96 arrested around England ahead of legal challenge to group’s proscription, no arrests in Edinburgh and Derry
~ Tim Simon ~
Nearly 100 more people across England have been arrested today (19 July) under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying “I oppose genocide—I support Palestine Action”. Protest group Defend Our Juries reported that 55 people were arrested in Parliament Square in London, 17 in Bristol, 16 in Manchester, and 8 in Truro. In contrast, protests in Edinburgh and Derry were left undisturbed.
In Truro, police were slow to respond to the display at first, handing out leaflets outlining the legislation surrounding support for proscribed groups. They later began to slowly arrest those holding the signs—among them 81 year-old Deborah Hinton, a former magistrate.
Edinburgh. Photo: Defend Our Juries
In a statement made during their arrest, one activist stated: “We want Yvette Cooper to remove the proscription of Palestine Action. We want the government to take action on genocide and to stop complying with Israel in killing and slaughtering babies, women, children, and men. If this was in 1930s Germany, it would be the same as helping the Nazis with their concentration camps”.
The ban on the group was announced by Cooper after supporters of Palestine Action entered the RAF base at Brize Norton and spray-painted two military planes. The High Court is to hear a legal challenge to the ban on Monday, when Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori will seek permission for a full judicial review of the group’s proscription.
Vote Labour for Genocide.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
For the second week running, demonstrators were arrested for holding signs reading ‘I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action’ in Parliament Square today, with others expected to take part in later actions across the UK.
Expressing public support for Palestine Action is now a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act following the group’s proscription by home secretary Yvette Cooper. It is the first time anti-terror law, designed to ban groups like Al Qaida and Isis, has been used to designate a domestic, non-violent direct action group a terrorist organisation.
The action, organised by Defend Our Juries, aims to challenge that proscription. Further such actions are set to take place in Bristol, Manchester and Cardiff. An independently organised demonstration is also being held in Derry, and one man took ‘solo action’ by posing with a sign in the market town of Kendal in Cumbria.
One man took action alone in Kendal. (Credit unknown.)
Bill, a 76-year-old university lecturer, told Novara Media he was participating in the London action because he disagreed “with this government’s definition of a terrorist”. “I might as well call you a red bell pepper, and now you have all the legal rights of a red bell pepper,” he said. Asked how he felt about the prospect of a charge under the terrorism act, he replied, “it’s all an adventure.”
Vote Labour for Genocide.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Demonstrators arrested in the Russell Senate Office Building (Photo via Debt Collective/X)
Protesters denounce cuts to Medicaid, which could kick 16 million off of nation’s largest public insure
On Wednesday, US Capitol police arrested 33 demonstrators who were part of a larger protest of over 60 people in the Russell Senate Office Building, denouncing the proposed cuts to Medicaid within the Trump-backed “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Some protesters were restrained and arrested while in wheelchairs.
The demonstration was organized by the Debt Collective, Popular Democracy, and the disability rights group ADAPT. Protesters wore shirts with the text “healthcare cuts will kill” and were arrested while unfurling a banner that read “Senate Republicans, don’t kill us, save Medicaid.” The bill is currently moving through the Senate after passing in the House of Representatives.
Medicaid is the nation’s largest public insurance program, which currently insures 71 million people in the US. According to analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the Senate version of the bill would cause roughly 16 million of those people to lose health insurance by 2034. This analysis predicts that the Senate bill would lead to more losses of coverage than the version of the bill which passed in the House. Public health researchers at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania have warned that certain provisions in the House bill could lead to more than 51,000 deaths each year.
Some Republican lawmakers have been callous regarding constituent concerns over Medicaid cuts. Notably, Republican Iowa Senator Joni Ersnt faced nationwide backlash after defending the proposed cuts at a town hall meeting in late May. When one of her constituents shouted that people would die without Medicaid healthcare coverage, Ersnt replied “well, we all are going to die.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Interaction between a pensioner and a cop in Buenos Aires on March 12. Photo: Argentina Humana / X
More than a hundred people were arrested and dozens were injured in the police repression. Movements and press organizations have called for the resignation of the Secretary of Security, Patricia Bullrich.
On March 12, Javier Milei’s right-wing government brutally repressed a demonstration of retirees and their supporters, including fan clubs of football teams, demanding better living conditions. The Buenos Aires Police reported that at least 124 people were arrested in the protests outside Congress. For its part, the Emergency Medical Attention System (SAME) reported that, at the end of the day of protests, 46 people were injured.
Early on March 13, a judge in Buenos Aires, Karina Andrade, ruled to free 114 of the detainees arguing that the constitutional rights to protest, to manifest in democracy, and free speech, had been put at risk. She added that elderly people are “one of the most vulnerable sectors of our country” and they are protected.
Retirees demand to live with dignity
For the past several months, retirees have been protesting every Wednesday to demand an improvement in their living conditions. Thanks to Milei’s neoliberal adjustments, their quality of life has drastically declined.
According to data from the Ombudsman’s Office for the Elderly, a pensioner needs at least 1,200,523 pesos (USD 1,066) per month to cover their basic expenses. However, the minimum pension in February was 343,086 pesos (USD 321), including a bonus of 70,000 pesos (USD 65). The glaring gap between the cost of living and the income of pensioners has been the key motivating factor driving adults of 70-90 years old to take to the streets every week and risk brutal repression from Milei’s right-wing government.
According to Florencia Abreju, an Argentine journalist, “The cuts to medicines, the reduction of medical assistance, and the excessive increase of basic services have aggravated the situation even more. Why always with the retirees? The answer is clear: Milei’s government destroys the rights of all, starting with the weakest.”
Repression was ordered by Milei’s government
This Wednesday was not the first time that the Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich had ordered repression, but the level of force used by the police was certainly more extreme. Tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons, pepper spray, blows with batons, etc., were some of the means of repression used by the Argentine police to confront the demonstrators, who were mostly retirees.
Pensioner dousing his face with milk after being tear gassed. Photo: Argentina Humana / X
One of the victims is photographer Pablo Grillo, who suffered a serious head injury while taking pictures of the protest and the repression. As seen in a video, the police fired a tear gas bomb at him which directly impacted his head, causing a severe wound that kept him on the verge of death at the Ramos Mejía hospital in Buenos Aires.
The Executive justified the widespread repression of the protests by citing the participation of several fan organizations of various Argentine soccer clubs, such as Chacaritas, Boca Juniors, River Plate, and Rosario Central, among others. According to Bullrich, the members of the so-called “barras bravas” are dangerous groups and this justified the forceful response of the National Police, even though several of the injured and detained do not belong to such groups. On her X account, the Security Secretary wrote “Our forces are deployed to enforce the protocol: traffic is not cut and the barras bravas, on the sidewalk.”
However, for Florencia Abreju, this type of rhetoric seeks to discredit the legitimate claims of the protesters. “The most alarming thing is that the government, through Bullrich and her officials, justified the repression and stigmatized the protesters… This discourse seeks to criminalize social protest and delegitimize the demands of people who take to the streets to defend their rights. The stigmatization of militancy and fierce repression are tools typical of an authoritarian government that is willing to do anything to stay in power.”
Several journalists demand Bullrich’s resignation
In response to the repression ordered by the Secretary of Security and in solidarity with the injured journalist, several journalists have begun calling for Patricia Bullrich’s resignation. The Association of Graphic Reporters of Argentina expressed in a communiqué “Institutional violence and impunity for crimes committed by the security forces have increased…Today [we demand] that the President [Milei] immediately remove [Patricia Bullrich] and place her and her subordinates at the disposal of the justice system. Otherwise, we make him morally, politically, and criminally complicit in the crimes committed by his [Security] Secretary.”
“They shot a colleague in the Congress…Tomorrow all the journalists in Argentina must be asking for the resignation of whoever ordered the shooting of the colleague,” said a journalist on the Crónica TV Show as images of the repression flashed on the screen.
For now, Milei shows no signs of backing down from his internal security policy of openly and forcefully repressing demonstrators opposing his neoliberal agenda. In this regard, Abreju points out “Repression, stigmatization, and authoritarian discourse are signs of a government that is in decline but does not hesitate to resort to excessive force to impose its agenda through terror. It is time to be alert and united in the face of this subjugation of rights. What is at stake is not only the future of retirees but democracy and the future of the nation. Today, as never before, it is necessary to defend what has been conquered and repudiate the systematic violence that seeks to install fear in the people with an already known recipe.”
Families, relatives, and the legal teams of the detainees demand information from police and justice for the arrested workers. Photo: SUNTRACS/X
Organized workers have denounced the police’s brutal treatment of demonstrators before and after the protest. President Mulino has called them “terrorists”.
Over 480 people were arrested in Panama on February 12 during a national demonstration called for by trade unions and social movements. Workers and protesters took the streets to raise several issues in the country:
To protest a law intending to privatize social security (Law 163)
To honor the memory of Al Iromi Smith Rentería, a worker killed by Panamanian police on February 12, 2008
To protest Donald Trump’s expansionist statements regarding the Panama Canal
Police repression was extreme. After the police descended on the protests in Panama City, more than 100 demonstrators were injured and 15 policemen were wounded.
The Director of the Panamanian police, Jaime Fernández said, “We managed to capture 450 people,” for which reason they had to improvise “a special jail” due to the long lines of handcuffed demonstrators. Other sources report almost 480 detainees. The right-wing president, José Raúl Mulino, labeled the trade union which led the protest, the National Union of Workers of Construction and Similar Industries (SUNTRACS), a “terrorist” organization and like a “mafia” and announced that “the full weight of the law” will fall on them.
SUNTRACS denounces police brutality and demands release of detained workers
In a press conference on February 12, a representative of SUNTRACS, and a participant in the demonstrations, denounced the actions of the police. The representative stated that without trying to mediate the situation, the police “began to brutally repress” the demonstration. The workers then sought refuge in the hospital under construction. Reportedly, the police began to indiscriminately arrest workers from the construction site.
Regarding President Mulino’s statements, the SUNTRACS representative said “It’s outrageous that because we go out to protest they call us “terrorists”, as the disrespectful President [of Panama] said. [Mulino] does not respond that way to Donald Trump, despite all the threats he has made against our national territory and our country.”
Finally, he demanded the immediate release of the detained workers: “We will defend our comrades to the last consequences.”
In a press conference on February 13, a representative of SUNTRACS said that the police have not released any information about the detainees, except to certain relatives of the wounded, one of whom has undergone surgery for his injuries. He also denounced the beatings that several prisoners suffered after their apprehension.
Controversial Law 163
The law in question, which is being debated by the National Assembly, has been baptized as Law 163, which seeks to reform the current legislation on social security. SUNTRACS, along with other trade unions and social movements call the bill a clear attack on workers from the business and neoliberal groups.
Under the pretext of an economic deficit of the Social Security Fund, Law 163 seeks to:
eliminate the autonomy of the Social Security Fund
increase the retirement age by three years (60 for women and 65 for men)
increase the requirements for retirement
transfer millions in Social Security funds to private companies
and various other measures
According to SUNTRACS, one of the project’s objectives is to take money from the insured, put it in private hands, and give the elderly a very poor retirement.
“We will not allow this. We are in our legitimate right to have a promising future, and not the future they want to give us. We are going to resist.” In addition, he called for the solidarity and organization of the Panamanian people in the face of Mulino’s neoliberal onslaught.
For his part, Saúl Méndez, Secretary General of SUNTRACS, said that the bill seeks “to impose the theft of insurance money, increase the retirement age, rob pensioners and workers of their money to give it to the banks. We all want peace, but not the peace of the cemetery, the peace of misery and hunger that they want to impose on us. That is why we need unity, firmness and discipline in the face of this problem.”
