Free Speech in the UK

Countries in the West like to hold themselves up as the paragon of democracy, civil liberties and human rights. This week there were three news stories that showed that this facade of freedom and democracy in the West is just that, fake, a facade and a lie. Let’s look at these stories, and what people in the UK are facing under their oppressive hypocritical government.

Clothes Make the Man

This first story is a man from Radcliffe, UK who made a t-shirt expressing his opinion about a gun and grenade attack that killed two Manchester police officers only hours earlier. The t-shirt read on the front “One Less pig, perfect justice” and on the back “killacopforfun(.)com ha, haaa?” Now, you may guess that some people were not amused by this, and that some understood the sentiment being from the bad reputation that cops have as oppressors of the working class. However, apparently this was such an egregious crime that it warranted a sentence of 8 MONTHS IN PRISON. EIGHT. Two thirds of a year in prison for making a t-shirt expressing an opinion? Welcome to the United Kingdom, where you have freedom of speech unless you say something someone doesn’t like.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/914746-man-jailed-over-offensive-t-shirt-worn-hours-after-deaths-of-female-officers

Bad Taste Notwithstanding

A 19 year old Matthew Woods from Lancashire UK has been sentenced to 12 weeks in prison for making jokes about two young girls who have been missing since 2007. He posted the unsavory jokes to twitter and was then subsequently arrested. Were those jokes in bad taste? To be sure. Was he breaking any law or really hurting anyone? No. Welcome to the United Kingdom, where you have freedom of speech unless you say something someone doesn’t like.

Talk About Morality

And finally, a man has been sentenced to 240 hours of community service for daring to say things against the UK military. 20 year old Azhar of West Yorkshire was found guilty of “grossly offensive communication” after he posted on facebook that he thought that all soldiers should die and go to hell. The message was in a response to a page that was commemorating the deaths of six British soldiers killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) in Afghanistan in March. Mr. Ahmed was told that “with freedom of speech comes great responsibility” meaning apparently, “with freedom of speech comes no freedom of speech”. You can’t fucking uphold your country as better than others because of “freedom” when you arrest and imprison people, not for committing actual crimes, but for speaking words that you don’t like. The imperialistic UK has spent decades terrorizing the middle east, bombing and invading and killing away, but don’t you dare disrespect the troops who are committing these crimes against humanity. The UK government, like the US government and others has proved that it only cars more about supressing unpopular speech than it does in respecting the right of people to voice their opinions. The next time someone tells you that communists don’t believe in freedom of speech, send them a link to this blog and then laugh in their faces. The UK is not democratic, it is a plutocracy, it is for the rich by the rich of the rich. Tear down the monarchy, build a republican socialist nation that will respect not only the freedom of speech but the freedom to fight against imperialism, capitalism and war.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19883828

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago.

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago

Report and photos from the demonstration

MAY 21, 2012

 

 

 

The ANSWER Coalition published the report below.

 

“NATO: Shut it Down! Wall Street: Shut it Down! Homeland Security: Shut it Down!” That forceful chant rang out as protesters, many thousands strong, marched on the NATO Summit on May 20 in Chicago.

 

Responding with determination in the face of an organized campaign of government threats and intimidation aimed at anti-NATO protesters, an impressive number of young people, union members, antiwar organizations and community members filled the streets to demand “U.S./NATO Out of Afghanistan Now!” during the opening day of the NATO Summit.

 

The Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8) estimates the crowd size as about 15,000.

 

In the week leading up to the NATO Summit, thousands of people marched and rallied in Chicago. The actions included a large rally of nurses demanding higher taxes on the rich and a march on Mayor Emanuel’s house, 1,000 people strong, which demanded “Health Care not Warfare!”

 

People came in buses, by train and by car caravan from all over the country to take a stand in Chicago against imperialist war and capitalist austerity.

 

In a moving display of solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and the Middle East at the end of the march, Afghanistan and Iraq veterans took off their medals and hurled them toward the NATO Summit grounds. One of those who returned his medals, Marine Vince Emmanuelli, said: “Our enemies are right here and we look at them every day. … They are the millionaires and billionaires who control this planet and we’ve had enough of it.” (WBEZ Chicago)

 

Months-long campaign against protesters

 

Though the military machines of NATO are the greatest purveyors of violence in the world, local and federal law enforcement agencies and the media engaged in a months-long attack campaign against protesters and protest groups.

 

The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild set up a 24-hour hotline to provide support for people who were arrested before and during the NATO protest.

 

Prior to the May demonstration, the NLG Chicago chapter reported:

 

“More than two-dozen people had been arrested so far in the lead up to the NATO summit. At least 7 arrestees in addition to the ones with terrorism-related charges are currently in custody.

 

“During a Wednesday night house raid, police broke down the doors of multiple apartment units with guns drawn and searched residences without a warrant or consent. In addition to 9 arrests made that night, NLG attorneys believe that two undercover police or confidential informants were arrested with the others and were later released. Of the 9 activists arrested, 6 were released without any charges despite being shackled for at least 18 hours in solitary confinement and denied access to attorneys.”

 

At the May 20 mass march, a police mob surrounded and brutally attacked the demonstration as it was winding down, swinging their clubs at people’s heads and injuring many dozens. At least 45 people were arrested. Among those injured were ministers, community activists, journalists and others who tried to rescue people from police.

 

‘The people will not be bullied or silenced by the police and government’

 

The ANSWER Coalition in Chicago went all out to build the March on the NATO Summit, both through street outreach and social media outlets, and had a big presence at the protest with banners and placards and large amplified sound that unified large numbers of marchers with booming chants. The banners and placards read: “No War on Iran! Hands off Syria!”, “Troops Home Now! Money for Jobs and Education!”, “Unite the 99%: Fight Racism!” and “U.S./NATO Out of Afghanistan Now!”

 

Asked what she thought of the protest, ANSWER organizer Ymelda Viramontes said: “Today’s protest shows that the people can and will resist the government and Wall Street’s attempts to bully and silence us. The number of people that came out into the streets of downtown today to show solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, Iran and Syria and demand no U.S. or NATO intervention—that’s a good indication that we can build a powerful movement against war and racism right here in the U.S.”

 

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.

Latest Afghanistan massacre will be remembered as tipping point in the war

Latest Afghanistan massacre will be remembered as tipping point in the war.

Latest Afghanistan massacre will be

remembered as tipping point in the

war

ANSWER Coalition press statement

By Richard Becker, Western Regional Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition

MARCH 12, 2012

An Afghan man sits with the body of one of the 16 victims of this atrocity.

March 11

Today’s cold-blooded murder of at least 16 Afghani civilians by a U.S. Army soldier is the latest in a decade-long history of atrocities carried out by the NATO occupiers. It will be remembered as the tipping point in a criminal war that grows more criminal with each passing month.

The “apologies” by President Obama and U.S. commanding General John Allen are nothing by brazen hypocrisy and will ring hollow in the ears of the Afghani people. Occupying armies, unable to distinguish insurgent fighters from the population as a whole, inevitably propagate a racist ideology among their troops. This officially promoted racism and contempt toward the occupied people is what produces atrocity after atrocity, and insult after insult.

The only way these horrors will end is by ending the war. The ANSWER Coalition joins with the people of Afghanistan and the anti-war movement around the world in demanding the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO occupying forces. The ANSWER Coalition organized protests on the first day of the U.S. war on Afghanistan in 2001 and has been working to end the war for the past decade.

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.