URGENT UPDATE: State persecution of pro-Palestine protest: how to resist? 16.06.25 - 6pm

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Important message to all those planning to attend our event on Monday 16 June (State persecution of pro-Palestine protest: how to resist?)

Unfortunately, Kim Johnson MP will no longer be hosting us at Parliament so we are moving our event online. We are sorry for the short notice but we hope to welcome even more of you to join us online to discuss these important issues! Please register here to access the joining link:

http://bit.ly/4e37Fs5

In solidarity

Haldane Exec

Haldane Statement of support for Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign anniversary rally - Saturday 14th June 2025 at 1pm, assembling at 12.30pm in Barkers Pool, Sheffield.

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The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers sends our support & solidarity to the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign ahead of their anniversary rally and march on Saturday 14th June 2025 at 1pm, assembling at 12.30pm in Barkers Pool, Sheffield.

Members of our society have remained steadfast supporters of those involved in the miners’ strike of 1984-85 as well as representing some of the 95 miners charged with riot and lawful assembly on 18th June  1984. All 95 miners were acquitted at the trial held in July 1985 after the prosecution themselves offered no evidence following their own case collapsing.

Our President, Michael Mansfield KC represented some of those miners and we are extremely pleased to see that he is speaking at this year’s rally.

There has never been any accountability for the state explicitly being involved in operational politically driven policing at Orgreave and, indeed, during the whole miners’ strike.

The legacy of what happened 41 years ago can still be seen today and we urge anyone concerned about political interference in trade union activities and the right to protest gets behind the Orgreave Campaign and attends the rally in Sheffield on Saturday 14th June 2025.

Find out more about the event, speakers and the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign on their website https://otjc.org.uk/orgreave-rally-2025/

Update: State persecution of pro-Palestine protest: how to resist?

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State persecution of pro-Palestine protest: how to resist?

Public Meeting: 16 June, from 6–8pm, Houses of Parliament (Committee Room 12)

https://www.haldane.org/state-persecution-of-pro-palestine-protest-how-to-resist

We are looking forward to welcoming you to our public meeting next Monday 16 June at 6pm. If you are planning to attend, please arrive early as seats are limited to 90. Please use the main visitor entrance, on Cromwell Green and allow extra time to pass through security as there may be queues. More information and map can be found here:

https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/access/directions/

PUBLIC MEETING 16.06.25 - State persecution of pro-Palestine protest: how to resist?

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Houses of Parliament (Committee Room 12) on Monday 16 June, from 6pm – 8pm

No tickets necessary - just show up! Places to be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Join us for a vital public meeting at the Houses of Parliament (Committee Room 12) on Monday 16 June, from 6–8pm to explore how the Palestine solidarity movement can effectively resist increasing state repression. No tickets necessary - just show up! Places to be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Hosted by Kim Johnson MP and Lord John Hendy KC, and sponsored by the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, Jewish Network for Palestine (JNP), and Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC), this free event brings together leading voices to examine the legal and political tools being used to suppress protest—and how we can push back.

Speakers include:

  • Les Levidow (CAMPACC / JNP)

  • Simon Natas (ITN Solicitors)

  • Mira Hammad (Garden Court North Chambers)

  • Kevin Blowe (The Network for Police Monitoring)

  • Plus invited Palestinian activists

All are welcome.

Further details at:

bit.ly/3FabQFw

Upcoming Haldane event - 15.05.25 - ‘United States of Deportation’

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Date: Thursday 15th May 2025

Location: The University of Law, 14 Store Street, Bloomsbury,  London, WC1E 7DE

Time: 7pm – 8:30pm

In-Person / Free

Join criminologist and international migration specialist Professor David Brotherton of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City for a talk and Q&A on the recent history and current status of deportation in the USA. Prof. Brotherton has worked extensively with marginalised communities in the Americas, and in particular the Dominican diaspora, with a focus on youth resistance, marginalization, and deportation. He is the co-author of the publications ‘Immigration Policy in the Age of Punishment: Detention, Deportation and Border Control’ and ‘Banished to the Homeland: Dominican Deportees and Their Stories of Exile’, amongst many others. We are honoured and delighted to welcome him back to his hometown, London, for this special, in-person event of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.

Sign up at: https://bit.ly/3GOmSk5

Statement in support of Franck Magennis, Fahad Ansari, and Daniel Grütters

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Our comrade Franck Magennis has been instructed by Riverway Law to represent Hamas in its application to be de-proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000. That Act, which provides for the proscription of organisations which the Home Secretary considers engage in or promote terrorism, naturally contains provision for any proscribed organisation to challenge that designation.

 As a result of submitting that application Franck and the lawyers involved in the case have been vilified by the right wing press and in some instances identified both with his client and their cause. There are dark lessons from history about where such conflation can lead.

Principle 16 of the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers states that lawyers must be able to perform all their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; and shall not suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognised professional duties, standards and ethics. Furthermore, in accordance with Principle 18, lawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients’ causes as a result of discharging their functions.

We are concerned that some of media coverage risks the well-being and safety of Franck and his colleagues. We condemn any such coverage which takes such risks recklessly or otherwise. 

Addition, 15 April 2025: The Haldane Society extends solidarity to all three lawyers. However, particular solidarity is extended to Fahad Ansari, the solicitor on the case, who has been subject to racist and vitriolic abuse compromising his safety. This is is encouraged by the media coverage referenced above, which is completely unacceptable.

Statement on PSC Demo - 18 January 2025 in Whitehall

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The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers condemn the arrest of Chris Nineham (Stop the War Coalition) and up to 77 other activists who were peacefully demonstrating in solidarity with Palestine on Saturday 18 January 2025 in Whitehall, London. The Haldane Society further condemn the subsequent charging of Chris Nineham and Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) with public order offences. 

The Metropolitan Police had announced a series of draconian conditions on the demonstration earlier in the week, meaning that protestors could not assemble by the BBC headquarters on Portland Place and could not march as planned. The conditions put in place meant the police intended to arrest all those who assembled near Portland Place, meaning the organisers, including PSC, StW and the Palestinian Forum in Britain (amongst others), instead opted for a static rally outside Whitehall instead. 

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers joined Palestine Coalition Organisations, Members of Parliament, Trade Unions, Civil Society organisations, artists and academics to condemn police attempts to stop the march from going ahead (10 January 2025).

On the day of the demonstration, protestors were met with extremely heavy-handed and aggressive policing, with organisers stating that with less than 24 hours notice, the police continued to impose a series of new complex restrictions preventing protestors from assembling at various points on Whitehall at various parts of the day. It is understood that most of those arrested on the day were arrested for simply standing in the central area at the wrong time. 

At the end of the rally, a delegation of organisers and rally speakers, including an 87 year old Jewish Holocaust survivor, walked silently and peacefully towards the BBC as a form of protest, with the plan of not pushing past police lines and instead simply leaving flowers at their feet and dispersing. However, it appears that the police allowed them to proceed past their first line through Trafalgar Square. When the delegation reached the end of Trafalgar Square, they were told they would need to await a response from the police officer in charge as to whether they could proceed. It was at this point that Chris Nineham, the chief steward of the rally, was violently arrested with no warning. Amongst them were MPs Jeremy Corbyn MP and John McDonell, who were both also interviewed under caution by the police following the events. 

It was reported that Chris Nineham was released from custody on bail on 19 January 2025 and charged with an offence under the Public Order Act, with reports indicating that his bail conditions ban him from attending any kind of demonstration. Nineham is a national officer and founding member of StW. Ben Jamal, director of PSC, voluntarily attended a police interview on 19 January, and was subsequently charged with a similar public order offence, which he says he will strongly contest. 

As lawyers and socialists, we condemn any attempt by the Metropolitan Police to curtail the right to protest as well as the right to free speech. We are alarmed by the police’s continuous attempts to disrupt shows of solidarity with the Palestinian people and their heavy handed arrests of peaceful protestors. We are also concerned that the police seem to have arrested many protestors on flimsy pretexts with no regard of the rule of law, no doubt intended as part of a broader ‘chilling effect’ to discourage further demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine. Moreover, we condemn the police’s actions following the event, which include issuing false statements to mislead the public about the nature of the arrests and their circumstances. 

The situation across historic Palestine is bleak and in the face of a ceasefire which took effect on 19 January 2025, we saw thousands of Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza which had been reduced to rubble. The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people across historic Palestine as they seek to rebuild their lives and dream of a more prosperous tomorrow, free of war and destruction. 

Criminal Bar Association industrial action in Ireland

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Whereas the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers does not accept the territorial claim by the government of the United Kingdom to exercise jurisdiction over that part of the island of Ireland known as ‘Northern Ireland.’

Whereas Haldane calls for the unionisation of the legal sector and for all members of the legal profession in the United Kingdom to join a trade union to represent their interests and the interests of the administration of justice.

Whereas Haldane stands in solidarity with the victims of crime under the present conditions of capitalist exploitation in the United Kingdom.

Haldane stands in solidarity with the Criminal Bar Association (of ‘Northern Ireland’) in its withdrawal of Crown Court services between 6 and 31 January 2025.

Legal aid is a fundamental pillar of the administration of justice in the United Kingdom and should be seen as an indispensable pillar of the welfare state.

Criminal legal aid ensures access to justice to defendants, especially those whose liberty is at stake.

Legal aid rates for criminal defence work in ‘Northern Ireland’ were set 20 years ago and have since fallen to half their original value with inflation.

Haldane calls upon the Justice Minister of ‘Northern Ireland’ to meet the reasonable demands of the CBA and to immediately resolve the industrial dispute in the interests of justice.