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More than 40 civil society groups including the TUC, Greenpeace and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have joined forces to oppose “dangerous” plans to increase police powers to ban protests in England and Wales.
They said an amendment in the crime and policing bill, which would require police to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated protests in the same area when imposing conditions on demonstrations, represented a “draconian crackdown on our rights to freedom of expression and assembly”.
In a joint statement, published on Monday, the groups, which also include Amnesty International UK, Liberty, Quakers in Britain and the National Education Union, said: “The size of an ‘area’ is not specified, and police are not required to take into account whether the protests are for the same cause or involve the same people.
“Although government statements make clear these powers have been brought forward in response to the mass national marches for Palestinian rights, the impact of this change of law would be wide-ranging.
“An anti-racist march could be blocked from Whitehall because of a previous farmers’ protest, or a pride march restricted because a far-right demonstration was recently held in the same town.”
When announcing the new police powers in October, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said repeated large-scale demonstrations over Gaza had caused “considerable fear” for the Jewish community after a deadly terror attack on a synagoge in Manchester.
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “Instead of addressing its responsibilities under international law [with respect to Israel’s actions in Gaza] and addressing the core demands of the protestors, which are supported according to opinion polls by a majority of the British public, successive governments have instead sought to repress protest through ever more draconian laws.
“The right to protest – including in solidarity with the Palestinian people or in opposition to the policies and actions of the British government – is a precious democratic principle that is under the gravest threat and must be defended.”
The joint statement, which was also signed by other trade unions, charities, NGOs, faith, climate justice, and human rights organisations, called on the government “to immediately drop its dangerous proposal”.
Lyle Barker, a policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: “The government must stop introducing new anti-protest powers until the review of current laws has taken place – and instead work to protect our basic human right to make our voices heard when those in power refuse to listen.”
The joint statement said the civil rights movement, the campaign for women’s suffrage and the movement against apartheid in South Africa all relied on the “cumulative impact” of repeated protests over many years. It added: “No protest movement has ever brought about change through a one-off demonstration.”
Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, said: “Restrictions on the right to protest are a major concern for the trade union movement in this country. With the far right on the rise in the UK and across the globe, we must be extra vigilant in defending basic human rights and democratic norms.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy, and it is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to demonstrate their views.
“These new powers will not ban protests, but they will help protect communities from repeated disruption while protecting the right to peaceful protest.”
