Enough is Enough! National Day of Action Protest in Leeds

Gabriel Kennedy on 31 October 2022

On the 1st of October, protesters nationwide braved the rain and took to the streets in a day of action organised by the Enough is Enough campaign to challenge the growing Cost of Living Crisis. The rally marched from the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers’ (RMT) picket line at Leeds Train Station on to protest outside the British Gas offices. Later, protestors moved on to support the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) picket down at the Royal Mail Holbeck delivery office. The protest made a clear point of showing the interconnectedness of industrial action and the Cost of Living Crisis, as well as the failures of national leadership.

Outside the British Gas offices in Holbeck protestors symbolically burned energy bills, energy company logos and fake money. During their speeches, union representatives and protestors denounced profiteering by energy, rail and postal companies amid record profits. The Regional Coordinator for the campaign described the volumes of people they’d met struggling to meet their bills and put food on the table despite working 60-hour weeks. As energy companies continue to see high profits and shareholders rake in enormous bonuses, the Coordinator saw the causes of the Cost of Living Crisis as very simple: “It’s just putting profit above everything else isn’t it – it’s just greed.”

Embodying its name – Enough is Enough – the atmosphere was one of a shift away from complacency toward taking action after having put up with far too much. Saturday’s protest brought together a variety of people of different ages from different backgrounds to challenge the status quo and fight for a better standard of living. One protester discussed how they hadn’t protested other issues they felt strongly about – such as Brexit – but that things had got so bad that they had no choice but to come out into the street. They described how the looming presence of the Cost of Living Crisis had become unavoidable and everyone had been affected by it – they themself having to seriously re-evaluate their bills and cutting back on their spending. They felt shocked, coming from a line of union activists from the 1926 General Strike to Yorkshire miners in the 1980s, that today things would still be this bad.

Strikers on picket lines at both the train station and delivery office were met with an outpouring of support and solidarity from protestors who came to lend their numbers to the picket and hear their grievances. At the delivery office in “Hellbeck” – so-called by Royal Mail management due to their total unionisation and refusal to let slack on the protection of their fellow workers – picketers were cheered by the crowd in support of their fight for an inflation-line pay-rise and the continuation of their worker protections. This was emblematic of the nationwide wave of industrial action set to continue throughout the winter. The increased rate of striking and worker militancy, especially in the face of government threats against union organisation has been clearly and deliberately linked to the fight against the Cost of Living Crisis by this protest, with great support from its attendees. A regular chant from protestors throughout the rally was “Every Strike, Every Time, We’ll be on the Picket Line!”

Saturday’s protest emphasised the importance of solidarity and mutual support in the face of the growing crisis and its turnout across the country highlights the growth of discontent that only seems to be growing as we head into what will certainly be a difficult winter.

Image Credit: Gabriel Kennedy

European Film Institutions call for the Freedom of Incarcerated Iranian Dissident Mohammad Rasoulof

Owen Frost on 9 April 2020

Mohammad Rasoulof, director of the recent There Is No Evil, who was recently incarcerated in Iran, has gained international attention from many filmmakers and institutions since his Iranian jail sentence. Institutions such as European Film Academy (EFA), the Deutsche Filmakademie, Accademia del cinema Italiano-Premi David di Donatello, the Cannes Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and many others have all issued statements expressing their deepest concerns.

Rasoulof was recently imprisoned for one-year according to his lawyer, for allegedly “attacking the security of the state” following the “propaganda” content in There Is No Evil. The sentence also demanded he stop making films for two years. However, it is time for more filmmakers and directors to stand up against the Iranian government’s blatant censorship and punishment of dissident art. 

Rasoulof was unable to attend the February Berlin International Film Festival ceremony to collect his prize for There Is No Evil, a film connecting four stories about involvement in the death penalty in Iran. Executive producer Kaveh Farnam claims that the wave of political executions in 1988 was what ultimately inspired the film. Rasoulof’s own experience of lack of freedom of expression has also been noted in the film’s message of freedom and humanity under despotic regimes. 

Indeed, There Is No Evil is openly critical of the Iranian justice system and its use of the death penalty. Iran has been described by international human rights scholar Javaid Rehman in his 2018 UN General Assembly address as having “one of the highest death penalty rates in the world”. According to Amnesty International, it is still behind China as the world’s leading state executioner and leads the way in terms of the execution of minors. Homosexuality is still considered an offence punishable by death in Iran. 

The stakes were extremely high for Mohammad Rasoulof and crew, and all involved knew the risk that they were taking in defying the authoritarian regime. The film was made under complete secrecy and producer Farzad Pak thanked “the amazing cast and crew who put their lives in danger to be on this film”. The creative ways in which Rasoulof clandestinely defied the regime are astounding: with Rasoulof giving direction to scenes shot in an airport through an assistant, not having his name appear on any official documentation and shooting many scenes in remote regions of Iran. 

However, in a recent statement, Rasoulof wanted the outcry to not only affect successful directors such as himself and Panahi but also to extend to the younger independent filmmaking generation who have not got the same resources to circumvent Iran’s intrusive activities. Farnam claims that many independent filmmakers have even turned to work on the Iranian government’s own film projects due to the lack of funds at their disposal. The resourcing gap is evident: the Iranian government have the helicopters and unlimited logistical and financial systems to shut down a whole street, as opposed to independent filmmakers where this is purely “impossible”.  

This is not the first time that Iran has used its authoritarian powers to ban film directors from creating dissident films. In November 2019, action from over 200 Iranian film industry members came when Kianoush Ayari’s film The Paternal House was banned a week after its opening weekend in Iran. Well known Iranian director Jafar Panahi back in 2011 was also convicted of making “propaganda films” and sentenced to 20 years film-free.  

Rasoulof and other Iranian directors continue to make films under increasingly unfair sanctions. In his powerful Berlinale Skype speech broadcasted to the world from his daughter’s phone, he highlights that everyone “can actually say no, and that’s their strength.” It is imperative not to forget about Rasoulof’s and others’ crucial films which lobby unfair regimes across the world. We must join the outspoken film institutions in support of these oppressed directors who rightfully express their freedom of expression through art.

Image Credit: Screen Daily