UK
The state is cracking down on protests, from Just Stop Oil to the Palestine movement. Arthur Townend looks at the roots of authoritarianism and who is being targeted
Police at the last national demonstration for Palestine (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Arthur Townend
Monday 10 February 2025
SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2942
The shadow of authoritarianism hangs over Britain. The state has attacked climate activists, arrested those battling for Kurdish liberation—and is doing all it can to silence the Palestine movement.
On Saturday 18 January, the Met attacked the national Palestine demonstration. From the beginning, police set out to confuse, obstruct and intimidate protesters.
Their attempts failed as protesters got through police lines at the top of Whitehall. But police responded with repression and violence in an attempt to intimidate the movement off the streets.
They arrested 77 activists—including chief steward Chris Nineham of Stop The War (STW). Afterwards police charged Ben Jamal of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) with public order offences.
The state has often used force to repress opposition, but the shift to targeting organisers represents an intensification of repression that aims to create a chilling effect on protest.
This flows from a deeper crisis. Major pillars of the British establishment—from the mainstream political parties to the police and big business—face a crisis of legitimacy.
Keir Starmer won the general election, but is widely unpopular. Mainstream politics is being undercut by the far right.
This was a long-time in the making. Decades of neoliberalism deepened inequality and, for all the talk of “choice”, handed more power to unelected elites. Living standards are in free fall, and costs are spiralling upwards.
But the Palestine movement exposed our rulers’ hypocrisy on a vast scale. The same British politicians who paint themselves as upholders of freedom and democracy spent the past 15 months supporting Israel’ genocide in the face of overwhelming public support for a ceasefire.
The state has sought to find resolution to its crisis of legitimacy in the baton.
The French Marxist Ugo Palheta calls refers to this trend as “authoritarian hardening”. It shows how liberal capitalist states increase the scope of state power in response to crisis.
This opens the door to increased state repression and violence. But this targeting of protesters should not be seen as an aberration. In fact, repression is a default response of the state to crises.
Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin wrote that the state is the “manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms”.
By class antagonisms, he means simply that the ruling class has interests that are directly opposed to the interests of the working class majority. These antagonisms are inherent in every class society.
Under capitalism, these antagonisms are what drives struggles. For example, workers want higher wages, but bosses have an interest in paying as little as possible.
Palestine, police repression and the new authoritarianism: interview with Chris Nineham
Read More
The state is not a neutral body—it is an instrument of class rule. Struggle can force concessions from the state, such as a minimum wage, or a legal limit to the working day.
But fundamentally, the ruling class uses the capitalist state to defend its core interest—the continuation of capitalist profit-making.
Lenin then highlighted how the state recruits “special bodies of armed men”—such as the police—to stop those class antagonisms exploding.
When those antagonisms increase—as we are seeing with the Palestine movement—the state can use those repressive forces to repress that challenge.
The movement is about winning liberation for Palestinian people. But that’s a fundamental challenge to the interests of Western imperialism and the British state.
Equally, the repression of climate activists shows how the climate movement challenges the ruling class’s interest. It profits from fossil fuel use.
It sees climate catastrophe as a money-spinner. Climate action doesn’t just advocate for climate protection—it challenges the interest of the ruling class.
The current escalation of state repression is not simply a response to increasing protest. It is the response of a state, plagued by crisis, crushing mounting threats to the capitalist class.
Crucially, it highlights that the battles we fight are interlinked, connected in how they challenge the whole, rotten system.
How corporations and the right demand criminalisation
There are subversive figures influencing the state’s crackdown.
In 2019, Policy Exchange released a paper called Extremism Rebellion, demand that climate group Extinction Rebellion (XR) be silenced.
The report said that the state’s response to XR “must be far more proactive”.
The state has indeed been more “proactive”.
In July last year, five Just Stop Oil supporters including founder Roger Hallam were sentenced to prison for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”. What is the most draconian is that they were charged for planning action in a Zoom call—no action had yet taken place.
Policy Exchange keeps its donors secret, but according to Open Democracy in 2017 it received $30,000 from oil and gas giant ExxonMobil.
It was Policy Exchange that helped Rishi Sunak’s draft anti-protest legislation, which the High Court deemed unlawful in 2023.
The Lord Walney—former Labour MP turned political violence tsar John Woodcock—released a report in May 2024 that largely capitalised on the tidal wave of Islamophobia and smears of antisemitism against the Palestine movement.
The report laments the drain protests put on police resources and urges the government to put “our prized liberal democracy first”.
It claims protests are “routinely driven by extreme activists”.
The report claims that the rule of law is “the bedrock underpinning our liberal political order”.
But as we saw on 18 January, the state can wield the “rule of law” as a baton to crush the right to protest. Walney condemns “environmental campaigns, anti-racism, anti‑government protest, anti-Israel activism, and anti-fascism”.
In other words, almost anything that challenges injustice and oppression in society, or anything that criticises capitalism.
He also urged governments to harness the insidious potential of new technology and use social media to spy on activists to prevent “mal‑information generated by hostile states and extremists”.
One year after being elected as MP, Woodcock was appointed as chair of Labour Friends of Israel. Unsurprisingly, he targets the Palestine liberation movement as one that “stands out as being a focus of incitement and intimidation”.
Who’s under attack?
Last February, three Palestine activists were arrested and charged with aggravated trespass.
Their crime? Peaceful protest outside General Dynamics, an arms company that profits from genocide.
Last week, they were found not guilty, which could set a precedent for similar cases.
Four Palestine Action activists were arrested after causing £500,000 of damage to Teledyne Technologies near Bradford.
The four Palestine Action activists directed their own defence, enlightening the jury to Teledyne’s crimes. The jury failed to convict them.
In Filton, Bristol, seven Palestine activists were charged after entering arms producers Elbit Systems’ research and development facility causing an estimated £1 million in damages.
They were not charged with terrorism offences, but police detained them for 14 days without charge under the terrorism act.
Journalist Richard Medhurst has documented Israel’s crimes. He was arrested at Heathrow airport in August. He was charged for expressing support for a proscribed organisation.
The British state is targeting Kwabena Devonish, a Palestine campaigner from Cardiff in South Wales. She faces charges under the Terrorism Act in connection with a speech at a demonstration in November 2023.
In a separate case, Kwabena faces charges that relate to a Palestine protest in Cardiff in June of last year. A group of people, known as the “Cardiff 19”, was arrested.
Kwabena’s trial for the terrorism charge could be delayed until 2027, but her next hearing is 1 August. If found guilty, it will have repercussions for the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain and beyond.
The shadow of authoritarianism hangs over Britain. The state has attacked climate activists, arrested those battling for Kurdish liberation—and is doing all it can to silence the Palestine movement.
On Saturday 18 January, the Met attacked the national Palestine demonstration. From the beginning, police set out to confuse, obstruct and intimidate protesters.
Their attempts failed as protesters got through police lines at the top of Whitehall. But police responded with repression and violence in an attempt to intimidate the movement off the streets.
They arrested 77 activists—including chief steward Chris Nineham of Stop The War (STW). Afterwards police charged Ben Jamal of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) with public order offences.
The state has often used force to repress opposition, but the shift to targeting organisers represents an intensification of repression that aims to create a chilling effect on protest.
This flows from a deeper crisis. Major pillars of the British establishment—from the mainstream political parties to the police and big business—face a crisis of legitimacy.
Keir Starmer won the general election, but is widely unpopular. Mainstream politics is being undercut by the far right.
This was a long-time in the making. Decades of neoliberalism deepened inequality and, for all the talk of “choice”, handed more power to unelected elites. Living standards are in free fall, and costs are spiralling upwards.
But the Palestine movement exposed our rulers’ hypocrisy on a vast scale. The same British politicians who paint themselves as upholders of freedom and democracy spent the past 15 months supporting Israel’ genocide in the face of overwhelming public support for a ceasefire.
The state has sought to find resolution to its crisis of legitimacy in the baton.
The French Marxist Ugo Palheta calls refers to this trend as “authoritarian hardening”. It shows how liberal capitalist states increase the scope of state power in response to crisis.
This opens the door to increased state repression and violence. But this targeting of protesters should not be seen as an aberration. In fact, repression is a default response of the state to crises.
Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin wrote that the state is the “manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms”.
By class antagonisms, he means simply that the ruling class has interests that are directly opposed to the interests of the working class majority. These antagonisms are inherent in every class society.
Under capitalism, these antagonisms are what drives struggles. For example, workers want higher wages, but bosses have an interest in paying as little as possible.
Palestine, police repression and the new authoritarianism: interview with Chris Nineham
Read More
The state is not a neutral body—it is an instrument of class rule. Struggle can force concessions from the state, such as a minimum wage, or a legal limit to the working day.
But fundamentally, the ruling class uses the capitalist state to defend its core interest—the continuation of capitalist profit-making.
Lenin then highlighted how the state recruits “special bodies of armed men”—such as the police—to stop those class antagonisms exploding.
When those antagonisms increase—as we are seeing with the Palestine movement—the state can use those repressive forces to repress that challenge.
The movement is about winning liberation for Palestinian people. But that’s a fundamental challenge to the interests of Western imperialism and the British state.
Equally, the repression of climate activists shows how the climate movement challenges the ruling class’s interest. It profits from fossil fuel use.
It sees climate catastrophe as a money-spinner. Climate action doesn’t just advocate for climate protection—it challenges the interest of the ruling class.
The current escalation of state repression is not simply a response to increasing protest. It is the response of a state, plagued by crisis, crushing mounting threats to the capitalist class.
Crucially, it highlights that the battles we fight are interlinked, connected in how they challenge the whole, rotten system.
How corporations and the right demand criminalisation
There are subversive figures influencing the state’s crackdown.
In 2019, Policy Exchange released a paper called Extremism Rebellion, demand that climate group Extinction Rebellion (XR) be silenced.
The report said that the state’s response to XR “must be far more proactive”.
The state has indeed been more “proactive”.
In July last year, five Just Stop Oil supporters including founder Roger Hallam were sentenced to prison for “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”. What is the most draconian is that they were charged for planning action in a Zoom call—no action had yet taken place.
Policy Exchange keeps its donors secret, but according to Open Democracy in 2017 it received $30,000 from oil and gas giant ExxonMobil.
It was Policy Exchange that helped Rishi Sunak’s draft anti-protest legislation, which the High Court deemed unlawful in 2023.
The Lord Walney—former Labour MP turned political violence tsar John Woodcock—released a report in May 2024 that largely capitalised on the tidal wave of Islamophobia and smears of antisemitism against the Palestine movement.
The report laments the drain protests put on police resources and urges the government to put “our prized liberal democracy first”.
It claims protests are “routinely driven by extreme activists”.
The report claims that the rule of law is “the bedrock underpinning our liberal political order”.
But as we saw on 18 January, the state can wield the “rule of law” as a baton to crush the right to protest. Walney condemns “environmental campaigns, anti-racism, anti‑government protest, anti-Israel activism, and anti-fascism”.
In other words, almost anything that challenges injustice and oppression in society, or anything that criticises capitalism.
He also urged governments to harness the insidious potential of new technology and use social media to spy on activists to prevent “mal‑information generated by hostile states and extremists”.
One year after being elected as MP, Woodcock was appointed as chair of Labour Friends of Israel. Unsurprisingly, he targets the Palestine liberation movement as one that “stands out as being a focus of incitement and intimidation”.
Who’s under attack?
Last February, three Palestine activists were arrested and charged with aggravated trespass.
Their crime? Peaceful protest outside General Dynamics, an arms company that profits from genocide.
Last week, they were found not guilty, which could set a precedent for similar cases.
Four Palestine Action activists were arrested after causing £500,000 of damage to Teledyne Technologies near Bradford.
The four Palestine Action activists directed their own defence, enlightening the jury to Teledyne’s crimes. The jury failed to convict them.
In Filton, Bristol, seven Palestine activists were charged after entering arms producers Elbit Systems’ research and development facility causing an estimated £1 million in damages.
They were not charged with terrorism offences, but police detained them for 14 days without charge under the terrorism act.
Journalist Richard Medhurst has documented Israel’s crimes. He was arrested at Heathrow airport in August. He was charged for expressing support for a proscribed organisation.
The British state is targeting Kwabena Devonish, a Palestine campaigner from Cardiff in South Wales. She faces charges under the Terrorism Act in connection with a speech at a demonstration in November 2023.
In a separate case, Kwabena faces charges that relate to a Palestine protest in Cardiff in June of last year. A group of people, known as the “Cardiff 19”, was arrested.
Kwabena’s trial for the terrorism charge could be delayed until 2027, but her next hearing is 1 August. If found guilty, it will have repercussions for the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain and beyond.
‘States want to silence the Palestine movement’—interview with Kwabena Devonish
Kwabena Devonish, a Palestine campaigner facing charges, spoke to Arthur Townend about the state, police and repression
Kwabena Devonish (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Kwabena Devonish, a Palestine campaigner facing charges, spoke to Arthur Townend about the state, police and repression
Kwabena Devonish (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Arthur Townend
Monday 10 February 2025
Monday 10 February 2025
SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2942
The British state is targeting Kwabena Devonish, a Palestine campaigner from Cardiff in South Wales. She faces charges under the Terrorism Act in connection with a speech at a demonstration in November 2023.
In a separate case, Kwabena faces charges that relate to a Palestine protest in Cardiff in June of last year. A group of people, known as the “Cardiff 19”, was arrested.
Kwabena’s trial for the terrorism charge could be delayed until 2027, but her next hearing is 1 August. If found guilty, it will have repercussions for the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain and beyond.
The repression is a way to crack down on people questioning the state or holding it accountable for its complicity in Israel’s genocide.
Anyone who called for solidarity with Palestinians was automatically called antisemitic. Anyone who criticised Israel was antisemitic. They’ve been using that for a long, long time and it used to work.
But the genocide is being streamed live to everyone in the world to see and people are able to make their own minds up. They can see the genocide for what it is. It’s not antisemitic to stand against something that’s inhumane—that’s what brought people to the Palestine movement.
And those tactics of saying, “You’re antisemitic for criticising Israel,” don’t work anymore—so the state is cracking down even harder and using the law.
On the marches one of the main demands is that we want a ceasefire. So now, Western governments are saying, “You have your ceasefire, so you have no right to be on the streets.”
But the movement has gone so far past just demanding a ceasefire now, because people see it as an anti-imperialist struggle.
When people are still being killed in the West Bank, what does a ceasefire mean in Gaza? When Israel has invaded Lebanon, when it’s invaded Syria, what does a ceasefire in Gaza mean anymore?
The crackdown, I think, coincides with the level of crisis and resistance to it.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act was kind of the start of this phase—it was the state pre-empting the crisis getting worse.
Working class people across the globe are angry. They’re angry at their living standards. They’re angry about what’s going on in places like Palestine. That is what is causing people to be more politically active, to be out on the streets.
I think governments are scared of people coming together, uniting and striking, fighting back and putting pressure on them.
Our right to protest is something that we’ve kind of taken for granted for a long time. In a lot of other countries, the right to assemble and the right to protest is one of the first things to go.
But if the police use these laws against Palestine activists, they can easily use them against others. Climate activists, people on a picket line, people who are protesting because their hospitals will be shut down are all under threat. When people go out on these actions, that’s when the state comes down on them.
At the same time, it leads to people’s understanding of what the state is and how the state is not useful.
A lot of people in the Palestine movement have been radicalised, not just around anti-imperialism. They’ve been radicalised in how the state operates and how the police are actually there to serve and protect property.
We blocked the road on an emergency demonstration when Israel went into Rafah in June of last year. The police arrested one activist, so we went to the police station to protest over that arrest.
Subsequently, 17 other people were arrested. I wasn’t arrested that night, but I had the same charges brought against me. What that highlighted to me is that the police are not neutral, they want to scare people in the Palestine movement.
It just shows that the state is willing to go for people who they see as centrally involved in the Palestine movement. They feel that targeting them will put off other people within the movement.Support Kwabena’s campaign: justice4kwabena.substack.com
The British state is targeting Kwabena Devonish, a Palestine campaigner from Cardiff in South Wales. She faces charges under the Terrorism Act in connection with a speech at a demonstration in November 2023.
In a separate case, Kwabena faces charges that relate to a Palestine protest in Cardiff in June of last year. A group of people, known as the “Cardiff 19”, was arrested.
Kwabena’s trial for the terrorism charge could be delayed until 2027, but her next hearing is 1 August. If found guilty, it will have repercussions for the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain and beyond.
The repression is a way to crack down on people questioning the state or holding it accountable for its complicity in Israel’s genocide.
Anyone who called for solidarity with Palestinians was automatically called antisemitic. Anyone who criticised Israel was antisemitic. They’ve been using that for a long, long time and it used to work.
But the genocide is being streamed live to everyone in the world to see and people are able to make their own minds up. They can see the genocide for what it is. It’s not antisemitic to stand against something that’s inhumane—that’s what brought people to the Palestine movement.
And those tactics of saying, “You’re antisemitic for criticising Israel,” don’t work anymore—so the state is cracking down even harder and using the law.
On the marches one of the main demands is that we want a ceasefire. So now, Western governments are saying, “You have your ceasefire, so you have no right to be on the streets.”
But the movement has gone so far past just demanding a ceasefire now, because people see it as an anti-imperialist struggle.
When people are still being killed in the West Bank, what does a ceasefire mean in Gaza? When Israel has invaded Lebanon, when it’s invaded Syria, what does a ceasefire in Gaza mean anymore?
The crackdown, I think, coincides with the level of crisis and resistance to it.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act was kind of the start of this phase—it was the state pre-empting the crisis getting worse.
Working class people across the globe are angry. They’re angry at their living standards. They’re angry about what’s going on in places like Palestine. That is what is causing people to be more politically active, to be out on the streets.
I think governments are scared of people coming together, uniting and striking, fighting back and putting pressure on them.
Our right to protest is something that we’ve kind of taken for granted for a long time. In a lot of other countries, the right to assemble and the right to protest is one of the first things to go.
But if the police use these laws against Palestine activists, they can easily use them against others. Climate activists, people on a picket line, people who are protesting because their hospitals will be shut down are all under threat. When people go out on these actions, that’s when the state comes down on them.
At the same time, it leads to people’s understanding of what the state is and how the state is not useful.
A lot of people in the Palestine movement have been radicalised, not just around anti-imperialism. They’ve been radicalised in how the state operates and how the police are actually there to serve and protect property.
We blocked the road on an emergency demonstration when Israel went into Rafah in June of last year. The police arrested one activist, so we went to the police station to protest over that arrest.
Subsequently, 17 other people were arrested. I wasn’t arrested that night, but I had the same charges brought against me. What that highlighted to me is that the police are not neutral, they want to scare people in the Palestine movement.
It just shows that the state is willing to go for people who they see as centrally involved in the Palestine movement. They feel that targeting them will put off other people within the movement.Support Kwabena’s campaign: justice4kwabena.substack.com
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