No to the Criminalisation of Dissent! Oppose Police Brutality!

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Bush’s Visit to London:
No to the Criminalisation of Dissent! Oppose Police Brutality!

Over 2,500 people protested in Parliament Square on June 15 in defiant opposition to George Bush's visit to London. The demonstration represented the stand that the US president be held accountable for the atrocities of war crimes and crimes against humanity that US imperialism and its armed forces have committed across the world. People also were taking a stand against the "anti-terror" laws that have been introduced undermining the population’s civil liberties and which are an assault on the rights and freedoms of the people, an attack on the rights of all. In fact, this enshrinement of arbitrary state power was highlighted as police banned the march down Whitehall past Downing Street, where Gordon Brown was hosting the US President, from going ahead.

The pretext that demonstrators would be more likely to carry explosives was made to suggest that it was the protesters who intended violence. The decision to close Whitehall and deny the people their right to protest was taken under the pretext of maintaining Bush's safety under pressure from US security. However, no attempt to uphold demonstrator safety was made as the police wielded batons and antagonised protesters using tactics of intimidation to try and provoke a fight.

The rally in Parliament Square went ahead in defiance of the original ban, in opposition to the attempts to criminalise dissent, and to demand that war criminals be held accountable for their crimes against humanity and that Bush and Blair be brought to justice.

The brutality of the police as they blocked Whitehall and laid into the protesters is an indication of the fear felt towards the people marching to uphold justice in the face of the shameful stance of Gordon Brown. New Labour has been systematically giving legislative force to the destruction of civil liberties. Now the present Prime Minister has signalled an escalation in the violence of the state in the name of protecting a foreign president guilty of genocide and in the name of justifying his part in it, against the will of the British people.  The people cannot accept and are not accepting this criminalisation of dissent. Saturday’s events underline that the people must strengthen their own organisation and tactics in the face of increased state repression and police brutality, which is going hand in hand with the attempts to brand sections of the people as a threat to the "British way of life". The anti-war movement, and the people as a whole, especially the youth, must further organise to build a programme of action to bring into being an anti-war government which will bring into being a new world and defend the rights of all and outlaw the use of force to impose the will of the ruling elite at home and abroad.

Eye-witness impressions of the police brutality

The way the police behaved, and the determination of the state to stop the demonstration to oppose war criminal Bush and wars of aggression, seems like a deliberate move on behalf of the state to use repression and violence against the people to back up the draconian laws which attack civil liberties. The claim by the police that all had been negotiated beforehand with the Stop the War Coalition was not true. It was not the demonstrators who were "criminal and irresponsible". People are very angry, and the sheer brutality of the police, armed with telescopic truncheons and metal batons, came as a shock to some people. Then riot police were brought in to carry out even more violence. A Spanish woman among the protesters was saying that it wasn’t as bad as this under Franco, because now the government here has made it legal for the police to act in this way with impunity. It seems that of 25 people arrested, the police have only been able to charge three.

The police tactics of just arresting anyone were clear. And the demonstrators who suffered most damage from the brutality were those who were pushed against the police barriers, turned their backs, and were then hit by the police. It really seemed like a planned confrontation, with riot police at the ready and masses of police. No one seemed to know those in the crowd who appeared not to be political but to provide a spark for the police to launch their attack.

Then, as people were leaving the demonstration and packing up, snatch squads of police were sent into the crowd and started taking people off. Then the police penned people in the Square with their vans and mounted police, and were isolating people from each other. As people were taking their banners away from the Square, the police were grabbing them under the pretext that the demonstration "was confined to Parliament Square".

All this shows who was intent on violence. The claims of the Metropolitan police that "the acts that we have witnessed are deplorable and cannot be described as a lawful demonstration" are aimed at justifying that the police in future will act with impunity and that the government will further act to criminalise dissent. We, the people who have justice on our side and declare how despicable are the crimes of Bush, Blair and Brown, will have to sum up this experience in advancing the work of the anti-war movement.

Accounts from protesters as reported by the Daily Mail

David Jamieson, 21, a student at the University of Strathclyde, was bloodied after being beaten four times around the head as he was pushed into police.

Mr Jamieson, who had travelled from Scotland for the day with two other Stop The War Coalition campaigners-Bryan Simpson, 19, and Jonathan Shafi, 22 - said the level of police violence was 'completely unjustified'.

He said: 'I was pushed towards the police line, and as I tried to get back I was beaten repeatedly on my back and the back of my head. My back was turned and I was hit three or four times.

'We did not think that the moment a few sticks came over the police would pull out solid aluminium rods.

'I was here for a peaceful protest - this was our chance to show George Bush how despicable his war crimes are. They are blood hungry- it was absolutely unprovoked.'

Protester Suzanna Wylie, 29, was left bleeding from a head injury after being hit by a baton.

Anti-war protesters clash with police officers while trying to march down Whitehall

She said: 'If they let us demonstrate, there would have been none of this.'

Mounted and riot police later divided the protesters between two fronts: one on Great George Street and the other at the mouth of Whitehall.

'Snatch squads' then patrolled the area, arresting people who had earlier been filmed by officers and highlighted as troublemakers.

One 17-year-old girl was detained on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. Her friends said she has her A-levels next week.