Stop Trump’s Wars!

by New Worker correspondent

Protesters gathered  outside Downing Street in London, condemning the US strikes on Venezuela on Saturday. This marked the fourth such action in London after the American raid on Caracas on 3rd January. One of the supporters of the mass picket in Whitehall, the British Chapter of the Anti Fascist International, said it stands in firm solidarity with Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution and totally condemns “the complicity of imperialist Britain.The Labour government is an accomplice in this war. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has refused to condemn the US bombing and abduction, stating  he will ‘shed no tears’ and that ‘the UK has long supported a transition in Venezuela’.The former human rights lawyer was unable to answer whether or not Trump had broken international law. The Bank of England continues to hoard 31 tonnes of stolen Venezuelan gold in its coffers. The RAF, British bases and Ministry of Defence intelligence have aided in the seizure of Venezuelan linked oil tankers – this is imperialist piracy!
“This is not only a war on Venezuela, this is a war on Cuba, on Nicaragua, on Colombia, on Mexico on all progressive movements in Latin America and beyond. It is an attack on solidarity with Palestine, targeting the nations who have defied the Zionist genocide in Gaza. Labour’s refusal to condemn the US illegal action is not out of cowardice, but because they represent the interests of the British multinationals; Britain, like the USA, treats the whole of Latin America as a place to be robbed of its natural resources. This is also an attack on the ordinary people of the USA and Britain, who have far more in common with Venezuelan workers than they do with the ruling class of their nations. This is an attack on all who struggle to put people before profit, who fight for socialism, who fight to build a better world”.

Stand by the hunger strikers!

 by New Worker correspondent

Demonstrators were outside Downing Street last week in a show of solidarity with the Palestine Action prisoners on hunger-strike in British jails. Eight of the 32 political prisoners for Palestine in the UK are on hunger strike – now in its fifth week. This is the largest hunger
strike since 1981, yet the mainstream media says nothing and the Government says nothing. The protest picket in Whitehall, led by the London Irish Brigade, wants a response from the British Government. They want the hunger-strikers demands met. Palestine Action told Sky News that all eight hunger strikers, who have been denied bail, are accused of offences occurring before the group was banned and will have been in prison for well over a year before they are tried. A judicial review challenge to the proscription has concluded with judges reserving their decision until a later date.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Independent Alliance bloc in Parliament, says that the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, David Lammy, has rejected his invitation to meet to resolve the matter by saying "considering the ongoing proceedings, it would not be appropriate for me to meet with you to discuss the situation" while claiming that "the safety of those who live and work in our prisons remains our paramount concern".
Corbyn, who visited one of the hunger-strikers this week, describes Lammy’s refusal as “astonishing… given the extremely serious and time-sensitive nature of the situation”.
Amu Gib, one of Corbyn’s constituents, is being held at Bronzefield jail in Ashford, Surrey.
Corbyn said that Lammy’s response failed to address “the very serious allegations of inconsistent and unequal medical treatment” of the detainees and repeated his request for a meeting.
And in the House of Commons Labour MP John McDonnell criticised the lack of engagement from the government saying that the justice secretary had failed to respond to previous letters on the matter. He said "this is a matter of urgency and I would've expected at least the courtesy of some response even if he's not willing to meet us". Forty-one MPs have
signed an early day motion calling on Lammy to intervene “urgently to ensure the treatment
of the prisoners is humane”.

Stop starving Gaza!

 by New Worker correspondent

Whitehall was absolutely crammed last week with Palestinian supporters, thousands of people furious with our government’s complicity and participation in the crimes against humanity we see every day. Protesters sent a message to Starmer banging pots and pans outside Downing Street in London to denounce Gaza’s urgent hunger crisis. The emergency protest followed reports that over 1,000 Palestinians have been shot by the Israelis and their auxiliaries while queuing for food and 154 people in Israeli occupied Gaza have already died of starvation.
Meanwhile the co-founder of a pro-Palestinian direct action campaign has won her bid to legally challenge the British government’s decision to ban it under “anti-terrorism” laws.
Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, asked London’s High Court to give the go-ahead for a full challenge to the campaign’s proscription, which was made on the grounds that spray-painting RAF jets and vandalising the offices of arms manufacturers operating in the UK that supply weapons to Israel constituted acts of “terrorism”.
The High Court had originally refused Ms Ammori’s application to pause the ban and after an unsuccessful last-ditch appeal Palestine Action’s proscription came into effect on 5th July. Proscription makes it a crime to be a member of the group, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
However Judge Martin Chamberlain has now granted permission for a judicial review, saying Ms Ammori’s case amounted to a disproportionate interference with her and others’ right to freedom of expression and was “reasonably arguable”.

Stop the massacre in Gaza!

Around 800 people joined an emergency protest opposite Downing Street on Monday evening in response to the horrific Israeli triple missile strike on a school in Gaza City which killed at least 80 Palestinian civilians. The attack coincided with morning prayers and started a fire. About 6,000 people were sheltering in Tabeen school, all of whom have already moved several times to different parts of Gaza on the advice of the Israeli forces to avoid military operations. The director of al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, Dr Fadel Naeem, described the situation at the hospital as catastrophic, with a severe shortage of medical supplies and resources. Al-Ahli hospital is managed by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem  and it is the only Christian hospital in Gaza.

Gaza: Stop the slaughter

by New Worker correspondent

London comrades joined thousands of other Palestinian solidarity campaigners who rallied outside Downing Street in Whitehall on Monday to demand an end to Israeli aggression in Gaza. The emergency protest was called following reports that the Israelis had started to carpet bomb Rafah. Demonstrators called on the Sunak government to end arms sales to the Zionist state and as their numbers swelled the police were forced to close some of the roads near the Prime Minister’s residence.