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HALDANE WINTER PARTY 2021!!
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Plain text version:
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers Winter Party
Friday 10th December 2021
6pm-10:30pm, upstairs in The Angel, 101 Bermondsey Wall E, London SE16 4NB. Food; Money behind the bar. Tickets free for members, non-members £5 OTD (cash only) or sign up here: www.haldane.org/join. Please book in advance as spaces are limited.
To book: bit.ly/HaldaneWinterParty
Saturday, 25 September 2021, 13:00 – Sunday, 26 September 2021, 16:00 BST, hosted online.
Lawyers, academics, workers & activists convene to explore the limits & potential of using the law to advance radical political agendas.
Co-hosted byMaterialist Lawyers Group, The World Transformed, The Haldane Society and Legal Sector Workers United.
Featuring Dr Nadine El Enany, Lord Hendy QC, Chardine Taylor Stone, Raj Chada, Dr Robert Knox, Mira Hammad, John Smith, Paul Heron & many others.
Every generation develops its own understanding of how legal practice can both further and frustrate a project of radical, anti-capitalist politics. This conference brings together practising radical lawyers, Marxist academics, workers and activists affected by the violence of imperial capitalism. It is aimed at developing theoretically informed, concrete insights that can be applied in legal practice at a national and international level.
Panel discussions will focus on criminal defence, international law, immigration law, and employment law. There will also be an opening and closing plenary.
For the full agenda and details of how to get ticket, head to the Eventbrite page for the conference.
Feminist Reading Group
/We are restarting the feminist reading group with A Decolonial Feminism by Françoise Vergès — both in person (in London) and on Zoom!!
The reading group will be fortnightly on Thursdays, starting on Thursday 16 September 2021, at 6.30pm.
If you would like more info please email secretary@haldane.org with subject line “Feminist Reading Group”
Statement against war crimes committed in Palestine and Israel
/The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers expresses its grave concern at the latest outbreak of violence in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs).
As a result of the violence so far, at least 230 Palestinians have been killed, including 65 children, in Gaza, by Israeli airstrikes. Palestinian rocket fire has so far killed 12 in Israel, including one child. On 11 May 2021, the Israel Defence Forces stated that at least 15 of the 230 Palestinian casualties were confirmed members of Hamas. As of 19 May 2021, the Palestinian National Authority reported injuries for at least 1710 Palestinians, while as of 12 May Israel reported at least 200 injured Israelis. Haldane notes this disparity.
As of 19 May, at least 72,000 Palestinians have been displaced. Calls for a ceasefire were first proposed on 13 May by Hamas, but rejected by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has so far been resisting calls by the USA. for a ceasefire.
There is no doubt that war crimes have been committed both by Israel, in deliberately targeting civilians and causing wanton damage, and by Hamas, in firing rockets at Israel civilians.
On 3 March 2021 Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced the Investigation by her Office into crimes alleged to have been committed in the Situation in Palestine since 13 June 2014. The territorial scope of the ICC’s criminal jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The ICC has already been denounced by Mr Netanyahu as an anti-Israeli conspiracy, but Haldane urges all European states to give their full support to the ICC’s investigation, which will extend to all individuals, Israeli or Palestinian, suspected of committing crimes under the Rome Statute of the ICC.
The present violence started on 6 May 2021, when Palestinian protests began in Jerusalem over an anticipated decision of the Supreme Court of Israel on the eviction of six Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem. Under international law, the area, illegally annexed by Israel in 1980, is part of the Palestinian territories that Israel occupied in 1967. The protests quickly escalated into violent confrontations between Jewish and Palestinian protesters. On 7 May, Israeli police stormed the compound of the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.
Haldane recalls that its longstanding Executive Committee member and International Secretary, Professor Bill Bowring, was a member of the English lawyers’ Mission to Sheikh Jarrah in December 2010. In its report, published in May 2011 by Avocats Sans Frontières, and available on the ELDH website (https://eldh.eu/en/), the Mission gave full details of the relevant international law, and of the aggressive attempts by Israeli settlers to evict Palestinian families from their homes by force. The events of May 2021 are a continuation of this aggression and illegality. By tragic coincidence, 15 May 2021 was Nakba Day, the annual day of commemoration of the Nakba, also known as the Palestinian Catastrophe, which saw the destruction of Palestinian society and its homeland in 1948, and the permanent displacement of a majority of the Palestinian people.
On 12 January 2021 the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, published its momentous Report “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”. It stated that Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. It explained in detail why Israel’s regime is correctly described in international law as apartheid. On 27 April 2021 Human Rights watch followed with its Report entitled “A Threshold Crossed
Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution”.
These are amongst the crimes to be investigated by the ICC.
• Haldane insists that all European states are under an obligation to do everything in their power to bring to an end the illegality and oppression of Israel’s continued occupation since 1967, which is the root cause of the current violence. Instead, the EU and the UK have continued to collude with Israel.
• Haldane urges all European states to give the maximum support to the ICC and its new Prosecutor in carrying out their investigation without hindrance, in particular Israel, which has effectively declared war on the ICC.
• Haldane demands that all parties to the conflict, in particular Israel, which has the overwhelming preponderance of military power, and which is responsible of the illegality which gives rise to the present violence, cease their military activities forthwith.
FREE PUBLIC EVENT: ‘Colombia: Transitional Justice and Judicial Independence under Attack’ - 18.05.21
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EVENT: Colombia: Transitional Justice and Judicial Independence Under Attack
Tuesday 18 May 2021, 18.30 to 20.00
The transitional justice system and judicial independence are under a barrage of attacks in Colombia. We will hear the latest update from Colombian lawyers who put their lives on the line in defence of peace and human rights.
Speakers:
– Diego Martínez: Human Rights lawyer and legal advisor to the FARC
– Reinaldo Villalba: Human Rights lawyer at CCAJAR
– Alirio Uribe: Human Rights lawyer and ex-Member of Congress
– Professor Sara Chandler QC (Hon): Chair, Colombia Caravana
– Hasan Dodwell: Director, Justice for Colombia
– Sue Willman: Chair, Law Society Human Rights Committee
– Chaired by Clare Mellor: Director, Thompsons Solicitors
A Justice for Colombia event supported by:
Haldane / Thompsons Solicitors / Colombia Caravana
Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ucOGrrDkoGdHVF4eJDt57kavipKBSX_gu
More Info:
https://justiceforcolombia.org/events/transitional-justice-and-judicial-independence-under-attack/
https://www.facebook.com/events/555283695440877
Statement condemning the MPS's arrest of four legal observers on 16th March
/The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers condemns the arrest of four legal observers from Black Protest Legal Support by the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday 16th March. Legal observers are vital independent witnesses, helping to prevent abuses of power by the police at demonstrations by monitoring the way protests are policed. The UN Human Rights Committee has stated that Legal Observers “must not face reprisals or other harassment…if an assembly is declared unlawful or dispersed, that does not terminate the right to monitor” (UN Human Rights Committee General Comment No.37).
The Legal Observers arrested were dressed in hi-vis jackets and were noting down information about police arrests in notebooks when they were themselves arrested. Despite being clearly identifiable as legal observers the police chose to arrest them. It appears clear that these arrests were in order to prevent such monitoring, and to allow the police to escape any potential accountability. We note that three of the four legal observers were from Black, Brown and Racialised Groups.
It is becoming a common course of behaviour that the police abuse the Coronavirus regulations to prevent protest, alongside attempts to legitimise inappropriate use of aggression and violence against protesters. It is imperative that legal observers are recognised as carrying out their independent, objective and vital function at protests and are not made a target for excessive use of police powers.
Free public lecture: 'Sixty Years of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs'→
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The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs turns sixty years old on 30 March 2021. Join us to learn about its relationship with imperialism and the struggle for racial justice; its structure, provisions and history; and what resistance and advocacy look like within the framework it has created.
Date and Time: Tuesday 30th March 2021, 6:30pm - 8:30pm (online)
Speakers:
Kojo Koram: legal academic and editor of 'The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line' (2019, Pluto Books)
Christopher Hallam: drug historian and research associate at the Global Drug Policy Observatory (Swansea University)
Judy Chang: Executive Director of the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD)
Chaired by Hannah Webb of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.
Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sixty-years-of-the-single-convention-on-narcotic-drugs-tickets-147596957473
(Picture: Wikimedia Commons, Marjah, Afghanistan, 2010)
Condemnation of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
/The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers condemns the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (‘PCSCB’) which passed its second reading on 16th March 2021. We are gravely concerned that this Bill contains multiple threats to the right to peaceful protest, lacks adequate measures to protect women, will serve to criminalise communities and is a bonfire of our basic civil liberties.
We further note that despite its gravity, the PCSCB has been rushed through by the Government at an alarming and opportunistic rate; giving less than a week between its publication and second reading. This is a derisory timescale, and has meant that the general public, affected communities MPs and their staff, have been obstructed and denied the opportunity to fully understand what the devastating impact of this Bill will be. The Bill passed with an exclusively Tory vote of 359 votes for and a cross party vote of 263 against, with Labour MPs being told to vote against it.
This Bill should be seen as a continuation of the slide to authoritarianism that this country has seen in recent times at the hands of a Tory government. This attack on our basic civil liberties should be seen in the same context as the Trade Union Act 2016, the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill (the ‘Spycops Bill’) and the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill.
The PCSCB, dubbed the ‘Police Crackdown Bill’, will:
· Further extend already draconian police powers, giving them new powers against static protests, granting the ability to impose allocated times and where they can be held, and enforce maximum noise limits (amongst other measures);
· Prevent protests outside Parliament;
· Expand powers to shut down peaceful demonstrations;
· Introduce new offences for protesters, including on the basis of causing “serious annoyance”;
· Increase penalties and lower the thresholds for breaching police conditions on protests;
· Reduce public access to the countryside by creating a trespass offence, which will serve to criminalise the way of life of Gypsy and Traveller communities.
It is also worth noting that the Ministry of Justice, the courts and the wider justice system have been allocated no extra funding from the Treasury in its recent Budget to accommodate the demands of the PCSCB.
As well as serving to criminalise communities, the implications and scope of this Bill are huge for any individuals calling for economic, environmental and social change, and further criminalises the right to challenge existing power structures.
We urge the government to scrap the above provisions. We urge the Labour Party to do more to oppose the Bill and continue to stand against it. We call on our members, comrades, concerned activists and targeted communities to publicly condemn the PCSCB. The Haldane Society stands in solidarity with the individuals, groups and MPs who have publicly opposed the Bill, as well as those most affected by it.
Solidarity with the Shrewsbury 24 in their recent Court of Appeal Hearing
/The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers stands in solidarity with and supports the Shrewsbury Pickets in their recent Court of Appeal hearing, heard on 3rd and 4th February 2021.
It should be noted that this appeal hearing has been long awaited, hard won, and the culmination of tireless, committed campaigning on behalf of the individuals affected, the Shrewsbury 24 Campaign and others. The case concerns building workers from North Wales who were prosecuted for picketing during the 1972 national building workers strike. Five months after the strike ended 24 pickets were picked up and charged with over 200 offences, including unlawful assembly, intimidation, affray, and six of the pickets were also charged with conspiracy to intimidate. As a result of the disputed charges, six received prison sentences and sixteen received suspended prison sentences. This is despite their consistently maintained innocence of all charges, and serious issues surrounding the fairness of their original court proceedings. Alarmingly, original witness statements were found to have been destroyed by the police and concealed from defence counsel and the court. Furthermore, the fairness of their trials was undermined through the broadcast of a highly prejudicial documentary on ITV during the first trial, which was contributed to by a covert agency within the Foreign Office.
Our Chair, Declan Owens, states the following:
‘The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers is proud of its history of solidarity with the trade union movement; a movement which has done so much to advance the material interests and wellbeing of the working class in this country and worldwide.
We're proud of the work that our Executive Committee member, Paul Heron, and Public Interest Law Centre have done in pursuing justice for Ricky Tomlinson and Arthur Murray, which has contributed so much to the campaign for justice for the Shrewsbury 24. We featured Ricky in the 74th edition of our magazine, “Socialist Lawyer”, in October 2016 where he was wearing his t-shirt entitled, "The State killed my mate. RIP Dezzie."
We look forward to this miscarriage of justice being addressed for those affected by the Court of Appeal and we pay tribute to Dezzie Warren and his family. The "enemy within" this country has always been the establishment, their political supporters and those who conspire against trade unionists and socialists. Solidarity with the Shrewsbury 24.’
Please join Haldane in support of the Shrewsbury Pickets on social media through Twitter, using the #Shrewsbury24C hashtag.
For more information please visit: https://www.shrewsbury24campaign.org.uk/
