On Saturday 27 June, police surrounded and harassed a number of people in Newcastle’s West End. They had planned to hold an anti-racist speak-out until, using Section 14 of the Public Order Act, the police banned Black Lives Matter (BLM), Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and other anti-racist groups from demonstrating anywhere in the city, save for a single out-of-the-way location.
When the participants attempted to negotiate an alternative, the police told them that they could: 1) remain – and be taken into custody for failing to disperse; 2) leave – and be taken into custody for dispersing against the police’s wishes; or 3) enter police custody ‘voluntarily’ and be chauffeured away in the back of their vans. Three people were arrested whilst peacefully attempting to disperse.
For three consecutive weeks, Northumbria Police had proscribed anti-racist demonstrations in Newcastle. On 13 June, BLM protesters were banned from leaving the city centre to march to the West End, a racially diverse area of Newcastle; on 20 June all demonstrations were banned at Grey’s Monument in the city centre; and on 27 June an effective ban was placed on all anti-racist mobilisations on that day. During this period, at least five anti-racist activists have been arrested: two in relation to 13 June, when fascists showered a peaceful protest with glass bottles and racist abuse; the others in relation to the planned event in the West End on 27 June.
One of those arrested was released without charge. The other four were released with strict bail conditions, including not being allowed to enter the city centre or West End on a Friday or Saturday, or be in any public gathering of more than six people – whether this was a protest or not. Two FRFI supporters have been charged in relation to 27 June and are due to appear in court on 6 October, with a trial potentially taking place in January 2021. They would have been severely restricted from taking part in political activity and going about their daily lives for over six months. However, on 10 July it took two magistrates just five minutes to decide the bail conditions were completely over the top and unnecessary. The other two, who at present have not been charged with anything, remain subject to the draconian conditions.
Although Northumbria Police Commissioner Kim McGuinness urged BLM protesters not to take to the streets to protect health during the pandemic, the police themselves have not used coronavirus legislation; instead claiming that bans on demonstrating aim to prevent ‘serious public disorder’ between anti-racists and the far right. In essence, they are using the actions and threatened actions of racists as an excuse to crack down on protests against police racism. This is political policing.
FRFI supporters and other anti-racist activists have launched an Anti-Racism Protest Defence Campaign. Its central demands are all charges to be dropped with no further action taken against those arrested; an immediate end to police harassment of anti-racist protesters, and an end to Northumbria Police’s use of proscriptions under the Public Order Act to ban anti-racist events.
The campaign is taking to the streets with a programme of political activity, which includes solidarity contingents accompanying those summoned to police interview, local street stalls and community door knocks, open organising meetings online, open-mic street meetings and speak-out events. The campaign is defending public political space by using it and defending democratic rights by exercising them. Support has been received from many people involved in anti-racist, housing and LGBT rights solidarity in Newcastle, and local organisations the Migration & Asylum Justice Forum and the tenants’ union ACORN have issued statements condemning the police’s political targeting of protesters. The campaign aims to become a rallying point for all serious progressive groups and individuals in the city, representing the fundamental interests of anyone who would raise their voice and organise against injustice.
The British state is alarmed by events in the US – and by the movement it has inspired here, its extraordinary energy and creative potential. We know that the police in Newcastle, like elsewhere, hope to contain protests in secluded city squares – away from where people live and work – so that this new movement, starved of fresh support, will wither on the vine. That is why Northumbria Police has sought to prevent marches entering the West End of Newcastle; that is why they harass and intimidate suspected organisers, seeking to dissuade and scare them away from open political activity; that is why a rumour mill is working to try to divide ‘respectable’ campaigners from those who take to the streets.
The Defence Campaign understands that the police actions indicate the strength of the growing anti-racist movement, not its weakness. And if by targeting FRFI supporters, the police hoped to isolate the communists from the wider movement, then they have failed utterly. We urge all our readers and supporters to get behind the Defence Campaign in Newcastle. Together we will win!
To receive campaign updates email: [email protected] or go to Facebook: Anti Racism Protest Defence Campaign – North East.
Patrick Casey
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 277 August/September 2020
