The Socialist 20 October 2021

Fight for a socialist recovery

Fight for a socialist recovery

Tories to blame for GP crisis

Container delay carnage makes the case for socialist planning

Socialist nationalisation not bailouts for the bosses

Unite union policy conference

University workers ballot for strike action

Unite and fight for 30,000 permanent DWP jobs

Gwent valleys Stagecoach bus drivers strike for fair pay

Reinstate Gary Evans! Llanelli postal workers strike

Napo AGM 2021: Union placed on war footing

Scunthorpe scaffs strike for pay

People's Budgets - a socialist answer to cruel cuts

Brighton bin workers' victory in sight

Fight to defend homelessness services

Ealing People's Budget - cuts can be resisted

Northampton People's Budget - cuts and privatisation is a failed strategy

Fighting the cuts at the ballot box in Liverpool

The fall of Apartheid in South Africa

COP26: Trade unions must fight for a socialist transition to renewables

Save the planet from capitalist climate catastrophe

Austria: Chancellor Kurz resigns amid allegations of corruption

Obituary - Tony Davison: "I work for Militant, but Laing's pay my wages"

"Are you the socialist cabby?"

Housing crisis: Tories and Labour are not on our side

Liverpool arms fair: Hundreds of protesters defy police 'dispersal zone'

Hackney children's centres - more education cuts are devastating

Biggest protest yet to save Stratford Circus

Doncaster: Vigil condemns violence against women

I'm unemployed: For me vacancy crisis is a lie

TV review: Squid Game

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Liverpool arms fair: Hundreds of protesters defy police 'dispersal zone'

Protesting at Liverpool arms fair. Photo: Liverpool SP (Click to enlarge)

Roger Bannister, Liverpool Socialist Party

Just hours before the Electronic Warfare event was due to open in Liverpool, Merseyside police set up a 'dispersal zone', covering the two days of the event. It gave the police the power to order people to leave the area, under threat of arrest. Police also have the power to seize people's property in the 'zone'.

This draconian action is not, as a police spokesperson claimed, to deal with "behaviour supposed to pose a threat to the safety of others". Instead, it's to protect the merchants of death, the military top brass and leaders of oppressive regimes, and keep their arms fair free from protest. They pose a murderous threat to the safety of others!

Despite the police action, several hundred people gathered in the half light at 7am and marched towards Exhibition Centre. The protesters held an impromptu rally when the police would not allow us to proceed any further.

Socialist Party member Dave Walsh is chair of the Liverpool Trades Union Council. When he spoke, he pointed out that all the Labour councillors in the city had voted for the arms fair.

The arms fair has been opposed by trade unions including Unite, the National Education Union (NEU) and Unison. The Tory party conference announced further restrictive measures on the right to protest in response to Insulate Britain blocking motorways. But it is clear that such repression will be directed against working-class and left-wing organisations.

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