against our government's complicity in Israel's genocide in Gaza. The latest escalation came yesterday when the Home Secretary set out plans to ban Palestine Action as a proscribed terrorist organisation, after its protests attempting to disrupt the supply chain of the military-industrial complex complicit in genocide.
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For the Government to use anti-terrorism laws to ban any peaceful protest group which makes life inconvenient for them is as authoritarian as it gets and should scare us all. It may not be a cause you agree with being banned today, but who knows what they'll ban tomorrow? And for this to come from a Labour Government is simply extraordinary.
Labour's detestation of protest isn't just morally wrong, it's also deeply foolish. The framing of protest vs power is a false dichotomy – the most radical societal improvements came about due to protest movements.
The women's suffrage movement used both peaceful and violent protest methods to fight for their right to vote. Basic employment rights, from the five-day working week to the creation of the minimum wage, came after years of co-ordinated campaigning by the trade union movement.
Even the NHS didn't just pop into the government's head without prompting. A number of campaigning organisations including the Socialist Medical Association and the National Union of Students campaigned for a national health service long before it was founded by Aneurin Bevan.
(Image: File)
It is only because in each of these cases the governments of the day had no choice but to listen to the voices of the people they were elected to represent that we now have rights, freedoms and public services we today take for granted.
More recently, we have seen the impact protest movements can have by working alongside political parties to deliver genuine improvement here in Scotland. The Housing Bill making its way through Holyrood contains measures for the implementation of rent controls in the private rented sector, and though the bill is imperfect, we wouldn't even be discussing rent controls let alone being close to implementing them were it not for the tireless efforts of tenants' union Living Rent.
It's also true that the bill in its current form wouldn't exist were it not for the Scottish Greens, who were able to amplify the voices of renters across the country by taking the demands of Living Rent and including rent controls as part of the Bute House Agreement.
Similarly, free bus travel for under-22s was an issue campaigned for by a number of organisations including student groups and the Scottish Youth Parliament, while the recent commitment for free bus travel for asylum seekers came about after campaigns by the Maryhill Integration Network, the Scottish Refugee Council and others.
Both of these campaigns were amplified by the Scottish Greens and won as a result of both on-the-ground protest and campaigns, and political negotiations by elected politicians.
Simply put, all of these transformational policies came about because the Greens recognised the need to be both a party of protest and a party of power – whether that is power within government or the power that comes from constructive opposition.
Greens uplifted the voices of campaigners and protesters – in many cases with Greens among the ranks of protesters themselves – and helped win genuine, tangible change as a result. In some of these cases, such as free bus travel, the adoption of the policy by the Greens came about as a result of grassroots campaigns by internal groups like the Scottish Young Greens.
All of this is to say that any politician – Starmer or anyone else – who denigrates or minimises the role that protest has to play in our politics, either doesn't understand where power lies in a democracy, or they do and they are scared of it.
It's no wonder governments in Westminster have sought to attack and minimise the ability to protest – they know it works.
The UK Government continues to be complicit in Israel's genocide in Gaza despite it being both morally reprehensible and deeply unpopular among the general public.
A YouGov poll last week found that a majority of the UK public opposes Israel's actions in Gaza, with just 15% supporting them. And 65% want the UK to implement the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu should he visit the UK.
It makes sense then, for a deeply unpopular Labour Government elected on just 33.7% of the vote to aim to criminalise direct action against its complicity in this genocide by proscribing Palestine Action and cracking down on other forms of protest.
They know that if the people of the UK were free to voice what we really think, and act in the moral interest, the Government simply wouldn't stand a chance.
Protest is, and always will be, a vital part of our democracy, no matter how much Labour and the Tories try to erode it. It reminds politicians that power in this country belongs to the people – we merely lend it to them at the ballot box.
It's the reason for so many of the vital rights we hold today and it'll be the reason for more in the future, not least Scotland's independence. Politicians of all colours would do well to remember this.