Foretaste of the Police Bill

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This Saturday, January 21, the National Campaign against the Police Bill is calling a demonstration - 11.30am from Brockwell Park, South London. The Bill would seriously restrict the rights of suspects and of citizens, and increase police powers. A foretaste of it has been given by police methods in cases like the Newham Eight - and the four Welsh nationalists acquitted in Cardiff Crown Court last November after a 16 month trial, who tell their story in this article. The four were David Burns, Robert Griffiths, Nicholas Hodges, and Adrian Stone.

1. REMAND. Three of us spent between six and nine months in prison on remand, awaiting trial. Cardiff magistrates remanded us week after week on the say-so of the police, making no attempt to inquire into tne strength of the allegations against us; one defendant was kept in prison for six months on a charge that was subsequently dropped! During our period of prison custody, two of us lost our jobs. Yet in Britain, unlike other DEC states, we are not automatically entitled to compensation for this scandalous injustice.

In Scotland, the State prosecutor must bring a case to trial within 110 days of arrest and charge; under the English legal system, the State could take more than 400 days to prepare for our show trial. 2. EVIDENCE. The central and essential evidence against three of us was that we had supposedly 'confessed' our part in terrorist activities to police officers in the police station - by word of mouth only, having written and signed nothing. We have always denied making such incriminating remarks.

This use of 'verbals' - unsigned, unsubstantiated police accounts of alleged interviews _ has been condemned by every professional legal body for decades. As in some American states and European countries, 'verbals' should not be admissable as evidence in court -unless they can be confirmed by a tape-recording of the interview, or the presence there of a suspect's solicitor. 3. SEARCHES. A major element in the evidence against one defendant was the alleged 'discovery' of a chemical at his house. The defendant has always claimed that this substance was 'planted' in his house by the police.

Police searches in serious cases should take place in the presence of a solicitor. The current system, under which magistrates have scattered search warrants around like contetti, must be reformed. 4. POLICE CUSTODY. Most of our court case boiled down to a single question for the jury: Do you believe the police accounts of what was said and done when the defendants were in the police station, or do you tend to •ace the " defendants' version of events?

All of us insist that we were 'verbalised' offered deals, and threatened; two of us mainwin that we were physically 9spnied; one of us was brutal. bed into signing a false confession. The jury did not accept the police accounts of supposed serviews, not did they accept the signed confession as trie and voluntary.

In future, there must be safesuards for people in police custody. Immediate access to a solicitor, and the right of (for example) Police Authority members to inspect police stations unannounced, would be a start. 5. CONSPIRACY. Conspiracy Charges are notorious for their use in Britain - especially in Wales - against political and trade union dissidents. They are' a substitute for real evidence of criminal activity. They permit the prosecution to introduce all sorts of prejudicial matter into a. trial - as was an abundant feature of this trial.

In his summing-up, Judge Farquharson told the jury that if they accepted the Defence case, they the jurors would be agreeing that numerous - and very senior - officers from four different police forces had conspired to fabricate evidence on a massive scale. So who conspired against whom? We let the jury's verdicts answer that question. 6. TRIAL BY JURY. Had we been tried in Northern Ireland, all of us would undoubtedly have been found guilty in a non-jury Diplock Court. As it was, we had the protection of trial by jury. Even then, considering how enormous are the powers and resources of the State, justice is not certain. We were fortunate to have twelve courageous and independentminded people to weigh up the 'evidence' against us.

But there are moves of heavy equipment [in 1983] was anything from a third to 60 per cent lower than at the late 1970s peaks...", reports the Financial Times.

Even in America, where the economic upturn has been strongest, "Capital spending in US manufacturing industries... was probably down 8 per cent last year.... In the UK, fixed investment in manufacturing industry was probably unchanged from... 1982" - when it was 25% below the 1979 level.

Only computer-aided design and manufacturing systems and robots are seeing any sort of sales boom, In machine tools, 'the order book is picking up strongly in the US, but from a abolish trial-by-jury in at least some cases in Britain. Indeed, during our trial a Lord Justice in the Appeal Court delivered a speech in Cardiff in which he dwelt upon the alleged 'burdens', 'inadequacies' and even 'injustices' of the jury system. 7. AN INQUIRY. Following the verdicts in our case, an internal police inquiry is taking place into our allegations against the police. We have no faith that such an inquiry can be sufficiently impartial in its considerations and ruthless in its conclusions. Our allegations are very serious ones: we would not in all fairness expect any police officer - however honest and forthright - to find 20 fellow officers (up to the rank of Chief Superintendant) guilty of conspiracy, fabrication, forgery, perjury, physical assault, making threats and inducements, etc., etc.

Those are our charges, which we are prepared to argue and substantiate in front of any inquiry, even a one-sided police one. But the truth and justice would be better served by a more independent inquiry, such as one established by the Home Office or the Welsh Council for Civil and Political Liberties. 8. THE MASS MEDIA. Outside Wales, our trial and tribulations have received almost no publicity whatsoever. Despite the recent history of police swoops, mass arrests, frequent Special Branch intimidation and surveilvery depressed base... In Europe, machine tool builders are still not certain that an improvement in orders is occurring"

In short, the present economic upturn is likely to be shallow and short-lived. Although investment in services is higher than investment in manufacturing, there is no sign of a major development of new enterprise such as would fuel a real boom.

Profits are rising. In Britain, the share of profits in total value added has risen noticeably since 1981, mainly thanks to a big increase in productivity -i.e. fewer workers doing more work. The rate of return on capital has risen, too.

However, increased profits do not automatically mean new ventures. They can just as well burden of debt which most com24, lance, protests and pickets outside police stations in Wales, culminating in this disgraceful show trial, these events and the issues raised by them have been ignored by the London-based 'British' newspapers, i television and radio services.

Had this police persecution and show trial occurred in the Soviet Bloc, the publicity throughout Britain would have been enormous. Mrs Thatcher and Mr Reagan would have denounced this hounding of political dissidents, the fabricated evidence, the KGB methods, the political charges, imprisonment without trial and so on. But when it happens here, all we have in the freedomloving British mass media is :.. silence.

We were arrested - on this and other occasions - because of our political views and activities. Our political and civil rights have been upheld by a brave jury. We remain what we have always been - Socialists and Welsh patriots.

The British State has become more openly oppressive in its treatment of political dissidents in recent years. The Police and Criminal Evidence Bill should be seen in this context. We urge all people who treasure democratic rights to rally to their defence, to support the political and civil liberties organisations which give priority to this crucial struggie.

pace panies (in Britain and elsewheře) built up over the 1970s.

Two major factors restricting capitalist expansion are the low level of spending on capital projects by governments, and the high level of interest rates. Both are connected to the 'tight money' policies being pursued by most capitalist governments.

Those policies are not just dogma, though. A relaxation would probably mean some sort of boom. But the governments fear that it would also mean roaring inflation, massive balance-of-payments gaps and swings in currency exchange rates, chaos, and a new slump.

And on recent experience they are right. The big capitalist economies today dare not accelerate above walking pace for fear that as soon as they break into a trot their pulses will start racing and their hearts complaining at the strain.

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At THROUGHOUT the world, "demand for most types

a walki ng

be directed into bigger divi- dends or into reducing the big