The first six of the Filton 24 to go on trial have walked free. The activists, who allegedly broke into and sabotaged an Elbit Systems factory near Bristol which produces weapons for the Israeli military, were accused of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder.
The six were arrested in late 2024, outrageously held in prison on remand for 500 days, and subject to a smear campaign linked to the subsequent ban on Palestine Action. But the jury refused to convict each of the six on the various charges. This verdict will only add to Keir Starmer’s problems as he seeks to defend his war and austerity agenda in the interests of capitalism.
The defendants did not deny having entered the factory without permission and smashed drones and equipment. That the jury found the defendants not guilty of aggravated burglary is a reflection of the disgust in society at large at the genocidal actions of the Israeli state in Gaza and Starmer’s support for it.
No wonder then, that the Labour government is trying to end trial by jury for all but the gravest of criminal charges. According to the Bar Council, it will have minimal effect on clearing the 80,000 cases in the criminal courts backlog. But it will mean that the court system is directed even more by unelected judges, who disproportionately come from the wealthier sections of society and whose role is to ultimately defend the interests of the bosses’ system.
Knowing its deep unpopularity, the Labour government has attempted to clamp down on the right to protest. This includes keeping the Tories’ 2023 Public Order Act in place, while pushing for bans on repeated protests on the same issue, and banning face coverings at protests.
In Labour’s sights aren’t only anti-war and climate protesters using direct action, but the increasing potential for militant strike action of the kind carried out by construction workers at Hinckley Point and bin workers in Birmingham against a Labour council carrying out Tory fire-and-rehire and other attacks on its workforce.
Birmingham bin strike
Not content with slapping Unite the Union with an injunction preventing its members from disrupting bin lorries anywhere in Birmingham, the council has now gone squealing to the courts to attempt to prevent absolutely any “persons unknown” from doing the same under the threat of fines, seizure of property, or jail.
Self-sacrificing activists such as the Filton 24 or those arrested on the Defend Our Juries protests against the proscription of Palestine Action can help to expose the extremely authoritarian and paranoid nature of the Starmer government as it looks to restrict democratic rights. With the initial six Filton actionists set to face a retrial and the other 18 still on remand, there is still some way to run in this case.
Workers’ action can beat repression
The best means of stopping state repression is mass action, working-class organisation making these laws in defence of the capitalist class unenforceable. In 2024 nationwide protests in South Korea forced the reversal of martial law. While in British history a developing general strike against the jailing of trade unionists in 1972 led to a humiliating climb down for the Tory government of the day. And the mass demonstration against the war on Gaza in defiance of Suella Braverman’s threats to ban it as a “hate march” in October 2023 led to her removal as Home Secretary and was another nail in the Tories’ coffin.
Mass working-class action against any undemocratic laws, including all anti-protest and anti-union laws, could spell the end of both Starmer’s attacks on the right to protest and his entire government. This struggle would be strengthened by a mass party that represents the interests of the working class which can organise and fight back against big business politicians and their laws.