Note to trade unionists: The following text has been compiled to help you frame a motion on this topic to your union branch or annual congress. Feel free to take as much or as little as you deem suitable, depending on the rules operating in your organisation, and to choose from or adapt the final demands depending on the sector in which you work. Remember that any points you leave out of the motion itself can always be brought into your speech in support of the motion.
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This [conference]* notes with grave concern the arrest and harassment of noted journalists and political figures.
Over a period of just over two years, Steve Sweeney, Kit Klarenberg, Richard Medhurst, Dr Ranjeet Brar and George and Gayatri Galloway have all been arrested, either on their arrival into Britain or at a pro-Palestine protest.
This [conference] further notes the arrest and state-backed harassment of these journalists and political figures by British police, which has included:
- The Grayzone’s Kit Klarenberg, a British born, Serbian-based journalist, who was detained on 17 May 2023 by six plain-clothes police officers under Schedule 3, Section 4 of the 2019 Counter-Terrorism and Border Act. Mr Klarenberg was interrogated for over five hours on his journalistic work, which included, according to Mr Klarenberg himself, questioning on “his personal opinion on everything from the current British political leadership to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. His trade union, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), withdrew its support for Mr Klarenberg shortly after his arrest.
- On 25 November 2023, Dr Ranjeet Brar, a surgeon and senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) (CBGB-ML), was arrested while on a party stall at a pro-Palestine demonstration in London. He was accused by the police of committing a ‘racial offence’ when the party stall he was attending was selling a book which detailed the history and origins of zionism. Copies of the book were confiscated by the police at the time of Dr Brar’s arrest, while one of the arresting officers told onlookers that “free speech has limits” as Dr Brar was put into the police van.
- Richard Medhurst, a Syrian-born British independent journalist, was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport on 15 August 2024 and detained under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He was removed from the plane he had boarded by five plain-clothed police officers and one wearing tactical gear, not offered legal support and detained for 24 hours. In May 2025, some nine months after his arrest, the police sent Mr Medhurst’s file to the Crown Prosecution Service for them to determine whether to prosecute him with terrorism. Mr Medhurst has refused to give up the passwords to his electronic devices, which in itself could lead to his imprisonment for up to five years under this country’s brutal ‘anti-terrorism’ laws.
- Steve Sweeney, a former foreign correspondent for the Morning Star and now working for RT, was arrested on 11 July 2025 whilst travelling on a plane from Beirut to London Heathrow Airport. Mr Sweeney was detained, had DNA samples and fingerprints taken and his electronic devices seized. He is currently under investigation under ‘anti-terrorism’ legislation and has since left this country via Ethiopia. He cannot return to the country of his birth to see his friends or family under pain of arrest and subsequent charges. Mr Sweeney has reported extensively on the crimes of Nato/Ukraine against the people of the Donbass and on the crimes of Israel against the peoples of southern Lebanon and Beirut.
- George Galloway, leader of the Workers’ Party of Britain and his wife Gayatri were arrested at Gatwick Airport on Sunday 28 September when returning to Britain on a flight from Abu Dhabi. Mr and Mrs Galloway were travelling back from Russia when they were arrested and detained and questioned for four and five hours respectively. Their mobile phones and laptop were seized and Mr Galloway missed his engagement to speak at an event in London that was attended by the Chinese ambassador.
All of these journalists and political figures were arrested under various pieces of ‘anti-terrorism’ legislation in statute and have been subject to a variety of violations of their personal freedoms and rights, including prolonged detainment, interrogation, having their bank cards and their electronic devices seized and their DNA and fingerprints taken. They have all been threatened with charges, exiled and/or subjected to a prolonged and deeply stressful process only to have any charges against them quietly dropped.
This [conference] believes that Britain’s absolute plethora of anti-terrorism legislation is not intended to prevent terrorism at all, but is specifically drafted and enforced to crush dissent and intimidate journalists and political activists who have highlighted the many crimes of British imperialism into silence.
As the British ruling class continues its inexorable decline, and workers feel the full force of relentless attacks on their pay, conditions, public services and communities, organisations like trade unions, whose reps and activists toil every day to defend their members from these attacks, will inevitably find themselves in the crosshairs of the state.
This [conference] therefore resolves to:
- Convey the terms of this motion to the [insert appropriate body].
- Call upon the [insert appropriate executive body] of this trade union to found and lead a campaign that will publicise this issue amongst the wider working class, and will come to the defence of journalists, political activists and anyone else who challenges the actions of the British ruling class, ensuring that they are able to tell the truth about imperialist crimes without pernicious state persecution.
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* Change as required: eg, branch, meeting, union etc.
