Freedom News

New court support group, Activist Court Aid Brigade, forms after closure of LDMG

LDMG is dead, long live ACAB! The demise of the Legal Defence Monitoring Group (LDMG) – the country’s longest standing defendant support organisation – left a conspicuous hole in the activist legal support apparatus that emerged from the anti poll tax campaign, Climate Camp and the 2010 student protests. While GBC and other Netpol affiliated

Obituary: Legal Defence And Monitoring Group

Sadly the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group collective has decided to dissolve. It is difficult to overestimate how very much needed and appreciated LDMG was. Founded in 1995, its members provided legal advice to hundreds of activists over the last 24 years. They monitored police behaviour and kept track of our court cases. They gave support

Pre-charge bail: Reforms you need to know about

Anarchists are fabled for getting into direct action-related scrapes with the law, and although the reputation is often undeserved anarchist groups such as Green and Black Cross do keep a close eye on legal matters. In this article, Dennis Coles looks at major changes to pre-trial detention policy. Recently we were presented with one of

Dover sentencing and anti-fascist organising

The Dover demonstration in January was the most violent anti-fascist action in Britain for many years. 70 people have been arrested and more are being searched for. See appeals on Kent Police site for details. So far there have been 15 concluded cases. 10 people have received custodial sentences totalling 209 months. 7 People have

Avoiding Police Facilitation – promoting state unsanctioned protests

Police forces are big fans of peaceful protests. That is, protests that are led by organisers who do what they’re told, who stick to a pre agreed route and work with police liaison officers to identify those engaging in behaviour deemed unacceptable by the state. Needless to say the police version of protests are only

Silhan Ozcelik’s imprisonment is another vicious example of today’s counter-insurgency

Silhan Ozcelik, an eighteen-year-old Kurdish woman from London, was sentenced to 21 months at the Old Bailey two days ago. Silhan’s conviction is the first in the UK against someone for attempting to fight alongside Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The verdict comes within the wave of patriotism engulfing Europe after the Paris attacks on 13th