Say no to public order law

About this item

This document is a campaign broadsheet titled "Say No to Public Order Law" published by the Campaign Against Racism & Fascism (CARF) in 1986. It critiques a forthcoming Public Order Bill that sought to restrict rights to assemble, demonstrate, and protest, highlighting its impacts on anti-racist and anti-fascist activism. The text argues that the legislation would criminalize spontaneous protests and grant excessive police powers to suppress community defence against racism and fascism.

Key points:
– The Public Order Bill proposed requiring police permission for demonstrations and allowed bans on protests, severely limiting the right to protest.
– The bill expanded police powers of search, seizure, and arrest, undermining freedoms to assemble, march, and picket.
– Anti-fascist protesters have historically faced police restrictions and violence, with protests often diverted, curtailed, or met with police brutality.
– The government framed mass protest and collective action as forms of 'terrorism', thereby justifying repressive legislation and policing tactics.
– The Campaign Against Racism & Fascism warned that these laws would disproportionately target anti-racist and community activism, threatening democratic freedoms.

This document reflects the tensions in 1980s Britain between Black British communities defending themselves against racism and fascism, and a government increasingly seeking to restrict political protest through legislation and policing. Activists like Bernie Grant operated within this context, championing local government responses to racism and supporting grassroots resistance to oppressive policing. The Campaign Against Racism & Fascism, with whom Grant was associated, mobilized against legislation that jeopardised civil liberties and anti-racist activism.

Source note: The OCR transcript contains some typographical errors and fragmented sentences, which occasionally impede full clarity. However, the core arguments and factual content remain discernible for an accurate interpretation.