Erosion of Protest Rights in the UK

Climate researcher and activist Pasha Bell was jailed for 22 months for protesting against the British government’s climate inaction. They join a growing group of concerned citizens disproportionately punished by the British state for exercising their democratic right to protest. The draconian measures introduced by the last Conservative government—which the current Labour government is making no plans to repeal—were drafted by think tanks funded by Big Oil. The laws are so unjust that the UK’s own High Court declared them illegal earlier this year.

Pasha joins me to run through exactly which laws were changed and how they’ve led to the criminalisation of protest in one of the world’s richest “democracies”, and how these laws are now impacting journalists’ attempts to cover the genocide in Gaza. We go on to discuss the connections between corporations, oligarchs and nation states in liberal democracies, and the alternatives that activists and communities are organising on the ground all over the UK, including Citizens’ Assembly, Youth Demand, and Just Stop Oil.