REQUIEM FOR PROTEST II

The making of a terrorist

Last week I went along to The Royal Courts of Justice where the first day of the judicial review challenging the proscription of Palestine Action was taking place. It was a bitingly cold day but nevertheless hundreds of “Lift The Ban” protesters turned up, sat down on the pavement outside and wrote a cardboard sign saying the words, “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. Over the hours that ensued they were all arrested and carried off by the police. This is part of an ongoing campaign which has now led to over 2350 people being arrested under The Terrorism Act for peacefully holding those signs. For my Substack this week I want to share with you the short film I made of that day. The film was made in collaboration with composer Kim Halliday and continues on from the one we created together last month.

If you have yet to watch Part I of REQUIEM FOR PROTEST I would encourage you to watch that too. This showed an earlier ‘Lift The Ban’ protest that took place in Trafalgar Square. The footage I filmed of that action is placed in the context of The Terrorism Act 2000 when the definition of terrorism was changed. Despite warnings at the time that The Terrorism Act could be abused to include domestic direct-action protest groups, it was nevertheless passed into law. Twenty five years later those warnings echo loudly in our heads as Palestine Action became the first ever domestic direct action protest group to be proscribed.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, while I was filming The Line We Crossed I was also documenting the emergence of Defend Our Juries, the campaigning group behind these ‘Lift The Ban’ actions. As featured in the film, in 2023 a judge ordered the arrest of Trudi Warner for contempt of court for silently holding a banner on the street outside the court informing people that they have the right to acquit people on their conscience. This right is correct in law and can even be found written on a plaque displayed inside The Old Bailey. Her arrest sparked outrage and a grassroots campaigning group, Defend Our Juries, came into existence around her case. It took over a year before Trudi Warner was cleared of those charges at a hearing at The Royal Courts of Justice. The judge said in his comments “It is fanciful to suggest that Ms. Warner’s behaviour falls into this category of contempt”. Juries are today under threat but, for now at least, if you ever find yourself on jury duty you can thank Trudi, her legal team and the campaigning group Defend Our Juries who rose up in solidarity with her, that this right has been upheld and remains available to you.

On completing The Line We Crossed, a film that shows first hand the erosion of our protest rights through the experiences of climate activists, I hadn’t planned to continue documenting this. I had naively thought that when the new government came into power that the repression of our protest rights would stop. That has not been the case and I feel compelled to continue telling this story through these shorts, podcasts and articles. As well as the two Requiem For Protest films I have recorded a podcast episode with Jonathon Porritt where, in the second half, he talks about his own arrest for taking part in ‘Lift The Ban’. I have recently written an article about the personal impact of being arrested under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act with accounts from two participants in earlier ‘Lift The Ban’ protests.

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