Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
 Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers    | |
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 Keir Starmer is ‘demonstrably not a socialist’ | |
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers (HSSL) is a socialist and legal campaigning organisation in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1930 to provide legal support to the then Labour government. The Society was named after Viscount Haldane, a Liberal and subsequently Labour Party politician, who had been Lord Chancellor in H. H. Asquith's government from 1912 to 1915 and subsequently in 1924 during the first ever Labour administration.
Sir Stafford Cripps, Clement Attlee and John Platts-Mills were members.
Contents
Affiliations
HSSL is now politically independent, unlike the Society of Labour Lawyers, which is affiliated to the Labour Party, and was formed after the society split in 1949 over the question of membership for members of the Communist Party.
On the international level, the Haldane Society is a member of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and European Democratic Lawyers.
Officers
HSSL President is Michael Mansfield QC. Vice Presidents are:
- Geoffrey Bindman QC
- Louise Christian
- Liz Davies
- Tess Gill
- Tony Gifford QC
- Richard Harvey
- John Hendy QC
- Helena Kennedy QC
- Imran Khan QC
- Gareth Peirce
- Estella Schmidt
- Jeremy Smith
- Frances Webber
- David Watkinson
Elected at the HSSL AGM on 9 February 2021 are Chairs Declan Owens and Hannah Webb.[1]
Condemnation of Keir Starmer
On 10 February 2021, SKWAWKBOX reported:
Labour leader Keir Starmer has been dramatically kicked out of the venerable Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. The society, which was established more than ninety years ago, held its Annual General Meeting last night and decided that Starmer is unfit for membership.
The AGM condemned:
- Starmer’s ‘appalling policy positions’
- his manoeuvres to force Labour MPs to support a bill to allow ‘intelligence sources’ – including civilians – to commit crimes
- his disregard for migrants’ rights
- his assault on free speech
- his behaviour over schools during the pandemic
- his lack of support for unions
- his inaction on anti-Black and anti-Muslim racism
- his inaction over abuse of transgender people
Demonstrably not a socialist
The Society also concluded that Keir Starmer is unfit for membership because he is ‘demonstrably not a socialist’ and is at odds with its principles – and condemned his behaviour ‘in the strongest terms’.
Starmer had resigned from the society when he became Director of Public Prosecutions, so the society was unable to expel him – but he will not be allowed to rejoin in future unless he is able to persuade a future society AGM to overturn the resolution and let him back in.[2]
Condemnation of the PCSCB
On 17 March 2021, HSSL announced:
The Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers condemns the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSCB) which passed its second reading on 16th March 2021. We are gravely concerned that this Bill contains multiple threats to the right to peaceful protest, lacks adequate measures to protect women, will serve to criminalise communities and is a bonfire of our basic civil liberties.
We further note that despite its gravity, the PCSCB has been rushed through by the Government at an alarming and opportunistic rate; giving less than a week between its publication and second reading. This is a derisory timescale, and has meant that the general public, affected communities MPs and their staff, have been obstructed and denied the opportunity to fully understand what the devastating impact of this Bill will be. The Bill passed with an exclusively Tory vote of 359 votes for and a cross party vote of 263 against, with Labour MPs being told to vote against it.
This Bill should be seen as a continuation of the slide to authoritarianism that this country has seen in recent times at the hands of a Tory government. This attack on our basic civil liberties should be seen in the same context as the Trade Union Act 2016, the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill (the ‘Spycops Bill’) and the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill.
The PCSCB, dubbed the ‘Police Crackdown Bill’, will:
- Further extend already draconian police powers, giving them new powers against static protests, granting the ability to impose allocated times and where they can be held, and enforce maximum noise limits (amongst other measures);
- Prevent protests outside Parliament;
- Expand powers to shut down peaceful demonstrations;
- Introduce new offences for protesters, including on the basis of causing “serious annoyance”;
- Increase penalties and lower the thresholds for breaching police conditions on protests;
- Reduce public access to the countryside by creating a trespass offence, which will serve to criminalise the way of life of Gypsy and Traveller communities.
It is also worth noting that the Ministry of Justice, the courts and the wider justice system have been allocated no extra funding from the Treasury in its recent Budget to accommodate the demands of the PCSCB.
As well as serving to criminalise communities, the implications and scope of this Bill are huge for any individuals calling for economic, environmental and social change, and further criminalises the right to challenge existing power structures.
We urge the government to scrap the above provisions. We urge the Labour Party to do more to oppose the Bill and continue to stand against it. We call on our members, comrades, concerned activists and targeted communities to publicly condemn the PCSCB. The Haldane Society stands in solidarity with the individuals, groups and MPs who have publicly opposed the Bill, as well as those most affected by it.[3]
References
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