Joint Statement: Michael Gove’s Extremism Announcement is an Authoritarian Threat to Society that We will Resist

Today Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, announced a new and expanded definition of extremism and named some of our groups. His announcement is a continuation of the decades-long strategy aimed at inciting and exploiting fears against Muslims to build an authoritarian and repressive infrastructure that suppresses any dissent that is not licensed by Whitehall.

We the undersigned:
- Reject the rationale of counter-extremism policy in Britain that serves only to strengthen the state’s coercive powers without any pretence of due process or judicial oversight.
- We will continue to engage in political activity, protest, and direct action for the public good, outside of the narrow constraints of ‘licensed dissenters’ which this new definition will seek to impose.
- We note that defining extremism has been a failed endeavor, despite multiple prime ministers and seven years of the CCE and nearly two decades since PREVENT was brought in.

We demand the following:
- The Government be held to account for aiding and abetting the Genocide in Gaza and weaponising ‘extremism’ to shield itself.
- The abolition of the authoritarian and repressive infrastructure of laws built on the back of counter-terror and counter-extremism powers.
- For civil liberties' NGOs and communities to express solidarity with each other in unified rejection of these proposals.

Collectively we will explore all avenues, including legal, to challenge the Government’s deep dive into authoritarianism.

Signed:
CAGE International
Palestine Action
Black Lives Matter UK
Sisters Uncut 
Copwatch Network 
London Student Action for Palestine
Netpol
Workers for a Free Palestine
No More Exclusions
Palestine Youth Movement