Defend Our Juries march through streets of Cambridge for first time
The Defend Our Juries campaign graduated to the centre of Cambridge this weekend with a march and protest outside the Guildhall in market square highlighting the jail sentences handed down to street protesters, including four years for Grantchester teacher and Just Stop Oil supporter Louise Lancaster.
The event was supported by Silent Rebellion and Cambridge People’s Assembly Against Austerity, and featured The Lefty Singers performing songs, followed by a short play, plus a speech from Cambridge Defend Our Juries organiser Jenny Langley.
The Defend Our Juries group in the city has held 10 protests outside Cambridge Crown Court on East Road since the introduction of the Public Order Act of 2023, which introduced new criminal offences related to public protests, including locking on, tunnelling, obstructing transport and Interfering with infrastructure.
The first five campaigners to be incarcerated were found guilty of conspiracy to cause public nuisance in July, for coordinating direct action protests on the M25 over four days in November 2022.
The five included Cambridge student and Just Stop Oil activist Cressida Gethin, and Louise Lancaster; both are now serving four-year sentences.
At their Southwark Crown Court trial in the summer the judge, Christopher Hehir, ruled that the defendants were not able to give evidence about climate breakdown to the jury.
Removing this right to explain the motivations for their action prompted Michel Forst, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who attended part of the trial, to issue a statement at its conclusion, calling it “a dark day for peaceful environmental protest” in the UK.
He added: “Rulings like today’s set a very dangerous precedent, not just for environmental protest but any form of peaceful protest that may, at one point or another, not align with the interests of the government of the day.”
He concluded: “How a sentence of this magnitude can be either reasonable, proportional or serve a legitimate public purpose is beyond comprehension.”
Saturday’s event started at Christ’s Pieces, then participants marched with placards and a drummer into market square. After assembling outside Guildhall at 1.30pm, The Lefty Singers launched into their repertoire, starting with the classic Legal Illegal, followed up by Speak Truth to Power, One Heart Beating and then Our House Is On Fire.
The singers were followed by Jenny Langley, who told the small crowd and shoppers alike that “40 people have been incarcerated in our prisons for trying to protect life, some to save nature and some to save people in Gaza, a total of 40 Just Stop Oil and pro-Palestine”.
The first names of the 40 were read out and repeated by the throng that gathered around the protesters.
“These are all political prisoners,” claimed Jenny.
Next up was a play with a visitor from King’s Lynn playing a judge sentencing the planet to death “because we don’t want anyone inconvenienced”. One of the defendants was jailed because they “dared to disrupt the arms manufacturing industry, when we have the balance of trade to look after”.
A statement by Silent Rebellion said: “In these times it is essential that we protect the right of juries to hear the truth. This right is being eroded as judges stop defendants from talking about their reasons for taking action. As a consequence peaceful climate protesters are being sentenced to years in prison.”
The event concluded after a procession through the city centre.
Jenny Langley said afterwards: “Whilst The Lefty Men were singing away, one of their members, Tim Lancaster was visiting Louise in prison; one of the ways we keep in touch with her, so she knows what’s happening in Cambridge.
“We were really pleased that 300±plus leaflets were handed out and a good number of people already knew about the long sentence given to Louise. The word is getting out there and now we need the Attorney General to take note, to meet with our representatives and to obey international law. Saturday’s action was designed to get more people involved in Defend our Juries and their Free Political Prisoners campaign, and specifically to join the next Cambridge Crown Court sit on 8th November.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We recognise the democratic right that people must be free to peacefully express their views, but they should do so within the bounds of the law.”
