The 25th anniversary meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in the Kyrgyz capital may offer a glimmer of hope that international relations do not need to be defined by endless confrontation, writes KENNY COYLE
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Policing Bill: picketing in the crosshairs
As well as cracking down on protest generally, the right to picket a workplace effectively during a strike is clearly targetted by this new draconian legislation, explains LORD JOHN HENDY QC
The right to picket to peacefully persuade people not to work in an industrial dispute has been a statutory right since 1875 — the Bill will cut down that right
The artist, who has just died, is embedded in the subconscious of the Palestinian people
The five young men killed in the A66 crash were responsible for a devastating tragedy — but the crash should force us to ask difficult questions about wider society, argues RENATA MEDEIROS MIRRA
The unwillingness of the British political elite to acknowledge that we are on the edge of a direct conflict with Russia leaves the peace movement with an urgent and onerous task
Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights general secretary GAWAIN LITTLE discusses the impact of the US-Israeli war on the Iranian people and economy
Capitalism has extracted itself from crisis before, argues PRABHAT PATNAIK – but through methods no longer available. So it is turning to authoritarianism, militarism and neocolonialism
AS READERS will know this dreadful Bill is back in the House of Lords today. Most of its 290 pages have been debated. Few improvements have so far been achieved. Today, it is the attack on the freedom to protest which is up for debate.
This obviously concerns everyone who believes that freedom to protest peacefully is a fundamental aspect of democracy. I want to draw the attention of trade unionists to the vicious attack in the Bill directed at them.
Let’s leave aside the introduction of a new statutory offence of public nuisance with a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. And ignore the new offence of “attaching” oneself (by glue, by clasping hands? — the word is undefined). Let’s not mention the new police right to stop and search someone without having any reason. Let’s focus on the right to picket.
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