Each passing day drives another nail into the coffin of Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership – even in places where it might feel like he’s standing on solid ground.
Take the recent Labour conference. A union-backed motion passed recognising that Israel is committing a genocide, calling on the government to “employ all means reasonably available to it to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza”.
If what was voted on stood for anything, it would not be the vicars and priests protesting the proscription of Palestine Action outside the conference hall being arrested, but those on the podium.
It should be Starmer, Lammy, and the rest of them, on the dock. Despite all their crocodile tears, they are doing absolutely nothing in their power to prevent the genocide. No arms embargo. No suspension of trade. No sanctions. Nada.
Fast forward to the evening of 1 October, when Israel showed the world the extraordinarily lengths it will go to keep murdering Palestinians. It sent warships, patrol boats, and armed guards to ‘protect’ its illegal siege on the captive Gazan people.
The perceived threat? 500 activists from across the world, ‘armed’ with aid and baby formula.
Britain was one of many countries represented on the Global Sumud Flotilla. You would be forgiven for not knowing this, however – since Starmer’s office issued no condemnation of Israel for breaching international law, or abducting UK citizens.
After so unconvincingly finding his voice at the UN, speaking up and ‘recognising’ Palestine, Starmer perhaps ran out of words on this occasion.
Instead, he decided to jump on his soapbox and sermonise, calling on Palestine protesters to not come out at the weekend. Meanwhile, that same day, Israel killed 72 Gazans.
Thousands, once again, ignored Starmer, and took to the streets. Another weekend, another mass arrest of hundreds in central London, on bogus terrorism charges.
Starmer is boxed in: under immense pressure from below to do something tangible to stop the genocide; but also committed as a representative of the capitalist establishment to defending the interests of British imperialism and its Israeli allies.
Thanks to his endless displays of hypocrisy and cynicism, Britain’s Prime Minister is now the most hated politician in modern times.
Now is the time, therefore, more than ever, to push onto the offensive: to bring down this government of warmongers; to connect the struggle for a free Palestine to the struggle against austerity and militarism.
But is anyone making this call?
Question of leadership
After two years of protesting for Palestine, many rightly feel frustrated. If the movement in Britain feels stuck, however, the responsibility lies with its leadership.
As the anger and indignation around Palestine reaches fever pitch across Europe, the self-appointed leaders of the Palestine movement are lagging well behind.
Events since 7 October 2023 have definitively shown that pressure from national demos is not enough to force anything but a few hypocritical phrases out of the Labour government. Nevertheless, this is all the movement’s ‘leaders’ continue to offer.
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Leading figures from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Stop the War (StW), in particular, have made careers from turning solidarity for the Palestinian people into a paper tiger.
These campaigners and organisations have moulded and imbued the movement for Palestine in Britain with their liberal, moralistic, pacifist politics. The result is a ‘strategy’ based entirely around ‘raising awareness’, individual boycotts, and signing petitions.
This outlook amongst those at the top of the Palestine movement is a world apart from the mood and militancy that has developed amongst ordinary workers and youth in Britain.
Millions want to end and shut down the UK government’s complicity in the imperialist war machine. Millions do not believe that Starmer has a heart – or a mind – worth appealing to. Millions would bring society to a standstill, if offered a lead.
Despite this, PSC and StW have consciously and actively separated the struggle for a free Palestine off and away from other political questions.
At the height of the movement, pro-Palestine campaigners were able to bring over one million out onto the streets of London.
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Why, then, was there no political initiative taken to organise a huge counter-protest against Tommy Robinson – a notorious Zionist and defender of Israel’s crimes? Why has there been no militant opposition to the proscription of Palestine Action?
Why has there been no real lead given to organise workers in the docks, in the arms factories, in the civil service, in the transport sector – beyond performative ‘days of action’ and stunts at factory gates?
This is not accidental. The leadership fears that, if such bold steps were taken, the movement would run out of their control. Instead, therefore, they have restricted any opposition to the genocide to repeated, impotent A-to-B marches.
These national demos still regularly draw in hundreds of thousands – as we will likely see at this weekend’s protest to mark the two-year anniversary of the genocide in Gaza.
But these large attendances are in spite of the liberal politics and tactics of PSC. Instead, what these massive demonstrations indicate is the huge radicalisation in society, searching for some form of expression.
No knights in shining armour
Many also feel frustrated by the pacifistic phrases from prominent left-wing figures like Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. Both are regular speakers at PSC events, but neither have used their platform to call on the organised working class to bring its strength to bear on the situation.
These left leaders consistently call upon the ‘international community’ or the UN to help the people of Palestine. But these supposedly ‘respectable’ ladies and gentlemen are no benevolent saviours.
Just look at the headlines. Who is being lined up by the ‘international community’ to act as the new potential viceroy of Gaza? None other than war criminal Sir Tony Blair, Keir Starmer’s idol.
What kind of world do we live in, when one British knight of the realm proclaims that Palestinians now have the right to statehood, whilst the other spies an opportunity to rule over this newly-recognised ‘state’?
It is scandals like this that call into question the entire ‘rules-based order’ – and with it, the imperialist system that it props up.
Global turning point
These liberal ideas and methods are acting as a straightjacket on the Palestine struggle in Britain.
State repression is a barrier that must be confronted and smashed. But in truth, the main danger currently facing the Palestine movement is a reliance on placing demands at Starmer’s door, without the necessary mass action and militant struggle to force these through.
The RCP has always maintained that the most effective means of Palestine solidarity is for the organised working class to enter the scene and impose its will as an independent force.
We have consistently called for the movement to adopt a militant strategy, based on class-based tactics such workers’ boycotts, mass strikes, workplace shutdowns, and occupations.
The working class is the only class that has a genuine interest – and the potential power – to grind the gears of the imperialist war machine to a halt. The workers of the world are the only true friends of the Palestinian people.
We’ve been accused of being ‘unrealistic’ by the leaders of the Palestine movement. But what this boils down to, in essence, is a belief amongst these ‘leaders’ that the working class is either too ‘conservative’ or lacks sufficient ‘awareness’ to take bold, effective, mass action.
What was yesterday deemed ‘unrealistic’, however, has become very real indeed. Just look at Europe.
On 3 October, we witnessed the biggest political strike of a generation in Italy, over the question of Palestine. The streets were filled with two million workers and youth. The ports and all transport was blocked off. Society was brought to a screeching halt. The dam of passivity burst asunder.
This represents a qualitative transformation for the Palestine movement globally.
Strike like an Italian!
The biggest trade union (CGIL) in Italy was forced to catch up with the explosive mood, and support this strike action.
This is the last thing the trade union bureaucrats wanted.
A general strike gives the working class confidence in their power and strength, and begins to raise questions about how society is run, and in whose interests.
And again, for the trade union leaders, this risks creating a movement that is beyond their control; that rocks the boat and threatens to upset their cosy position.
Just like the trade union leadership here in Britain, the leaders of the organised working class across Europe have played a lamentable role in not lifting a finger for Palestine. But now they are being forced into action by the pressure of the masses.
The militant initiative and direct intervention of rank-and-file trade unionists, especially the dockworkers, combined with the radicalism of the youth, have forced the hand of the union leaders.
At their fingertips, the trade union leaders have the ability to mobilise millions of organised workers, radicalised by the butchery in Gaza.
This would be a force far more powerful and impactful than any sized march or protest.
Dockers can block arms shipments. Engineers can prevent the manufacture of weapons. Lorry drivers can stop weapons being transported. Media workers can prevent the publication of the capitalists’ lies.
We can shut it down for Palestine – but only if we rely on our own strength and methods as a class. ‘Strike like an Italian’ should be our call.
Block everything!
At the time of writing, the whole of Europe is erupting onto the streets for Palestine. There is something in the air.
We have seen political strikes paralyse the Spanish state, huge strikes in France as part of the ‘bloquons tout’ movement, and impressive demos spanning from Athens to Amsterdam.
This magnificent international Palestine movement is marked by its youthful character. Students are playing an important role in organising in colleges and campuses, walking out en masse for Palestine.
In Italy, the ‘collectivos’ – political platforms in colleges borne through the struggle of the 1960s – have had life breathed into them. Organising committees of youth are carrying out mass walkouts, demos, sit-ins, and occupations.
Crucially, the struggle of the youth for Palestine is being connected to the class struggle of the workers.
There is increasingly a coalescence of movements across Europe. The massive anti-austerity movement in France lent its slogan of ‘block everything’ to the Italian masses. It shows that workers and youth are beginning to connect the dots.
It is the same politicians who fund and facilitate genocide that are boosting military spending and slashing social spending. It is the same system that produces war, austerity, and genocide.
Explicitly drawing these connections does not ‘water down’ the struggle for Palestine – it sharpens and strengthens it.
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In truth, in recent weeks, thanks to the mobilisation of the working class as a class, more has been achieved than in the last twenty years of Palestine solidarity activity.
The explosive entrance of the working class onto the scene should fill us with tremendous confidence. If channelled correctly, this would form an unstoppable tide against the genocide.
The RCP has consistently explained that the greatest solidarity we in the West can show for the Palestinian people is to overthrow ‘our own’ warmongering ruling class; to link the struggle against war and imperialism abroad to the struggle against austerity and arms-spending at home.
We are too small to bring this about on our own. We are therefore recruiting and organising with a sense of urgency and determination.
If you want to block everything for Palestine, and see this fight through to its bitter end, then you should join our ranks. There is no time to waste.
