If this restriction is allowed to stand it could set a dangerous precedent for similarly severe restrictions being imposed in the future. There have been many cases where, under the anti-union laws, injunctions have been served on strikers to try to restrict their rights to picket. The restrictions imposed on the Raytheon protestors go much further. If they were applied to strikers they would not only limit the right to picket, they would effectively ban them from any participation whatsoever in their strike.
It is important that this ruling is opposed. Just as strikers have defied injunctions, the Socialist Party would fully support any of the Raytheon nine who defied this ban on participation in peaceful anti-war meetings.
The Raytheon nine are being charged with scheduled offences and their case may be heard by non-jury Diplock courts. This is out of proportion to the action they took in occupying this company.
Raytheon is a major arms company. It supplies guidance equipment for many of the missiles that have been used recently by Israel in the destruction of large parts of Lebanon. The actions of those who disrupted it for a day were peaceful compared to the death and destruction that is assisted by the Raytheon products.
From a tactical point of view, the actions of the protestors in smashing computer equipment were nonetheless inadvisable. A few thousand pounds worth of computers is nothing to a company that earns its profits in the billion dollar global arms market. The destruction of the computers is now being used by the State to justify the harsh treatment of the protestors and the restrictions on the right to protest represented by the bail conditions.
The Socialist Party is opposed to the armaments industry. We think that the industry should be taken over by the state and that the machinery, technology plus the skills of the workforce should be turned to producing products that are socially useful.
Our opposition to Raytheon and what it currently produces does not extend to the workforce in Derry who are only trying to earn a living in an area where jobs are hard to come by.
Rather than calling simply for Raytheon to close – and for it’s workforce to lose their jobs – we demand that it should be taken into public ownership and that the high tech skills be turned to producing things that will enhance the lives of people, not bring destruction and death.
This attempt to criminalise anti-war activists and limit the right to protest must be opposed.
Working class women are facing the brunt of job losses and the huge cuts in essential public services. Recent reports by the TUC and the UK Women’s Budget group make grim reading as they paint a devastating picture that the recession has and will continue to have on the lives of millions of women.
The general election in Northern Ireland looks set to be dominated by sectarian politics and deep divisions within unionism. Neither will inspire workers, Catholic and Protestant, to go and vote. Less than 43% turned out to vote in the European elections last year – an extremely low turnout by Northern Ireland standards.
Let them eat cake - the ugly backdrop to the beautiful game
The News of the World’s illegal phone hacking scandal and the pernicious role of Rupert Murdoch’s News International has erupted into life again. A recent New York Times' investigation interviewed more than a dozen former NoW reporters and editors who "described a frantic, sometimes degrading atmosphere in which some reporters openly pursued hacking or other improper tactics to satisfy demanding editors".