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.

POLICING WAS HIGHLY POLITICAL, FOCUSING ALMOST ENTIRELY ON CONTAINING OPPOSITION TO THE FAR RIGHT ~ Scott Harris ~ Saturday 15 November saw another humiliation for the far-right “Bristol Patriots” in the face of overwhelming anti-fascist opposition Their demonstration was aimed at the Mercure hotel in the Redcliffe area of the city, which houses asylum seekers and had been the target of attempted attacks during the anti-immigration riots in August 2024. Despite inviting a range of other groups in a bid to swell their numbers, including UKIP’s Nick Tenconi, Bristol Patriots only managed to draw between 40 and 75 supporters and were opposed by approximately 400 lively anti-fascists. The police battled to contain roaming groups of anti-fascists seeking to engage in full and frank debate with the assorted fascists, conspiracists, and allegedly apolitical ‘concerned citizens’, while others stood, chanted and played music at the doors of the hotel in solidarity with the people housed inside. In one particularly touching moment, one of the younger residents held up a sign to the window reading: “Thank you for protecting us, we love you”. Police reported one police officer going to hospital for minor injuries from a scuffle, but did not mentioning a number of significant injuries – including head injuries – to anti-fascist activists from the blows of police batons. Inevitably, policing was highly political, focusing almost all their energies on containing anti-fascists, ending up making several arrests. Meanwhile, Bristol Patriots let off flares and various far-right streamers were allowed to bravely shout abuse at antifas from behind the safety of police lines. Bristol has become a target for far-right activity recently, with repeated efforts to encroach on ‘enemy territory’. This has been aggravated by a recent case in which a number of brown men in Bristol have been arrested on child sexual exploitation charges. Large numbers of Union Flags and St George’s Crosses have been attached to lamp-posts in working class, white-majority neighbourhoods, such as Withywood, Hartcliffe and Lawrence Weston. These areas are being targeted after decades of state neglect and stigma have led residents to feel rightly angered by a status quo that only works for the rich and powerful. According to participants, anti-fascists may have won the battle in Redcliffe and so far all recent demonstrations, but a much bigger war needs to be fought for hearts and minds across the city, to ensure that the far-right don’t become the de facto anti-establishment voices in some neighbourhoods. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Top photo: Fields of Light Photography. We apologise for the previous lack of credit. The post Antifascists humiliate “Bristol Patriots” appeared first on Freedom News.

ON SATURDAY 8 MARCH—INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY—TWO MAJOR DEMONSTRATIONS TOOK PLACE IN DOWNTOWN LONDON  ~ Blade Runner ~ A coalition of grassroots feminist and supporting organisations called for an International Women’s Strike, gathering at Gandalf’s Corner in Regent’s Park.  A colourful and vibrant crowd numbering in the low thousands marched chanting through Marylebone, bringing traffic to a standstill at Oxford Circus before concluding at Piccadilly Circus.  The march received (generally) positive reactions from drivers and bystanders and the Piccadilly Circus rally featured speeches from sex and care worker groups. At the same time, a mainstream demonstration supported by the unions featured thousands gathering off at Oxford Street before marching to Trafalgar Square, shutting down major streets for the Million Women Rise march. The grassroots coalition issued a call to “strike to honour all those who are oppressed and martyred to keep the wheels of capitalism, imperialism, racism, and the patriarchal war machine running”. “We strike because we know that the state does not take care of us—we take care of us!”, said the call. The callout also highlighted troubling statistics, including the fact that a woman is killed every three days in the UK, and the continuous attacks on trans rights as well as the Labour government’s escalating persecution of migrants. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Photos: Shiri Shalmy, Blade Runner The post In pictures: International Women’s Day in London appeared first on Freedom News.