I have written to the chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) requesting an explanation of the continuing delays in determining how they will proceed in the investigation of the events at Orgreave during the miners’ strike, 30 years ago. The miners that were there, their families, campaigners and the local communities are not primarily […]
Posts under ‘Civil Liberties’
No truth and justice as decision on Orgreave investigation stays secret
Apr 16th, 2015 by Jon Trickett.
Fifty leading trade unionists express solidarity with Venezuela
Apr 9th, 2015 by Newsdesk.Fifty leading trade unionists have issued the following statement in support of Venezuela: On March 9 US President Obama signed an executive order declaring “a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by the situation in Venezuela” and imposed a further round […]
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The secret state is out of control: our privacy and freedom is threatened
Apr 1st, 2015 by Diane Abbott.In recent days a whistle blower has revealed that I was under surveillance by Special Branch in the nineteen eighties and nineties. I cannot say it comes as a complete surprise. Ever since the beginnings of the Labour movement, the state has made use of spies and informers. The recent revelations have been specifically about […]
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How to put right the corruption, secrecy and non-accountability rampant in Britain
Mar 26th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.The Independent Police Complaints Commission has cleared armed police officers of any wrongdoing over the killing of Mark Duggan over 3 years ago, following an inquest verdict of lawful killing a year ago. However the police officer who fired the fatal shots refused to be interviewed by the IPCC; why could he not be compelled […]
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McCluskey leads attack on Farage’s promise to axe racial discrimination laws
Mar 12th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.Nigel Farage has said he would scrap laws designed to stop racial discrimination in the workplace that he claims are out of date because British society has moved on, making them redundant, and it is, he says, “ludicrous” that employers could not favour a British national for a role over a foreigner. In response, Len McCluskey, leader […]
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Change will come if we stand together
Mar 8th, 2015 by Katy Clark.We have come so far since the first International Women’s Day in 1911. At that time the Suffragettes were fighting – at times to the death – to ensure that women across the UK had the same democratic voting rights as men and in many working class communities women were taking on other industrial and class struggles. […]
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How far did blacklisting extend outside construction?
Mar 2nd, 2015 by Michael Meacher.It was originally assumed that blacklisting was a secret tool used by construction companies – Balfour Beatty, Costain, McAlpine, Skanska, Carillion, Kier and over 30 others – to keep out people they didn’t want. To achieve this the euphemistically named Consulting Association over 16 years (1993-2009) complied a database on thousands of construction workers who […]
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Whistleblowers do more to hold governments to account than parliaments
Feb 26th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.Whistle-blowers are worth their weight in gold, though governments certainly don’t think so. Some of the most important things we’ve learnt about the nature of the societies we live in have come exclusively from whistle-blowers, without whose help the democratic holding of governments to account in critical areas of policy would have been impossible. The […]
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The right to protest is precious – we must defend it
Feb 13th, 2015 by Jeremy Corbyn.The right to protest is a precious and important one. It is fundamental to any democracy. Co-operation with the police has always been a sensitive area and indeed current legislation requires agreement with the police on march and demonstration routes. However, something very fundamental has changed this week. The organisers of the Time to Act […]
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One million fewer registered this year to vote hits the young, poor & minorities
Feb 13th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.Research by Labour and Hope Not Hate has found that the vast majority of local authorities – 307 out of 373 sampled – have seen voter registration fall in the last year. Overall, across all local authorities, there are 950,845 fewer electors than there were in last year’s registers. In some places, the drop is more […]
