Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the civil servants’ PCS union has condemned a magistrates court verdict against UAF officer Martin Smith.
Martin, who is also national coordinator of Love Music Hate Racism, was arrested at last year’s protest against BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on the BBC Question Time programme. Magistrates today convicted him of assault on a police officer on the word of a single police officer, despite the lack of evidence against him. He has been sentenced to a 12-month community order, with 80 hours’ unpaid work, and has been fined £450.
Mark, who spoke in support of Martin at a rally outside the court, issued an immediate rejoinder after the verdict. He said:
I am shocked at the verdict delivered in a magistrates court today, in the absence of any evidence, that Martin Smith, national co-ordinator of Love Music Hate Racism, was guilty of assault on a police officer at the demonstration outside of the BBC on 22 October 2009, against Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time.
What you can do
Martin was present at a perfectly legitimate protest against the BBC for giving airspace to a fascist and racist organisation and their repugnant views.
The sentence of 80 hours’ community service that has been handed to Martin is a travesty of justice.
There is a danger that verdicts such as these provide encouragement for the abhorrent views of racist and fascist organisations and therefore it is crucial that across the labour movement we stand united in our condemnation of it.
At PCS we will re-double our efforts to campaign against the far right, including organisations such as the BNP and English Defence League and we will continue to support Martin and other anti fascist campaigners when they are treated in such an unjust, outrageous way.
PCS will work with UAF and LMHR to fight the far right wherever we can and also to highlight the unequal way in which anti-fascist campaigners and activists are treated in comparison with racist and fascist thugs.
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