Throughout Sarah’s trial, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and the Defend SOAS 2 campaign organised daily protests outside the Old Bailey. FRFI supporters from London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Brighton, Nottingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow showed up to support our comrade. Other organisations, including the Spartacist League, Movement for Justice, Focus E15 housing campaign, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and the SOAS Liberated Zone, also attended to join us in calling out the British state’s targeting of young activists who stand on the side of the Palestinian people’s resistance.
From 10am to 5pm each day protesters maintained high energy despite the heatwave conditions. Each day we focused speeches on a specific part of the struggle against imperialism, such as racist policing, prison support and international solidarity. This was accompanied by teach-ins on the topics including the fight against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s, prison solidarity, the revolutionary history of Yemen and black struggles in Manchester.
We ran a democratic open mic on which individuals and representatives of organisations spoke in support of the SOAS 2 and against the repression of pro-Palestine activists such as the Filton 25, eight of whom were on trial in the Old Bailey at the same time as Sarah. On Friday 26 June we ran a joint protest for the Filton 25 and the SOAS 2.
Despite constant petty police harassment, our commitment and our solidarity didn’t waver. For several days the police, together with representatives of the Corporation of London, fussed over ‘street trading’ byelaws, alleged noise pollution and supposed obstruction of the pavement. On the Friday they arrested a protest attendee for the heinous crime of stickering. On the final day, and with 25 minutes until we were due to pack up, the police imposed a Public Order Act section 14 notice to the effect that we were prohibited from using sound amplification or musical instruments and that this included using ‘street furniture to generate sound’! This, of course, didn’t stop the protest from being loud as chanting continued without amplification!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
