Latest Letter from Justice Alliance to Nick Clegg
/[The first embedded file in this article is a letter from the Justice Alliance to Nick Clegg. The second embedded file in this article includes testimonials attached to the letter.]
Haldane Society Welcomes Criminal Bar Association's Call for Direct Action
/The Criminal Bar Association held a national delegates conference at Lincoln’s Inn on Saturday 16 November. The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers welcomes the Criminal Bar Association's determination to oppose Government's cuts to legal aid. We look forward to the calling of a day of action in protest in accordance with the resolution proposed by Mark George QC and Haldane Secretary Russell Fraser and passed unanimously. We will call on our members to support the Day of Action.
The Conference approved the following text:
The calling of a day or days of action on which no members of the criminal bar will undertake work in either the magistrates or crown courts. We will ask for the support of the representative bodies of the solicitor’s profession in standing by us on that (those) day (s). The purpose will be to demand that the government stays all its current proposals for legal aid and that the justice secretary engages with us meaningfully.
Call for Aid to Comrades in the Philippines
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Haldane calls on our members to assist Karapatan, a radical grassroots political organisation in the Philippines with which we have fraternal relations. If you would like to donate to assist Karapatan please contact treasurer@haldane.org.
The Executive and AGM have already agreed to send a donation to assist Karapatan's urgent action appeal, and this was added to by a collection at our recent AGM.
Any assistance will be gratefully received.
[The image in this article details and gives a pictorial representation of the various items which Karapatan can use to assist victims of the devastation in the Philippines.]
Free Lectures for November and December
/Download the original flyer (PDF).
[The embedded file in this article announces the upcoming lectures:
14 November 2013 speaker Phil Shiner, on UK Human Rights Violations in Iraq and Afghanistan (followed by AGM);
10 December 2013 speakers Elizabeth Woodcraft and Alison Diduck, on How to be a Feminist Lawyer.
All lectures 6.30pm, University of Law.]
Open Letter on Police Surveillance
/We the undersigned are a mixture of individuals, organisations and lawyers affected by undercover police operations or representing people who believe that they have been the targets of undercover policing
In June this year the public reacted with shock and outrage to revelations that undercover police surveillance was used against members of Stephen Lawrence's family, to find “dirt” that could discredit them.
This is yet another revelation about the nature and extent of secret policing in Britain, showing decades long spying on and interference with political movements and campaigns. In addition to efforts to spy upon or smear people such as the Lawrence family who have lost loved ones, particular disgust has been expressed at the gross intrusion of undercover officers forming intimate sexual relationships with some of those upon whom they were spying; at the use of the identities of dead children to obtain cover; and at police links with the blacklisting of trade union members. It has also become apparent that many criminal convictions have been rendered unsafe as a result of misconduct by the police and prosecutors.
We have no faith in Operation Herne nor any of the up to 16 often secret, internal police or prosecutor reviews. They are not sufficiently transparent, robust or independent to satisfy public concern and they do not come close to addressing all of the issues raised.
The public is entitled to know what has been going on in their name and paid for by their taxes. We therefore call for an independent public inquiry into all the revelations that undercover policing has been used against political protest and campaigns. This inquiry must have full powers to compel police officers to give evidence. Such political policing has no place in a democratic society and a mechanism must be found to ensure that such unjustified conduct does not continue into the future.
Tamsin Allen, Mike Schwarz, Bindmans Solicitors
Lois Austin
Raju Bhatt, Bhatt Murphy Solicitors
Blacklist Support Group
Ruth Bundey, Harrison Bundey Solicitors
Jules Carey, Marian Ellingworth, Tuckers Solicitors
Louise Christian, Christian Khan Solicitors
Deborah Coles and Helen Shaw, Co-Directors INQUEST
Liz Davies, Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Claire Dissington, Anti Nazi League
Estelle du Boulay, Director, Newham Monitoring Project
Suresh Grover, The Monitoring Group
Imran Khan, Imran Khan & Partners Solicitors
Anna Mazzola, Consultant Solicitor, Bindmans Solicitors
Frank Smith, blacklisted trade unionist
The Socialist Party
Michelle Stanistreet, General Secretary, National Union of Journalists
Harriet Wistrich, Birnberg Peirce Solicitors, Belinda Harvey, Helen Steel & 6 others in legal action against undercover relationships
Youth Against Racism in Europe
Congratulations to Raji Sourani
/The Haldane Society sends its congratulations to our comrade Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, on the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prizes. This is a major recognition of Raji's and PCHR's tenacity in resisting the crimes of the Israeli state in Palestine.
Lecture Series Update
/14 November 2013
Annual General Meeting and Lecture:
Phil Shiner, solicitor, Public Interest Lawyers, doughty litigator against human rights abuses by British troops, will be speaking on “UK human rights violations in Iraq and Afghanistan – the present picture”.
10 December 2013
How to be a Feminist Lawyer.
Speakers TBC.
All lectures at 6.30pm, University of Law, 14 Store Street, London WC1E 7DE http://www.law.ac.uk/our-centres/london-bloomsbury/getting-there/.
Attendance is free. We hope that CPD points will be available (for £10), but please check in advance.
