<div>The Free Speech Union (FSU) is a non-partisan, mass membership public interest body that stands up for the speech rights of its members and campaigns for free speech more widely.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Since the FSU’s formation in 2020 we’ve taken on over 2,500 cases, helping people who’ve been punished for exercising their right to lawful free speech, either in the workplace or the public square – and where these cases have been concluded we’ve achieved a favourable outcome 74% of the time.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>The Fighting Fund</strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Please donate to this crowdfunder to help us keep fighting for free speech in the UK.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Any money you donate will go to the FSU litigation fund to help pay the legal expenses of:
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>•	defending the free speech of our members
</div>
<div>•	bringing legal cases or commissioning legal advice in defence of free speech
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Any money you donate will go towards paying for the best affordable lawyers. We keep costs down by providing in-house legal support and negotiating reduced fees.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We have set a target for July 2024 to April 2025 of £50,000. Any money left over in the fundraiser at the end of this period will be transferred to our general funds.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Our previous FSU Fighting Fund, which ran over four years, raised £119,280.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>Recent legal victories</strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The work we do that makes the headlines is just the tip of the iceberg. But here are a few of our high-profile cases from the past 12 months, all of which depended on the financial support of our donors and members.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>•	Rail conductor Simon Isherwood was fired from West Midland Trains for asking whether indigenous populations in African countries enjoy ‘black privilege’ during a diversity training session on ‘white privilege’. We took his case to the Employment Tribunal and won him a five-figure settlement.
</div>
<div>•	We helped secure damages of £800,000 for Carl Borg-Neal, a Lloyds Bank manager who was sacked for asking a diversity trainer whether he should penalise a black employee he was supervising for using the n-word. This was a hypothetical question, and he’d been assured by the trainer beforehand that there was no such thing as a bad question. But he used the n-word himself when posing it and, after being reported to Lloyds by the trainer, he was dismissed for gross misconduct. With our help, Carl took Lloyds to court and won a landmark victory.
</div>
<div>•	Anna Thomas turned to us when she was fired from the Civil Service for raising the alarm about politically controversial workplace messaging involving Critical Race Theory and gender ideology. With our help, she won a six-figure settlement.
</div>
<div>•	In a ground-breaking judgment, the Employment Tribunal ruled that former ACAS employee Sean Corby – whom we were supporting – was expressing a legitimate philosophical belief when he challenged Critical Race Theory in his workplace and should not have been penalised for it.
</div>
<div>•	When Col Dr Kelvin Wright was forced out of the Army after saying “men cannot be women” on Facebook we arranged for him to receive top-drawer legal advice – he’s now been cleared of any wrongdoing by an official inquiry.
</div>
<div>•	We paid £5,000 towards the defence costs of a group of individuals who were aggressively sued for defamation after posting negative reviews about a plastic surgery clinic. With our help, they won their case.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>Strategic interventions </strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>On occasion, the FSU litigates in its own right. In 2021, for instance, we threatened judicial review against the University of Essex and as a result got it to change its harassment policy.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We also intervene in court cases of strategic importance to ensure the right to free speech continues to be recognised by the Courts. For instance, we made submissions to the Supreme Court in Abbasi v Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, urging it to lift the reporting restrictions on two parents that prevented them from speaking out about medical care that ended in the death of their child. Further Supreme Court interventions in free speech cases are in progress.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>Action needed now</strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The FSU needs your help to keep fighting for free speech. Every legal victory creates a precedent, whether binding or persuasive, that others can then rely on when bringing their own claims.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>As George Orwell said, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people things they do not want to hear.”
</div>

Sean Cronin-Nowakowski

Anonymous

rebecca rigg

Robert Kirkman

Gabriel Owens

marek gumienny

Matthew Bentley

Joanna Chesworth

Julie Jackson

Jonathan A Coles

Christine Hirst

Phil Theedom

The Free Speech Union Fighting Fund

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

The Free Speech Union Fighting Fund

Still £3,394 to go. Help us build momentum.