Protest Labour Party repression of Manchester socialist stalls

Well welcome to repression Britain, the Labour Party are the police and the police work for the corporations....protest and you are in trouble,  RCG and SWP stalls were attacked last saturday

in Manchester.

RCG/FRFI Protest call here

The Labour Council in Manchester has begun a serious attack on the democratic right to protest. Last Saturday for the second week in a row council officials backed up by the police attacked political stalls on Market st, both FRFI and the SWP had their stalls confiscated. This Tuesday evening a campaign meeting with representatives of many different groups agreed to mobilise as many people and stalls as possible to go on Market Street this coming Saturday 12-3pm. It is vitally important that we defend our basic democratic right to effectively campaign.
Support the call this Saturday! Defend the Right to Protest!


Solidarity statement here


PLEASE SIGN THE STATEMENT... See below for details.

On Saturday 17th September for the second week in a row the council, backed up by the police, have cleared socialist and campaigning stalls off Market Street. This comes just two weeks before the Tory party conference and is a clear political attack on our ability to organise and mobilise for the demonstration.
After the Murdoch scandal revealed the corruption at the heart of the media the defence of free press is a vital principle we need to defend.
And with the Tories rushing through legislation in the wake of the riots and attempting to clamp down on opposition we must defend our right to organise freely and campaign in our city centre.

Please join us to discuss how we can prevent this attack on our civil liberties.

Statement:
DEFEND POLITICAL, CAMPAIGNING AND TRADE UNION STALLS

On Saturday 17th September for the second week in a row Manchester City Council, backed up by the police, moved socialist and campaigning stalls off Market Street. Many of these stalls have been there for decades and the street is a focal point for trade unionists, socialists, environmentalists and peace activists who regularly set up stalls.

Stalls on Market Street do not impede pedestrians and do not prevent access by emergency vehicles as is claimed. In decades of stalls taking place on the street there has yet to be an incident of obstruction.

With Manchester due to host the Tory Party conference in a few weeks and Trade Union protests planned in the city against the cuts, we believe that this is an attempt undermine our right to speak out against government policy.
We defend the right of campaigners to organise stalls on Market Street in Manchester and across the country.

We see the current attempts to move campaigners as a political attack and a breach of civil liberties.

We call on Manchester City Council to support freedom of speech and cease attempts to remove legitimate campaigners from Market Street and help defend this important tradition.

Send your name, position, organisation to jenniferwilkinson2006@hotmail.co.uk, or text to 0777 234 6819.