On Tuesday 11th
January, Edward Woollard, an 18-year-old A-level student from Hampshire, was
sentenced to 2 years and 8 months imprisonment for dropping a fire-extinguisher
from the Millbank Tower during the student protest on the 10th
November 2010. Whilst we cannot and should not condone the actions of Woollard,
it is clear that the courts – along with the government – are clearly trying to
make an example of this individual student as a threat to any future
protestors.
On Tuesday 11th
January, Edward Woollard, an 18-year-old A-level student from Hampshire, was
sentenced to 2 years and 8 months imprisonment for dropping a fire-extinguisher
from the Millbank Tower during the student protest on the 10th
November 2010. Whilst we cannot and should not condone the actions of Woollard,
it is clear that the courts – along with the government – are clearly trying to
make an example of this individual student as a threat to any future
protestors.
The sentence handed to
Woollard is extremely harsh given that it was not a pre-meditated act of
violence, but was just an impulsive act that was made in the heat of the
moment. Those who know Edward described him being of “good character” and “a
loving, caring, gentle man”, and his lawyer said he was caught up in the
passion of the day and his actions were a moment of madness. The sentence is
even more unwarranted given that Woollard handed himself into the police five
days after the event and pleaded guilty to violent disorder at the first
possible opportunity.
The judge involved in
the case even admitted that this case was “a deterrent sentence”. It is unclear
whether the deterrent was solely for this particular young individual or for
the mass of people who have been enraged and anger by the coalition’s attacks
on the working class and youth of Britain. We suspect the latter.
The courts are not just
being used to deter students from protesting. With the government facing the prospect
of mass strikes in the coming period, the courts are increasingly being used by
the government and the bosses to stop actions from taking place, as can be seen
by the banning of strikes by cabin crew and rail workers last year on the
grounds of “balloting errors”.
In addition, the
government are facing the possibility of losing control of the police, normally
the reliable “long arm of the law”, who are considering strike action in the
face of 20% cuts to policing budgets, which will result in 20,000 jobs to be
cut over the next four years. Talking about the possibility of strike action,
Paul McKeever, the chairman of the Police Federation (the nearest thing that
the police have to a union, given that they are legally not allowed to unionise
or strike) said, “We don’t rule out anything at all”.
The case of Edward
Woollard is clearly one of selective justice. We do not defend Woollard’s
actions and he would not wish us to. However, we do not side with the
moralising, hypocritical bourgeois politicians who talk about the terrible “violent
students”, but refuse to punish those who commit far more heinous crimes and
acts of real violence. Why have no policemen been charged with causing brain
damage to Alfie Meadows, the 20-year-old student from Middlesex University who
ended up having surgery after being beaten by police batons on the 9th
December demo at Parliament Square? Why aren’t the bankers and owners of big
business punished for evading £70bn worth of tax every year? Why wasn’t Tony
Blair arrested as a war criminal for dropping bombs (not fire extinguishers) on
innocent Iraqi civilians? As John McDonnell, the Labour Party MP said, “The
real vandalism is not a few Millbank windows broken, but £9000 fees destroying
the hopes of so many young people going to university”.
Whilst the courts are
nominally independent, Marxists such as Engels and Lenin explained that the
courts, along with the police, the armed forces and the government itself, are
all part of the state, which, in the final analysis, are “armed bodies of men in
the protection of private property”. In this day and age, that means that the
judges, the police chiefs, the army officers, and the politicians generally do
their work on behalf of the bankers and bosses who really run the country. We
need a socialist government that is willing to punish these real criminals,
instead of crying crocodile tears at the sight of “violent protest."
- Defend victimised
students! - Punish the violence
of the state! - For
a mass movement to overthrow the coalition government!
