Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 20

DAY OF ACTION SATURDAY 15TH JANUARY ACROSS THE UK

You may have heard about the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Bill

You may have heard that it aims to criminalise the right to engage in peaceful, effective protest. It is designed to introduce harsher penalties for the Non Violent Direct Action (NVDA) tactics we have been using for years, in an attempt to stop them being used – because they work.

It is an overreach of political power that paves the way for dictatorship. If it had been in place at the time our foremothers protested at Greenham Common, those women could have been criminalised simply for gathering, before they even took action – much of which was proved to be within the law.

It is the act of gathering, protesting itself that is being attacked. It is a function of a healthy democracy that citizens are able to gather, to assemble, to associate and to protest. As active citizens, we must be able to do what we believe is right and necessary for our society. We must remember they work for us – we do not exist for them

Caroline Lucas of the Greens said, on Twitter,

It’s hard to exaggerate how dangerous the #PolicingBill is It gives the Home Sec powers to decide which protests can go ahead & which can’t. Peaceful protests could be criminalised for being too *noisy or disruptive* It puts us on the road to autocracy. We must defeat this bill

We are adding our voices to those challenging this.

You can too. Here’s how: