EXCESSIVE POLICING OF PENTONVILLE DEMO IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE ACTION HUNGER STRIKERS ~ Blade Runner ~ The traditional anarchist New Year’s Eve gathering outside HMP Pentonville was joined on December 31, 2025 by a solidarity demonstration for remand prisoners currently on hunger strike, organised by Palestine Pulse alongside other grassroots groups. Hundreds of people assembled on Caledonian Road carrying Palestinian flags and banners, with the demonstration centred on solidarity with prisoners rather than disruption. Nevertheless, police responded with a large and visibly disproportionate deployment. Protesters counted at least 21 police vans in the immediate area, equating to roughly 170 officers. Many were deployed in boiler suits and carrying long batons, signalling a preparedness for confrontation rather than assembly facilitation. Despite the heavy police presence, passing drivers repeatedly sounded their horns in support of the demonstration. Officers attempted to confine protesters behind railings on a narrow stretch of pavement, but as numbers grew this quickly became untenable. Protesters spilled onto the road and began a spontaneous march around the prison block, entering Wheelwright Street. Police reinforcements arrived as officers moved to block surrounding streets, fragmenting movement and preventing the crowd from circulating freely. > The march was halted and forced back towards Caledonian Road. Further attempts > to move south were blocked by additional cordons, leaving protesters penned-in > on the carriageway. The aggressive policing approach generated predictable > friction, resulting in minor injuries and two arrests, both reportedly > released in the early hours of 1 January. Following the standoff, demonstrators regrouped and moved away from the prison under continued police pressure, later continuing through central London and dispersing at Piccadilly Circus. At the centre of the protests is a coordinated hunger strike involving eight remand prisoners held in multiple UK prisons, including Pentonville, Bronzefield, New Hall and Peterborough. All are being held without conviction for alleged offences linked to Palestine Action. Several prisoners are approaching 60 days without food, while two others previously paused their hunger strike following severe health deterioration after more than seven weeks. The hunger strikers’ demands include the closure of Elbit Systems’ UK sites and an end to prolonged pre-trial detention. Doctors, families and supporters have repeatedly warned of escalating health risks, with hospitalisations reported and serious concerns raised about irreversible damage. > Recent demonstrations outside Pentonville have already focused on solidarity > with one of the hunger strikers, Kamran, who is among the Filton 24 arrestees > and has been hospitalised for the fifth time after more than 50 days on hunger > strike. NYE demonstrations were also planned outside prisons in Brixton and > Peterborough this year. Since the proscription of Palestine Action earlier in 2025, the British state has increasingly relied on remand, isolation, and restrictive custodial regimes against those accused of involvement in the group. Supporters describe a pattern including censorship of books and correspondence, denial of prison work, transfers far from family networks, and repeated refusals of bail. > Taken together, activists view the policing of demonstrations and the > treatment of remand prisoners as part of a domestic counter-insurgency > strategy, in which overwhelming police presence, pre-emptive containment and > punitive detention function to send a broader warning to those considering > militant solidarity with Palestine. > In this context, the hunger strike has become a focal point, seen as exposing > how prisons and public order policing are being used to suppress dissent and > discipline political resistance. > > As the new year begins, the prisoners’ fast continues. > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Photos: Blade Runner The post Hundreds at New Year’s Eve London prison protest appeared first on Freedom News.

WE HAD SOME REALLY MEANINGFUL INTERACTIONS AT POINTS AND EVEN GAINED A MOURNER FOR ONE LEG OF THE JOURNEY ~ Jo Lane ~ ‘The Death of Humanity’ was a protest that didn’t look like a protest. Ahead of International Human Rights Day, a convoy of artists and activists carried a funeral wreath reading ‘HUMANITY’, stopping at key landmarks across London and Manchester, until the wreaths were laid down at their final resting places. Born from an acknowledgement that traditional protest does not ‘reach’ everyone, this was an opportunity for people to experience a different narrative, one whereby they don’t feel like they are being told what to think. The hope was it would provide people with an experience that left space for them to find their own emotional connection to the theme, creating opportunities for understanding different perspectives, and building bridges for potential change. In London, we had a couple of ‘mourners from afar’ at each action who would interact with the public. If people chose to interact and find out more they were met with compassionate, restorative conversations, and if they asked, we shared our motivations behind the piece. Manchester. Photo: Karol Wyszynski We had some really meaningful interactions at points and even gained a mourner for one leg of the journey. One man, although agreed with the concept, was uncomfortable with the ‘morbidity’ suggesting we need to bring hope to the world, rather than further misery and pain. Although I completely agree with this sentiment, and a lot of my work is hopeful in its nature, I also believe it is important to carve space for, and honour the feelings of helplessness that so many of us have felt recently. My favourite comment I overheard on Sunday was “Mummy what does that say” to which her Mum responded “I don’t know”. We will never know whether this was her not wanting to delve into this deep discussion with their daughter, or if she actually didn’t know what it said. Either way feels quite poignant for me. The Manchester action was bleak and miserable with regards to weather, which added its own surreal and poignant vibe, all of us kitted out with big black umbrellas like the opening scene of a Batman Movie. We spent 2 hours carrying the wreath from place to place until we laid it down at its final resting place. It was an endurance in itself. The constant rain coupled with it being a busy shopping day ahead of Christmas meant that most people had little capacity to stop and take notice, it was as if we didn’t exist at times. If we were looking to confirm the concept that people are so wrapped up and busy in their own lives that they don’t see the suffering around them, we succeeded. The juxtaposition of the stark visual of a colourful funeral wreath imprinted on people’s brains in the midst of their Christmas shopping, is a powerful subliminal message. The timing of the piece was paramount due to International Human Rights Day, but if we were to do this action again we would love to find a day of significance in summer months as the potential for engagement and participation in the summer would be even more impactful. I just want to give a huge appreciation to all those who participated in the action, to ARTCRY for funding such important, responsive political artwork, and to UNION: Northern School for Creativity and Activism where so many new ideas and friendships were born. At present Instagram has deactivated our account saying we haven’t followed community standards and account integrity! but hopefully we will be back soon. So here is our handle just in case. @deathofhumanity_action #TheDeathOfHumanity -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: London. Ray Malone The post Art action: “The Death of Humanity” appeared first on Freedom News.

WHILE ACT UP’S POLITICAL WORK BECOMES INSTITUTIONALISED AND MEMORIALISED, THE MYTH PERSISTS THAT HIV NO LONGER KILLS ~ Chrys Papaioannou ~ As the campaigns, slogans and direct actions of the legendary activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), originally formed in New York in 1987, enter history books, exhibition rooms and cinema screens, our fight to save the lives being lost to AIDS has never been more urgent. While ACT UP’s political work becomes institutionalised and memorialised, today the persistent myth that HIV no longer kills is only made worse by deadly political decisions that decimate disability welfare, fund militarist expansion and genocide, and remove aid and access to HIV- prevention and HIV-treatment medication from those most at risk. This year, for the first time since 1988, the US Government did not commemorate World AIDS Day, with State Department employees being told not to promote World AIDS Day through any communication channels (whether via social media, media engagements or public speeches). It is difficult not to view this vile disregard for all those who have lost their children, friends, and lovers in light of a longer history of eugenicist policies and remarks made by fascist politicians, such as Nigel Farage who, in 2014, called for people who are living with HIV to be banned from migrating to the UK and Jean-Marie Le Pen in France who, in 1987, publicly stated that AIDS is a form of leprosy, proposing that people with AIDS be forcibly isolated. It was on World AIDS Day this year, 1 December 2025, a grey and gloomy Monday morning, that I and dozens of others from the wider ACT UP London network left our homes early, put on our waterproofs, and headed to Trafalgar Square to remember the dead and fight for the living. ACT UP London is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger and committed to direct action to end the HIV pandemic. I had seen pictures of die-ins before but no pictures and no video footage of any die-in could capture what it felt like to participate in this poignant act of solidarity. As we surrounded the Equestrian Statue of King Charles I in the small traffic island opposite Nelson’s column, the Big Ben within sight, the thirty minutes spent lying on the cold pavement with our eyes closed felt like a lifetime. Light drizzle gave way to heavy rain and the wind kept blowing our makeshift cardboard gravestones away. The cardboard gravestones themselves told the story of consecutive governments failing us – Tory cuts, Labour cuts, decades and decades of misinformation, stigma and violence inflicted through corporate greed and state neglect. Just this November, the UK government announced a 15% reduction in the country’s contribution to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. According to the Terrence Higgins Trust, “in November 2024, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) stated that it is unlikely that we will meet the 2025 targets, but the 2030 target of zero new HIV transmissions is within our reach.” And yet, not only has the 2025 goal not been met, but it looks even more unlikely that the goal of “no new HIV transmissions by 2030” will be met either. In a carceral neoliberal context where class, race and citizenship status cruelly determine who is likely to live a long healthy life with HIV and who is not, there are thousands and thousands of people who cannot access daily oral PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and the twice-yearly injectable drug Lenacapavir. Widespread stigma associated with being HIV-positive is further exacerbated by the societal stigma experienced by sex workers and people who inject drugs (PWID), with scarce needle and syringe programmes (NSP) allowing people to access free and sterile equipment, and whorephobia and the criminalisation of sex work – whether through the Nordic or other models – preventing sex workers from accessing healthcare: “Punitive environments have been shown to limit the availability, access and uptake of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for sex workers and their clients”, report UNAIDS. It might seem that all we demand is for Warfare Britain to turn into Welfare Britain. But fighting to end AIDS – zero new transmissions, zero new deaths, zero stigma – means fighting to end the very crux where state violence, racial capitalism and ethno-nationalism intersect. The hard-earned victories of our queer elders mean that ‘gay cancer’ can no longer be the homophobic stick with which they beat us. But turn your gaze not so far from here, to a busy pedestrian street in central Athens, and you find the lingering ghost of queer activist Zak Kostopoulos (open about his HIV-positive status and known for his gay rights activism) who in 2018 was brutally beaten to death by civilians and the police. Still lying on the cold wet pavement, I open my eyes to gaze at the sky. A nothingness almost, an ever-expanding grey with no variation. I hear the name of Zak Kostopoulos, of Derek Jarman, of Natalie Caroline Wells and her son Judd Conrad Morgan Wells, both of whom passed away in London the other week, days apart. My sight catches a glimpse of the Union Jacks hanging from the nearby buildings and then of a small flock of birds dispersing and reorienting. Silence still equals death. And until Britain’s war machine is dismantled and healthcare is free for all, we know that we will not be choosing silence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos by Holly Buckle @stickypicnic, video by Joseph Wilson   The post In AIDS activism, silence (still) equals death appeared first on Freedom News.

A STEWARD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE LONDON MARCH FOR GAZA ~ Tabitha Troughton ~ The people were marching again for Palestine—in defiance, in horror, in hope, demanding justice and peace, they came to London in their hundreds of thousands on Saturday (11 October). From Cambridge, Sheffield and Abergavenny; from Bristol, Swansea, Chesterfield and Manchester, they flowed through the city, surged down the streets: a great river of united, unifying humanity.. The Jewish Bloc marched along with Friends of Al Aqsa. Jewish Artists for Palestine marched, serious, next to small, excited schoolgirls. Hijabis walked with tall boys in face paint. Parents pushed prams, held the hands of toddlers; there were dog owners and trade unions, Imams and drummers; pensioners, hoodies, Quakers, Muslims, atheists, Christians, students and football fans. The full spectrum of life in this country, and they had all come together, against genocide, for Palestine, again. We were waiting for them; a thin yellow line of stewards in high-viz vests, standing in front of the small pro-Israel counter protest, at the end of Waterloo Bridge. For hours, it seemed, we’d been staring at an eerily empty street, while behind us a horrible voice, a voice filled with loathing, gloating in death and destruction, boomed ear-splittingly through loud-speakers, harming our hearing, stopping our thought.  Nothing made sense. Humanity was a cesspit filled with sorrow and hate. “There ain’t no real Jews who aren’t Zionist!”, the voice behind us threatened and boasted and jeered. This was progress. Get with the programme!  “If you are a real Jew you’re a Zionist through and through. What is so difficult to understand?”, It was shouting at its audience. ” A hundred percent! Who never waver, who never back down! They can try to shut us up, they can try to put intimidating videos on Tik Tok and” (virulently) “Instagram…Shut the fuck up, you prick!” The voice had an Israeli accent. Its largely British audience had gathered under the slogan “Stop the Hate”. There were a couple of hundred of them, enthusiastically waving flags: the Israeli flag, the Union Jack, and the St George’s flag. They’d heard a couple of forgettable speakers, and a moving tribute to the victims of the Manchester synagogue terrorist attack, from someone whose husband had survived it. She’d concluded her speech stating that “the rhetoric coming out of the pro-Palestine movement” was “a call for jihad”—pointing out, as evidence, that the synagogue murderer was actually named “Jihad”. She wanted the marches banned, of course. Oddly, punctuating these serious speeches, there was a party. Random pop songs, some British, some Israeli, blared deafeningly from the speakers. Many participants bounced gleefully, grinning like lunatics. Others swayed soulfully from side to side, singing along. “Zionist queen…Anyone with a penis is not a woman!”… Other songs included Lily Allen’s “Fuck You”; Queen’s “We are the Champions”, Abba’s “The Winner Takes It All”, and a knock-off Oirish number with the lyrics “you can shove your Palestine up your hole”. Occasionally, and unbelievably, recordings of bombs being dropped came through the loudspeakers. The voice, when it came to its turn on the microphone, would sometimes try to sing along with the songs blasted out between its speeches. It did so distressingly badly. Otherwise it ranged through a variety of tones and emotions. Towards the marchers and stewards it would be fair to say it was hostile (“the most vile and rancid this country has to offer”). About the Israelis it was bombastic: what people didn’t realise was that “us Jews don’t go away. We have a thick skull”, it said with pride. When talking to an invisible audience of Palestinians—it seemed to need to talk to Palestinians—it dropped into the most cartoonish of sinister registers. “Look at all your predecessors who tried to kill us”, it gloated, “How did that end up for them?” For a few sentences, there seemed to be some introspection. A dreadful sort of yearning crept in; a yearning for “becoming whole again with our brother and sister back home”. The twisted horrors of war suddenly churned around all sides: the children, the suicides, the torture, the chuckling maniacs behind all this. But: “We’re not going to think about you”, the voice told the invisible Palestinians. “We’re going to focus on ourselves, only on Israel, on the Jewish people, like we’ve always done. We’re going to rebuild better, stronger, taller—unbreakable! Cos we and Israel is not going anywhere…So get on with the programme or begone in the trash heap of history, like your predecessors!” And then, to its audience: “Let the party begin! This the Hamas surrender party! Come on!!” It would be pleasant, and sane, to forget this voice, but it would not be responsible. Because this is the voice of the Israeli state. This is the voice which finds expression in most of our media. It spreads paranoia and division among British Jews, the epitome of all the lies: that the marches are “hate marches”, that the marches chant “Death to Jews”, that the marches cause terrorism. It is encouraging the potential banning of protest and the political jailing of peaceful protestors. It stokes fear, revenge, ruthlessness and hate. It is the voice of the far right. And, despite being in a terribly small and nonsensical minority, it is still winning. Or at least so it seemed, being stuck there with it for hours. The stewards rolled their eyes, looked at their phones, put in ear plugs. One if us seemed to go into a meditative trace. But the voice of Thanatos went on, and on, and on, with its dreadful callous supremacy, its terrible underlying desperation. Darkness was falling. And then, suddenly, on the crest of Waterloo Bridge, like the sun coming out, the march appeared. Now there were banners, and multi-coloured flags, and voices lifted in song, and the powerful, enormous, peaceful presence of the people, coming unstoppably to our rescue. Some briefly stood, staring in horror, when they saw the counter-protest’s Israeli flags. Several girls burst into tears. All kept going. “Free, free Palestine”, they chanted, “There are many, many more of us than you”. There are, and there always will be. This should never be forgotten. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos: Peter Marshall   The post When the voice of hate met the river of humanity appeared first on Freedom News.

SURVEILLANCE COMPANY TARGETED FOR ROLE IN GAZA GENOCIDE ~ Scott Harris ~ Shut The System says its activists this morning destroyed entrances, glass panels, security cameras and ID card readers at Palantir Technology’s London office in Soho Square, then doused the facade in red paint. This action was taken in response to the company’s intense surveillance of Palestinians to profit from the genocide in Gaza, along with its controversial contract with the NHS. It comes a week after Shut The System took international direct action in London, Paris, Hamburg, Geneva and Vienna against fossil fuel investors Barclays and BlackRock. Palantir is a one of the world’s largest data mining and spy-tech companies, providing artificial intelligence to the Israeli military to escalate its assaults on Palestinians. Meanwhile, it is aggressively expanding its operations in British public institutions, including the NHS for which it faces strong opposition among health workers. In early 2024 Palantir announced a strategic partnership with the Israeli military, agreeing to ‘harness Palantir’s advanced technology in support of war related missions’. This partnership has involved supplying Israel with AI software which scrapes data gathered from the surveillance of Palestinians and places them in AI driven ‘kill chains’, further muddying the lines of accountability. The company also won a controversial £330 million contract to create a centralised data management platform for the NHS, as well as contracts with British police departments and social services. The NHS contract caused outrage amongst health workers who have been resisting Palantirs’ involvement. Palantir was created with funding from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm co-founded by Peter Thiell, a man with a long history of financial support for politicians who promote Christian nationalist and white supremacist politics, including his mentorship of James Vance. The firm plays a central role in Trump’s White House, including taking on a recent ten billion dollar contract with the US army, and a thirty million dollar contract to play a central role on ICE’s brutal immigration crackdown.   The post Paint action against Palantir in London appeared first on Freedom News.

TO RESIST NORMALISATION, WE NEED ENDURING GROUNDWORK WITH ATTACKED COMMUNITIES—AND SPACES FOR OPEN STRATEGISING ~ Blade Runner ~ On Saturday 13 September, between 110,000 and 150,000 turned out in response to Tommy Robinson’s call, a mobilisation framed as a defence of “free speech” but saturated with white nationalist, Islamophobic and anti-migrant rhetoric. It is said to be the largest far-right protest in history. At the rally he was joined by international supporters: Elon Musk appeared by video link, calling for the government to be removed and parliament dissolved. Éric Zemmour, the French far-right politician, invoked the “great replacement” myth in openly Islamophobic terms. The crowds marched from the South Bank and Westminster Bridge towards Whitehall, but numbers quickly overflowed. Thousands remained on the bridge and in Parliament Square, while others spilled into Trafalgar Square. Police spent much of the day funnelling and dispersing the mass. Chants targeted migrants and Keir Starmer—Seven Nation Army was repurposed to sing “Keir Starmer’s a wanker” alongside with the co-opted slogan “Whose street? Our street”. Union Jacks and St George’s crosses were everywhere, along with American and Israeli flags. This mobilisation follows a summer of racist outrage, coordinated online, amplified by Labour politicians in particular, and legitimised by media coverage. Already in June, London hosted a mass rally under the “Football Lads Against Grooming Gangs / For Our Children” banner—another openly racist march where a small antifascist block was kettled “for its own protection”. Saturday’s counter-protest, around 20,000 people organised by local trade unions and grassroots groups marched after a rally at Russell Square and ended behind the far-right stage. They were surrounded and effectively kettled for hours, with hostile crowds pressing on police lines. A small black bloc was at one point stuck behind far-right lines before withdrawing to the left bloc. Beer bottles and other projectiles were thrown at the anti-fascist side. The sheer scale, fuelled by trains and coaches, initially took the police by surprise. By the end of the day, the Met reported 26 officers injured, four seriously, and at least 25 arrests for assault and violent disorder, mostly against far-right attendees trying to break cordons. Anti-fascist blocks were eventually escorted out through narrow corridors in the middle of hostile crowds. While much of the left hides behind its routines, single-issue campaigns and cycles of electoral hope, defeat and disillusionment, anarchists and anti-authoritarians continue to mobilise—but without the structures needed to strategise and build resilience. Open assemblies are rare. Too often disconnected from the non-white and marginalised communities we should be rooted in, we show up as external actors. We cannot afford to just react. The far right is being normalised as part of a wider domestic counter-insurgency strategy. Brexit and the myth of ‘invasion’ are offered from above as the answer to the growing gulf between the excluded and zones of consumer comfort. It is not strength but fear: a ruling class haunted by past revolts as it scrambles to pre-empt system collapse with repression at home and war abroad. In this situation, our task is to build bonds of trust with the communities most under attack, and to carve out spaces of refusal where we can strategise openly and disagree without splintering. We need local defence and mutual aid structures that endure beyond news cycles, rooted in everyday life rather than just spectacle. And we need the courage to confront not only fascism in the streets but the wider system that breeds it. Without this groundwork the far right will continue to dominate public space and the streets. With it, the next rupture may open the chance to strike at the roots of the system itself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos: Peter Marshall on Facebook, Blade Runner The post Facing down the flagshaggers appeared first on Freedom News.

WELL-COORDINATED DIRECT ACTION CATCHES THE POLICE OFF GUARD, SHOWING THE POWER OF SECURE AND STRATEGIC ORGANISING ~ Kevin Blowe ~ On 9 September, at around 7.30 in the morning, an advance bloc of about 150 protesters, their faces covered, suddenly appeared by London City Hall in east London, near to where Britain’s largest arms fair, Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi), was due to start at 9 o’clock. The protest bloc walked unchallenged to the entrance, where DSEi 2025 delegates were due to arrive, and blocked it. They then successfully held the space as police tried desperately to push them to one side, while more and more protesters began to arrive at the advertised 8am assembly time. Groups of senior officers stood in huddles trying to work out what to do, while the attempts of the ‘Police Liaison’ blue bib intelligence gatherers to engage with protesters were loudly rebuffed with cries of “free, free Palestine”. As delegates arrived, a few in military uniform but most in the industry’s favoured ‘casual suits and trainers’ combo, they were eventually diverted to another entrance, forced to run a narrow gauntlet behind a line of police officers as other groups of campaigners shouted “shame on you” and worse. The message was up close and unavoidable, and while some delegates were angrily dismissive, most looked embarrassed and deeply uncomfortable. It was magnificent. How was it possible that the Metropolitan Police so abjectly failed to see this coming, despite the leaflets and social media calling for campaigners to “Shut DSEi Down”? Clearly, the National Police Coordination Centre’s Strategic Intelligence and Briefing (SIB) team, who compile the intelligence for police forces on protests, thought this call to action was symbolic, rather than genuine. The last DSEI protests in 2023 had been quiet and in the absence of other information, they assumed it would remain so this year. However, SIB’s failure was fundamentally the result of decisions by protest organisers themselves. The ‘Big One’ Coalition had mobilised through trusted networks, sharing information internally based on an agreed plan of potential risks that, crucially, everyone had stuck to. At Netpol we have long argued that we can risk over-estimating how proficient the police really are at surveillance, when in fact they rely heavily on the information we carelessly share ourselves. That did not happen in advance of 9 September, and is a large part of why the police were caught by surprise. The DSEi protest was the clearest example, for some considerable time, of what is possible when groups start to take security seriously – and at one of the most heavily surveilled events in the country too. Later in the morning, the police turned to violence—as they often do when frustrated by protesters. At the alternate entrance for delegates, officers from the Territorial Support Group, the Met’s thuggish riot unit, along with officers from British Transport Police’s equivalent, the Operational Support Unit, were assembled and then rushed protesters, knocking people to the ground and then pointlessly kettling a small group. Photo: Netpol One older peace campaigner from Bristol was, fortunately, helped to his feet unharmed, but a young woman left the kettle in an ambulance with a broken ankle. Not long afterwards, another protester was knocked unconscious and also taken to hospital. An independent legal observer monitoring the policing of the protest also suffered a broken wrist. Remarkably, despite the disruption and this heightened level of police aggression, only three people were arrested all morning, all for self-evidently dubious “assault on an emergency worker” allegations. The protester taken to hospital was arrested just after he was discharged, but was later told the police would take no further action against him. We hope he is already talking to lawyers about suing the Met and we have released a call-out for witnesses for all the injuries. This is what also makes this year’s DSEi protest stand out: for showing it is possible to take powerful, decisive action against the arms industry without centring mass arrests as a core strategic aim. The contrast could not have been greater, then, with the Defend Our Juries protest against the banning of Palestine Action, which took place three days earlier in Parliament Square in central London. There, around 1,300 people, many of them pensioners, were deliberately anticipating a terrorism arrest for holding up signs in support of a proscribed group. The early pace of arrests was slow, with groups of officers first carrying out the wheelchair users and then sign holders at the edges of the crowded square. Onlookers’ disgust and anger at the sight of grandparents, nurses and teachers treated as ‘terrorists’ led to voices raised even louder. The police became more uneasy and aggressive as they were jostled and during several of these terrorism arrests, people were pushed over and batons were drawn by some officers. Photo: Defend Our Juries After 3pm, more demonstrators began to arrive from the Palestine Coalition’s National March for Gaza, having decided to skip the speeches in Whitehall to come and show their support. The crowd swelled, as did the tension. More and more officers were required for each arrest, as they were quickly mobbed by angry protesters, some of whom seemed ready and willing to help with de-arrests, if only that hadn’t been the exact opposite of what these particular detainees wanted. As well as almost 900 arrested under the Terrorism Act on 6 September, which continued late into the evening, there were also 17 other arrests, mostly for “assault on an emergency worker”. Just as at DSEi, these arrests were highly questionable. The following day, senior officers leaned heavily on the “intolerable abuse” that police had received, as if they deserved praise for enforcing an unjust law. Certainly, some officers in Parliament Square appeared as demoralised as some of the delegates at DSEi, but like the arms traders, that’s the choice they have made. The direct action of the Shut DSEi Down protesters and the civil disobedience of the sign holders represent two strands of the current movement against Israeli genocide in Gaza, alongside the regular marches through the capital (now the 30th organised since October 2023). Both, in different ways, are also trying to navigate the crackdown on the right to protest in Britain that Netpol described last year, even before Palestine Action was banned, as “state repression”. The action at DSEi left protesters exhilarated, but those in Parliament Square who believe the government might at last listen to the mass power of moral example may have felt disheartened. The question now is whether the time and energy needed to outwit police surveillance can be replicated, persuading allies to treat security as central to their organising. The post London arms fair disruption: A stark contrast to mass arrests for Palestine appeared first on Freedom News.

ARRESTS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT RISK CENTRING LIBERAL FREEDOMS INSTEAD OF PALESTINIAN SURVIVAL ~ Kell w Farshéa ~ Its 9pm, last Saturday (6 September). I’m standing on the pavement in the dark, watching the arrests. Police vans queue down the side of Parliament Square, engines idling. Police in high-vis jackets wade through the crowd of chanting singing people. Every five minutes cops emerge from the crowd carrying someone pron,e whilst another cop walks alongside telling them that they are being arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000. A group of supporters chanting “we are the revolution” accompany a man walking to the police van. Others shout “shame, shame” or “are you proud of yourself”. On and on it goes. Yet how English and polite and obedient it is. People are quietly carried to the vans where they climb inside unaided. I see people chat to the police officers as if we are all on the same side—decency, civility, democratic values, common outrage. The hours pass, more people are driven off through the police road block to the police cells. Its relentless. Google tells me that in August 2025 there were only 900 cells available in UK men’s prisons. Yet almost 1,500 people have been charged for explicitly stating they support Palestine Action. Indeed the internet suggests many people charged will face a fine rather than imprisonment. The Prime Minister and his new Home Secretary look like paper tigers, not resolute law makers. 1,500 people showing they are not afraid of the consequences in breaking one of the more serious crimes on statute because the law is seen as morally bankrupt. There is something powerful in this spectacle of defiance played out in front of parliament at night. And yet If passive resistance is so powerful, if the prison and police cells are in such short supply—why have the mass protests against genocide not brought 100,000 marchers to sit down in the streets of London? Indeed why was it only when UK citizen’s rights were threatened that people were prepared to be arrested en masse? I am absolutely sure that members of Palestine Action still want the focus to be on Gaza, but it seems like white liberalism is now more focussed instead on the proscription itself. And beyond the sight of elderly pensioners bedecked in military medals being arrested—how effective is this protest at stopping the genocide and ending the occupation? How much has the proscription taken the focus off the millions being starved to death in Gaza? Perhaps in the face of almost two years of mass demonstrations, emails and petitions it is understandable that people grasp for some kind of meaningful protest. Yet in an age when Parliament is uninterested in moral, genocidal, ecocidal or democratic principles, this may no longer be relevant. And yet, the questions must be asked. How can we more effectively resist the actual genocide? How can we avoid centring the debate over liberal democratic ideas and conditional freedoms, and instead re-centre it on the colonial capitalist murder of the people of Palestine? Let us remember that Mr. Starmer is not sympathetic to principled ‘gesture’ arrests. He is on record saying XR actionists should get long sentences. Starmer endorses segregationist policies for trans people and leans into Farage and the EDL’s fascist language on immigration. He would leave every pensioner in London on bail and still not allow PA to return. The mass arrests on Saturday were magnificent, cinematic even. But lets not pretend it’s not a sideshow distracting from the real issue—ending the genocide and fighting for a Free Palestine. Not one Palestinian child’s life will be saved by any of these arrests unless they refocus on the key issue: that while the government mouths platitudes about the man-made famine, it provides logistical support for drone attacks on children and targeted assassinations of journalists. > — “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre” (French General Pierre > Bosquet on the charge of the British Light Brigade at Balaclava, 25 October > 1854) > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Photos: Peter Marshall The post Proscription Action: It’s magnificent, but it’s not war appeared first on Freedom News.

DEFEND OUR JURIES SAY 1,000 PEOPLE SIGNED UP FOR SATURDAY’S MASS DISOBEDIENCE IN LONDON ~ Scott Harris ~ Defend Our Juries (DOJ) has pledged the “largest ever day of defiance” of the Palestine Action ban this Saturday, after seven key members were arrested in home raids by counter-terrorism police. The arrests, carried out yesterday (2 September) under section 12 of the Terrorism Act, targeted DOJ spokespeople who had hosted public Zoom calls for those signing up to the campaign. Among those detained were lawyer Tim Crosland, care worker David Nixon, and retired engineer Tony Harvey, who has already been charged in Scotland. At the time of a press conference on Wednesday, the group said several of those arrested had been held for more than 24 hours, exceeding the custody time limit. Amnesty International condemned the raids as “a blatant attempt to muzzle freedom of speech” and called for the immediate release of those detained. The organisation has now launched a global campaign urging prosecutors in all three UK jurisdictions to drop charges against protesters. Saturday’s Parliament Square action will see over 1,000 people pledge to risk arrest by holding signs stating: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. Organisers say the number of signatories is already double that of last month’s action, when more than 500 people were detained in London in the Met’s largest mass arrests since the Committee of 100 protests in 1961. Defend Our Juries has advised participants to reject “street bail” and insist on their right to station-based legal advice, predicting that police will not have capacity to process the numbers. The 6 September protests mark the first coordinated defiance of the ban across all three legal systems in the UK. A sit-in is planned at Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh, where Scottish prosecutors recently dropped cases against Palestine Action supporters after the Scottish Human Rights Commission warned the arrests risked breaching the law. In Derry, campaigners will also defy the ban, adding pressure on Stormont and Holyrood not to enforce Westminster’s measures. Home secretary Yvette Cooper announced the proscription of Palestine Action in July, the first time a domestic protest group has been banned as a “terrorist” organisation. The move has been widely condemned by rights groups, UN rapporteurs, and Labour members, with polling showing over 70% of the party’s base opposed. A judicial review of the decision is due to be heard in November. The post Mass defiance of Palestine Action ban “will not be silenced” by home raids appeared first on Freedom News.

A COALITION OF FEMINIST, MIGRANT AND LEFT GROUPS IS PREPARING TO OPPOSE THE ANNUAL CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALIST MARCH IN LONDON ~ Blade Runner ~ This Saturday, 6 September, the annual anti-abortion March for Life UK will once again take place in central London. The event began in Birmingham in 2013, moved to London in 2018, and now attracts thousands. It is backed by US-linked groups such as ADF UK—the British arm of the US-based rightwing hate group Alliance Defending Freedom—which in 2024 spent over £1 million on legal cases and lobbying. March for Life is part of an international Christian fundamentalist project that grew in confidence after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the US, and is increasingly tied to the wider far right in Britain. A coalition of feminist, migrant, and left groups is organising a joyful counter-demo. We asked one of the organisers four quick questions. What is happening? “March for Life is part of a global and organised attempt to change the political environment to become more right-wing and socially conservative, which we have seen the results of around the world. The campaign to end abortion in the US took many years, but now they have achieved their goal of obstructing access to abortion in America, and that funding is now freed up to focus on other countries, including the UK.    “Each year, they organise a big anti-abortion political church service in the Emmanuel Centre followed by a conference and then march to Parliament Square, where they have a stage with Christian rock bands, a huge sound system, and hate speeches. “March for Life is part of a broader far right, including anti-trans, pro-Israel, incel/alt-right, and anti-migrant ideas. In the US, they brought Trump to power; they are now trying to emulate this in the UK with Reform and neo-Nazi groups.   “We plan to hold a fun and joyful counter-demo with drumming, dancing, and generally making noise and having fun”.   Who is taking part? “The counter-demo is organised by feminist, migrant, and left groups, including Feminist Fightback, Feminist Assembly of Latin Americans (FALA), Brazil Matters, Razem, Anti-capitalist Resistance, RS21, Socialist Women’s Union (SKB), Young Struggle, and Hackney Anarchists.  “We have also been working with the wider antifascist movement, who will be supporting with their presence. We need as many numbers as possible on the counter-demo to keep one another safe, and we also think this is an important part of getting together as a broad movement to counter fascism in the coming year”.  What happened in the past?  “March for Life has been going on for several years. In the past, the demonstrators were made up of nuns and older people, but in the last two years, we have noticed more young people and alt-right streamers getting involved, spreading their hateful message online and across generations. This increases the threat to younger women, girls, and queer/trans people.  “Two years ago, it was pretty big, and we managed to block them. They were aggressive, violent, and scary, but we held our place. We performed ‘A Rapist in Your Path’, a Chilean feminist dance. The lyrics address the structural and state-based nature of sexual violence”.  Why is it important? “The movement is part of the dangerous, growing fascist coalition. In the UK, we are seeing an emboldened far-right, with St George’s crosses across towns and cities, and racist assaults against migrants on the rise. Mainstream fascists are expected to attend, in coalition with the fundamentalist Christians. It’s critical we hold our ground and stop them dictating the narrative.  “The narrative from the far right is about protecting children and even foetuses. However, patriarchal violence against women and children is endemic, and by bringing their kids along to March for Life, they are exposing them to the violence they perpetrate against migrants, queer people, and women, encouraging their kids to grow up and do the same”.  The post Countering the far-right ‘March for Life’ appeared first on Freedom News.