Campsfield victory Campaigners against immigration detention won a massive victory as we went to press in early September. Cherwell District council unanimously voted to oppose the Home Office's plan to extend by sixty per cent capacity of Campsfield immigration Centre in Oxfordshire.
Now officials will be forced either to go to a judicial review or hold a public inquiry. Either of these routes will give ample opportunities for anti-racists to make a very loud noise as the Campaign to Close Campsfield has done on at least a monthly basis ever since refugees and asylum seekers were first detained there nearly eleven years ago.
For further information go to www.closecampsfield.org.uk Britain's anti-terrorist legislation is due for renewal this Autumn. Secretary David Blunkett has made clear his desire to add new draconian powers consolidating the Terrorism Act 2000 and the AntiTerrorism, Crime Security Act 2001 into one SLaLUTC.
He will do this, however, in the face of increasingly broad opposition even to the existing powers. Chief among these is the power, rushed through in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, to detain foreign nationals indefinitely without charge or trial on the basis of secret intelligence.
New proposals floated include a new offence of 'acts preparatory to terrorism'. To some this may appear relatively reasonable.
But given the long-standing existence of laws governing conspiracy criminal attempt this represents a major departure.
It will make it possible to convict someone not only where no offence was committed but in stances where there is no evidence that it was even planned or attempted.
This will inevitably be on the flimsiest of evidence, bolstered by racist scapegoating and a culture of scare-mongering and fear.
It is also suggested that the trial process be altered to allow 'sensitive intelligence material to be presented secretly at trial. This may well involve the defendant and his lawyers having no access, with the only scrutiny by appointed lawyers who are sworn to secrecy.
Although there have been widespread protests Muslims protest as French government outlaws headscarves School students in Strasbourg joined a protes to mark the commencement of controversial new laws forbidding the display of religious symbols in Franch schools - the most common of which is headscarves worn by young Muslim
The protest in France was much lower-key than had been expected, largely because people did not want to be identified with the Islamic gunmen who were holding two French hostages in Iraq, demanding the repeal of the legislation.
and Blunkett doesn't have Guantanamo lay (above il hich to carry ou beatings and torture, but he is determined to get tougher laws against the anti-terror laws, there are serious limits to this opposition'. Leading Liberal Democrat peer Alex and Carlyle was appointed by Tony Blair to conduct an official review. Although he has criticised without trial, he has largely rubber circum- stamped the remaining framework. The cross-party 'human rights' parliamentary committee has similarly proposed that without trial be replaced by a raft of new repressive measures. These would allow individuals to have their travel severely restricted and to be placed under continuous intensive surveillance without charge or trial. For many liberal intellectuals such measures would court- be reasonable. But if one considers the experience of the Irish nationalist community in places like West Belfast over the decades of the "troubles' in Ireland, long-term mass 'containment' exercises against the Muslim community Britain must be a possibility.
Neither can judges be relied upon to challenge this abuse of human rights. The Court of Appeal has ruled that not only is detention without trial OK but even that the use of evidence obtained through torture is lawful.
Amnesty International UK has stated that the court 'has shamefully abdicated this most important duty and that judges have given 'the green light for torture.
The bottom line justifying all these repressive measures is the assumption that 'intelligence' can be relied upon and that these steps are necessary.
This was blown out of the water by intelligence failures behind the Iraq war and the furore around the suicide (OT- Minister Defence scientist David Kelly.
More recently the Observer reported sources indicating that a list of 100 supposed Islamist terror suspects' drawn up by British intelligence was deeply flawed. Even US government figures on international terrorism suggest that it is at its lowest point for 20 years.
It is no surprise, then, that the publication of Home Office statistics on stop and search under the anti-terror laws has fuelled protests, particularly from the Muslim community.
They show a big increase in the number of individuals from an 'Asian' background stopped. In the period 2002-3 it went up 302% compared to 230% for black people and 114% for white. Of these only 13% in resulted in arrests.
Only a small percentage of these arrests are under anti-terror laws - some 600 since TA 2000 was passed. Of these only 99 were charged and 15 convicted for terrorism-related offences.
The Institute for Race Relations has researched 11 of these convictions and discovered that thus far only 3 of them have been of Muslims, of which 2 have been given leave to appeal.
The rest include six loyalists (largely for displaying flags and insignia, one for membership of the UFF) and one a mentally ill racist schoolboy sending a noxious substance to Muslim MP Mohammed Sarwar.
The official response is the usual one - there are more cases in the pipeline and in any event the law has of succeeded in deterring acts of terror. But the latter is unprovable without published evidence
The former is an absurd claim when thousands of Muslims have been harassed, stopped and arrested over four years for just one 'safe' conviction. Three years after Scotland's