SocialistLawyer Magazine of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers n Number 60 l February 2012 £3 INSIDE: Housing in The 2011 riots The fight for land Austerity cuts; job East Jerusalem: sentencing: unfair, rights in Mexico; the seekers allowance international legal inconsistent and end of the Basque challenge; news, mission report unequal? ETA armed struggle reviews and more SocialistLawyer Number 60 – February 2012 –ISSN 09 54 3635 Editor: Tim Potter Special thanks to: Liz Davies, Russell Fraser, Contents Stephen Knight and Declan Owens Cover picture: Jess Hurd (Report Digital) Luis Eduardo Garc – a trade union member at News & comment........................................................................................................................ 4 Coca Cola – living under paramilitary death Colombia, Employment Tribunals, Stephen Lawrence, Francis Khoo and more threat at Buchramanga in Colombia. Many thanks to all our other contributors, readers Young Legal Aid Lawyers ................................................................................ and members who have helped with this issue. 11 Design: Smith+Bell (www.smithplusbell.com) Connor Johnston on an illuminating report on the costs of cutting legal aid Print: The Russell Press (www.russellpress.com) Fairness? Consistency? Equality? ...................................... 12 Paramjit Ahluwalia asks why these basic tenets are absent from the post-riot sentencing Housing in East Jerusalem ........................................................................ 14 Haldane Society of Marina Sergides reports on an legal mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territory Socialist Lawyers ‘No event is ever correctly reported’ ................................ 18 PO Box 64195, London WC1A 9FD Jim Duffy on the case of Cait Reilly’s battle over Jobseeker’s Allowance www.haldane.org The struggle for land rights ........................................................................ 22 The Haldane Society was founded in 1930. It provides a forum for the discussion and analysis Fiona McPhail meets people driven from their homes and a battling lawyer in Mexico of law and the legal system, both nationally and internationally, from a socialist perspective. It holds Britain’s hidden slaves .............................................................................................. 26 frequent public meetings and conducts Sarah Steinhardt on the individuals who live in servitude in 21st century Britain educational programmes. The Haldane Society is independent of any Justice should not depend on luck ...................................... 28 political party. Membership comprises lawyers, Gabe Tan argues that fresh evidence should not be needed to prove innocence academics, students and legal workers as well as trade union and labour movement affiliates. Why did ETA call it off? .............................................................................................. 30 The list of the current executive, elected at the AGM in November 2011 is as follows: Brian Currin on the Basque seperatists decision to end its armed struggle President: Michael Mansfield QC Vice Presidents: ‘Their cuts not ours’? ...................................................................................................... 34 Geoffrey Bindman QC, Louise Christian, Tess Gill, Paul Heron argues that Labour councils should not carry out austerity measures Tony Gifford QC, John Hendy QC, Helena Kennedy QC, Imran Khan, Kate Markus, Reviews ................................................................................................................................................................ 37 Gareth Peirce, Michael Seifert, David Turner- Films: The Enemy Within and Impunity Samuels, Phil Shiner, Frances Webber, Professor Lord Wedderburn QC Chair: Liz Davies ([email protected]) Vice-Chairs: Kat Craig (katherinec@ christiankhan.co.uk) and Anna Morris ([email protected]) Secretary: Chris Loxton ([email protected]) Assistant Secretary: Sophie Khan Socialist Lawyer Editor: Tim Potter ([email protected]) Treasurer: Declan Owens ([email protected]) Membership Secretary (job-share): David Renton ([email protected]) with Debbie Smith ([email protected]) International Secretary: Bill Bowring ([email protected]) Executive Committee: Martha Jean Baker, Jacob Bindman, Sarah Collins, Rheian Davies, Russell Fraser, Joanna Gilmore, Margaret Gordon, Mike Goold, Agnieszka Grabianka-Hindley, Owen Greenhall, Richard Harvey, Paul Heron, John Hobson, Natalie James, Angus King, Stephen Knight, Saleh Mamon, Carlos Orjuela, Ripon Ray, Brian Richardson, Hannah Rought-Brooks, Marina Pages 20-21: Precepts Letterpress print featuring text appropriated from the Socialist Sergides, Adiam Weldensae, Azam Zia. (Socialist Fellowship), Precepts, originally published 1966 by the Socialist Fellowship, Ruth Ewan, 2012. formerly the National Council of British Socialist Sunday Schools 2 Socialist Lawyer February 2012 Editorial This is the 60th edition of Socialist Lawyer. of the delegation to East Jerusalem in Diamond The Haldane Society remains as active as ever. December 2010 where delegates encountered On 30th November 2011, Haldane members those standing up for their housing rights in expressed their solidarity with public sector Sheikh Jarrah. The delegation went on to celebration workers striking in defence of their jobs, deliver briefing sessions in Brussels and in pensions and pay by marching alongside them. Parliament in London on 18th October 2011. The ideologically driven Con-Dem coalition The review section covers the story of Brazilian cuts agenda continues apace. human rights activist Marcelo Freixo whose Readers of this magazine will be all too actions have helped inspire a feature film familiar with the current Government’s drive directed by José Padilha. There is also a report to cut the legal aid budget and the threats this on those fighting for land rights in Chiapas, poses to access to justice particularly for the Mexico which is accompanied by an interview most vulnerable members of society. As Lord with Abigail Escalante, an intrepid Mexican Prescott complains of the lack of media human rights lawyer. coverage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Brian Currin is perhaps better known in Punishment of Offenders Bill, Connor Spain than on these shores for his Johnston of Young Legal Aid Lawyers casts a instrumental role within the international focused eye on the passage of the legal aid Bill team of facilitators who have sought a through Parliament in the pages of this edition. negotiated and democratic solution to the It was 12 months ago that The Haldane conflict in the Basque country. He brought his Society and Young Legal Aid Lawyers jointly experience as a South African lawyer who had organised ‘The Case for Legal Aid – an inquiry been involved in the creation of the Truth and into public funding and access to justice’ Reconciliation Commission in his home which was held in Parliament in February country to his work as a facilitator for peace. 2011. Following on from this event a year He gives his account in this edition of the down the line, The Haldane Society in reasons behind the announcement of Eta’s partnership with Amnesty International and ceasefire in October 2011. European Lawyers for Democracy & Human It is a great pleasure to be able to print a Rights (ELDH) have set their sights on piece of work by the artist Ruth Ewan in organising an equally ambitious and no less Socialist Lawyer. Ruth’s work places the important international conference on accounts of activists, socialists, protesters and Defending Human Rights Defenders. The the socially marginalised in the public sphere. conference will take place at the Amnesty She has exhibited widely from the ICA in Human Rights Action Centre on 24th London to the Centro Andaluz de Arte February 2012. Contemporáneo in Seville. One of Ruth’s The aim of the conference is to draw recent pieces of artwork involved together lawyers, trade unionists, journalists commissioning over 100 buskers, placed at and activists from some of the world’s most different areas around London, to sing The challenging civil societies. In recent years Ballad of Accounting. The song was written in Haldane members have been active 1964 by the folk singer Ewan MacColl who participants in delegations to Turkey, held communist beliefs. Colombia, Palestine, and the Philippines Also featured in the magazine is some among other locations. It is a great privilege to artwork from the days of Salvador Allende’s be able to draw together delegates from all government of Popular Unity in Chile before it these countries as well as Swaziland and the was toppled by the military coup led by Caucasus region to share in their knowledge General Pinochet in 1973. The artwork and experiences as well as an exchange of displays some of the spirit of Allende’s solidarity and expertise. government. It is also a reminder of the price Given the upcoming conference, this that has been paid by many across the globe edition of Socialist Lawyer is full of accounts who strive to defend justice, equality and of those working in defence of human rights. human rights. Marina Sergides looks back at the conclusions Tim Potter, editor Socialist Lawyer l February 2012 3 News&Comment under the European Arrest background to a case, removing a Extradition Warrant (EAW). He played a film significant barrier to a person’s in which a man named Andrew removal. Symeou spoke powerfully