Labour conference to see mass protests over Palestine Action ban

Over 100 ordinary citizens will risk arrest under terrorism laws outside the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. On the opening day of the conference this Sunday, protesters will peacefully hold signs saying “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.

Labour Party conference: Palestine Action protests

The ban on Palestine Action is hugely unpopular with Labour members. 71% have said they oppose the ban. Trade Unions also oppose it. At its annual conference earlier this month, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) voted unanimously to reverse the ban.

When Jack Straw brought in the Terrorism Act 2000, he assured the House of Commons that it would never be used against a protest group.

Many Labour lords and MPs feel the government has misled them. Labour backbencher Kim Johnson called on ministers to rethink the “authoritarian attack of the right to protest” which she branded “unsustainable and unworkable”. The New York Times has published the intelligence services assessment on Palestine Action. The document undermines the government’s claims that the group poses a danger to the public. Lawyers have accused former home secretary Yvette Cooper of conducting “a cynical media campaign”.

Despite the evident hunger to discuss the genocide in Gaza, the Labour government’s complicity and their ban on a domestic nonviolent protest group, party officials have ruled out all 30 motions on Palestine submitted by local branches.

Defend Our Juries protesters to face arrest at Labour’s conference

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said:

Labour members and trades unions are against their party’s complicity in genocide and the ban on Palestine Action. Yet party officials have shut down all the debates that members wanted to have on these issues during their conference.

Defend Our Juries will bring the ‘Lift The Ban’ campaign to the door of the party that continues to deny genocide and has banned the direct action group that was trying to prevent it.

The action will pose a dilemma for the Merseyside Police: prioritise human rights and community relations like Police Scotland and other forces around the UK, or trample over fundamental rights to protest and free expression like the Met Police by arresting over 100 peaceful sign-holders under this ridiculous ban.

Labour has reneged on Jack Straw’s promise that the Terrorism Act he introduced would never be used against a domestic protest group. Unless the law is redrawn and the ban overturned, any group that this government or a future government does not like could be treated as terrorists. This ban cannot and will not stand.

The government has misled the public and MPs about why Palestine Action was proscribed. Instead of shutting down protest, it’s time the Labour Party took the responsibility to prevent genocide seriously and impose blanket sanctions on Israel including stopping the flow of arms from factories in this country.

Keir Starmer says he will ‘jealously and fiercely’ protect free speech – a bit rich

Last week the UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Yet the Labour government continues to say that:

any formal determination as to whether genocide has occurred should be made following a judgment by a competent national or international court.

The UN report rejects this position, noting that:

Since at least January 2024, when the International Court of Justice ordered its first provisional measures, all states… have been on notice of a serious risk that genocide was being or would be committed.

The UK government has therefore been negligent of its obligations under the Geneva Convention to prevent and punish genocide.

Despite recent mass arrests of over 1,600 people for peacefully holding cardboard signs, and scenes of an 83 year old Anglican priest being led into a police van, prime minister Keir Starmer, in his recent press conference with US president Donald Trump, said:

free speech, it’s one of the founding values of the United Kingdom and we protect it jealously and fiercely and always will.

Featured image via the Canary