On 27 April, hundreds gathered in Newcastle’s West End to march for Palestine and to demand the closure of the local Rafael armaments factory. Organised by Shut Down Rafael (SDR), Newcastle and Darlington Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), North East Against Racism (NEAR) and FRFI North East, the march demanded, ‘Free Palestine! Shut Down Rafael! Sanction Israel Now!’. A handful of speakers led a rally before the demonstration started. The first to speak was an FRFI representative who declared ‘Britain, the US and Israel cannot allow the existence of any liberated territories in the Middle East, because liberation in this context means liberation from imperialism and Zionism’, ending ‘All power and victory to the resistance of the Palestinian people’.
Rafael is the third largest Israeli arms manufacturer; it acquired Pearson Engineering in the West End of Newcastle in 2022 as part of its strategic expansion into Britain. Rafael manufactures weaponry such as Spike missiles which can engage and destroy targets within the line-of-sight of the launcher. These, Rafael claims, are ‘extensively battle proven by the Israeli Air Force’. The SDR campaign started monthly protests on 8 October 2023 operating an open mic, with early morning blockades of the factory.
The march passed shops, cafés, restaurants and housing through the West End. On reaching the factory, there was a list of main speakers from the many supporting organisations, followed by an open mic. A large part of the success of the march was due to the open, democratic approach to organising it. There were weekly public organising meetings, where decisions were collectively made and everyone, regardless of experience, contributed ideas. Building work for the march included leafleting, door knocking and holding stalls in the West End.
Opportunists try to undermine
The local PSC leadership, represented by PSC National Executive member Alex Snowden, ignored the march. The night before, activist WhatsApp groups were inundated with messages as part of a campaign of disruption by ‘community leaders’. They accused the protest organisers of not notifying the police about the demonstration, claiming that as a consequence attendees were at risk of arrest or injury. They also suggested the West End community did not want the protest. However, these lies were proven false on the day, with hundreds from the community participating.
From the supposed left, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), previously Socialist Appeal, offered a ‘comradely critique’ of the SDR campaign. The core of their argument was that ‘instead of attempting to shut down the factory from the outside, the campaign should seek to persuade the workers to go on strike on a political basis.’ It is a reactionary fantasy that workers in the defence industry are fully prepared to take political action against their employers, and would with little persuasion be prepared to break anti-trade union laws and engage in political strikes. The RCP ignores a material reality, that the lives and conditions of defence workers are bound up with the viability of the war industry, and they will not take any principled action at this point in time. They are a backward section of the working class, compared to those working class people who are picketing the Rafael factory. Not a single Rafael worker has joined the campaign or expressed support for it. The RCP however wants to tie the campaign to this backward layer because of a completely idealist conception of the nature of the working class in an imperialist country.
SDR will continue its campaign against Rafael, and FRFI will support it in its efforts to close this factory and to end British support for Zionism.
Scarlett Greene
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 300 June/July 2024
