One of the defining political issues in this election – and of this entire period – is the war in Gaza. For millions, the question of Palestine has become a litmus test for judging candidates; a lightning rod for all the accumulated anger amongst the most oppressed and denigrated layers of society.
On the one side are all the establishment parties and politicians, who have unanimously lined up behind Netanyahu and US imperialism, backing Israel’s genocidal massacre against the Palestinian people.
On the other side are ordinary men and women in Britain and internationally, who are outraged and disgusted by the barbarism, tragedy, and injustices taking place in the Middle East.
In particular, across the country, young people from Muslim and Asian communities have been radicalised and politicised by these events. And with a burning desire to stop the slaughter and kick out the war criminals, thousands upon thousands have taken to the streets in recent months and started to get organised.
In Stratford & Bow, Fiona Lali’s election campaign has particularly resonated with this layer.
Muslim and Asian people make up a large proportion of the constituency’s demographic, as do young people. And these voters – as in other areas – have an intense hatred towards Starmer’s Labour: for refusing to support demands for a ceasefire; for their endless lies, hypocrisy, and betrayals; for carrying out cuts to local council services and schools; and most recently, for their racist attacks on the Bangladeshi community.
By contrast, Fiona’s campaign – with its bold demands for ‘healthcare not warfare’ – has provided a breath of fresh air for workers and youth, offering hope and inspiration for those looking to get active in the fight for a world free of war, poverty, and oppression.
As a result, Fiona has been inundated with support from local families, shopowners, and school students. And many have joined her campaign over the past six weeks: attending rallies; putting up posters in their windows; and encouraging their neighbours, colleagues, and classmates to vote for her in today’s election.
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In the process, many of these supporters are drawing revolutionary conclusions, and are therefore wanting to continue the struggle in the period ahead.
Below we provide letters from four young women from Muslim backgrounds, who recount how they became communists, and in turn decided to join the RCP.
If their powerful and poignant stories echo with you, then we encourage you to follow in their footsteps – by getting organised as a communist, educating yourself in Marxist ideas, and joining us today in the fight for revolution.
Lubna
Coming from an Iraqi household, politics has always played a major part in family conversations.
I vividly remember one of those defining moments in 2003, when my whole family sat around the TV, watching the bombs drop on our country. My family was just screaming and crying watching the news. It was shocking and confusing to me as a child.
I tried to understand it. Why was this happening? Why were innocent people being killed? But more than that, I wanted to know what I could do to stop this horror.
Ever since, I’ve wanted to fight against the injustices in the world. I noticed the rise in racism and Islamophobia. Women, especially, are treated as second-rank citizens. I was constantly being told that ‘politics is not for women’. This felt very isolating.
I became frustrated and went through all sorts of different ideas. But none of them seemed to give a fully satisfying answer. It was either: “Americans are the problem”; “all men are the problem”; or “religion is the problem”.
This didn’t seem right to me. None of these offered an explanation.
Then, in 2015, I found the Marxist society in Leeds. I was intrigued to encounter the communists at the university. They were extremely welcoming. I remember having so many discussions on imperialism, the state, racism, and sexism. The comrades took the time to answer everything so well.
They showed me that with the correct theory, with a scientific understanding of the world, you could explain anything. This is the revolutionary philosophy of Marxism.
And more than that, they offered me an organisation where I could play a role. This is exactly what I was looking for.
This filled me with so much optimism. Finally I was armed with the correct ideas, able to fight as a comrade, side-by-side with so many others, to bring an end to this rotten system.
Only on this basis can we truly be free from war, poverty, and oppression. So I urge you all to join us in this struggle!
Taz
As a child, I would always ask questions. I was constantly seeking a way to understand the world around me. The answers my family, friends, and school always gave never made sense. And when I questioned further, I was told to stop and just accept the way things were. Unsatisfied, I sought to look for answers myself.
I found articles about my family published in 1987. That same year there was a general election. I discovered that my mum was the poster child for the reelection campaign of her local labour MP, who vowed to reunite the families in the constituency with their loved ones in Bangladesh.
My mother, born and raised in the UK, was 11 when she married my father – her 23-year-old tutor – during her first trip to Bangladesh.
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This MP – notorious for resigning from the Labour Party after publicly berating Tony Blair during the Iraq War; a champion of women’s rights, and a patron of multiple charities – exploited a child bride to secure her seat in Parliament.
Any illusions I had in the Labour Party and the state were completely shattered. I now understood that my mum was collateral damage for careerists competing within a broken system.
The world is highly contradictory: left MPs defending women’s oppression; slaughter by those who claim to want peace; ignorance when information is plentiful.
It was only when joining the RCP in October last year, and discovering the ideas of Marxism, that I could not only make sense of the world, but finally knew how to change it.
Rima
I’ve spent many years campaigning for a better future for children and young people in Britain. I’ve attended rallies, lobbied my MPs, and worked with my local council.
I chose to work for the civil service to help children. But my hopes of making a positive difference were quickly dashed.
The government just doesn’t care about children. And with all the bureaucracy, civil service workers have hardly any say. If we speak out, there is retaliation against us.
The problems with our society remain, even with systems allegedly in place to prevent them.
As a South Asian woman, I used to think that having more people in Parliament who look like me could at least partially help solve the oppression faced by my community.
But the Tory Party is full of depraved crooks and liars – like Sunak and Braverman – who come from a similar background to me. They whip up racism and Islamophobia against my community, and have launched vicious attacks against the poorest and most vulnerable.
The Labour Party is also filled with careerists who wish to carry out the same racist, anti-migrant policies and austerity cuts. They also support Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
We should therefore have no illusions in the coming election or in these politicians to solve any of our problems. All of them ultimately defend capitalism – a system which puts profit above our lives and needs.
This is why I became a communist, and why I support Fiona Lali’s campaign in Stratford & Bow. Her campaign starts where all others end – out on the streets, with a class-based programme to overthrow the war criminals and their rotten system.
Maya
Growing up as a working-class Bangladeshi Muslim, I faced the sharp end of the horrors of capitalism.
From a young age, I suffered from racist and Islamophobic abuse. My family was in an overwhelming amount of debt. As soon as I was 16, I worked precarious jobs to support myself and my family. I funded myself through college and university. At one point during my final year, I balanced four jobs to cover the bills, and got by on a diet of tinned beans.
All these experiences made me very political. I wanted to know why our world is so cruel. I became involved with the Labour Party and anti-racist movements at the age of 16. I even became a Labour councillor at 18. But, I was left continually disappointed by the reformist politics of the mainstream parties. Nothing seemed to work.
It wasn’t until I found the revolutionary communists that I found the answers that I was looking for. Finally, I gained a refreshing Marxist perspective, which could accurately explain the world and offer a way forward.
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I learnt that the capitalists’ pursuit of profit forces people to work harder and longer for less money, while wealth is concentrated in a smaller and smaller number of hands; that inequality, exploitation, and oppression is a product of class society; and that poverty itself is the main cause of many social ills that we face today: crime, drug abuse, mental health problems, and so on.
Similarly, I came to see that wars are an inevitable consequence of capitalism, as the imperialist powers vie to impose their interests on smaller nations. This is the cause for the untold suffering experienced by millions across the world: in Palestine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen – the list goes on.
And I realised that racism, along with all forms of oppression, are cynical tools used by the ruling class to divide us and maintain their rule. Today, we see xenophobia and culture wars whipped up by the establishment to distract from the miseries of capitalism.
The philosophy of Marxism allows us to actually explain the world. And if we understand it, we can change it – through a revolutionary struggle of workers and youth!
