Today we were supposed to be bringing a motion to the city council showing solidarity with people currently undertaking hunger strikes while in prison for taking action to protest the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
Instead, we were forced to withdraw the motion due to the latest policy from the UK Labour Government which led to councillors from other parties expressing fears they would be arrested simply for voting on the motion.
If we needed any further proof that Labour’s obsession with cracking down on protest has gone too far, it is this. We’ve already seen countless protestors criminalised and arrested for peacefully holding pieces of paper, and now elected members of Scotland’s capital city are prevented from even discussing a motion highlighting important issues of human rights.
The motion was about hunger strikers and expressed concern for the health, wellbeing and human rights of people in prison. It asked for the Council Leader to write to the Home Secretary asking her to meet with legal representatives of the protestors, and to write to the hunger strikers themselves sending solidarity. But because it could now be classed as a terrorist offence just to be seen to provide ‘moral support’ for a proscribed organisation, even this pretty mild request was seen as a risk too far.
Even though just yesterday we saw pro-Palestinian activists in Bristol being cleared of aggravated burglary, with lawyers instead comparing them to suffragettes for their actions to protest UK involvement in the ongoing genocide in Palestine, today we are facing this situation. For councillors to be unable to discuss whether or not we agree with the UK Government is antithetical to everything we are supposed to uphold as a nation of free speech and democracy, and should highlight the ludicrous nature of anti-terror legislation being used in this way by the UK Government.
Although council officers had deemed the motion as ‘competent’ (which means they ruled that the risk was low enough to allow the motion to go ahead), and the Lord Provost had already said that there would be no debate on the motion (we would just move it ‘formally’ and then vote), other parties did not want the motion to stay on the agenda. It’s really scary that the crackdown on protest is having this impact – but seeing that we have seen people arrested for seeming to express support for proscribed organisations, and the impact that can have on people’s jobs, visa statuses and ability to undertake certain civic roles, we didn’t want to be responsible for placing fellow councillors or council staff in this situation.
This motion was simply meant to be a way to express our support for human rights, and for the ongoing plight of people being mistreated in UK prisons. Instead, it has descended into a surreal conversation about what we can and cannot say within the City Chambers. We hope that – despite being unable to say what we want to during the meeting – this situation will serve to highlight the fight of the hunger strikers for humane treatment, and make people think twice about the ramifications of restricting the rights to protest in the UK.
Claire Miller is Green councillor for the City Centre ward