Wed, 14 Mar 2007
The French have perfected the art of using the law and other rules as a
form of a protest culminating in the regular ‘grèves du zèle’.
Those on grève
du zèle do their work but observe all rules to the letter with such
minutiae that their productivity is virtually nil. This is
a form of protest that is accessible to those that are by law forbidden
to go on strike. It is most popular with airport staff.
This same spirit is gaining traction in the UK.
Section
132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005
(SOCPA) outlaws protests without police permission within
1
km of the Parliament. Several individuals involved in
peaceful protests have been
arrested
under this law. Last year, Mark Thomas spotted a way to
use the SOCPA law itself as a way to undermine it: ‘for
people to apply for mass lone demonstrations and in doing so highlight
the danger and stupidity of having this law in a democracy’. Mark
provides all the
practical
details you need to participate.
Earlier today, I went to Charing Cross police station and got my
Application for Demonstration approved. I'll be demonstrating on my own
to call for the ‘Police to
consider
other options than to arrest
innocents (and keep their DNA) or shoot them’. I won't tell you where or
when I'll demonstrate as this is a lone event, go organise your own.
From Charing Cross I rushed to attend a
debate
on the death penalty organised by
Reprieve with
human right lawyer Clive Stafford Smith,
Nick Yarris who
spent 23 years on Pennsylvania’s death row before DNA evidence
exonerated him in 2004, journalists Mark Dowd and (as the
dissenting voice) Peter Hitchens, and chaired by broadcaster
Charles Wheeler.
Nick Yarris' way forward to end capital punishment in the USA
is through economic pressure. He is determined to
convince European governments to bring
about trade sanctions against the five US states who hold most
of the
death row population: California, Florida, Pennsylvania Texas
and
Virginia. Nick claims the UK is the largest overall foreign investor in
Pennsylvania, a reason he moved to the UK from Pennsylvania. Trade
sanctions or the prospect of bank loans have been effective means of
enforcing so called intellectual property rights (IPR). A common way to
impose sanctions is to have them
voluntarily
accepted as a condition to join a club, that's how the World Trade
Organization has foisted on many nations the EU-US-Japan-led
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). And the
USA can impose economic sanctions, under the Special 301
legislation of the Trade Act of 1974, on countries it deems not
effective in protecting IPR.
From reading and watching presentations by
Clive
Stafford Smith, he always seems ready to share interesting
anecdotes in how he constructively used US laws. (In a lecture to
Glaswegian law students, unfortunately not online anymore, he recounted
how he got Georgia's court to overturn the five years jail sentence for
his client having committed the crime of oral sex with his consenting
wife; his legal arguments included demanding assurances from
prosecution lawyers that they were
not guilty of the same offense.) Last week's debate was not the place
for too many anecdotes, but he did offer one of his more off-the-wall
suggestion: for someone to provide ‘death row insurance’ alongside
travel insurance for those flying
to the US. You may want to check the available
videos
of him as his enthusiasm and pragmatism are contagious. In the latest
Reprieve newsletter, Clive Stafford Smith suggests for
musicians
to use Copyright law to hold the American government to account for its
use of music
to torture detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo.
In the latest Reprieve newsletter, Clive Stafford Smith suggests for
musicians
to use Copyright law to hold the American government to account
on its use of torture. The US military is known to have used
music
to torture detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo.
Music from Aerosmith, Eminem, Don Mclean, Bruce Springsteen, Tupac, and
Meatloaf as well as the theme tune of the TV show Barney have been used
to torture. All the artists involved can sue the US government for
copyright infringement and request detailed information as to when and
where their music has been played so that they can calculate how much
royalties they are owed. Copyright law, which has been extended for the
sole benefit of media corporations, could possibly achieve
more for the human rights of many where human right laws have mostly
failed!
