PETITION: Defend the right to protest
With 14,896 supporters
We still need 5,104 supporters
The government has introduced an extreme proposal to give police new powers to restrict protests based on their so-called ‘cumulative impact’. If the government gets its way, the police will be required to consider any cumulative disruption caused by past protests or planned future protests in the same ‘area’ when deciding whether to impose restrictions. This might include, for example, an entire town or the whole of central London and it will not matter whether the protests are for the same cause or involve the same people.
Although the government’s main target is the national marches for Palestinian rights, this measure could impact on a wide-range of causes – an anti-racist march could be blocked from happening on Whitehall because a farmers’ protest happened there six months earlier, or a pride march could be restricted just because a far-right demonstration was recently held in the same town. This or any future government could use these powers to effectively stamp out protests of any kind.
We, the undersigned, believe that the right to protest is a precious democratic principle and should be defended. We call on the government to withdraw its dangerous proposal to give police new powers to restrict protests based on their so-called ‘cumulative impact’, and to repeal the succession of draconian anti-protest laws on which it builds.