The Criminalization of Political Dissent Series (original) (raw)

Criminalisation of political activism a conversation across disciplines

Critical Studies on Security, 2023

Fabio Cristiano, Deanna Dadusc, Tracey Davanna, Koshka Duff, Joanna Gilmore, Chris Rossdale, Federica Rossi, Adan Tatour, Lana Tatour, Waqas Tufail & Elian Weizman. This Intervention presents a conversation amongst a collective of scholars who are in the process of establishing a research network studying the criminalisation of dissent. The new UK Police, Crime, Sentencing, Courts Act 2022 is just one recent example of attempts by ‘liberal democratic’ states to criminalise political activism and restrict the right to protest. Similar legislative measures, repressive policing practices, and discourses delegitimating dissent can be observed across a variety of geographic and socio-political contexts. In this discussion, we interrogate both the concept of ‘criminalisation of political activism’ and the practices through which criminalisation is enacted by sharing examples and analyses from our research. We approach criminalisation as a process that changes with circumstances and is shaped by a multiplicity of state and non-state actors and agencies, and question the analytical gentrifica- tion that narrows resistance and rebellion to the exclusionary category of activism. Our different disciplinary and regional foci bring together the historical and the contemporary, the (liberal) settler colony and (colonial) liberal democracy, to reflect collectively on the formal and informal tools, technologies and strategies used to criminalise dissent. The conversation took place in November 2022 and was then transcribed and lightly edited for clarity.

Criminalising Dissent: A closing space for civil society

A closing space for civil society? A report on a roundtable discussion on the criminalisation of dissent in Britain (and beyond): https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/secp/2019/04/03/a-closing-space-for-civil-society-a-report-on-a-roundtable-discussion-on-the-criminalisation-of-dissent-in-britain-and-beyond-by-francesca-kilpatrick/

Criminalizing the Political in a Digital Age

There is an emergent interest by criminologists in theorising problems that arise when states breach conventional legal norms. This article considers the criminali- sation of ‘whistleblowing’ by Manning, Assange and Snowden that revealed illegal actions by the state and major breaches of US and western security intelligence operations. The article asks what such developments mean for the conceptual and normative status of politics and crime constituted in the western liberal frame? It is about criminologists who rely on that paradigm and the need to counter neo-conservative agendas. The article analyzes liberal constitutional democracies with an emphasis on the US. It draws on the work of German theorists Schmitt and Benjamin who stand outside the liberal tradition to highlight how modern states frequently suspends the rule of law and relies on their own sovereign power to declare ‘states of emergency’ to render their own criminal conduct lawful.

Criminalising the Poltical In the Digital Age

There is an emergent interest by criminologists in theorising problems that arise when states breach conventional legal norms. This article considers the criminalisation of ‘whistleblowing’ by Manning, Assange and Snowden that revealed illegal actions by the state and major breaches of US and western security intelligence operations. The article asks what such developments mean for the conceptual and normative status of politics and crime constituted in the western liberal frame? It is about criminologists who rely on that paradigm and the need to counter neo-conservative agendas. The article analyzes liberal constitutional democracies with an emphasis on the US. It draws on the work of German theorists Schmitt and Benjamin who stand outside the liberal tradition to highlight how modern states frequently suspends the rule of law and relies on their own sovereign power to declare ‘states of emergency’ to render their own criminal conduct lawful.

Criminalizing Dissent: Western State Repression, Video Activism, and Counter-Summit Protests

This essay looks at two major developments regarding activist uses of video during street protests in Western industrialized countries, which can help historically frame more recent uses of video activism by groups like WeCopWatch and Black Lives Matter: (1) how video and digital media-making has become a central activist tactic especially in exposing state violence through alternative frameworks and distribution networks, providing evidence in court to clear protesters of inflated charges of criminal conduct, and offering material support for those charged; and (2) how the state has increasingly criminalized dissent by extending the definition of “domestic terrorism” to include many forms of civil disobedience and direct action protest, which has legitimated the police in attacking and arresting media-makers attending such protests. I place particular emphasis upon the 2003 FTAA (Free Trade of the Americas) protests in Miami and the 2008 RNC (Republican National Convention) protests in St. Paul since they represent turning points with regard to Western state repression against protesters and independent media as well as indicate some of the innovative strategies video activists have utilized to counter such repression.