On the 18 January 2025 national protest for Palestine organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the Metropolitan Police arrested at least 77 people. This followed the Met’s announcement on 9 January that it had banned the march from assembling at BBC Broadcasting House. The ban is part of a crackdown by the genocidal Labour government that we have to resist. Regrettably, the PSC and its allies are demonstrating how to lose this battle. Will Jones reports.
An unlawful ban
The spurious justification for the ban was to ensure peace during Sabbath at the Central Synagogue, located several hundred metres from the BBC. When the rabidly Zionist Community Security Trust tweeted its glee at the ban, Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper replied: ‘Met Police have my support in ensuring synagogues were not disrupted today’. The ban aimed to draw a line under the largest protest movement in recent years, which continues to mobilise despite the ceasefire. A secondary objective was to protect the BBC’s role as an apologist for British imperialism.
Now on a collision course with the British state, the PSC was aware that thousands of people would want to defy the ban and demonstrate outside the BBC. The media and courts would then blame protest leaders for any disorder to justify further repression. The organisers had two options: prepare for mass defiance and side with those prepared to resist; or protect themselves. They chose the latter.
Step one: surrender
The PSC announced on 14 January it would move the starting point to Whitehall and march to the BBC ‘in an orderly fashion’, hoping this would satisfy the police. It did not. One day before the protest, the PSC published a statement of surrender: ‘if they continue to refuse to… prevent us from marching, we will rally on Whitehall in protest’ – ie we will protest against the ban on marching by not marching! The Met claimed victory the same day: ‘The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has confirmed that its demonstration on Saturday will now be limited to a static protest in Whitehall… This approach is acceptable.’
Step two: act respectable
The organisers’ actions on the day itself created further confusion. They waited until 3pm when many protesters had left, before announcing that a small, self-appointed ‘delegation’ of MPs and activists would go to lay flowers at the BBC or, if prevented, at the feet of the police. Hundreds of protesters took this as a signal to march to the BBC, but after breaching the first police line were trapped in Trafalgar Square by police cordons at every exit. Over 60 were arrested there, including Stop the War (StW) Chief Steward Chris Nineham. PSC director Ben Jamal was arrested the following day.
Step three: abandon the other arrestees
Nineham and Jamal are charged with ‘inciting people to fail to comply with conditions’ restricting the time and location of the protest. Ten others have also been charged so far. The PSC and its partners have to date only indicated that they will defend Jamal and Nineham. This is not only self-regarding, but a dangerous error; any defeat in the courts will set a precedent for more bans. At a StW public meeting on 25 January co-chair Alex Kelly correctly urged attendees to protest for Nineham at Westminster Magistrates Court on 13 February. Since no questions were allowed (at a meeting on freedom of speech!) an FRFI comrade heckled Kelly on whether StW would be protesting at hearings for the other ten defendants. ‘If that is what they wish’ was his embarrassed answer, showing the organisers had made no attempt to contact them. Kelly also refused to call for a march on the BBC. On 31 January the PSC announced its next national demonstration would go from Whitehall to the US embassy.
The confusion and repression on 18 January were an inevitable result of the PSC coalition’s long-standing refusal to break with the genocidal Labour Party, and of its close collaboration with the police. They have not lifted a finger to support over 200 pro-Palestine protesters arrested on previous demonstrations, nor defended the Palestine Action prisoners. With such compliant leadership, the police could expect an easy crackdown. They must not be allowed any more victories.
Defend all arrestees!
If you were arrested on 18 January, contact the European Legal Support Centre or Green and Black Cross which are coordinating legal support.
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 304 February/March 2025
