Yesterday evening officers from the Met’s infamous Territorial Support Group shut down a protest called in memory of Mohamud Mohammed Hassan, a 24 year old black man who died following police contact in Cardiff last Saturday. Using powers granted to them by the Health Protection regulations, officers moved quickly to disperse the assembly, issuing spot
Tag: coronavirus
Legal: Do the new coronavirus restrictions make protests illegal?
Update 16/09/20 – Shortly after the article below was published, the government reduced the maximum size of (most) legal gatherings from 30 to 6. Nonetheless, the guidance it offers remains sound (so long as you remember to replace all references to “more than 30 people” with “more than 6”). That said, anyone seeking information on
Your perceptions are wrong
“That’s just your perception” is a phrase I heard a lot as a trade union activist.
Don’t Despair, Organise! An introduction to the (yet-unnamed) confederation of Solidarity Funds
The following text was contributed to Freedom by a person involved in Goose Green Solidarity Fund: a newly formed organisation for people who live in SE22 and are struggling financially as a result of COVID-19. What is a solidarity fund? It’s a pot of money that in our case comes from the community and sometimes
‘Something has changed in the power dynamic’: interviews with anarchists from Minneapolis and NYC
On 25 May George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This immediately resulted in protests on the streets in half a dozen cities in the United States. By the end of that week, every city in the United States – and many around the world – saw vocal, determined, well-attended demonstrations to make
Notes from the US
Freedom’s long-running US correspondent Louis Further does his monthly roundup of some of the lesser-known stories that have emerged over the last few weeks. There are two significant ongoing series of events in the United States this last month, of course. The still-spreading and still as deadly as ever Covid-19 with its deniers. And the
Experience: the police do not care about protecting arrestees from coronavirus
Below is an account of someone arrested on a Black Lives Matter demonstration in London on their experiences in police custody. I just wanted to share my experience of how the police are not taking the pandemic seriously and seem to be intentionally denying arrestees the right to use precautions against coronavirus. This won’t be
Reflections on the incompetence of the Johnson government
Being ideologically opposed to government, or the very least top-down imposed upon us government, we can sometimes just criticise government action on that ideological line. It shouldn’t exist so what it does is wrong. The pandemic though is helping us see things in a different light. It was anarchists who led the way in terms
In the age of Corona anti-fascists need factual analysis, not meme research
By now most people will have seen, and probably participated in, the outrage at the anti-lockdown ‘mass gatherings’ that are set to have taken place today in 8 towns and cities across England. The gatherings have been promoted by the UK Freedom Movement, a group of anti vaccine conspiracy theorists who have existed online in
The gamble with workers’ lives
The Government has released new guidelines and new procedures regarding lockdown in recent days. As I am sure you are all aware, many workers, especially those who are in manufacturing and construction are being encouraged to return to work. This comes alongside demands of “attempting to avoid public transport” and that business’ will be “COVID