In country after country across Europe, millions have taken to the streets to protest against the genocide in Gaza, alongside Israel’s assault on the flotilla last week.
There have been mass demonstrations in Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Ireland and Portugal, and a political general strike in Italy, under the slogan “block everything”.
This is a massive step forward for the Palestine movement, which is decisively drawing the working class into action.
In response to the assault on the flotilla last Thursday, a number of emergency protests were called in Britain.
The RCP enthusiastically participated in protests in London, Edinburgh and Leeds. In Cambridge, the RCP called the emergency protest to take place just a few hours after hearing the news. In Sheffield, we organised a 100-strong demo, defying pressure from the student union bureaucracy.
Sheffield
In Sheffield, RCP comrades had planned to hold a rally on campus on 7 October to mark two years since the genocide began.
Since the SU found out about our plans, they have tried to shut us down, citing “the potential to cause harm and the risk of perceived intention from hosting the rally on this date”, as well as cynically using the horrific attack in Manchester last week as further justification.
Upon the SU’s request, comrades sat down with a representative of the Union of Jewish Students (tied to the World Zionist Organisation!) and the president of the Jewish Society, who both brazenly claimed to be the elected representatives of Jewish students and claimed that the “perceived intention” of the rally was to target them!
This “perceived intention” is in fact a direct product of fearmongering organisations like the UJS, who pump out propaganda equating Palestine rallies with antisemitism. Anyone who has been to any Palestine demos will know this to be blatant slander.
By threatening ‘disciplinary action’, the SU is aiming to silence the voices of all students who oppose the genocide and want to see an end to the bloodshed. We were not intimidated by the cowardly student bureaucrats.
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The comrades actively built for the rally through leafleting, stalls on campus, and lecture shoutouts. Almost everyone that the comrades spoke with on campus had heard about it. In the end, the rally attracted more than 100 students.
The demo caught the media’s attention. Throughout the day, we were interviewed six times by outlets like Channel 4 and The Times. Photographs and quotes from our comrades were published by The Telegraph, The Independent, and others.
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Many attendees expressed interest in joining us, and one student was recruited to the RCP on the back of the rally.
Most students that the comrades spoke with were desperate to hear a way forward for the Palestine movement, and connected with what the comrades had to say about mass, working-class action
Edinburgh
Inspired by the events in Italy, a couple of the protests were organised to block train stations. This happened outside Edinburgh Waverley train station, where the call had been made to stop everything and block the tracks.
The comrades in Edinburgh said that the protest had the most electric mood that they had witnessed at a Palestine demonstration in the city.
One of our comrades, Orla, was able to give a speech at the beginning of the protest, where she pointed out the hypocrisy of our own leaders and called for mass action.
She linked this to what was happening in Italy and called for pressure on the trade union leaders in Britain to do the same. This was received well by the crowd, particularly the criticism of Starmer and the calls for mass action.
At first, the protest outside the train station was small in force. In fact, there were two separate demos in the city. But as the second protest began to march towards the train station, it became impossible for the police to keep the protesters from entering through the gates.
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Despite the police’s violence and attempts at arrest, the protesters managed to remove the railings, push the gates open between the entrance and the concourse, and unite the two protests. The whole of the concourse was a sea of Palestine flags.
Chants echoed through the whole station and could be heard from far outside, the mood was completely electric.
After over two hours of protesting, the crowd began to disperse and then marched out of the station and onto the streets – a unified exit preventing the police from picking off individual protestors.
Leeds
Similarly in Leeds, an emergency protest was organised to block the train station. The comrades reported that while many of the attendees were inspired by what we had to say about the general strike in Italy, and wanted to discuss a way forwards for the movement in Britain, the organisers were very unprepared.
Unfortunately, instead of rallying and galvanising the protest through political speeches, the organisers marched straight to the station where they were outnumbered by the police.
The numbers soon dwindled. This shows that small stunts are not enough to block a train station. You need the workers to be won over on a political basis, not moral appeals and peer pressure, to commit to shutting it down!
Cambridge
In Cambridge, RCP members resolved to organise a solidarity demo in the city centre. With less than 24 hours to organise this, around 150 people turned out on short notice with flags, banners, and placards.
The seriousness with which the comrades approached organising this demo is a testament to the need for a highly trained political organisation, ready to get to work whenever the situation arises.
The comrades were spurred on by the electrifying scenes coming in from Italy, where the working class is really showing the world how it’s done. The Italians told Meloni and her cronies, “if the IDF touches the Flotilla, we will block everything!” And these were not hollow words.
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At the beginning of the demo, the mood was somewhat muted. A lot of people had turned out because we were a different group leading the protest, and were hoping to hear something new.
Nearly two years of A-B marches with little to show for it had left some jaded. But this changed when comrades began delivering fiery, political speeches.
They boldly linked the genocide to capitalism, pointing out that the British government is entirely subservient to its imperialist paymasters in Washington. Therefore, moral pleading will never break their material support for Israel, no matter how many fig leaves ‘Sir’ Keir offers us.
With the ‘Gen-Z revolutions’ happening all over the planet, largely against governmental corruption, the comrades pointed out that the British government is also a vile, irredeemably corrupt institution.
Those parasites only listen to those with wealth and power, like the arms manufacturers, and construction companies wishing to build over the graves of the Gazans.
So we said plainly: we need to overthrow our imperialist government, replacing it with a workers’ government, which has no interest in spending money on bombs to kill children. This got a huge cheer, with people taking up the chants for revolution, and to lock up Starmer, Blair, Trump, and Netenyahu!
The comrades invited anyone to come up and speak their mind, so we could really discuss what should be done to help Palestine. The message was largely the same: we need to get organised and fight, no more begging the warmongers. The only power we can trust in is our own!
By the end, over a dozen people expressed an interest in joining the RCP, and the comrades sold many copies of The Communist. People were grabbing them right out of the comrades’ hands!
Cardiff
That same weekend, the Cardiff RCP mobilised for the local Palestine protest.
Arriving early, our comrades gave a fiery speech before the protest and as people began to gather. The speech referenced the general strike in Italy, and drew about 100 people to listen to us.
This made us stand out sharply from the rest of the organisers, whose speeches focussed on the same thing they had done for the past two years: moralistic pleas, and minor acts of divestment by local councils in Wales.
With this gaping void of ideas, our comrades stood out as the most energetic and militant group once the 1,000-strong demonstration began.
We were the only ones speaking about the ‘block everything’ movement, revolution, and about overthrowing the government. About 100 people joined our bloc, which was marching under the banner: “Down with the war criminals! Block everything for Palestine!”
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London
In London, RCP members are mobilising for the upcoming national demo on Saturday 11 October.
To kick off the week, we are organising an open meeting on Tuesday evening for students and workers at the Irish Centre on Palestine: A Revolutionary Way Forward, with Fiona Lali as the main speaker.
Throughout the week, the comrades in London have also held banner-making sessions in preparation for the demo on Saturday.
The slogans the RCP is marching under are: ‘Lock up the real terrorists! Down with the ruling classes!’ and ‘Block everything for Palestine! Fight for revolution!’
If you agree with the Communists’ position on Palestine, and want to fight to bring the most revolutionary ideas into the movement, then join us on Saturday!
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