Not In Our Name

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Please see below a petition - please email Sam Parham at Garden Court Chambers samp@gclaw.co.uk or contact Sam on twitter @sam_parham if you are a barrister practising in criminal law and would like to be added as a signatory.

PETITION:

'Response to the CBA announcement of 27.3.2014-

NOT IN OUR NAME

‘Divide and rule’ between the professions is not applied in our name.

As individuals, we believe in the highest quality representation for our clients and in unity of action between the professions.  It is only through this united stance that we have been able to come this far and unity remains essential to the preservation of this profession and to the protection of justice.

The breaking of unprecedented unity is not in our name.

Cuts, be they deferred, are not in our name.

Cuts heavily weighted upon solicitors rather than barristers are not in our name. The cuts already imposed are devastating and crippling to all.

We also provide support to solicitors and to the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) in their protest action on the 31st March and 1st April 2014.

We further pledge our support to the march from Old Palace Yard, SW1 to the MOJ Headquarters on 1st April from 14:15 (Mr Grayling’s Birthday).

With or Without the CBA, the Fight Continues

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The Haldane Society condemns the decision of the CBA, without reference to its members, to purport to suspend the industrial action taken by criminal barristers against the government's attacks on legal aid.  Criminal barristers within the Haldane Society take the view that it is not for the leadership of the CBA to tell our profession whether or not we will take action in solidarity with our comrades in the solicitors profession, and within the civil bar.  If there is to be any suspension of further action, it should be a decision of the members of the profession taken at a general meeting at which all are free to attend, so that the matter can be discussed openly. 

The concessions offered by Grayling are pitiful in comparison to what we stand to gain by remaining united.  Simply delaying the introduction of certain cuts to barristers' fees is insufficient.  We demand the end to all government cuts to legal aid.  This is achievable.  Mere days ago Grayling described the cuts as being written in stone.  Now they are up for negotiation.  Further action will compel him to compromise further.  We can defeat these cuts.  All we need is solidarity.

Ending this struggle merely because some of our fees are secure plays into the hands of those who would call us fat cats.  This struggle has never merely been about our fees.  It is about access to justice.  This is still under threat from the Grayling cuts.  Our job is to serve the communities for whose rights we fight.  This retreat by the CBA is letting the public down.  Our clients' fights for justice don't stop at the criminal bar: their access to justice will be impeded without solicitors to help them through the gateway to justice, and without civil practitioners to obtain remedies for injustices done, and to challenge unlawful government decisions.  To truly win, we must stand firm, in solidarity with comrades throughout the legal profession and beyond. 

The Haldane Society continues to support the action to be taken on 31 March and 1 April by the solicitors profession and probation workers.  We also continue to support any and all action against the cuts, including further withdrawal of labour by barristers.

The fight continues.  If the CBA will not lead it, then someone else will.

CHD lawyers released from custody in Turkey

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The Haldane Society of Sociialist Lawyers welcomes the release, on 21 March 2014, of lawyers in Turkey, members of our sister organisation CHD, after 14 months of detention facing unjust charges. We reproduce below the speech of their President, our comrade, Selcuk Kozagacli.

 

Slogans: "The revolutionary lawyers are our honor", "The CHD did not remain silent, it won't remain silent".

 

Selcuk Kozagacli: "Thanks, thanks for all. In these 14 months we never felt alone, not even for a moment. We were so glad, that there were so many people, such a big support. We couldn't imagine. What a big family we are, what a big solidarity.

We didn't recognize the prison sentence at all. For us, this was neither imprisonment and nor did we demand our release. We didn't recognize at all, that it was a court, that put us in jail. And we didn't even accept that the decision was an imprisonment. We never asked for release.

As absurd the decision was, which they called imprisonment, as absurd was the decision they called release. There's no seriosity at all.

It has nothing to do with justice, right or law to release a part of the prisoners, while there are still so many prisoners, so many victimized people, so many revolutionary and political prisoners inside.

Don't think, that I say this to speak bad about those, who released us...

We don't believe that we were charged and that we remained in prison.

We were kidnapped by our enemies and locked into this building (shows to the prison complex behind him) by armed force. And now we have found a way out - thanks to our friend, thanks to our comrades, thanks to all, who had supported us - we went in front of that door.

We'll see, how it will develop. Nobody from us could be intimidated, we didn't fear at all, we bounced back, weren't sad at all. We're fine. We will now continue from an even advanced point. Again, thanks a lot. We once again embrace all of you."

 

Slogans: "Down with fascism, long live our struggle"

 

Feminist Lawyers Launch Event

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The Haldane Society invites you to our feminist lawyers launch event.

26th March 2014, 6.30pm onwards

at the London Action Resource Centre, 62 Fieldgate St, London, E1 1ES
(near Whitechapel Station)

Free (Suggested Donation £2)

A social event for women and allies to share personal experiences of being involved in the legal system, studying the law, or campaigning for justice, and the particular challenges for women.

Come join us and voice your opinion in a group discussion on:

  • Fighting sexism in legal practice;
  • Coming together to build a more progressive, woman-friendly, and socialist profession;
  • Supporting one another in a profession marked by inequality and threatened by unprecedented legal aid cuts.

Refreshments will be available.

Contact feminism@haldane.org for details.

The Haldane Society Salutes Two Giants of the Labour Movement

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BOB CROW: trade unionist, socialist, comrade.

13 June 1961 – 11 March 2014

The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers is shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Bob Crow, the General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), 2002 – 2014.

The outpouring of grief, sadness and solidarity in response to his death confirms the major impact he had as a trade union leader - one of the best known - for his steadfast approach to standing up for his members and advancing the ideas of socialism. Bob Crow had enormous respect and support, amongst both RMT members and trade union members in general, for his uncompromising position of fighting in the interests of rail workers, for calling for renationalisation of the railways, and for the pride with which he called himself a socialist.

With Bob Crow in the leadership of the RMT, membership had grown from 50,000 to just over 80,000. Ken Livingstone is correct when he says that the only working-class people who still have well-paid jobs in London are his members.  Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA union, said: “Bob Crow was admired by his members and feared by his employers which is exactly how he liked it.”

If there were more trade union militants like Bob, the battle to stop the cuts and kick out the Coalition Government would be at a much more advanced stage.

Our thoughts are with his family, friends, comrades and RMT members.

 

Tony Benn: speaking truth to power

3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014

We mourn the passing  of Tony Benn. He was a friend to the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. He spoke at our AGM in 2006 and we sent him copies of Socialist Lawyer.

Much has been written about how Benn's politics shifted. As a Labour Cabinet Minister (1964 – 1970 and 1974 – 1979), his diaries reveal his observationS that the civil service can frustrate the policies and decisions of democratically elected governments, that industrialists and bankers can get their way using the crudest forms of economic pressures, and that the media ensures that events of the day are always presented from the point of view of those who enjoy economic privilege.  Benn believed in absolute, transparent, democracy, exemplified by his well-known five questions to those in power which culminate in “how can we get rid of you?”.

Along with his democratic values was a commitment to real equality, which is why so many people have fond memories of him. He treated everyone as an equal, would respond to any stranger who stopped to talk to him, and was an indefatigable correspondent. Obviously his belief in equality made him a socialist through and through. He also understood and championed campaigns for equal rights which are obvious today, but in the 1970s and 1980s were considered crazy: women's rights, anti-racist campaigns and lesbian and gay rights. That same belief in equality and respect for others informed his work for peace, and his commitment to abolishing nuclear weapons.  He knew all about the horrors of war, having served in the Second World War (and lost his brother in it), and that experience permeated many of his speeches.

Benn believed in solidarity and workers' rights. As MP for Chesterfield during the miners' strike, he regularly attended picket lines and threw himself into speaking and raising money for the miners around the country. Until recently, it was rare to find any trade union picket-line that Benn had not personally visited, with a flask of tea.

Benn had an ability to explain ideas clearly, accessibly and without patronising his audience. That wasn't only because he was a good orator; it was also because he believed in what he was saying. He wasn't parroting a line written by a spin-doctor, or appearing on platforms out of vanity. He knew what he wanted to say, and he said it.

Benn was the leader of a real mass movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The early Thatcher government was intent on breaking the labour movement, and the Labour Party leadership was only too happy to accommodate that view. Benn stood for thousands of trade union activists, of Labour Party members committed to democracy and socialism and for1980s' municipal socialism. He was hated by the ruling class because that movement was a genuine challenge to what we now know as neo-liberalism. There are many “what ifs”: what if Benn's bid for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party had been successful, what if the Labour Party had never allowed itself to be dictated by the media's right-wing agenda, what if the Labour Party had not split, what if the Falklands war had never happened, what if the miners had not been defeated. If Bennism had not been defeated, within the Labour Party and the labour movement, we might be living in a better, more equal society. 

"Grayling Must Go: Legal Aid Must Stay"

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Thousands of lawyers struck on Friday against the government's devastating cuts to the justice system.

Demonstrations took place in cities across the country against the government's plans to slash funding for criminal cases, reduce the number of people eligible for legal aid, and prevent oversight of government action by restricting judicial review.

Haldane members took a prominent role in organising the demonstrations and strikes.

The Haldane Society is now calling for a protracted campaign of strike days involving the withdrawal of our services from the criminal justice system until the government abandons their plans.

Lecture 12 March: Omar Khard and the Betrayal of International Law

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Wednesday 12 March 2014, 6.30pm

Omar Khadr and the Betrayal of International Law

At Garden Court Chambers, 57-60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A

Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, 27, was 15 years old when he was captured by the US military in Afghanistan in 2002. He was taken to Bagram, where he was tortured, and then on to Guantánamo Bay, where he is the only person since WWII to be convicted as an adult of war crimes committed as a minor under a secret plea bargain. He returned to Canada in September 2012 where he remains in prison, and until recently at a maximum-security facility. His lawyers have recently launched an appeal against his US conviction and the Canadian government for breaches of his constitutional rights.

Dennis Edney QC, Khadr’s Scottish-Canadian lawyer, will talk through the legal issues surrounding Omar Khadr’s unique case and the gross abuses of his human rights and international law by both the US and Canadian governments.

The event will be chaired by Professor Bill Bowring, President of the European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH); International Secretary, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. Jointly organised by CAMPACC, the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and the London Guantánamo Campaign.

The event is free and all welcome! For information contact: secretary@haldane.org