PEACE campaigners vowed to “break the climate of fear” fed by intensified police repression in a weekend rally to defend protest rights.
Hundreds gathered in Bethnal Green’s Atrium to discuss the Metropolitan Police’s mass detentions of marchers, including the violent arrest of chief steward Chris Nineham, at a Palestine solidarity demonstration on January 18, and the subsequent decision to charge Mr Nineham, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal and others with public order offences.
Mr Jamal said the policing that day was “an escalation of repression by the state against our movement.
The Morning Star here publishes a speech that would have been given by Stop the War officer and longtime NEU and NUT activist Alex Kenny on the eve of the verdicts handed to Chris Nineham and Ben Jamal this week. He also explains why he couldn’t give it
Trade unionists must raise our voices not only for justice and against occupation, but also to protect our fundamental right to protest, writes LOUISE REGAN, ahead of a not-to-be-missed PSC conference



