Latest news with #peacefulprotest
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Compassion and care are being stripped away': a Just Stop Oil activist on her time in prison
Louise Lancaster, 59, was one of a group of Just Stop Oil activists given the longest-ever UK sentences for peaceful protest for planning disruption on the M25 in November 2022. This year, she wrote a diary for the Guardian, detailing her first six months behind bars. Here, written before her release on 8 April and after her sentence was reduced on appeal, she reflects on her final months of incarceration. At the start of the year, I turned a corner and encountered a new emotional landscape. Transfer to open prison and the sentence appeal were on the horizon. Change, out of my control, was brewing. Open prison, a surveilled environment without bars or locks, intended as a stepping stone to community reintegration, is a goal for many in closed prison. But, heartwrenchingly, it is only a pipe dream for the more troubled inmates – those who struggle to adhere to the strict behavioural rules, so often due to fragile mental health, complex psychological or neurodivergent needs, which there is scant provision to cater for. Every day, I try to engage with Tina, whose internal distress can result in loud, anguished outbursts in the night and repetitive calls for help. She regularly finds herself punished for these, with downgraded conditions, locked in her cell for days without TV, phone or association time with others. Prison is no fit place for Tina. This morning, I call my daughter, Verity, but first pick up a message she left a few days before. I would have loved to have phoned her at the time, to share and support. I feel a pang of guilt and the chasm between us. Today is her birthday. It is also the day Cressie, Lucia (her co-defendants Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin) and I are assembled in HMP Send's video room for our appeal hearing. Two foot-thick tomes of court papers weigh down the table. Next to them, a cup of delicious flapjacks Lucia has made, that happily we are allowed to share. The legal arguments went on for two days and we strained to hear, but we are sustained by the knowledge that thousands gather outside the court, to peacefully and insistently make their support known. And we're uplifted to see (co-defendants) Daniel (Shaw), Roger (Hallam) and appellants from the other three trial groups, via the video-link system, on the screen. The verdict will take four to eight weeks. We are not holding our breath. News in the UK and abroad is getting grimmer by the day. Surreal stuff. Trump's tornadoes of turmoil, world temperatures tipping 1.75C above pre-industrial levels, 35% of Los Angeles engulfed by wildfires, and Storm Éowyn, listed as a real danger to life in the UK, is ripping the covers off polytunnels where I work in the prison gardens. I and those working with me there are also being scattered, reassigned to different work or education. This can happen without warning. It's very unsettling for the many neurodivergent people who make up nearly half the prison population. Appealing against the moves is futile. I have just been put on a 12-week education course, which I'm already qualified for and which I will never complete, as I move prison in three weeks. Given how much information the prison system amasses on us, it is such a waste that inmates' time is not more intelligently managed. There is little follow-through after courses, aside from links established by altruistic staff, with outside trusts and employers that boost the hopes and dreams of a few. Pre-empting the move to open prison, I prepare cards and little gifts for all I've built relationships with here. I feel sheepish letting Ava know. As a foreign national, she is barred from open prison, despite attending every course asked of her over the many years and giving much to the prison community. Today is grey and drizzly. Cressie and I cross the exercise yard with our plastic boxes to collect lunch. An officer spots us and cheerily announces we are moving to East Sutton Park open prison tomorrow. We exchange puzzled looks. We are the lucky ones. Mina, a fellow transferee, only finds out in the morning. Every time you move prisons, all your possessions must be checked out, one by one. In reception, we dutifully pick items out of our plastic bags, which get placed in new, sealed ones. We are surprised to discover that we will travel by car rather than prison vans, aptly named sweat boxes. This seems weird. Stranger still is the environment we arrive at – a manor house and grounds akin to the ones I used to visit with my parents on a day out as a kid, with functional interiors reminiscent of outward-bound centres I stayed at in school groups. The communal rooms are beautiful and filled with books. Food is a step up. There's a well-run gym, relaxed, supportive staff and the shared bedrooms have barless garden views, which cheer up the same prison furniture. Sadly, the mattresses are even poorer – within a week, Lucia's back is in chronic pain. Although beautiful, the house has many steps – a nightmare for less mobile prisoners, and all work programmes require a level of physical fitness some just don't have. Prison causes deterioration of health for many inmates. Those who struggle are either assigned work that exacerbates their condition or are paid a third of the meagre wage if they cannot work as hard as other people. The individual needs of those brought here can surely be better considered and provided for. Meals at East Sutton Park are communal events. We eat with prison friends from HMP Send. These are releases on temporary licence (RoTLs), a common topic of discussion. As with enhancements and open prison, they are a privilege and largely favour those who already possess the skills to access work in the community. RoTLs generally include day release, work outside the prison and gradually increasing numbers of nights at home. With only two female open prisons in the UK, many people are far from home. Newly proposed guidelines are set to reduce financial support for travel for those on RoTL, which could limit access for poorer inmates and exacerbate discrimination. Over lunch, news reached us that HMP Send may be the one women's prison James Timpson plans to close to trial out alternative forms of 'punishment and rehabilitation'. Send may convert into one of the 14 new male prisons the government insists on building. We all share our concerns for those left behind. Some will move to alternate, non-custodial community provision, therapy centres or drug and alcohol rehabilitation. It's definitely reform on the right trajectory – but others will surely be transferred. Send is one of the better closed prisons. What will be their fate? Today, our fate has been decided. Cressie, Lucia and I walk in the unseasonably warm sun to the video room, where our lawyers will inform us of the verdict of our appeal. It is almost shocking to receive a reduction in sentence when 10 other appellants do not. We take time to process the new reality. As well as pleasure, a range of emotions and thoughts spring to mind. Not insignificantly, the unpredictable danger of curfew tag error, triggering recall to prison; harsh licence conditions regarding participation in events and internet use; and restrictions that will prevent us contacting each other and so many others. But when I phone my family to break the news, they are already celebrating the year off of my sentence and that I could be released on curfew tag within weeks. Our sentences are still manifestly excessive, of course. The real injustice is not their length but that citizens engaging in nonviolent civil resistance are incarcerated by a legal system that outlaws consideration of the deep wrongs that compel their action. The 1,000 people who sat silently on the road and stayed there for 90 minutes, despite pressure from the police to move, are in my view the catalysts for the reduction in sentences. My thanks goes out to them; we must never underestimate the power of such collective action. That night I reread Martin Luther King Jr's letter from a Birmingham jail. I quote: 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.' In these rapidly shifting sands of global instability, compassion and care are being stripped away. Injustice is increasing. We cannot let this happen. The names of inmates Tina, Ava and Mina have been changed to protect their identities. Additional reporting by Matthew Taylor
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Compassion and care are being stripped away': a Just Stop Oil activist on her time in prison
Louise Lancaster, 59, was one of a group of Just Stop Oil activists given the longest-ever UK sentences for peaceful protest for planning disruption on the M25 in November 2022. This year, she wrote a diary for the Guardian, detailing her first six months behind bars. Here, written before her release on 8 April and after her sentence was reduced on appeal, she reflects on her final months of incarceration. At the start of the year, I turned a corner and encountered a new emotional landscape. Transfer to open prison and the sentence appeal were on the horizon. Change, out of my control, was brewing. Open prison, a surveilled environment without bars or locks, intended as a stepping stone to community reintegration, is a goal for many in closed prison. But, heart-wrenchingly, it is only a pipe dream for the more troubled inmates – those who struggle to adhere to the strict behavioural rules, so often due to fragile mental health, complex psychological or neurodivergent needs, which there is scant provision to cater for. Every day, I try to engage with Tina, whose internal distress can result in loud, anguished outbursts in the night and repetitive calls for help. She regularly finds herself punished for these, with downgraded conditions, locked in her cell for days without TV, phone or association time with others. Prison is no fit place for Tina. This morning, I call my daughter, Verity, but first pick up a message she left a few days before. I would have loved to have phoned her at the time, to share and support. I feel a pang of guilt and the chasm between us. Today is her birthday. It is also the day Cressie, Lucia (her co-defendants Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin) and I are assembled in HMP Send's video room for our appeal hearing. Two foot-thick tomes of court papers weigh down the table. Next to them, a cup of delicious flapjacks Lucia had made, that happily we are allowed to share. The legal arguments went on for two days and we strained to hear, but we are sustained by the knowledge that thousands gather outside the court, to peacefully and insistently make their support known. And we're uplifted to see (co-defendants) Daniel (Shaw), Roger (Hallam) and appellants from the other three trial groups, via the video-link system, on the screen. The verdict will take four to eight weeks. We are not holding our breath. News in the UK and abroad is getting grimmer by the day. Surreal stuff. Trump's tornadoes of turmoil, world temperatures tipping 1.75C above pre-industrial levels, 35% of Los Angeles engulfed by wildfires, and Storm Éowyn, listed as a real danger to life in the UK, is ripping the covers off polytunnels where I work in the prison gardens. I and those working with me there are also being scattered, reassigned to different work or education. This can happen without warning. It's very unsettling for the many neurodivergent people who make up nearly half the prison population. Appealing against the moves is futile. I have just been put on a 12-week education course, which I'm already qualified for and which I will never complete, as I move prison in three weeks. Given how much information the prison system amasses on us, it is such a waste that inmates' time is not more intelligently managed. There is little follow-through after courses, aside from links established by altruistic staff, with outside trusts and employers that boost the hopes and dreams of a few. Pre-empting the move to open prison, I prepare cards and little gifts for all I've built relationships with here. I feel sheepish letting Ava know. As a foreign national, she is barred from open prison, despite attending every course asked of her over the many years and giving much to the prison community. Today is grey and drizzly. Cressie and I cross the exercise yard with our plastic boxes to collect lunch. An officer spots us and cheerily announces we are moving to East Sutton Park open prison tomorrow. We exchange puzzled looks. We are the lucky ones. Mina, a fellow transferee, only finds out in the morning. Every time you move prisons, all your possessions must be checked out, one by one. In reception, we dutifully pick items out of our plastic bags, which get placed in new, sealed ones. We are surprised to discover that we will travel by car rather than prison vans, aptly named sweat boxes. This seems weird. Stranger still is the environment we arrive at – a manor house and grounds akin to the ones I used to visit with my parents on a day out as a kid, with functional interiors reminiscent of outward-bound centres I stayed at in school groups. The communal rooms are beautiful and filled with books. Food is a step up. There's a well-run gym, relaxed, supportive staff and the shared bedrooms have barless garden views, which cheer up the same prison furniture. Sadly, the mattresses are even poorer – within a week, Lucia's back is in chronic pain. Although beautiful, the house has many steps – a nightmare for less mobile prisoners, and all work programmes require a level of physical fitness some just don't have. Prison causes deterioration of health for many inmates. Those who struggle are either assigned work that exacerbates their condition or are paid a third of the meagre wage if they cannot work as hard as other people. The individual needs of those brought here can surely be better considered and provided for. Meals at East Sutton Park are communal events. We eat with prison friends from HMP Send. These are releases on temporary licence (RoTLs), a common topic of discussion. As with enhancements and open prison, they are a privilege and largely favour those who already possess the skills to access work in the community. RoTLs generally include the day release, work outside the prison and gradually increasing numbers of nights at home. With only two female open prisons in the UK, many people are far from home. Newly proposed guidelines are set to reduce financial support for travel for those on RoTL, which could limit access for poorer inmates and exacerbate discrimination. Over lunch, news reached us that HMP Send may be the one women's prison James Timpson plans to close to trial out alternative forms of 'punishment and rehabilitation'. Send may convert into one of the 14 new male prisons the government insists on building. We all share our concerns for those left behind. Some will move to alternate, non-custodial community provision, therapy centres or drug and alcohol rehabilitation. It's definitely reform on the right trajectory – but others will surely be transferred. Send is one of the better closed prisons. What will be their fate? Today, our fate has been decided. Cressie, Lucia and I walk in the unseasonably warm sun to the video room, where our lawyers will inform us of the verdict of our appeal. It is almost shocking to receive a reduction in sentence when 10 other appellants do not. We take time to process the new reality. As well as pleasure, a range of emotions and thoughts spring to mind. Not insignificantly, the unpredictable danger of curfew tag error, triggering recall to prison; harsh licence conditions regarding participation in events and internet use; and restrictions that will prevent us contacting each other and so many others. But when I phone my family to break the news, they are already celebrating the year off of my sentence and that I could be released on curfew tag within weeks. Our sentences are still manifestly excessive, of course. The real injustice is not their length but that citizens engaging in nonviolent civil resistance are incarcerated by a legal system that outlaws consideration of the deep wrongs that compel their action. The 1,000 people who sat silently on the road and stayed there for 90 minutes, despite pressure from the police to move, are in my view the catalysts for the reduction in sentences. My thanks goes out to them; we must never underestimate the power of such collective action. That night I reread Martin Luther King Jr's letter from a Birmingham jail. I quote: 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.' In these rapidly shifting sands of global instability, compassion and care are being stripped away. Injustice is increasing. We cannot let this happen. The names of inmates Tina, Ava and Mina have been changed to protect their identities. Additional reporting by Matthew Taylor
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Police warn of ‘inflammatory' online posts over clashes outside Essex asylum hotel
Police have warned they are seeing 'inflammatory' comments online, as a third man was arrested over violent clashes outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Essex. The latest arrest came after eight officers were assaulted on Thursday and police vehicles were smashed after groups of men broke away from an earlier peaceful protest outside the hotel in Epping. A 33-year-old man from Loughton was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of violent disorder and criminal damage, according to Essex police. The force said several suspects who caused trouble had been identified and investigators were seeking to arrest them. Far-right activists associated with groups including Britain First were among those in the crowd that gathered outside the Bell hotel on Thursday, where local people including women and children peacefully protested. Clashes with police broke out as groups of men, some masked, attempted to reach a small anti-racism demonstration that started at Epping station and then walked through the town before it was hemmed in. In an apparent response to allegations that the police had taken a 'two-tier' approach that favoured the counter-demonstration, Ch Supt Simon Anslow said: 'Unfortunately, across social media we are seeing inflammatory comments which suggest we were supporting and enabling certain protesters. 'This is categorically not true. We police without fear or favour, remaining impartial at all times and have legal responsibilities to ensure peaceful protest is facilitated.' Tensions were high in Epping after the appearance in court on Thursday of an asylum seeker charged with three counts of sexual assault. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, from Ethiopia, who denies the offences, was remanded in custody before a two-day trial next month at Chelmsford magistrates court. Police remain on alert in the area and calls for a new protest outside the hotel on Sunday evening have been circulating online. Dean Walters, 65, from Harlow, has been charged with affray and will appear at court in September following a separate protest last Sunday near the hotel. A second man arrested over a breach of a dispersal order has been released on conditional bail. Neil Hudson, the local Conservative MP, has been calling on the Home Office to close the hotel and described the violence in the town on Thursday as 'completely unacceptable'. 'Police put themselves in harm's way to keep us safe. People have the right to peacefully protest but these violent scenes are not us, not Epping, not what we stand for,' he said in a post on X.
The Guardian
16-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ministers to enshrine UK charities' right to peaceful protest in new ‘covenant'
The right to engage in political activity and protest peacefully is to be enshrined in a new agreement between the government and UK charities and campaigners aimed in part at ending years of damaging 'culture wars'. The agreement is intended to reset relations between government and the voluntary sector after years of mutual distrust during which Conservative ministers limited public rights to protest, froze out campaigners, and targeted 'woke' charities. The so-called 'civil society covenant' will also commit ministers to giving charities and campaign groups a formal partnership role in helping design and fulfil the government's missions to achieve economic growth and tackle social problems. Keir Starmer will announce the covenant on Thursday in what is seen as the most serious government engagement with the voluntary sector since David Cameron's ill-fated attempt to co-opt charities into his 'big society' vision in 2010. The prime minister is expected to say: 'This is about rebalancing power and responsibility. Not the top-down approach of the state working alone. Not the transactional approach of markets left to their own devices. But a new way forward – where government and civil society work side by side to deliver real change.' The government has highlighted the covenant as a way of putting charities and social enterprises at the centre of plans to provide publicly funded grassroots services in areas such as domestic abuse, youth services and employment programmes. But the covenant is expected to addresses more fundamental principles of civil society independence and rights, and commits the government and charities to continue to engage respectfully even where they disagree on policy. A key passage in the covenant is expected to say the government respects the independence and legitimacy of civil society organisations to advocate and campaign, will protect their right to engage in peaceful protest, and hold the government to account. The commitment was welcomed by civil society leaders. Jane Ide, the chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, said: 'This is an essential part of a healthy democracy and speaking truth to power is central to the role of civil society.' There is widespread optimism in the voluntary sector that the covenant, which was negotiated in recent months, signals a genuine attempt by the government to embrace civil society groups and draw on their expertise to drive social change. One senior voluntary sector figure said: 'This is something everyone has wanted to see for some time. It is easy to be cynical about words on the page but it is a massive opportunity to do things in a different way.' There is broad relief the covenant appears to signal that the tide of aggressive criticism of charities from rightwing politicians in recent years, seen as an attempt to undermine charities' legal rights and restrict their role in public debate, has receded. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion These have included hostile 'culture war' attacks on charities including the National Trust, the RNLI and Barnardo's by politicians and media over so-called 'woke' issues such as race, immigration, the UK's colonial legacy and the climate crisis. Charities that provide public services have also railed against 'gagging clauses' inserted into delivery contracts preventing them from speaking out on behalf of beneficiaries, and many will hope the covenant will end such practices. But there is also scepticism about the covenant in some quarters, given the government's recent banning of the Palestine Action protest group, and amid fears that police handling of some peaceful pro-Palestine marches risks criminalising legitimate protest. Some charity figures contrasted the commitment of the covenant to 'coproduce' policy with campaigners with the failures of ministers in recent months to consult civil society over unpopular cuts to disability benefits and the winter fuel allowance. There is also concern that the financial difficulties faced by many charities, often as a results of cuts to local authority and NHS board funding, will severely limit the ability of many civil society organisations to engage in partnership.
Arab News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
UK union leaders say Met police charges against Palestine activists an attack on right to protest
LONDON: Over 20 prominent union leaders in the UK have raised concerns about the erosion of the right to peaceful protest in the country and about the Metropolitan Police's handling of pro-Palestinian marches. The 22 trade union leaders criticized in a joint statement on Tuesday the Met's decision to charge former union members who were arrested during a London protest in solidarity with Palestine. The Met arrested over 70 people in a pro-Palestine protest on Jan. 18 in London. Among those detained were Alex Kenny, a former executive member of the National Education Union; Sophie Bolt, the general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign; and Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition. The union leaders referred to the arrests and charges against Kenny and Bolt as a threat to the right to protest. 'Alex Kenny is a long-standing, and widely respected, trade union activist who has organised peaceful demonstrations in London for decades,' they said in a statement. 'We believe these charges are an attack on our right to protest. The right to protest is fundamental to trade unions and the wider movement. The freedoms to organise, of assembly and of speech matter; we must defend them,' they added. They called for the Met to drop charges against Kenny, Bolt, Nineham, and Jamal. The signatories include Paul Nowak from the Trades Union Congress, Christina McAnea from Unison, Daniel Kebede from the NEU, Matt Wrack from the Teachers' Union, Dave Ward of the Communication Workers Union, Mick Whelan of the train drivers' union ASLEF, and Eddie Dempsey from the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. They said the decision to charge Kenny and Bolt follows the prosecution of Nineham and Jamal. Amnesty International, along with dozens of legal experts, expressed concerns over the Met's handling of the pro-Palestine protest in January, with some describing the arrests as 'a disproportionate, unwarranted and dangerous assault on the right to assembly and protest.' At the protest, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell were interviewed under caution and released pending further investigations. MPs and peers have also called on Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to review protest legislation introduced by the former Conservative government.
