Peaceful protest under threat

Our authoritarian government, along with other governments around the world, is silencing dissenters and activists, demonising their lawyers and restricting jury trials. We are finding it harder and far more risky to organise protests and speak out. 

In the UK, successive governments have introduced laws which criminalise protesters and their methods and give new powers to the police to restrict or cancel demonstrations.

According to Section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023 it is a criminal offence in England and Wales “to intentionally or recklessly interfere with the use or operation of key national infrastructure”. This act was introduced to target specific groups of climate protesters such as Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, and Insulate Britain. 

Seven Just Stop Oil supporters, who appeared at Southwark Crown Court before Judge Tomlinson earlier this month, were part of a group of 50 supporters who joined a slow march around the IMAX roundabout before heading north over London’s Waterloo Bridge in November 2023. The seven represented themselves in court. If found guilty, the defendants could have been sentenced to a maximum penalty of 12 months imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both. The jury was out for about seven hours and then announced a not guilty verdict. This was the second time members of the group who took part in the slow march were found not guilty. One of the defendants, Cate Nisbet, a scientist and music journalist from Leeds, said: “What utter madness given what we know about the climate crisis to prosecute peaceful climate activists for a minimally disruptive slow march. Thankfully sanity has prevailed.”

As our right to protest is restricted, the restrictions on jurors and the severity of punishments increase. 

This trial was a reminder of a number of significant issues. One of these is the importance of trial by jury which the Labour government is planning to restrict under the Courts and Tribunals Bill 2026. For centuries juries have had a role in protecting protesters from government control, and much of the recent legislation is aimed at cases of this kind. There has also been an increasing number of instances where defendants have been forbidden to speak about their principles and the causes they have been fighting for. This means that juries are hindered when it comes to reaching a verdict guided by their conscience. In the famous 1670 Bushel’s Case jurors preferred to be locked up and face starvation rations than to have this right taken from them.

But environmental protestors are in prison and, increasingly so, are those who protest against the genocide in Gaza. A recent report in the Ecologist, Britain’s Political Prisoners, co-published by researchers at the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice at Queen Mary University of London and Defend Our Juries, identified 286 climate and Palestinian solidarity activists jailed since 2019.

The Ecologist report discusses evidence which shows how the new authoritarian measures have been supported by certain industries and political interests. Prominent among these are the British-Israeli arms industry and the fossil fuel industry. Moreover, the report reveals that Elbit Systems and the Israeli government have put pressure on the British government to treat protesters more harshly.

Terrorism laws have become increasingly harsh since the millennium and the recent proscription of Palestine Action and the arrests of their supporters who sit down peacefully holding cardboard notices would have been unthinkable even a few years ago. There is also an alarming increase in the use of remand, where many non-violent protestors await trial in our overcrowded prisons for months, supposedly innocent until found guilty.

As Tim Crosland, from Defend Our Juries, pointed out: “This report strips away the illusion that Britain remains committed to democratic principles. It reveals that peaceful protestors are being jailed in ever increasing numbers, under pressure from the oil and arms industries, the Israeli government and their lobbyists.

“Most shocking of all is the finding concerning the use of remand. In the majority of cases, final sentences are more lenient than time already spent in custody before people have been convicted of anything. It would be dishonest to present this as anything other than punishment without trial.”

Possibly more egregious than these attacks on the rights of protestors are attacks on the lawyers who defend them. No barrister in British legal history has ever faced contempt proceedings over the content of a closing speech. Until now. Rajiv Menon now faces up to two years in prison for words that barristers have recited in court for centuries. His alleged contempt was because he reminded the jury of their right to acquit according to their conscience even when the judge directs them otherwise.

This has all the hallmarks of a government attack on the independence of the legal system when it does not get its own way. If they can jail a leading defence barrister for doing his job the whole justice system is under threat. Sign this petition from Save Our Juries if you agree.

While we celebrate the fact that the Just Stop Oil activists were found not guilty, they should never have been tried in the first place. And the increasing attacks on our liberty, when it comes to protesting on the streets, the independence of the judiciary, taking non-violent direct action and speaking out against injustice, genocide and the vested interests of global capitalism, have never been more threatening.