Whilst Israel continues to massacre innocent Palestinians on a daily basis, the British ruling class continues to bend over backwards in support of these murderers.
In recent weeks, the UK government has ramped up their repression of the Palestine movement in Britain, silencing any criticism of the Israeli regime and its genocidal actions.
The police have launched a criminal investigation into punk duo Bob Vylan for their anti-IDF chanting at the Glastonbury music festival. Mo Chara of Irish rap group Kneecap, meanwhile, still faces terrorism charges, with his next court appearance scheduled for 20 August.
Scandalously, campaign group Palestine Action has been proscribed by the Home Office under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This has led to the arrest of dozens of peaceful protestors across the country, with demonstrators hauled in by police officers simply for showing solidarity with the banned group.
At the same time, the whole world is watching as the real terrorists – the Zionist ruling class in Israel, and their imperialist backers in the West – get away with murder on an industrial scale: continuing their decades-long attempt to wipe out the Palestinian people.
Imperialist interests
Feeling the pressure of public opinion, cynical politicians like Foreign Secretary David Lammy occasionally cry crocodile tears about the plight of the Palestinians.
But this is nothing but nauseating hypocrisy. In truth, ‘our’ government has given its full support to the grotesque spectacle playing out in Gaza and the West Bank. Meanwhile, anyone who speaks out about this injustice is outrageously labelled an antisemite and a terrorist sympathiser.
The British establishment is compelled to use every tool at its disposal to support the Israeli regime – financially, militarily, and politically. Britain has its own imperialist interests in the Middle East, as does US imperialism, to which the UK remains a faithful lapdog.
And Israel, despite the reckless actions of Benjamin Netanayhu, remains the most reliable bastion of support that the western imperialists have in this strategically important region.
British imperialism, both historically and today, bears responsibility for the chaos and carnage in Palestine and the Middle East. ‘Our’ ruling class and political representatives are complicit in the genocide. The warmongers in Westminster have blood on their hands.
No trust in Starmer
Israel’s endless brutality against the Palestinians – and the stinking hypocrisy and lies of the western ruling classes that enable this – has radicalised an entire generation of workers and youth across the world.
Gaza has become the burning issue of our time; a lightning rod for all the accumulated anger in society. The genocide has exposed all that is rotten with the capitalist system and the establishment that defends it.
We have seen wave after wave of mass mobilisation and protest in Britain since 7 October 2023: from millions repeatedly taking to the streets; to students occupying campuses; to direct action against the imperialists’ war machine.
In turn, with Israel’s barbarism and state-sponsored terror only intensifying, and Labour slumping in the polls, those in Downing Street are feeling the heat from below. This is increasingly leading to political zigzags and tokenistic gestures.
Having provoked outrage by insisting on Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’, and justifying the Zionist regime’s besiegement of Gaza, ‘Sir’ Keir Starmer has taken a more equivocal stance in recent months.
Following the tune coming from the White House, the Labour leaders have cynically feigned disgust and disapproval in relation to Netanyahu’s escalations in the Middle East – only to then offer their backing to the bombing of Iran.
Similarly, in front of the cameras, the government has talked about implementing an ‘arms embargo’. Behind the scenes, however, they have continued to export military equipment to Israel.
Those on the side of the Palestinians are not fooled by these theatrics. The conclusion is clear: we can have no trust in Starmer’s Labour.
Blunted weapon
Alongside these ‘carrots’, the British establishment is also resorting to the stick of repression to quell the pro-Palestine movement. But this is causing splits within the ruling class.
Some within the British establishment are concerned about the crude manner in which the government is deploying the repressive force of the state against the Palestine movement.
A wing of the ruling class correctly sees the potential for Labour’s draconian response to backfire. By labelling Palestine activists as ‘terrorists’, legally equating them to extremist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Starmer and co. risk undermining the authority of the bourgeois state, including its laws and institutions.
Already, for example, there are cases of juries refusing to convict militant activists – hence the Home Office’s steps to make support for Palestine Action a criminal offence. And more far-sighted capitalist commentators are worried about the optics of clamping down on protestors who peacefully oppose this ban.
The tools of the state are a weapon in the hands of the ruling class. But by wielding these in a heavy-handed way against the Palestine movement, Starmer and his ministers are blunting these instruments, reducing their effectiveness for future class battles.
It is vital that the labour movement come out firmly against this repression, and in defence of the democratic right to protest. After all, today the establishment may be coming for Palestine activists, but tomorrow they will be coming for striking workers.
Revolutionary conclusions
For nearly two years, workers and youth have watched as a genocide unfolds in Gaza, with the active support of the British establishment.
This ‘horror without end’, in the words of Lenin, has hugely radicalised consciousness. Whole swathes – particularly of young people – have been politicised, with thousands (if not millions) brought into political activity for the first time.
Ever-growing layers are drawing militant – even revolutionary – conclusions from these events. More and more, ordinary people are connecting the dots: seeing the same imperialist ruling class and establishment politicians both backing bloodshed and bombing abroad, and waging war on the poor back home.
Yet this radical mood has found little-to-no expression amongst the official ‘left’. Instead, there has been a complete political vacuum. Hence the mass enthusiasm behind artists like Kneecap and Bob Vylan, who give a voice to the thoughts and feelings of those who support the Palestine people and oppose the genocide.
Left leaders limits
The so-called ‘lefts’ leaders have been found completely wanting in their response, or lack thereof.
All that the movement’s main organisations – including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War Coalition – can offer is the same old tired marches from A to B, with no perspective or strategy for how to advance the struggle.
Instead of channelling the anger and energy of the movement into a fight to overthrow the warmongers and their system, these ‘lefts’ appeal to the establishment and its institutions, including Parliament and the UN. Meanwhile, they sow illusions in the possibility of an imperialist peace, with calls for a supposed ‘two-state solution’.
Ultimately, this is all a reflection of the weak politics of the ‘lefts’, which are steeped in liberalism, reformism, and pacifism.
Political alternative
Elsewhere, prominent figures like Jeremy Corbyn have so far failed to make use of their political authority and support to further the Palestinian cause.
Corbyn and co. could transform the whole situation by launching a real radical political alternative, in the shape of a party that is explicitly pro-Palestine and anti-austerity; against imperialism and capitalism.
Workers and youth are crying out for such a political vehicle for their discontent and desires. Yet the ‘stalwarts’ of the left are dragging their feet.
No wonder they have been outflanked and overtaken by musicians like Kneecap, who hit back hard when attacked and smeared by the establishment. The lefts could learn a lot from them!
Workers’ power
The silence of the trade union leaders has been particularly galling. The unions have millions of members in their ranks. If called upon, on the basis of a bold class programme that links the government’s support for warfare to its cuts to welfare, this could form a powerful force, capable of bringing the imperialists and their military machine to a halt.
Yet there has been no real attempt by the union leaders to mobilise workers in support of Palestine, or in defence of the Palestine movement.
In fact, unions like Unite have actively thwarted members’ efforts to show solidarity with Palestine, fearing that this will hurt jobs in the ‘defence’ industry.
This is made all the more damning by the fact that, as the class struggle intensifies, the ruling class will use the same repressive measures against the labour movement that it is currently deploying against Palestine activists.
Revolutionary way forward
With ‘leaders’ like this, who can blame angry workers and youth for turning to direct action, using any means at their disposal, in an effort to shut down arms factories and stop the genocide.
Such militancy and determination is undoubtedly courageous. In certain instances, it has delivered tangible results, forcing UK-based firms to break their links with Israel arms companies.
But is such action ultimately effective? We must honestly ask ourselves: how can we in Britain best help the Palestinian people?
Lenin once remarked that to tell the truth is revolutionary. From the beginning, comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) have told the truth: the only way forward for the Palestinian people is a revolution across the entire region, to bring about a Socialist Federation of the Middle East.
This must be linked to the struggle against capitalism and imperialism, in Britain and internationally.
Main enemy at home
The same government that demonises migrants and slashes benefits for the vulnerable here, is selling arms to Israel and is complicit in the genocide in Gaza. These politicians tell us there is always money for bombs, but never for books; for warfare, but not welfare.
Workers and youth in Britain therefore have common class interests with our brothers and sisters in Palestine and the Middle East. We are exploited and oppressed by the same capitalist system. And we have a common class enemy: the imperialists, warmongers, and billionaires.
That is why we, the RCP, put forward slogans for ‘intifada until victory’, for ‘healthcare not warfare’, to ‘kick out the war criminals’, and for ‘revolution against the billionaires’.
For activists in Britain, the main enemy is at home. The most effective support and solidarity we can offer the Palestinian people is to wage a militant mass struggle to topple ‘our own’ ruling class and their barbaric system.
To those who feel passionately about the Palestinian cause, who have a burning hatred towards the injustice and oppression of capitalism and imperialism, we urge you to join us in this struggle. Join the communists today!
