Northumbria police attack the right to protest
Since 7 October Northumbria Police have been targeting and arresting people for demonstrating in solidarity with Palestine. On 14 October, I and another FRFI supporter were arrested on spurious grounds of ‘leading an unauthorised procession’. We had draconian bail conditions imposed, barring us from the city centre, clearly attempting to stop us from exercising our right to protest for Palestine.
We challenged these as being disproportionate, and they were dropped by the magistrates for encroaching on our fundamental right to protest under articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act. I was later unlawfully arrested for breaching the bail conditions even though they had been lifted! After less than a month, Northumbria police dropped the charges due to lack of evidence. We will continue to exercise our right to protest for Palestine undeterred, despite police harassment, targeting, arrests and bail conditions. Northumbria Police reportedly have made at least seven arrests at Palestine protests since 7 October.
This is a continuation of long-standing repression of the right to protest by Northumbria Police and targeting of anti-imperialist activists. In 2013 seven FRFI supporters were among 14 anti-racists arrested under suspicion of ‘conspiracy to commit violent disorder’ for opposing an EDL march. This pretext was used to raid their homes, seize phones and computers, before the entirely spurious charges were dropped after ten weeks. In June 2020 Northumbria Police routinely banned BLM and anti-racist demonstrations, arrested activists and imposed similar draconian bail conditions precluding them from the city centre, again hobbling their right to protest. On 1 May 2021 Northumbria Police arrested 12 people at a Kill the Bill demo opposing new laws that further attack the right to protest.
We will be putting pressure on Kim McGuiness, the Labour Party Police and Crime Commissioner to ensure this repression of Palestine solidarity and the right to protest in Newcastle is stopped. We will continue to defend anyone faced with arrest and police repression for protesting in solidarity with Palestine.
GEORGE FITZHARRIS
Newcastle
Ecuador elections
On 15 October 2023 the centre-right Daniel Noboa, heir to a banana empire, won the second round of Ecuador’s presidential elections with 52% of the votes, while left-wing candidate Luisa Gonzalez took 48%. The election was triggered in May by former banker then-president Guillermo Lasso in efforts to escape his expected impeachment for embezzlement involving a state-owned oil transport company. Before he could be impeached, Lasso invoked the ‘cross-death mechanism’ which dissolved the national assembly and ended his presidency.
The election took place in front of a backdrop of growing inequality and a violent drug-war. In the past six years, after former President Lenin Moreno betrayed the Citizens Revolution and aligned Ecuador with US imperialism to the detriment of the working class in his election in 2017, Ecuador has had a string of right-wing presidents. Poverty is 17% higher than six years ago and economic recovery since the pandemic is the lowest in South America in terms of real income today. In the first six months of 2023 the Ecuadorian police reported 4,374 homicides, primarily as a result of the increasing presence of organised crime seeking to take advantage of the drug-trafficking routes through Ecuador.
Prior to the second round of voting, anti-corruption candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated after leaving an election rally in Quito. Villavicencio had been receiving protection from the National Police after reporting threats directed at his supporters from organised crime group Los Choneros a week before his murder.
Left presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez promised to confront poverty and crime by using $2.5bn from international reserves to support the struggling economy and reintroduce social spending on free medicine. She planned to continue the policies of the 2007-2017 Correa government, with additional efforts in public safety.
On the other hand, during his election campaign Noboa stated his aim was to suspend freedom of movement and deploy the military onto the streets. His running mate was right-wing business coach Veronica Abad, who has spoken of her hopes of privatising Ecuador’s health and education services. Prior to entering politics President Noboa worked for his multimillionaire, banana tycoon father’s company, where he built connections with ruling-class elites, including Lasso.
DESTINIE SANCHEZ
Manchester
From the river to the sea!
On 5 November, I was arrested at a Palestine solidarity demonstration in Calgary, Canada for shouting the phrase ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’ For uttering that call for freedom, I was charged with causing a disturbance for ‘shouting offensive anti-semitic comments’ and forbidden from attending or organising any protests. The charge was of course a spurious one, and was dropped less than two weeks later, but it reflects the desire of the Canadian state to crack down on solidarity with Palestine.
That they are targeting that chant in particular is telling; they want to stop people from pointing out the obvious fact that the Palestinian people are denied their freedom in the entirety of historic Palestine, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including in the land that comprises the state of Israel. They also fear the growing global movement in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle, which has taken the entire world, including the imperialist countries, by storm.
We must stand up for our right to say it: From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
WESAM KHALED
Canada
