For over two years the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has shown more than ever that it is in no way fit for its stated purpose. Rather than taking a principled, anti-imperialist stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people it has been determined to contain the movement and ensure it does not confront the British state. The PSC has utterly failed to build a mass movement against Britain’s complicity in the genocide despite the enormous public support that exists for Palestine. Rather than harness this potential, the PSC has treacherously run it into the ground holding increasingly infrequent, tame marches through London with largely humanitarian demands.
Through its support for every act of Zionist barbarity, Labour has been exposed for the pro-imperialist, pro-Zionist party it always has been. Within weeks of the Al Aqsa Flood operation, protests outside the offices of Labour MPs erupted all over the country in a crucial development for the movement which clearly recognised the Labour Party even in opposition as a key apologist for the Zionist genocide. While claiming to be non-partisan the PSC has attempted to stifle this anti-Labour sentiment by inviting scores of discredited former and serving Labour MPs onto their platforms as headline speakers. This has included Jeremy Corbyn (who has been wheeled out to speak at practically every national PSC march), John McDonnell, Diane Abbott, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne and Kim Johnson to name but a few.
The PSC has refused – unlike other solidarity campaigns – to unequivocally call for total sanctions and isolation of the Zionist state, instead limiting their demands to an arms embargo and supporting the call for Boycott, Divestment and – a long way down the line – Sanctions. BDS reduces action for Palestine to individual action on a largely humanitarian basis, in contrast to the call for sanctions and the total isolation of the Zionist regime, which places the British state at the centre of the campaign. BDS was launched in the occupied West Bank as an explicitly non-violent campaign that has criticised the role played by the armed liberation movement. In May 2024 it went as far as to instruct Palestinian coalitions and networks not to call on any solidarity group or coalition to advocate for, raise slogans for, or otherwise support Palestinian armed resistance in case it brought the Palestine solidarity movement into disrepute. After popular outrage and direct criticism by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, it was forced to withdraw its letter.
This attitude is consistent with that of the PSC, which never concretely talks about what Palestinian liberation means, nor does it support the armed struggle. In October 2023 it expelled all the executive members of Manchester PSC branch after they put out a statement about Al Aqsa Flood that read: ‘Palestinian freedom fighters from besieged Gaza broke Zionist colonial barriers and entered settlements built on stolen Palestinian land inside ’48 Palestine’. The PSC also pulled its support for a fundraiser organised by the West Midlands branch of PSC in March 2024 because PFLP representative Leila Khaled was due to speak. The cancellation was a shameful act of capitulation to the efforts of the British state to criminalise all expressions of support for the Palestinian armed resistance. In contrast, representatives of the pro-imperialist Palestinian Authority are enthusiastically welcomed onto PSC platforms.
The PSC has a job to do: to keep the movement sanitised. It does not support radical Palestine activity in this country. It refused to defy and fight the police ban against a PSC march assembling at the BBC headquarters in January 2025, which ushered in a more sustained clampdown on the movement by the British state. The PSC has not defended anyone arrested in relation to Palestine activity other than its own leaders. It had to be dragged kicking and screaming to oppose the proscription of Palestine Action and has refused to sign an open letter demanding that the terrorism charges and investigations against the SOAS 2 be dropped or to invite them to speak on PSC platforms.
The movement in Britain must stand in solidarity with the right of the Palestinian people to armed struggle, fight for sanctions, defend all of those targeted for arrest and organise against proscriptions and bans. This necessarily entails an ongoing battle against the PSC which is one of the biggest obstacles to building such a movement in Britain.
Mark Moncada
