...A-TO-BPEACEMARCHBANNED AS UK JUNTACRACKSDOWN IN SHOW OF SOLIDARITYWITHBURMESEGOVERNMENT
“This is rather a ham-fisted attempt to prevent us from demonstrating. What they (the government and police) do is up to them. We will just ignore them and we have the moral and logical high-ground. I will be marching on Monday 8 October.” – Mark Thomas
Police forbid a march on the centre of government – Rangoon? Nope, London. While Gordon Brown reminds the world of our commitment to human rights and expresses his disgust at the treatment meted out to Burmese protestors, its a different story when it come to the overwrought mother of parliaments.
The previously studiously uncontroversial Stop the War Coalition has run up against the big protest clampdown. Their planned “Troops Out” march on October 8th from Trafalgar square to Parliament has been banned by the Met police. But they’re planning to march anyway.
Usually STWC conducts totally legal demonstrations and has not previously lent its support to illegal direct action. On this occasion they were in negotiation with the police for some weeks beforehand and by cunningly apparently getting round the Public Order and SOCPA legislation by fully complying with it, the march appeared to have the police go ahead. Their marches, which tend to be of the ‘go from a set A to B, hear Tony Benn’ affairs, have been sanctioned and facilitated before by the police – in a marked contrast to heavy handed treatment of unauthorised events such as Sack Parliament (see SchNEWS 564). Pundits used to the Met’s usual attitude to protests were left slack-jawed at the minimal policing in evidence on the massive march in Feb 2003. In fact discussions between the organisers and the police included plans to neutralise anarchist elements, such as samba group Rhythms of Resistance.
However, last Friday in a room at New Scotland Yard, in a meeting with events co-ordinator Inspector Stuart Cornish – claiming to be acting on a “steer from upstairs”, he informed them that the march would not be allowed within one mile of parliament. In return the organisers were offered a static demo – and to their credit they walked out of the meeting.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
To achieve this the cops dusted off the the 1839 Sessional Orders legislation, which allows the granting of orders to allow the free passage of MPs and peers into Parliament. The Act “ORDERED, That the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis do take care that the passages through the streets leading to this House be kept free and open and that no obstruction be permitted to hinder the passage of Members to and from this House”. When this act was passed the greatest threat to the state was Chartism, a riotous movement demanding democratic freedom. What next? Public gatherings broken up under the ‘Corn Laws‘? The return of the ducking stool?
The Sessional orders do not actually confer any extra powers on the police, being merely a formal expression of parliament’s wishes. Those wishes being of course being that the people should in no way attempt to interfere with the business of their masters. But it is anticipated that police will make arrests under the usual Do What You’re Told Act if any attempt is made to breach the cordon around parliament.
...A-TO-B PEACE MARCH BANNED AS UK JUNTA CRACKS DOWN IN SHOW OF SOLIDARITY WITH BURMESE GOVERNMENT
“This is rather a ham-fisted attempt to prevent us from demonstrating. What they (the government and police) do is up to them. We will just ignore them and we have the moral and logical high-ground. I will be marching on Monday 8 October.” – Mark Thomas
Police forbid a march on the centre of government – Rangoon? Nope, London. While Gordon Brown reminds the world of our commitment to human rights and expresses his disgust at the treatment meted out to Burmese protestors, its a different story when it come to the overwrought mother of parliaments.
The previously studiously uncontroversial Stop the War Coalition has run up against the big protest clampdown. Their planned “Troops Out” march on October 8th from Trafalgar square to Parliament has been banned by the Met police. But they’re planning to march anyway.
Usually STWC conducts totally legal demonstrations and has not previously lent its support to illegal direct action. On this occasion they were in negotiation with the police for some weeks beforehand and by cunningly apparently getting round the Public Order and SOCPA legislation by fully complying with it, the march appeared to have the police go ahead. Their marches, which tend to be of the ‘go from a set A to B, hear Tony Benn’ affairs, have been sanctioned and facilitated before by the police – in a marked contrast to heavy handed treatment of unauthorised events such as Sack Parliament (see SchNEWS 564). Pundits used to the Met’s usual attitude to protests were left slack-jawed at the minimal policing in evidence on the massive march in Feb 2003. In fact discussions between the organisers and the police included plans to neutralise anarchist elements, such as samba group Rhythms of Resistance.
However, last Friday in a room at New Scotland Yard, in a meeting with events co-ordinator Inspector Stuart Cornish – claiming to be acting on a “steer from upstairs”, he informed them that the march would not be allowed within one mile of parliament. In return the organisers were offered a static demo – and to their credit they walked out of the meeting.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
To achieve this the cops dusted off the the 1839 Sessional Orders legislation, which allows the granting of orders to allow the free passage of MPs and peers into Parliament. The Act “ORDERED, That the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis do take care that the passages through the streets leading to this House be kept free and open and that no obstruction be permitted to hinder the passage of Members to and from this House”. When this act was passed the greatest threat to the state was Chartism, a riotous movement demanding democratic freedom. What next? Public gatherings broken up under the ‘Corn Laws‘? The return of the ducking stool?
The Sessional orders do not actually confer any extra powers on the police, being merely a formal expression of parliament’s wishes. Those wishes being of course being that the people should in no way attempt to interfere with the business of their masters. But it is anticipated that police will make arrests under the usual Do What You’re Told Act if any attempt is made to breach the cordon around parliament.