On 27 March police raided a Youth Demand public meeting about Palestine at Westminster Quaker Meeting House, part of a 24-hour spree in which the police arrested nine people and raided the homes of activists across the country.
The meeting on Thursday was disrupted by 30 police officers who battered down the door then grabbed and arrested six activists on the spot, for alleged ‘conspiracy to cause a public nuisance’. Three other Youth Demand supporters were subsequently raided and arrested the following day. One of those arrested was attending their first Youth Demand meeting and another was a journalist.
This is the state of freedom of speech in Britain where merely organising a meeting opposing a government backed genocide is violently suppressed and shut down by the Labour Party government.
The meeting was due to discuss the genocide in Gaza and how people must organise to oppose the Labour Party’s continued support for Israel’s war crimes. In the last week the Israeli state has murdered hundreds of civilians, more than half of them children, using British government intelligence and military assistance.
The RCG and FRFI stand with Youth Demand against these arrests and all repressive measures carried out by the government against pro-Palestine activists.
The Labour Party continues to prove itself as an anti-working class, imperialist and racist party. Its support for Israel involves it directly in the genocide of Palestinian people. All supporters of justice and freedom of speech should support protesters facing police repression and oppose the British state’s criminalisation of protest.
We must take to the streets to defend our right to defend Palestine.
Youth Demand is organising a rally on Tuesday 1 April at 6.30 PM on Malet Street outside the Senate House Library. FRFI, the SOAS 2 Defence Campaign and other groups will be speaking at the rally.
