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Back to index of Nerve 13 - Winter 2008
Freedom
of Expression
For many years, political activists have had stalls in the city centre, to give out leaflets, get petitions signed, and sell newspapers. Officialdom paid them little or no attention. Then, in 2007, things began to change. Carol Laidlaw explains.
The police started taking an aggressive attitude towards animal rights people, who were holding anti-fur protests outside Cricket on Mathew Street in the autumn of 2007. Two police officers threw one of these activists against the side of a police van, then arrested her for "aggressive behaviour".
The month after that, the Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! group found themselves surrounded by five city wardens who threatened to arrest them if they didn't move their stall. Other campaigners found themselves similarly threatened.
There was a protest march around the city centre on 12th January, during which the marchers handed in letters of complaint to Warren Bradley, the leader of the city council, and to chief inspector Martin Smith.
People who are passionate about what they do are not going to give in, but for protection, and as another method of protest, we started holding mass stalls on Church Street on some Saturdays. Individual campaigners still got picked on. In the past few months, six people have been arrested for insisting on their right to freedom of expression.
Then things came to a head on 11th October at a mass stalls event, when the police went in heavy-handed. They snatched leaflets, and tables, and slung them into a police van, then started demanding people's details, so they could summons them for "obstructing the highway". Meanwhile, hearing campaigners shouting about "free speech", people stopped to watch until a crowd of hundreds was blocking the top of Church Street. The police arrested two people, then found their van surrounded. They couldn't drive off for an hour.
Some think the harassment is down to a city council policy, that the city centre should only be used by people who add to business profits; shoppers only, that is. But it's hard to prove. The animal rights people had a letter from the council which claimed that the city wardens had "no authority and no instructions" to remove political stalls.
Where the police are concerned, one theory is that Liverpool's chief constable is trying to prove his machismo because he wants the top job in London. But the attitude of street coppers to political campaigners is inconsistent. They don't arrest somebody every week!
What is certain is, campaigners will never be suppressed. Some people who don't usually do so, are now holding stalls simply to support the campaign for Freedom of Expression. The authorities could find they're fighting a hydra: cut one head off, two grow back.
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