Direct action is now classified as "terrorism" in the UK with the jail sentence just handed down to four of the Filton 25.

 Kym Staton

Writer and Director

THE TRUST FALL

Direct action is now classified as "terrorism" in the UK with the jail sentence just handed down to four of the Filton 25.

On June 12, 2026, four activists involved in the Filton factory protest were sentenced with a "terrorism connection" applied: Samuel Corner received 8 years and 8 months, Charlotte Head and Leona Kamio were each sentenced to 6 years, and Fatema Zainab Rajwani received 5 years and 8 months.

George Orwell must be spinning in his grave as the British judiciary gleefully transforms 1984 from a dystopian warning into a step-by-step instruction manual, officially declaring that "War is Peace," colonial profits are sacred, and attempting to dismantle the machinery of a livestreamed genocide is the highest form of terrorism.

The draconian, politically motivated sentencing of the Filton 25 follows the exact same imperial playbook used to destroy Julian Assange: criminalise the truth-tellers in order to desperately protect the actual war criminals; if journalism is treated as espionage under the Espionage Act as seen with WikiLeaks, it is only a logical fascist progression that protesting a genocide is now treated as "terrorism" under the UK's Terrorism Act.

Assange proved conclusively that the empire will bend, break, and rewrite its own laws to crush dissent, exactly as the British judiciary is doing today by shielding Elbit Systems from the righteous moral outrage of the Filton 25.

The UK government, functioning as a pathetic vassal state to Washington and Tel Aviv, has completely weaponised the Terrorism Act 2000 to protect the profit margins of Israeli arms manufacturers over the fundamental democratic right to protest.

The corruption is clear. A video published by Double Down News this week investigated how the British government, allegedly pressured by Israeli lobbying, moved to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. It highlighted figures like "We Believe in Israel's" Katherine Shakdam and politicians funded by pro-Israel groups, arguing foreign interests were compromising British policy to silence activists protesting Elbit Systems. The investigation revealed secret meetings between officials, police, and Elbit executives to coordinate legal crackdowns. Documents suggested ministers pressured police to prioritise the arms manufacturer over peaceful protest, while Elbit reportedly operated an internal intelligence cell to surveil activists for police. It is properly mental.

We are witnessing the rapid, fascist criminalisation of dissent, where any meaningful direct action against the colonial war machine is instantly rubber-stamped with a "terrorism connection" to lock up peace activists for decades.

While Western media frantically demonises the Iranian resistance and the broader anti-colonial movement for standing up to Zionism, the true axis of terror sits comfortably in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv, like a synchronized smog machine pumping out a thick, choking exhaust of disinformation to hide the burning wreckage of the nations they plunder, criminalising those who dare to dismantle their colonial slaughterhouse.

WikiLeaks permanently shattered the illusion of Western moral superiority by exposing the structural, blood-soaked realities of the US war machine in Iraq, much like Palestine Action activists today expose the UK's horrific complicity in Gaza; furthermore, the years-long psychological torture of Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison was designed as a stark warning to anyone who dares to challenge the US-UK imperial consensus, a warning that is now being meted out to anti-genocide protesters.

Obviously, the real threat to global stability isn't the rogue ethnostate dropping 2,000-pound bombs on hospitals, but rather four British kids armed with nothing but sledgehammers and a conscience. Total bollocks.

Gosh, I sleep so much better at night knowing the UK counterterrorism police are bravely rescuing military supply chains from pro-Palestine activists, acting as taxpayer-funded security guards for a continent-sized graveyard, while the real heroes in Tel Aviv are busy starving two million captive civilians.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimates that Israel has dropped over 70,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip, utterly dwarfing the combined explosive yield of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Save the Children confirmed that more than 10 children per day have lost one or both of their legs in Gaza since October 2023, deliberately creating a traumatised generation of amputees.

According to Dr. Gideon Polya writing on www.countercurrents.org, when fully accounting for indirect deaths due to imposed deprivation, hunger, and disease, a staggering total of 680,000 Palestinian deaths is entirely plausible.

The Indigenous Palestinian population has faced a century-long genocide, with 7 million out of 14 million total Palestinians forced to live as stateless exiles forbidden from returning to their homeland on pain of death, and the 1918 Surafend Massacre of roughly 100 Palestinian men and boys by Anzac forces marked the violent, colonial beginning of this century-long, Western-backed Palestinian Genocide.

Whilst I don't endorse or partake in the destruction of property, in view of the sheer, unspeakable barbarity being inflicted on the Gazan population I can totally understand the frustration that led to the Filton 25 breaking into the factory and damaging war machinery. It is incredibly inspiring to see Western democracies tirelessly uphold human rights by supplying the heavy munitions to obliterate refugee camps and then heroically imprisoning the brave activists who try to block the shipments.

Thank God the British judicial system is protecting us from the existential threat of spray paint on Elbit Systems' walls while giving a complete free pass to the drone missiles vaporising toddlers in Gaza.

The draconian sentencing of the Filton 25 is a dark, Orwellian milestone where trying to peacefully halt a genocide is legally treated as vastly more criminal than actually committing one.

It exposes the dodgy system. The UK legal system has made its true allegiances crystal clear: It is officially a crime to damage the property of a weapons manufacturer and not crime at all to manufacture the weapons that slaughter children. It sickens any bloke.

We must stand together, raising our voices for the children of Gaza, for the brave activists in cold cells, and for our fragile humanity. Let us be the wrench in their gears - keep protesting, and never let this empire silence our roar.

We desperately need to shatter this media-induced trance by hurling a brick through the state's narrative window. 'THE TRUST FALL' film is the ultimate cure for blind compliance. It shreds sanitised broadcast filters, exposing the sheer depravity of the Western war apparatus. It's a crowbar for prying open conditioned skulls.

It is available for anyone in the world to view for free, but what it will take for it to reach more people is everyday mates chipping in and paying it forward - in order to amplify it.

Thanks to the financial support of donors, we were able to show THE TRUST FALL for free to 1,112 people in the past week. Let’s keep educating and building the momentum. Let's be a defiant spark against the suffocating pitch-black of empire.

Please support this educational project on gofundme: https://gofund.me/55f992e2 or PayPal: paypal.me/filmsforchange (Films For Change)

Watch ‘THE TRUST FALL’ film for FREE www.thetrustfall.org/watch

THE TRUST FALL is more than a film. It is a peace movement.

In solidarity,

Kym Staton

Writer and Director

THE TRUST FALL