Palestine will never surrender!

outside the US embassy

by New Worker correspondent

In a powerful display of solidarity, hundreds of thousands gathered in London on Saturday to demand justice for the Palestinians and an end to Zionist terror in the Middle East. Demonstrators also staged a “die-in” outside 10 Downing Street and left toys in memory of the Palestinian children butchered by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip. 
At the rally Maysara Ibrahim, representing the Palestinian Forum in Britain, told the protesters “I have run out of words, as we repeat the same agony and the same pain, while the darkness before us threatens the very existence of our values, our principles, and what remains of our humanity. Yet seeing you all today brings hope. We must not stop until we see Palestine free. We will not bow, we will not surrender, and we will continue our fight until our land is free, until Palestine is free from the river to the sea”.
The march stretched from Whitehall to the American embassy in Nine Elms sending a clear message to global leaders about the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
There, protesters were still at the peace camp set up some weeks ago to draw attention to the US role in the genocide. The local response was heartening with residents providing supplies, such as chairs, blankets, and food – including hot meals for the camp in the evenings. The camp finally closed this week to allow the local campaigners to “take stock and build up energy” for their next action following the presidential election in the USA.
In a powerful display of solidarity, hundreds of thousands gathered in London on Saturday to demand justice for the Palestinians and an end to Zionist terror in the Middle East. Demonstrators also staged a “die-in” outside 10 Downing Street and left toys in memory of the Palestinian children butchered by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip.

Defending Cuba!

Outside the embassy

by New Worker correspondent

Cuba solidarity activists were on the streets of London last weekend to protest against the American blockade and confront provocations by Cuban émigrés and other agents of imperialism calling for increased sanctions and US action, including direct intervention.
    Rabid anti-communist US politicians and far-right Cuban-American émigré groups based in Florida had called for a global weekend of action against the socialist island. But in London they had little to show for it apart from a handful who turned up outside the Cuban embassy on Sunday only to find it surrounded by over a hundred supporters of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
    Meanwhile, the new US embassy in Nine Elms was picketed by the Consistent Democrats, a left split from Socialist Fight, The demonstration was in defence of the Cuban revolution and a show of solidarity with the Cuban people against the “Gusano” or “worms”, as they’re known in Cuba, mobilisation.

Anger outside the American Embassy

    by Siobhan Kelly

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd there have been protests all around the world. London was no exception. The protest at the United States embassy in Nine Elms on Sunday was scheduled to start at 2 pm but it was already in progress by 1:30. The crowd was diverse and outraged; all standing (and kneeling) in unity to oppose the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, police killings of people from minority ethnic groups and the violent reaction of police to the mostly peaceful protests that continue across the United States.

We chanted “Black Lives Matter”, “We Can’t Breathe”, “Teach Black History”, “No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police”, “Say their name” which was followed by the names of victims that were killed by police including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. There were even a brief chants of “Boris Johnson is a wanker” and “Fuck Trump” although the chants of “Fuck White Privilege” quickly died out.

The crowd stood outside the US embassy for about 90 minutes, then people started to turn around and walked back up Nine Elms lane to Vauxhall Bridge. A man was walked through the crowd saying “walk with me to the New Scotland Yard”. The crowd then walked over the bridge, disrupting traffic for about a mile in its wake for nearly an hour.

The atmosphere was angry and yet peaceful. There were very few people who were not wearing face masks, and at least where I stood people kept about a metre distance between themselves and those not in their group. The cautious protestors came out in droves despite the urging by Health Secretary Matt Hancock not to attend the protests while we are still in the midst of a pandemic. There were volunteers giving out masks, gloves and squirting hand sanitiser.

Once the crowd left the street, apart from a few stragglers like myself, the police walked down the street along with “Legal Observers”. The police weren’t intimidating and didn’t even clear the street of all the protesters. Behind the line of police walking and their vans there was another smaller group of protesters.

It is astonishing that even with cameras recording police brutality in America it still continues. They don’t care that you film them attacking civilians and the press – especially civilians that are non-violent and only exercising their constitutional right to peacefully protest.

But is encouraging to see such support for the victims of these racist cops, all over the UK and the world, as a result of the killing of George Floyd and the protests in America.