On Saturday 19 December, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! supporters in Newcastle attended a march organised by Stop the War Coalition against British airstrikes in Syria. Around 100 people assembled at the city’s Centre for Life and proceeded through the city, to Grey’s Monument. FRFI led chants of ‘Hands off Syria!’ and ‘1, 2, 3, 4, we don’t want your bloody war! 5, 6, 7, 8, Britain is a racist state!’ Once at Monument the demonstrators were addressed by speakers representing various organisations and trade unions.
After the rally, FRFI supporters continued to protest, holding a picket outside a nearby branch of HSBC. HSBC is an associate company of one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest banks, SABB, and underwrites the Israeli state budget. Saudi is a major source of support and inspiration for Islamic State and poisons the Middle East with sectarian hatred. British imperialism will not confront Saudi because it is the world’s biggest exporter of arms and is crucial to arms companies’ profits. Israel plays a role of attacking progressive forces in the region that are resisting imperialism, such as that of the Palestinian people – this is crucial to British imperialism securing its interests in the Middle East. HSBC has blood on its hands. The picket succeeded in forcing HSBC to close its doors on a busy Saturday. We will continue to build such protests.
Hands off Syria! Victory to the Palestinian and Kurdish resistance!
