Branches of the Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG) with our FRFI supporters groups hit the streets in force on Saturday 15 May, playing a leading role in anti-imperialist solidarity with the Palestinian intifada, across Britain. We joined the millions mobilised in horror at the Zionist onslaught on Gaza and historic Palestine, and were inspired by the explosion of Palestinian resistance. Standing in unconditional solidarity with the uprising, the RCG links the issue to other struggles through our newspaper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI). We call for isolating the Zionist state as part of a new revolutionary, anti-imperialist movement.
Many of our events on 15 May were called to coincide with the 73rd anniversary of the 1948 Nakba and Zionist displacement of 800,000 Palestinians, responding to the Samidoun campaign callout for action. In Liverpool, the FRFI speak-out for Palestine had met with an unprecedented response on social media and, despite the call for another event at 3pm, our open mic attracted 400 mostly young and impassioned protesters. In an energetic rolling picket around the city centre, the protest targeted Israel-supporting banks and businesses such as M&S, HSBC, Holland and Barrett, as well as the BBC for their ideological support for the racist, Zionist state.
As we marched through the busiest streets in Liverpool, we met with a second march, supported by Socialist Alternative, the SWP, Socialist Party and various Labour Party affiliated groups, none of whom had been present at the rolling picket. The organisers did not run an open mic, but we insisted absolutely on our right to speak, and one of our comrades gave an amazing overview of the Palestinian resistance and the RCG position of full solidarity in front of thousands of protesters.
Following this largest mobilisation in Liverpool since the height of the BLM movement a year ago, FRFI is now running daily street stalls at 1pm on Church Street in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle against racism and imperialism.
RCG/FRFI in London co-organised a solidarity protest which linked the intifada to the rebellion in Colombia, which grew into a contingent of 1,000 people. Comrades held an open, democratic microphone outside the Colombian embassy before marching to join demonstrators at the Israeli embassy. Supporting organisations for this anti-imperialist unity protest included Apartheid Off Campus, Victory To the Intifada, Warwick Anti-Racism Society, SOAS Palestine Society, Warwick Friends of Palestine Society, BLMUK, Red Condor Collective, Global Majority, Justice For Black Lives and Sisters Uncut.
Comrades of the RCG also set up an open mic outside the Israeli embassy from the morning onwards to allow any speakers to have their voices heard. When Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) set up a large stage in the same spot, RCG comrades demanded the right of all organisations that had built for the event, including all co-hosts of the Colombia Embassy contingent, to speak on the platform assembled outside the Israeli embassy. This was refused and a closed list of speakers, including five Labour MPs (none of whom would even mention the name of their openly Zionist party leader Keir Starmer), was given the platform to speak until 4pm when the PSC instructed the crowd of more than 100,000 protesters to return home. Thousands refused.
London FRFI groups will be organising a contingent to attend the National Day of Action for Palestine on Saturday 22 May; we urge all supporters of Palestinian liberation to join us.
Birmingham comrades supported a defiant march of over 2,000 people, chanting in opposition to high street chains and banks that support Israeli state brutality. The Bullring shopping centre, notorious for aggressively policing their private property, had no choice but to allow the protesters passage. The march was greeted with support from others out in Birmingham as cars and busses beeped their horns and people waved from balconies. There wasn’t a single lull in the energy of the people in attendance, whether they were expressing their support for Palestinian resistance, calling out in opposition to Israeli war crimes or naming and shaming British companies that support the oppression of Palestinians.
Nottingham FRFI brought Palestine to the Kill the Bill protest on 15 May, where a supporter addressed the crowd, making the case for an internationalist response to state violence, connecting resistance to repressive laws in Britain to the liberation movement in Palestine. This was followed by a determined and defiant protest of thousands for Palestine, who became increasingly frustrated with the PSC organisers’ tightly controlled list of speakers. When local Labour MP Nadia Whittome was given the platform she was booed and heckled by large parts of the crowd. An attempt to read out a message from an absentee Labour councillor was similarly drowned out with shouts of “Where is he then?”. An RCG speaker denounced Labour support for Zionism and called for unconditional solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. Nottingham RCG are supporting a call for an open-air organising meeting on Wednesday 19 May, at 4pm in the Old Market Square, to democratically decide on the next steps for the movement in Nottingham.
The confrontation with anti-democratic forces and spontaneous power of young protesters also shaped events in Newcastle. The city saw a fantastic demonstration of solidarity with the people of Palestine, beginning at Monument, with an energetic, noisy crowd of over 2,000 people, Newcastle FRFI members and supporters among them. The militancy of many of the protesters was an obvious contrast to the meticulously scripted event the PSC had planned: ‘an organised demonstration,’ but not an open mic. Labour-aligned career politicians had very little to say, proud that Newcastle City Council had released a statement in support of Palestine, while forgetting to mention that same council had voted to accept the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism in 2018.
Under pressure, some unplanned speakers were allowed, one of whom then passed the mic to an FRFI comrade. At this point the PSC abruptly turned off the sound system before packing up and leaving FRFI to continue the demonstration with an open mic. The energy of the crowd had not dissipated and with a still very large number of people present someone announced a march to M&S. A Newcastle picket of M&S is planned for 22 May.
In Manchester, thousands mobilised spontaneously to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Before the renewed uprising in Palestine, Manchester RCG/Victory to the Intifada had called a Nakba day speak out for liberation in Piccadilly Gardens as part of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network’s callout. Attracting over 200 mostly young people, the protest had a constant open mic, with many from the crowd speaking for the first time. Speakers highlighted the role of British Tory and Labour politicians and the pro-imperialist media in covering up for Israel’s role and attacking Palestinian ‘violence’. One young woman told the crowd of anti-Muslim racism she had suffered in Britain and others attacked Israeli denial of Covid vaccines to Palestinians.
The speak out was a huge success in the face of the sectarian politics of PSC and Manchester Palestine Action. Knowing that the RCG was involved, they had decided to organise separately in Platt Fields Park, with Labour MP Afzal Khan their keynote speaker. Khan is currently Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Palestine, which condemned Hamas rockets as ‘war crimes’ in its statement on 14 May. Khan and the ‘left’ of the Labour Party continue to bow down to their Zionist leadership, while the PSC guarantees them a platform. Lacking an effective sound system, however, also meant that reactionary supporters of war on Syria were given a platform to dominate the march.
Seeking to build on the energy of the open mic event, Victory to the Intifada Manchester are mobilising for 22 May, 12pm in Piccadilly Gardens.
16 May saw thousands gather in Glasgow’s George Square, with RCG/FRFI leading an open mic in the square, enthusiastically taken up by dozens of new speakers, including Palestinians living in Glasgow. People spoke about the devastation caused by the Israeli bombing and siege of Gaza, the complicity of imperialist governments and media around the world and the need for solidarity with Irish and Palestinian political prisoners, including Issam Hijjawi, currently locked up in Maghaberry in the occupied north of Ireland. Everyone agreed that Zionism is racism and with the internationalist slogan that an injury to one is an injury to all!
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