Non Violent Direct Action  - Greenpeace Latest

On the 29th of October, 2025, a team of Greenpeace activists installed prison bars around three iconic statues in Parliament Square to highlight the government’s apparent desire to cast protesters as criminals and terrorists. The activists imprisoned statues of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and the Suffragist Millicent Fawcett – all famous protesters who helped end injustice and secure democratic freedoms. But despite being celebrated as heroes at the heart of Westminster, they could fall foul of the government’s anti-protest laws and be branded as criminals if they were still protesting today. 

It comes as analysis by Greenpeace shows that of all the arrests made under the Terrorism Act since it came into force 24 years ago, almost half of them (2,100 out of 4,322) occurred in the last four months, and targeted people holding signs at silent vigils against the proscription of Palestine Action. The Greenpeace analysis also showed that the Crown Prosecution Service has charged more people (144) with terror-related offences in just two months of 2025 than in any entire year since 2001, including the years of the 7/7 bombings and the Westminster, London Bridge and Manchester Arena attacks. 

Building on anti-protest laws brought in by the last government, the Labour government is attempting to introduce even more powers in the Crime and Policing Bill. These would enable police to ban protests near churches and religious buildings – essentially powers to restrict protest in any urban area – and to ban face coverings at protests – even for religious or health reasons. The Crime and Policing Bill is currently making its way through the House of Lords.

The government plans to introduce new police powers to ban repeat protests based on their ‘cumulative impact’. The ‘cumulative impact’ of repeated disruptive protests by Fawcett, Gandhi, Mandela and the movements they led were votes for women in the UK, an independent India, and the end of Apartheid in South Africa.