Defending human rights defenders

16 February 2012: Haldane Society chair Liz Davies invites you to a conference seeking to build solidarity with those defending human rights across the world

Human rights lawyers in Britain may face the scorn of the Daily Mail and David Cameron, but we don't get killed for our activities. Elsewhere in the world the decision to devote one's professional skills to the defence of human rights means taking real risks - putting life, liberty, family and livelihoods on the line.

The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) in the Philippines is committed to using legal strategies to stand up for the marginalised and oppressed - rural communities, workers, fishing communities, the urban poor, indigenous communities, political groups and human rights defenders. They are currently representing the families of two ‘disappeared’ students.

Part of that process has involved issuing a warrant for the arrest of retired major general Jovito Palparan, a fugitive who is avoiding prosecution and shielded by the authorities.

They represent the Morong 43, health workers who, while carrying out medical training, were accused of being members of the New People’s Army, arrested and detained in appalling conditions for 10 months without any trial. They are still fighting to clear their names.

An accusation that human rights defenders are really terrorists is just one of the weapons used by repressive states to silence their critics. But the NUPL finds itself defending its own members as well as its clients. Twenty-seven lawyers have been killed extra-judicially since January 2001.

Attorney Juvy Magsino of Mindoro, a vocal advocate against military abuses and mining projects, was riddled with bullets while driving her car. Attorney Tersita Vidamo was handling controversial land and labour disputes at the time she was shot.

Lawyer members of the NUPL were among the dead in the infamous Maguindanao massacre in November 2009 when 58 people including 34 journalists were killed by political opponents. NUPL secretary-general Edre Olalia says: ‘In the Philippines, the security forces pound on the lawyers, especially human rights lawyers.’

Human rights defenders from the Philippines, Dagestan, Belarus, Colombia, Palestine, Swaziland and Syria will be coming together at an event on 24 February, Defending Human Rights Defenders. Organised by the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers in association with Amnesty International and European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights and supported by solidarity campaigns, the conference will consider extra-judicial killings, censorship, imprisonment and criminalisation.

The delegates will have an opportunity to share experiences and publicise their struggles. Most importantly, we will discuss how we can provide practical solidarity to all of our comrades who regularly challenge human rights abuses, and have to face the state acting with impunity.

While it is true that in mainland Britain, lawyers, journalists and other activists can stand up for human rights without fear of significant consequences, in Northern Ireland that was not the case. We remember our comrades Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, who were murdered for the crime of representing their clients, as well as journalists and other activists who lost their lives in defence of human rights. This conference is dedicated to their memories, as well as those we have lost around the world.

For more on the conference, see the website of the Haldane Society. A version of this blog post was originally published in the Morning Star.

Appeal for solidarity with the people of Greece

16 February 2012: Add your signature to the statement of solidarity with the people of Greece backed by trade union leaders, MPs and campaigners.

The people of Greece face an unprecedented economic and political crisis. They are being driven to poverty and mass unemployment by the demands of the so-called Troika – the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund which has imposed Lucas Papademos, formerly of Vice-President of the ECB, as Prime Minister.

Hospitals in Greece are running out of basic medicines, nearly half of all young people are unemployed, workers in some sectors have not been paid for months, and many are forced to resort to soup kitchens or scavenge from rubbish dumps.

Now the Troika demands a cut of 23 per cent to the minimum wage, the sacking of tens of thousands of public sector workers and the decimation of pensions which have already lost nearly 50 per cent of their value. International capital is asset stripping an entire country and ripping apart its social fabric.

Greece is at the cutting edge of the austerity measures that are being introduced across Europe. All the evidence shows that while these measures may protect the interests of the rich, they just make matters worse for the majority of the population. What happens in Greece today cliwill see in Portugal tomorrow and in Ireland the day after. In Britain, the Coalition government is pursuing similar measures which will see workers earnings cut, working longer for a smaller pension, and the dismantling of the NHS along with other public services.

Mikis Theodorakis, famous Greek composer of Zorba’s Dance, and Manolis Glezos, veteran resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation, have issued a statement calling for a European Front to defend the people of Greece and all those facing austerity.

The Coalition of Resistance and the People’s Charter have decided to support this call and agreed to work with trades unions, campaigns and parties across Europe to establish a European Solidarity Campaign to defend the people of Greece. The campaign aims to organise solidarity and raise practical support for the people of Greece; they cannot be made to pay for a crisis for which they are not responsible.

Signatories so far include Tony Benn, Michelle Stanistreet, Len McCluskey and Mark Serwotka.  To add your name click here.

Tonight on TV: “Tweets from Tahrir”

16 February 2012: Don't miss this on TV tonight - a film of the book co-edited by Red Pepper's Alex Nunns.

It's a documentary inspired by Tweets from Tahrir, called Tweets from Tahrir! It airs on Al Jazeera English at 8pm in the UK, 10pm Cairo time.  We saw it at a preview on Monday - it's a great film, actually moving in places, and funny at times too. It's well worth watching, especially if you've read the book to put faces to Twitter handles.

In the UK Al Jazeera is channel 514 on Sky or 89 on Freeview. It's also streamed live online here: http://www.aljazeera.com/watch_now/

The film doesn't just cover the 18 days but the year since (I did some extra research work for Al Jazeera). It has been masterfully put together by Adib Nessim.

Watch!

Could you be our new website editor?

12 February 2012: New member of our volunteer editorial team wanted

Red Pepper's website is becoming an increasingly important part of the way our magazine works. We're now looking for a volunteer editor to be the driving force behind making it a real resource for the left. You would join our existing collective of five volunteer editors, but with specific responsibility for the website. If you have a thoughtful approach to left politics, some experience of writing, editing or journalism, a passion for changing the world and experience of organising to bring that about, we want to hear from you.

The position is one of real responsibility, with the opportunity to help shape the future of Red Pepper. We would like to particularly encourage women and those from ethnic minority backgrounds to apply. Closing date Monday 19 March.

To find out more, download the job description and person specification (pdf).

When the opposition does not oppose…

8 February 2012: ..the democratic deficit widens - so argues Tom Robinson

What does it mean when a Shadow Chancellor admits that he won’t reverse the spending cuts he claims to oppose? Does it show that there are no alternatives? Does it legitimise the social destruction of government’s policies? No. As the cover of the latest Red Pepper suggests, the cross-party consensus of our political elite is exacerbating something ultimately far more dangerous than the fiscal deficit we so often hear warnings about: the ‘democratic deficit’.

The gap between what the public demands and what the political class act on is growing.Constitutional commentator Nevil Johnson describes the role of opposition to 'oppose the government, to criticise it and to seek to replace it'. If Labour and the Conservatives are becoming increasingly indistinguishable on economic policy, it raises an important question: how can the opposition outside parliament find effective expression?

We might begin by asking who has the real 'credibility' on how the coalition’s plans are impacting on our public services? Surely it’s those who have direct experience of working day in and day out on the frontline of service delivery - those who care for our families, teach our children, drive our buses, and all the rest of the public sector workforce? Far from out of touch, trade unions are the organised expression of these workers who possess the knowledge, skills and commitment to improving the fabric of our lives. From this bedrock we can build a movement with the capacity to move our economy towards the more equitable, democratic and ecological road.

The first radical step would be the hardest: union disaffiliation from Labour and union backing of a party better able to put forward an alternative vision of the economy - an alternative for which thousands of disenfranchised activists currently ache. Whether this party already exists (in the form of the Greens perhaps) or still needs to be built, we need to provoke a rethink about the whole nature of parliamentary representation and opposition.

But we can’t just wait around for people to speak on our behalf. We need to keep talking, debating, educating and innovating about ways we can articulate the arguments. The mantra that 'There is no alternative' (Tina) is not an objective economic truth, but part of a rigid ideology that serves the interests of finance, big business and wealthy individuals.

In other words, if the opposition do not oppose, the responsibility to get an airing for the alternative falls to us.