Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

One of the reasons I'm really rather excited about the NUS national demo at the end of October is that they're hoping to hold it inside the Westminster protest exclusion zone. Not outside the one-kilometre (look at you Brits going all European!) exclusion zone. Actually there.

How, how, HOW can the British government get away with the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA)? Why aren't people bashing down the doors of parliament, demanding the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Oh yeah, because they're not allowed to anymore.

So anyone planning to protest in this designated area (such as the NUS) must let the police know at least six days in advance. The police get to decide whether the protest can go ahead or not, and can impose all sorts of conditions from when it takes place to how many people may take part, how many placards and banners can be used, how big they are, and how loud the protestors may be.

According to the People in Common website,

Technically the demonstration must be allowed to go ahead. But if the conditions imposed are too strict, then you might as well not be having a demonstration at all -- a silent protest in a backstreet with no placards and only three participants is useless ... Seventeen people have so far been arrested under the legislation, six of whom were doing nothing more offensive than having a picnic on Parliament Square. Sixteen have been charged with participating in unauthorised demonstrations. ... The government's main aim with this legislation was probably to get rid of Brian Haw, who has been carrying on a one-man demonstration on Parliament Square for the last 4 years.

If London wasn't so far away, I'd be there every week, taking part in the Commons Tea Party (read about it on the People in Common website). Every Sunday a group of people gather to hold a tea party/picnic in Parliament Square. Some of them carry blank placards, others are happy just to assemble. Some of these people get arrested (one simply for carrying a copy of Vanity Fair with an article about SOCPA in it). But they do it anyway.

So on the day of the NUS demo, I'm going to take a little time out from marching and stop for a picnic. Perhaps I'll even bring a blank placard.

If you're feeling incensed, go sign up to this guy's pledge. He's trying to get 6000 people to sign up to make a nice human chain around the Westminster exclusion zone. I know it's only a small gesture, but a nice one.