In February 2026, embarrassingly for Keir Starmer’s government, the High Court ruled that the ban on protest group Palestine Action and its proscription as a terrorist organisation was unlawful. On 15 June, a court of appeal – stacked with five of the capitalist establishment’s most senior judges – reversed the ruling.
Expression of support for the group is now a criminal act, which brings a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Ahead of the ruling, on Friday, four Palestine Action activists were sentenced for causing damage at an Elbit Systems weapons manufacturing facility near Bristol to between five to eight years in prison.
The Palestine Action ban is the latest in a series of increasingly repressive measures used by the increasingly weak Labour government, including for example the use of the police and courts to prevent picketing of bin depots through the Birmingham bin strikes.
The trade unions must lead the fight to defend the right to protest, linked to building a struggle against Starmer’s Labour government and its war and austerity agenda.
