Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper have announced they will proscribe Palestine Action as a 'terrorist group'.

We at Organise Magazine would like to express our support of Palestine Action. Making a statement such as this will shortly become punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Such support does not come without criticism and nuanced analysis, however there is a time and place for such fine pointing and it is not as our comrades face a tidal wave of legal brutality which would illegalise their rightful, anti-genocide, political action.

The proscribing of Palestine Action (PA) is the latest increase in authoritarian control in the UK. Throughout the 21st century successive UK governments have twisted the definition of terrorism. Outside of the halls of parliament, when people hear the word terrorism they have a specific meaning in mind; the indiscriminate killing of civilians in a way intended to spread fear in the wider population. Where as inside parliament it broadened to mean almost any act of violence - as long as the people doing it opposed by the UK government. If the UK or its allies were the ones doing the violence, it was either a brave and necessary military operation, or an unfortunate incident of collateral damage. The biggest expansion came when the term 'Terrorism' was merged with 'Extremism'. Extremism itself had already been broadened to mean any political views that disagreed with 'established norms', direct and disruptive political actions, and even considerably more mild actions such as sustained letter writing campaigns. Now with extremism considered just another part of terrorism, any act of resistance can make you a terrorist. We now live in a country where it is possible to be a pacifist terrorist.

People like Palestine Action who peacefully seek to prevent the creation and use of weapons in a genocide are more violent in the eyes of the state than those who enable the genocide. Palestine Action are the latest in a long line of those who have taken non-violent action to resist war, all would of course now be branded terrorists by the government. The anarchists and fellow travellers who decommissioned the EDO arms factory in 2009, The Pitstop Ploughshares Christians who smashed a US navy plane in 2003, The women of Greenham Common, all now terrorists. It reveals the lie of Liberal Democracy, the pretence that we live under fair and just laws. All the members of the first two groups were found not guilty in courts, and many of the latter were never even taken to court. However their role in resisting the military industrial complex would have them branded as terrorist if Keir Starmer had his way.

Behind the scenes the state has always viewed us this way. Those of us who ask too many questions, stand up against injustice, and those of us who risk committing the worst crime of all - successfully bringing about change. The family of Steven Lawrence who were seeking justice after his murderers were let off due to police racism were investigated by counter terrorism police. Countless thousands of protesters have had their personal information stored on databases of potential 'domestic extremists'. Prevent has reported school children to the police and intelligence services for holding extremist views like 'maybe we shouldn't kill the planet we live on for profit'. In fact declassified documents have shown the UK government has spent a century or more spying on nearly every left-wing, anti-war, anarchist, environmentalist or anti-racist group that has existed here.

The more public statements and actions about how our 'right' to protest needs to be curtailed have been pretty unmissable as well. The over dramatic rhetoric in the papers is near constant background noise; 'outside agitators', 'dangerous anarchists', 'aggressive protesters', 'uncontrollable thugs'. There have of course been many more concrete steps. The rise of Extinction Rebellion's disruptive actions in the capital drew not just ire from the (then ruling) Tories, but the creation of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. This made it clear the UK state was more than willing to criminalise dissent. It was followed by Lord Walney's report on 'political violence'. Alongside much discussion of extinction rebellion, the report spoke extensively about the Kill The Bill movement attempting to prevent the Act from passing. Perhaps not surprising that this direct challenge to police state authoritarianism was seen as a priority, and we know our friends in Bristol Anarchist Federation consider their many mentions in this section a badge of honour. Despite a lot of chatter, including extinction rebellion being listed as an 'extremist ideology' by counter terror police, the Tories never went as far as proscribing any of these groups, but circumstances would align under Labour.

Palestine Action is being singled out for a number of reasons. For a start they are effective. Their disruption and damage of arms factories linked to the genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli state is impossible to ignore. They aren't just doing damage, they were doing so as part of a mass popular movement in support of Palestine, one that largely refused to condemn them or their tactics. They are also relentless with no signs of going away any time soon. Then there is the diplomatic pressure. Israel is one of the UK's most important allies, and they have been open about their fury about this continuing affront to their power. The final key reason was that the ground work had already been laid. Under eight different Prime Ministers the work to make dissent in the UK synonymous with terrorism had been continuing, and now it just needed a group and an excuse. The group in the state's crosshairs was Palestine Action, and the daubing of paint on planes at an RAF base was just the excuse. If it hadn't been this, it would have been another action, and if Palestine Action hadn't provided one Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper would have simply lied about one. Much Yvette's fabrication that Palestine Action had terrorised staff by throwing 'smoke bombs' at them. Back in reality Palestine Action had just sat on a roof holding flares as staff calmly left below.

The UK government has been building a police state brick by brick for a number of decades now. While in opposition our1 political parties may speak out against it, but once in power the go awfully quiet. They don't roll back the repressive laws, and they don't put in new guarantees of freedom. We cannot vote ourselves out of this authoritarian nightmare. We must stand against every aspect of it. Surveillance, anti-protest laws, 'liberal' use of the word terrorism, and of course a media landscape designed to whip up fear and support for it all. If we let ourselves be picked off one by one we've already lost, if people across the spectrum from 'polite but concerned lefty' to 'angry anarcho punk' can stand in solidarity we're in with a shot. If we all stand up and say:

In solidarity with the people of Palestine, and with all those who fight such appalling brutality at the hands of the state.

Palestine Action's Statement: