the Disillusioned kid: You Are Free To Do What We Tell You
| Email | Home | Linkage | Profile |

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

You Are Free To Do What We Tell You

According to the Scotsman more than 600 people were detained under the Terrorism Act during last week's Labour Party Conference in Brighton (and this at the "friendliest" conference in Europe!). It seems to me that there are two possible conclusions which can be drawn from this: (1) There are an awful lot of people who not only want to kill Tony Blair, but are actually prepared to back up their convictions with action; (2) The Act is being used against people who don't quite confrom to the generally accepted definition of a terrorist. Obviously I wouldn't want to jump to conclusions, but the fact that "anti-Iraq war protesters, anti-Blairite OAPs and conference delegates" (including the infamously man-handled heckler Walter Wolfgang) were among those detained suggests the latter may be closer to the truth.

Unfortunately, as Dan notes, the use of anti-terrorism powers in this manner isn't without precedent. In 2003 protesters against the Dsei arms fair were also the targets of searches under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act. In fact there are a whole host of examples of such legislative creep, as George Monbiot explained in the Grauniad yesterday:
All politicians who seek to justify repressive legislation claim that they are responding to an unprecedented threat to public order. And all politicians who cite such a threat draft measures in response which can just as easily be used against democratic protest. No act has been passed over the past 20 years with the aim of preventing antisocial behaviour, disorderly conduct, trespass, harassment and terrorism that has not also been deployed to criminalise a peaceful public engagement in politics.
Examples include the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, the Protection from Harrrasment Act 1997 and the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 1995. As if that isn't enough the Vagrancy Act 1824 and the Justices of the Peace Act 1361 have also been used against people who make the mistake of dissenting from the status quo. Is anyone naive enough to think that the proposed counter terrorism bill will be any different?

Side Projects

Carnival of Anarchy
The Peace Pipe
UK Watch Blog

Acquaintances

Against the Current
Atopian.org
Culture hits and gendered bits
Daniel Randall
In The Water
Mike Wood
On The Barricades
Pizarro's Sword
Space Cat Rocket Ship
Surveillant Assemblage
TashCamUK FotoPage
The Naked Lunch
The Peace Pipe
The World of the Dynamite Lady

Strangers

Anarchoblogs
Antiwar.com Blog
Arte & Lingua
Barker in Valencia
Blairwatch
Bloggerheads
Blood & Treasure
Bombs and Shields
Boomablog
Born at the Crest of the Empire
Chase me ladies...
Chicken Yoghurt
Craig Murray
Dead Men Left
Direland
Disreputable Lazy Aliens
Empire Notes
Europhobia
Friends of Al Jazeera
Global Guerillas
Guerillas in the Midst
I Blame the Patriachy
Informed Comment
Insultadarity
Janine Booth
Lenin's Tomb
Life of Riley Blog
Media Watch Watch
Neil Shakespeare
NO2ID NewsBlog
One Hump or Two?
Otto's Random Thoughts
Perfect.co.uk
Pitch In For Uzbekistan
Registan.net
Run over by the truth
Solidarity With Iraqi Workers
Shut Up You Fat Whiner!
Sudan: Passion of the Present
Talk Politics
The Anthropik Network
The Daily (Maybe)
The Devil's Kitchen
The Disillusioned
The f-word
The Head Heeb
The Killing Train
The Revenge of Winston Smith
The Socialist Unity Blog
The Wicked Truth
Theory of Power
Things I Don't Have Time For
This (Fresh) Gringo
This Is My Truth
Thumping the Tub
Time The Dreaded Enemy
UK Watch Blog
UK Poli Blogs
underbrella
Under The Same Sun
Uzbekistan.neweurasia.net
What Fresh Hell Is This?
Where is Raed? (RIP)
Who Are You to Accuse Me?
Words and Rocks
Zeropointnine
Z-Net Blog

Neighbours

Asbo Community Space
Defy-ID
Eastside Climate Action
Faslane 365
Freecycle
Indymedia
No Borders
Nottingham Student Peace Movement
Refugee Forum
Stop the War
Sumac Centre
The Demo Project

Ivory Towers

Anarchist Studies Network
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Miscellania

Anarchist FAQ
Antiwar.com
Chagos Discussion List
Chagos Support Forums
Electronic Intifada
Future of Iraq Portal
Index of Political Blogs
Indymedia UK
Infoshop
Iraq Occupation Focus
Pledgebank
Refuser Solidarity Network
SchNEWS
Socialist Unity Network
The New Standard
UK Chagos Support Association
UK Watch
Weekly Worker
Wikipedia
WriteToThem.com
Z-Net

The Progressive Blog Alliance

Register here to join the PBA.