Through May and into June of this year Birmingham saw a level of action in solidarity with Palestine that hasn’t been matched since before Corbyn became leader of the labour party (for more see The rise and fall of Corbynism, FRFI 279.) Without the illusion that freedom for Palestine could come through the ballot box, people took to the streets. There were several large protests a week for weeks on end, as well as caravans of cars sporting Palestinian flags and blocking roads to raise awareness. People were angry; they had no faith in PM Boris Johnson and the arch-reactionaries in power or Sir Keir Starmer and his band of arch-opportunists. Israel’s continued ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and their murder of peaceful protestors and revolutionaries alike cannot be tolerated by anyone who wants to live in a just and free world. As always, our Birmingham comrades attended to develop an anti-imperialist and communist trend within the movement and see it achieve its ultimate aim.
The Trade Union Council (TUB), Friends of Al Aqsa (FoA) and the West-Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) were already at the head of many of the large weekend protests; having made connections with particular community leaders across the city. These groups are currently socially based in smaller, slightly better off sections of the working class and focus on British state policy. Rather than being based in the long term interest of the whole working class – as communists are – and in opposition to capitalism, imperialism and the British state itself. This defined – but only somewhat limited – the politics of what was to come. The usual, peaceful roster of Labourite and religious speakers was disrupted by the anger and scale of the protests; with huge crowds of people, including our comrades, clamouring to speak out against the atrocities of the Israeli state. As well as people calling out the British state as either suspiciously passive or down right complicit. The PSC was trying hard to filter out speakers that they didn’t trust to contain the politics of the day and to keep things ‘respectable.’ But, each weekend, this failed and the TUC’s sound system was drowned out by the chants of an energetic crowd who would take off on a march around the City Centre.
These marches would return to where they started; outside the Council House in Victoria Square. A huge wave of anger and determination crashing back to the waiting TUC sound system. The speeches would start up again; with some opportunists mentioning imperialism only to make it seem like a choice for our economy that the British parliament un-choose. But our comrades would intervene, talking to the crowd throughout the day about the reality that the imperialist character of Britain is no oversight, but a necessity for it’s capitalist economy to avoid collapse. This is why Britain helped establish Israel in the first place (see Zionist Israel: Its role in the Middle-East, FRFI 134-135). It’s the imperialist character of Labour – and the TUC which is embedded within it – that causes it to never truly speak out on Israel. Even with Corbyn’s current bluster in ‘support’ for Palestine it was his capitulations to Zionism during his leadership of Labour that have lead to Keir Starmer and the hiring of a former Israeli spy by the Party.
This process continued for a few weeks, unstopped by the ‘ceasefire’ which protestors knew was a sham. But it didn’t progress much beyond this; the loud chanting being a symbol at the frustration at the long continuation of Palestine’s suffering and the desire not to have it kicked back into the long-grass. During the time of the protests we invited people who wanted to move forward to our FRFI discussion and action planning groups. There we shared our analysis as it currently is and left plenty of time for questions, discussions and to plan more actions in the streets.
Eventually the protests died down. But only for now. It’s the work of dedicated anti-imperialists within these movements that will hopefully raise conciousness. These energetic and powerful movements will require a communist and anti-imperialist spearhead in order to smash the chains Britain has placed over Palestine. Join the RCG to help make this a reality; fill out the Join the RCG form which will prompt someone from the branch near you to get in touch so we can talk about membership as well as what meetings, protests and events we have on at the moment.
We’ll see you soon!
For our round-up of our actions across Britain see Solidarity with Palestine means fighting on all fronts from FRFI 282.
