On 18 May, up to half a million people marched against the slaughter in Gaza and the starvation policy imposed on the Strip by the right wing Israeli government. Days later, the UK Labour government was forced to mouth some words of criticism of the Netanyahu government, but with no real action being taken.
Ali Mansfield, from the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales) reports on how the campaign against the Gaza massacres is being built in Britain.
socialistworld.net
The Israeli state has launched a renewed ground offensive in Gaza, in areas already battered by days of air strikes. There were 30 air strikes in a single hour in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, where the Israeli military has ordered a forced displacement of the population. Hospitals continue to be targeted, with vital medical supplies destroyed after a two-month-plus blockade on medicine, food or water entering the strip.
The renewed offensive follows plans approved by the Israeli government earlier in May, which include proposals to reoccupy the entirety of the Gaza strip. More than two million Palestinians would face displacement. An Israeli security official warned the move “will begin with great intensity and will not stop until all its objectives are achieved”.
As the Israeli offensive has redoubled, so too the anti-war movement in Britain has stepped up. A national demonstration on 18 March swelled again to hundreds of thousands demanding an end to the bloodshed and determined to stand up to Israeli state terror and the complicity of Britain’s Labour government.
With Labour in government, Britain continues to sell military goods to the Israeli state. And, as Trump continues to back Israel and publicly call for mass displacement of Palestinians, British prime minister Starmer is rolling out the red carpet to welcome him on a state visit to the UK.
Socialist Students is signing up young people to organise to greet Trump with protests, and mass student walkouts, on Day X – when Trump visits parliament.
That four pro-Gaza independent MPs and Jeremy Corbyn were elected in the General Election last year shows that it is possible to elect politicians standing against the capitalist establishment parties. With the Labour government exposing itself everyday as looking after the interests of the super-rich, not us, there is huge anger.
The building of a mass workers’ party bringing together all those opposed to Labour’s war and austerity would have a huge impact, by inspiring similar developments elsewhere, including among the working-class masses in the Middle East who can play the most decisive role in bringing an end to the slaughter.
War and conflict are an inevitable feature of a capitalist system based on competition and exploitation, which places profit above all else. Capitalist leaders offer no way forward. What is necessary is a mass movement to overthrow capitalism. The socialist transformation of society – with the vast wealth that exists taken into the hands of the working-class masses and used democratically to meet the needs of all – can lay the foundation for peace, in the Middle East and worldwide.
- End the siege of Gaza and the occupation of all the Palestinian territories. For the permanent withdrawal of the Israeli military from those areas
- A mass struggle of the Palestinians, under their own democratic control, to fight for liberation
- The building of independent workers’ parties in Palestine and Israel and links between them
- An independent, socialist Palestinian state, alongside a socialist Israel, with guaranteed democratic rights for all minorities, as part of the struggle for a socialist Middle East
- No trust in capitalist politicians internationally. Fight to build workers’ parties that stand for socialism and internationalism