The huge outpouring of anger at the savagery of the Zionist response to the 7 October Palestine resistance action has created a political crisis for the ruling class. From the start, demonstrations were huge: hundreds of thousands of people led by young working class Muslims expressed their rage, first at the barbarity of the Zionist state, second, at the naked collusion of the British government, and third and most importantly at the Labour Party for its support for the onslaught. For the first time since the 1970s, a significant section of the black working class was openly opposing Labour, denouncing its MPs for opposing a ceasefire, and picketing Labour Party offices, a significant political development. ROBERT CLOUGH reports.
It is well understood that the Zionist state has got away with six months of genocidal war because of the political cover that has been provided by the Western imperialist powers, and particularly by US and British imperialism. Throughout this period, however, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has minimised the role of British imperialism and allowed any number of Labour and trade union imperialists to speak on its platforms. Its almost exclusive demand for an immediate ceasefire has now been trumped by the UN Security Council vote on 25 March. Where is the PSC going to go next? Repeating the call will become no more than an empty appeal to the genocidal Zionist state. It is evident that the only way to defend the Palestinian people now is by forcing the British state to sever all ties with the Zionists.
The parliamentary crisis
The political crisis did not just involve the credibility of the Labour Party but embraced the parliamentary system as a whole. While most people in Britain were appalled by the Zionist onslaught and instinctively took the side of the Palestinian people, their views received no representation in a parliament where the overwhelming majority shamelessly gave unconditional support for the Israeli state. Those MPs who voted for a ceasefire on 15 November were constantly at pains to point out their abhorrence of the 7 October action by the Palestinian resistance, while Labour leaders like Lisa Nandy complained of ‘intimidation’ by supporters of the Palestinian people.
When the SNP proposed a further motion for an immediate ceasefire on 21 February, the Labour leadership went into overdrive to prevent the substantive motion being put, with Sir Keir Starmer colluding with Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to ensure that a Labour amendment was debated breaking normal procedure. Starmer’s immediate concern was to avoid a vote on a motion which described Israel’s numerous violations of international law as ‘collective punishment’ and called for an unconditional ceasefire. But the other option would be to follow procedure and allow a government amendment to go forward. This would split Labour MPs, many of whom would vote for the SNP motion. So Starmer concocted a story that if the Labour amendment was not considered first, there would be a serious prospect of MPs facing violence and intimidation. Hoyle, himself a Labour MP and who had visited Israel in November 2023, acceded to this farrago of nonsense. The government withdrew its own amendment, Tory MPs walked out, the SNP was frustrated, and the Labour motion went through without a vote. The political corruption was obvious: a vote was avoided and no one could be blamed for anything. Unprincipled manoeuvres substituted for the interests of the Palestinian people.
Ceasefire – for whom?
From the start of the genocide, FRFI rejected the call for a ceasefire as the basis for a campaign in solidarity with the Palestinian people. At no point did the PSC leadership explain the mechanism by which a ceasefire would be achieved without undermining the position of the resistance: it was expressed only in abstract humanitarian terms. We argued that the call required the Palestinian resistance to lay down its arms.
As the weeks passed, and it became more and more evident that the Zionists were able only to sustain their onslaught because of Western imperialism’s political and military support, the PSC’s refusal to frame this as reflecting the strategic interests of British imperialism depoliticised the movement further. It also allowed the PSC to smuggle Labour MPs all bitterly opposed to ‘Hamas’ – code for Palestinian armed resistance – on to their platforms and present them as in some way progressive despite their absolute refusal to publicly challenge Starmer on his defence of the genocide. This includes the arch imperialist John McDonnell whose craven support for Ukraine contrasts with his condemnation of the 7 October attack. This did not stop the PSC from inviting him to speak at its 2024 annual general meeting.
What right to armed resistance?
Although the PSC says it acknowledges the right of the Palestinian people to resist oppression and military occupation, in reality this is eyewash. Within days of the 7 October action it had suspended leaders of its Manchester branch for publicly supporting the Palestinian resistance, declaring that the branch’s postings were ‘unacceptable, do not reflect the positions of PSC and do not serve the legitimate cause of the Palestinian people and their struggle for justice and liberation.’ This followed an expose in the reactionary Jewish Chronicle supported by Harry Cole, political editor of The Sun.
As if this was not cowardly enough, in early March the PSC forced its Birmingham branch to cancel a fundraising event which would have been addressed over Zoom by Leila Khaled from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PSC’s completely evasive statement on the ban – which referred to neither Leila Khaled nor the PFLP by name – said ‘International law makes clear that an occupied people have the right to resist, including through the use of armed resistance. It also makes clear the illegality of the use of force against non-combatants.’ It then continued: ‘An event was scheduled to take place later this week, originally with the sponsorship of a local branch in the West Midlands where the framing of the event did not clearly fall within the framework of the principles outlined above.’ There is no explanation as to how the event fell outside the framework, so the only conclusion that can be drawn is that the PSC accepts the discredited Zionist narrative surrounding the 7 October action and that the PFLP was involved in the targeted killing of civilians. The British state may not have yet banned the PFLP, but the PSC has.
PSC local affiliates are following the same line. For instance, Liverpool Friends of Palestine (LFOP) produces a regularly-updated bulletin of events; what remains fixed is a highlighted statement that ‘We abhor all attacks on civilians. The slaughter of Israeli civilians on 7 October by Hamas, and some by Israeli forces, does not justify the massive ongoing Israeli slaughter of Palestinian civilians.’ The only conceivable purpose of equating the violence of the oppressor with the oppressed in this way is to discredit the Palestinian resistance in order to court middle class respectability.
A litmus test – democracy
Any movement in solidarity with a people fighting for their basic democratic rights has to be democratic itself. The behaviour of the PSC leadership shows itself to be anything but. It has imposed particular restrictions on the public actions of its branches. First, they may not operate ‘open mic’ events. Second, they may not allow speakers who express support for the Palestinian resistance. Lastly, speakers may not use a foreign language. This is about exercising control in order to ban revolutionary voices. Platform speakers will abide by the ‘framework of principles’ principally because as Labour MPs or trade union leaders they will all be on board with the necessary ritual of condemning Hamas. Every national trade union statement on 7 October has opened with a condemnation of the Palestinian military action, regardless of whether they are affiliated to the PSC or not – and most of them are (see our pamphlet End British support for Zionism, p16).
Meantime, PSC leaders – and leaders of associated campaigns such as Stop the War Coalition (STWC) and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), both of which have been involved in organising the nation demonstrations for Palestine – are drawn from the same social layer, the labour aristocracy. They are as interlocked as directors of capitalist joint stock companies:
- Bernard Regan who was on the national executive of the National Union of Teachers for 25 years is on the executive of the PSC.
- Louise Regan is chair of PSC and on the Steering committee of STWC; she is also on the executive of the National Education Union and a past vice president.
- Kevin Courtney, general Secretary of the National Education Union and is a patron of STWC.
- Ben Jamal is PSC director and on the STWC Steering Committee.
- Jenny Clegg and Sam Mason, the latter a Labour Party member, are on both the CND Council and the STWC Steering Committee.
Ben Soffa, PSC secretary, was until October 2023 Labour’s head of digital campaigning on £61,000 per annum. He remains in the Labour Party. These bureaucracies naturally adopt the methods of the labour aristocracy in order to control the campaigns they organise, banning or proscribing individuals and organisations who oppose their social imperialism and preventing them from speaking at their local and national events. Members of supposedly radical organisations such as the SWP and Counterfire enforce these bans at a local level, demanding uncritical support for, and unity with, the social imperialists.
Building an anti-imperialist movement
Whether or not the ceasefire happens, Western imperialist powers will use the Security Council resolution to continue their drive to destroy the Palestinian resistance movement with or without Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister. British imperialism’s representative on the UN Security Council was quite clear in supporting the resolution that there has to be a new Palestinian government for the West Bank and Gaza – essentially imposing a second Oslo Agreement where once again the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people will be ignored and the Zionist occupation allowed to continue extending its reach.
In Britain that means our focus must be on building a movement that confronts the British state and demands that it ends all connections with the Zionist state – diplomatic, economic, political and cultural. The PSC reduces the demand for state sanctions to individual choices about boycott, and for arms disinvestment, addressing the symptoms alone rather than the cause. This treats the Zionist state as an independent entity rather than what it is – a colonial outpost of imperialism. It lets the social imperialists like McDonnell off the hook for their disgraceful attacks on the Palestinian resistance and instead gives them political space on their platforms. Its purpose is
to rehabilitate the racist, imperialist Labour Party. It is the biggest ob-
stacle to creating an anti-imperialist movement.
There can be no room for such opportunists in a solidarity movement based on the class interests of the oppressed and working class. The starting point is a struggle against British imperialism calling for the complete isolation of the Zionist state which stands with the Palestinian resistance. There can be no compromise on this: attacks on the resistance are founded on a racist contempt for the rights of the Palestinian people. The movement has to operate on a democratic basis: no bans or proscriptions on those standing for the Palestinian people. It must beware those who want to direct support for the Palestinian people into parliamentary channels: this is becoming a favoured option for former Labour Party members who want to ensure that the movement remains harnessed to the desiccated Labour and trade union left. Its focus has to be on organising the most conscious sections of the working class: black, Asian and Muslim workers who are all too aware of the racist and imperialist character of the British state.
End British support for Zionism – Sanctions now!
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 299 April/May 2024
