6th July 2024
Jury equity
Jury finds three Just Stop Oil petrol pump protestors not guilty despite all their legal defences being ruled out. A unanimous Not Guilty verdict was returned.
They were charged with £190,000 of damage and loss of earnings for decommissioning petrol pumps in April 2022.
Some say this is astonishing.
It's not really. It is called jury equity.
Any jury may consider that the law itself is unjust. It is an important principle and indicates public opposition to aspects of law, in this case, the 'lawful' behaviour of fossil fuel corporations.
Press release here: https://juststopoil.org/2024/06/05/jury-finds-just-stop-oil-supporters-not-guilty-in-petrol-pump-case/
#activism
11th May 2024
Today UK Govt. has announced that protest groups such as Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action could be banned in a similar way to other terrorist organisations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2qv7425gvwo
If you are involved in grassroots activism you may well be in contact with representatives and activists from such organisations.
Both Signal and WhatsApp offer end-to-end encryption but WhatsApp, however, additionally collects the information from your profile; your photo, who is talking to whom, who is a group member etc. That is very powerful metadata and it is owned by Meta/Facebook which could easily be handed over to UK authorities on demand.
This is not a trivial to point as this metadata can easily be joined with Facebook data, and that it could easily reveal extremely intimate and private information.
Whilst I understand the whole world and its dog uses WhatsApp and it is an easier tool to reach friends and family but I think we all have a duty of care to others, we maybe in contact with, too.
If you are in the UK think really hard about ditching WhatsApp and using Signal instead.
More info here:-
https://www.theverge.com/23409716/signal-encryption-messaging-sms-meredith-whittaker-imessage-whatsapp-china
I am contactable via both: Check my BIO.
#activism
12th March 2024
Gove just doesn't get (or maybe he does) that more and more of the population, be it individuals or grassroot organisations, actually want to challenge and undermine Westminster, its inherent corruption and the vile the prejudice it seems to endorse. People are vexed with our two main political parties, our politicians, the archaic and inequitable union and our unrepresentative voting system. People want to see some institutions abolished and others transformed, not preserved. People want to see a fairer, more inclusive, more progressive liberal democracy. Some want a modern democracy that may even see Britain as group of independent nation states.
Gove's redefinition of extremism is an outrageous attack on collective vision and personal belief. There are organisations and political groups that are proud of their radical agendas. They know that together we can build a better society. But these groups, in Gove's eyes, are extremist because they seek to undermine the establishment, its institutions and his own conservative dogma.
We have to stand up to this very dangerous authoritarian diktat from an increasingly dangerous and desperate government.
I'm proud to be an extremist.
#activism
