Stop the bombing now!

London comrades at the march

by Ed Newman

Angry protesters marched on the American embassy in London last weekend demanding an end to US-Israeli strikes on Iran. The march was organised by a coalition of groups, including Hands off Iran, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain and CND.
The organisers said more than 50,000 demonstrators marched from Millbank to the US embassy in Vauxhall on Saturday afternoon. It cames on the eighth day of the US-Israeli attack on Iran, shortly after President Donald Trump said the US would hit Iran “very hard” in the coming days.
Protesters were heard chanting “stop the bombing now, now, now” and “Keir Starmer be afraid, we will see you in The Hague”.
Your Party MP Zarah Sultana spoke at the demonstration outside the US embassy, saying “back then [in 2003], we were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. We were told that war would bring peace and democracy.
“We were told that the war would protect Iraqis and protect the world, but the truth was very different. And 23 years ago, when we marched against the Iraq war, we were ignored.
“We will not be ignored again, because history proved them right, and today, we raise our voices for peace, for justice and for a world where governments learn the lessons of the past”.
Hours before the march on Saturday morning, US Air Force B-1 Lancer bombers landed at the RAF Fairford base in Gloucestershire, in southern England.
Trump’s War Secretary, Pete Hegseth, said that the USA would use British bases to “dramatically” increase its strikes on Iran. The Starmer government has allowed the Americans to use UK military bases for the purpose of targeting Iranian missile sites.

Radio Havana Cuba

Welfare not Warfare – Stop the War in Ukraine

by Theo Russell

At a public meeting on Thursday 7th August hosted by Lewisham and Greenwich CND, Lewisham Stop the War and Lewisham Trades Council the audience rejected “the Labour Government’s policy of lowering living standards and cutting public services and benefits in order to fund an unending war that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people and brought the world to the brink of nuclear Armageddon”.
They called on the government “to end its financial and military support for war in Ukraine, and commit to working for a diplomatic, negotiated, lasting peace settlement, and encourage local peace organisations and trade unions to do the same”.
Cheryl McLeod from Lewisham Trades Council opened the meeting, saying “we’re here tonight with a message that cuts through the lies, the spin, and the silence. Let’s be honest: Britain has become a puppet of US foreign policy Whether it’s backing Nato’s endless wars, or supporting the Gaza genocide,
“Our leaders do as they’re told even if it means fuelling death abroad while slashing support at home.Meanwhile, councils across the UK are going bankrupt, over 14 million people now live in poverty, the number of people using food banks has tripled since 2010, and the NHS is short of over 100,000 staff.
“And here’s the truth no one in Westminster will say out loud: Ukraine has no chance of winning this war, even US military officials are now admitting it: Ukraine is outgunned, outmanned, and out of time.
“So what’s the plan? To keep sending billions in weapons, to prolong the bloodshed, so NATO can “save face”? This isn’t helping the Ukrainian people. It’s sacrificing them.
“And as if that weren’t enough, let’s remember: President Zelenskyy, the so-called Hero of the West, chose to shut down Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency. He banned opposition parties. He postponed elections. 
“This is the democracy we’re funding? This is the government we’re pouring billions into while children here go to school hungry?
“We say: Enough. We need peace not posturing, diplomacy not destruction, welfare not warfare.
“No more weapons for unwinnable wars, no more billions for corrupt foreign regimes, no more silence on Gaza’s genocide, no more acting as America’s puppet. And we say: Yes to housing, yes to healthcare, yes to food, education, and dignity”.
Alfie Howls from CodePink UK gave a detailed account of the causes of the war in Ukraine: the US involvement in the 2014 coup d’etat and Nato’s continual eastward expansion. "Ukraine is not a democracy, and many parties and trade unions have been banned. It is intervening against progressive governments in Africa. NATO’s ultimate aim is to destabilise Russia and divide it into small states” he said.
Alex Gordon,  the vice-president of CND, said it was “high time Ukraine was discussed in the trade unions and peace movement, because until now anyone raising this has been accused of being a ‘Russian influencer’...
“...our media, academia and politicians are in grip of a highly influential ‘Military-Industrial-Media-Academic-Complex’ (MIMAC), which is behind such official warnings that ‘we are no longer in a postwar world, we are now living in a pre-war world’ – in other words that war with Russia is inevitable.
“The latest UK defence strategy says that because of the Ukraine war massive spending is needed on digital warfare, new munitions factories, and 12 new nuclear submarines. But this spending is not actual 'investment', it is at the cost of domestic welfare and foreign aid.
“Western governments and the media have blatantly lied about nuclear weapons in Iran, and it was Donald Trump who took the US out of the Iran nuclear deal in his first term as US president.”
Another CND leader, Kate Hudson, said that the majority of young people in Britain now see Nato as a greater threat to peace than Russia, and described how Nato suppresses opposition from member states.
“In July, US B61-12 nuclear bombs returned to RAF Lakenheath for the first time since 2008, as well as to Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey. But when Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands demanded their removal, the US refused because the deployment was agreed by consensus. So if a majority of Nato states are in favour, the rest have to accept the decision, overriding their national sovereignty.
“The war in Ukraine is ultimately the result of Nato’s relentless eastward expansion. Nato officials have discussed deploying ‘tactical’ or ‘mini’ nuclear missiles in Europe, in fact their warheads are three times more powerful than those used in August 1945. The Russian responses to such moves mean that the threat of nuclear war is increasing.
“Nato now has partners in Asia, Latin America and Africa and spends $22 trillion a year compared to Russia’s $140 billion military budget. Nato is a blight on humanity in every conceivable way”.
Asked about the motion adopted at RMT’s conference in Manchester last month calling for Britain to end military aid to Ukraine, Alex Gordon said “the RMT has launched a drive to challenge the UK’s massive spending on support for Ukraine. In the past trade unions wrongly supported sending weapons to Ukraine. The RMT wants to challenge that position, and urges other unions to follow our example”.
Members of International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) received a friendly response from the meeting, and two spoke from the floor. The meeting appears to be part of a new campaign and a marked change in Stop the War’s policy on Ukraine after years of appearing to lay all the blame on Russia and perceived open hostility towards IUAFS activists.

Police crackdown on Palestine protesters

by New Worker correspondent

Leading anti-war campaigners and scores of other protesters were arrested last weekend as the police moved to break up a massive Palestinian solidarity demonstration in central London. The rally in Whitehall was called after the Metropolitan Police, under Zionist pressure, banned a planned march on the BBC claiming it would cause serious disruption to services at a nearby synagogue. 
In response, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) announced plans for a rally and a peaceful protest against this anti-democratic ban. On the day the demonstrators were confronted with extremely heavy-handed and aggressive policing. With less than 24 hours’ notice, the police had imposed a series of complex restrictions preventing people from assembling at various points on Whitehall at different times of the day – notably an area at the centre of Whitehall from which rally participants were excluded for part of the day to allow space for a children’s marching band to proceed up and down. As a result a number of people were arrested, without warning, on flimsy pretexts including simply for inadvertently standing in this central area at the wrong time.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, a maverick Labour MP, were issued cautions by the Met and interviewed on Sunday. Chris Nineham, the vice-chair of the Stop the War campaign, was dragged off with 76 others and though Nineham and some of the others have been bailed others remain in custody. Nine have been charged with public order offences including PSC director Ben Jamal and Jeremy Corbyn’s brother, Piers.
Ben Jamal said he would "vigorously contest" the charges against him and described the scenes on Saturday as "a huge assault on the right to freedom of assembly and to protest".
The Met claim the protesters had forced their way through a police cordon to march towards the headquarters of the BBC after ending their 100,000 strong protest in Whitehall. But Corbyn  said “this is not an accurate description of events at all. I was part of a delegation of speakers, who wished to peacefully carry and lay flowers in memory of children in Gaza who had been killed.This was facilitated by the police. We did not force our way through. When we reached Trafalgar Square, we informed police that we would go no further, lay down flowers and disperse. At that point the Chief Steward, Chris Nineham, was arrested. We then turned back and dispersed. I urge the police to release all bodycam footage and retract its misleading account of events”.
 Stop the War national officer John Rees said “this is a direct assault on freedom of assembly and democracy. The police’s actions, including their false statements after the event, are deeply troubling. We demand the immediate release of all those arrested and remain resolute in our campaign for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people”.

Stop the War in Ukraine!

 By New Worker correspondent

Comrades joined other campaigners in London for a Stop the War rally at Hamilton House last weekend that brought together a number of British and international speakers under the banner of ‘Stop The War In Ukraine’.
    Stop the War (StW) has been on a journey over the last year where their position on the Russian intervention in Ukraine has gradually changed, partly under pressure from members, from a position that wasn’t very different to the Government and the mainstream media, to now, where the only call at Saturday’s meeting was to end the war.
    Having attended many StW events in that time, Saturday was also notable for the absence of any assertions that Russia is an imperialist state.
    Kate Hudson from CND spoke on the increasing militarisation of the region, where states are dramatically increasing their military budgets, and the increased danger this causes. Also the depleted uranium shells, which the UK proposes to send to Ukraine, will escalate the conflict, cause long term damage to the people of Ukraine, and increase the risk of further British involvement in the war. CND has arranged a protest at RAF Lakenheath on 20th May against US nuclear weapons being stationed in Britain, and asks all who can to attend.
    Next up was the rapper and activist Lowkey, who always presents lots of complex information in very accessible form. He touched on the same themes as Kate, on the birth defects still happening in Fallujah, due to the use of depleted uranium 20 years ago during the American occupation of Iraq.
    His other theme was how for some companies, war is good for business. He spoke of the four main US defence contractors who have doubled their profits in the last year, and of the endemic corruption, giving the example of defence secretary Ben Wallace who was previously director of weapons company QinetiQ.
    QinetiQ has received hundreds of millions of pounds in contracts since the start of the conflict, and is so entwined with power that a QinetiQ director, Gordon Messenger was appointed to head a review into the NHS, surely a conflict of interest as the company has expressed interest in gaining NHS contracts.
    Lowkey finished by warning about the media. “The same people who lied to us about WMDs in Iraq are the same people lying to us about the war in Ukraine. They are the very same people in the media and in the government”.
    Sevim Dağdelen, a German MP from Die Linke (The Left party) spoke of her experience of opposing the war inside the German parliament, and how the anti-war campaigners are routinely smeared as puppets of Putin, or connected to the far-right – both untrue. She spoke strongly on how NATO and the US are the main danger to world peace, and our duty to oppose them.
    “While people are dying in Ukraine, arms companies are making billions increasing their profits by 11.5 per cent. It is our responsibility to stand up to the warmongers in our governments and end this escalating spiral of war”.
    Irish MEP Clare Daly has become one of the voices and faces of opposition to escalation and war mongering and she had a great reception. She spoke from her perspective of the changes since February 2022, where only a few MEPs spoke against NATO and EU escalation, to now where more are openly opposing the war. She said any opposition to the drive to war is delegitimised, in a conflict that has seen what she described as ‘unprecedented censorship’ where the only view we have on the conflict is through government press releases.
    She spoke of the numbers of people who contact her every day, saying they agree with everything she and fellow MEP Mick Wallace say, but they are scared to say it themselves.‘War can never be stopped by war. It can only be stopped by peace. We are in a majority but we are silenced by the establishment because they fear the power of this movement against war.’
    This was a good meeting, and StW are to be commended for organising. But there was no Q&A session after the speakers, and some people wondered who the organisers were more worried about, the members from the floor, or the platform speakers?

Donbas solidarity at Stop the War

Salma Yaqoob addresses conference

by New Worker correspondent

Donbas solidarity activists were at the Stop the War trade union conference last Saturday to leaflet the meeting and intervene during the debate in the hall. The latest leaflet of the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement was handed out at the doors in support of the just struggle of the people of the Donbas for freedom and self-determination.
    But the main focus of this conference was on building a bigger peace movement and working to reverse the TUC’s decision last year to support increased arms spending.
    Many speakers, like the Italian worker talking about the Genoese dockers’ efforts to stop arms going to Israel and Saudi Arabia never even mentioned Ukraine. Those that did stuck to the mealy-mouthed position of the leadership whose calls for an end to the war are linked with the demand for a complete withdrawal of all Russian troops from Crimea and the Donbas – which is exactly what NATO wants.
    In the past left Labour MPs were happy to openly support the efforts of the Stop the War campaign. But none of them showed up for Saturday’s conference at Hamilton House in central London.
    Stop the War vice-chair Andrew Murray said: “If you remember the vast demonstration 20 years ago against the Iraq war, which Stop the War led, that demonstration had the support of nearly every major union in the country — and in many cases the union leaderships had been driven there by their members, rather than necessarily by their own willingness to confront the Labour government”.
    Then nearly 140 Labour MPs defied Tony Blair to vote against the invasion of Iraq. Now none of them are prepared to face the wrath of Starmer and the inevitable suspension à la Corbyn that would inevitably follow for refusing to toe the imperialist line.
    Murray said “the leader of the Labour Party, revealing himself every day as more of an authoritarian imperialist has made it clear that any Labour MP would sacrifice the whip and their seat in Parliament if they associate with the anti-war movement — something even Tony Blair did not do. That is a democratic outrage which our movement should be standing against loud and clear”.
    Jeremy Corbyn was also absent having just returned from campaigning in America on behalf of Julian Assange. But he did at least make a video call to conference in support of peace negotiations. Though the former Labour leader avoided the ‘Russian troops out’ mantra he did say that the Russian invasion was “wrong” – before calling for peace talks, possibly brokered by Brazil, to end the fighting.
    The anti-war movement’s calls to ‘stop the war’ and ‘no to NATO expansion’ are routinely prefaced with the ‘Russian troops out’ demand which is what the imperialists and the Ukrainian fascists are fighting for in the first place.
    The two leaders of the self-styled “anti-war” movement – CND Chair Kate Hudson and Stop the War convener Lindsey German – both rejected the argument of one participant who intervened from the floor to say that blaming both Nato and Russia for the Ukraine war confused the question and that Russia should be seen as a victim of US imperialism.
    Lindsey German said it was important to acknowledge the “humanitarian catastrophe” unleashed by Putin’s invasion and what she called the aggressive expansionism of Russia, while also recognising the role of NATO expansion in provoking the war.
    Though the Stop the War leadership and their supporters amongst the left social-democratic and pacifist trends within the Labour Party have distanced themselves from the fake left’s “arm Ukraine” brigade they have not broken with the bourgeois consensus on both sides of the Atlantic that ignores the fascist nature of the Kiev regime, brands Russia the aggressor and ignores the legitimate rights of the people of Crimea and the Donbas who have joined the Russian Federation.
    The anti-imperialist struggle in Ukraine is part of the global front of the poor and the oppressed who are fighting for freedom all around the world. We must counter the bogus ‘evenhandedness’ within the peace movement with the call for victory for the Russian and Donbas forces fighting fascism and NATO-inspired aggression.

The war goes on and on…

by Theo Russell

Around 60 people attended a meeting at Hamilton House in central London last week organised by the Stop the War Coalition (StW) that included contributions from a number of trade union and peace activists, as well as a video message from Yurii Sheliazhenko of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement.
    Sheliazhenko condemned NATO for sending “wave upon wave of weapons” whilst “the war goes on and on”.
    “While Zelensky makes no moves towards a resolution,” he said, “Ukraine and Russia urgently need peace talks, and western governments must create the conditions for talks.” The Ukrainian pacifist spoke of "an army of well-paid liars and smears against the peace movement." But he was upbeat about the peace plan proposed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk, which includes a fresh vote on the future of the regions that recently joined the Russian Federation, Crimea to remain in Russia, and guarantees of Ukrainian neutrality.
    Jamie Newell from the firefighters’ union, the FBU, commented that the British government "has a real cheek criticising Russia's response to recent street protests, when they do exactly the same thing here".
    Speaking for StW, Lindsay German condemned the demonisation of anyone in Britain calling for peace talks such as the suspension of Angelo Sanchez after attacking British policy at the recent Labour Party conference. She also referred to comments by BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen – who has been reporting from Ukraine – about the Western coalition's targeting of civilian infrastructure in Iraq and the Saudi-led coalition's bombing of Yemen (with armaments supplied by, amongst others, Britain).
    Lindsay said Labour Party members had been told not to support StW’s position on Ukraine, and former MP Emma Dent Coad, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, had been blocked as a future parliamentary candidate for Kensington & Chelsea where she was Labour MP from 2017–19, amongst other reasons for speaking at StW protests.
    “It’s a real denial of democracy in Britain where if you raise any criticism of what our government is doing in Ukraine or call for peace you're regarded as an appeaser of Putin,” she said.
    “Meanwhile the British government has supported people going to fight in Ukraine, while none of the parties in parliament are speaking out against the war. This isn't just about Russia invading Ukraine, every time we send weapons to Ukraine it's at the expense of our schools, our hospitals and our housing. There's a clear connection between the expansion of militarism and austerity at home.
    “So far Britain has given £2.5 billion to Ukraine, and even neutral Ireland has sent non-military aid, so this is essentially a proxy war between Russia and NATO. This isn't going to stop with Ukraine, we know about the AUKUS Pact and the situation around China, and we are seeing much greater moves towards confrontation and war.”
    Speaking from the floor, a Unite member called for a new Labour Party that was "democratic, anti-war and pro-peace", and said: “The British government should stop sending weapons to Ukraine because they are fascist, absolutely fascist, and they are brutally oppressing their own people.”
    Members of International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity distributed leaflets, spoke to members of the panel and the audience, and one was lucky enough to speak from the floor. Unfortunately, many of the speakers said almost nothing about Ukraine, and over two-thirds of the panel contributions and the following discussion focused only on peace and trade union campaigns in Britain.

No to Nato!

by Monty's statue in Whitehall

by Theo Russell

As the warmongers gathered in Madrid for the NATO summit this week, anti-war activists took to the streets in towns and cities across Britain for the International Day of Action For Peace In Ukraine on Saturday 25th June, with over 30 local groups participating across the country.
    As the Stop the War Coalition report says, the actions come “as Boris Johnson urges other world leaders to hold firm in their long-term support for Ukraine, meaning amplifying arms supplies and deploying more troops. As belligerents bang the drums of war, the anti-war movement sends its counter message to the government.”
    Stop the War Coalition’s convenor Lindsey German told activists in London: “This war has everything to do with what NATO is doing as well as what Russia is doing. It expanded in terms of its aggression, it was involved in wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya. And when you hear that NATO is a movement for peace that is a lie - it is a movement for war.”
    NATO has plans to increase the number of forces on high alert in the east from 40,000 to 300,000, and deploy yet more troops to NATO countries close to the Russian Federation.
    Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary, said “We need to move beyond NATO and have a new security architecture internationally to create a situation of peace and justice.
    “We know NATO will be talking about their new strategic concept. And, every time NATO has a new strategic concept they are expanding the remit of NATO, whether it’s going into Latin America, Africa or Asia. As activists it is essential we raise public awareness about what’s going on. We have a responsibility to get that information out there.”
    The StWC statement goes on: “Boris Johnson recently said the financial cost of providing long standing support to Ukraine was “a price worth paying for democracy and freedom. As the British government pumps billions of pounds into the war in Ukraine, the UK is suffering the biggest cost of living crisis in decades.
    “But it’s impossible to ignore the mass fight back amid the summer of discontent. The International Day of Action for Peace in Ukraine coincided with the biggest rail strike in 30 years.
    “Stop the War Coalition rallies sent messages of solidarity to the RMT acknowledging that the emancipation of the working class goes hand in hand with the priorities of the anti-war movement.”
    “Boris Johnson has played a particularly crucial role in discouraging negotiations, telling President Zelensky on his May visit to Kiev that ‘no negotiations are possible’.
    “The weekend’s Day of Action was about showing there is another way. We must carry our message onto the streets and into the trade unions, while pushing back against the attacks on us from the Starmer-state bloc and its facilitators.”
    Meanwhile attacks on the peace movement have been stepped up, with Keir Starmer denouncing Stop the War in the Guardian after visiting NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, saying “At best they are naive, at worst they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies.”
    Stop the War responded, saying: “The attack on StW has been widely interpreted as a way of further distancing Starmer from his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn remains in the wilderness, denied the Labour whip in Parliament and will likely be blocked from standing again as a Labour candidate.
    “Corbyn was chair of StW as was his chief of staff, Andrew Murray. It’s interesting that Starmer chose this way to demonstrate his loyalty to British imperialism and Nato. It confirms that the establishment drive to destroy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party was motivated chiefly by his anti-imperialism.”
    The New Worker supports a negotiated end to the war, rather than a withdrawal of Russian forces, which were invited to intervene in Ukraine to end eight years of attacks on the Donbas republics in which 14,000 people died and over two million refugees left Ukraine.
    Inhabitants of the Kiev-controlled parts of the Donbas, including in Mariupol, have spent years under the heel of arrogant, violent, fascist thugs from the Azov Battalion and other 'nationalist' groups who made Mariupol their main base. Since the Russian intervention began there has been a reign of terror against the left and opposition across Ukraine with murders, including of at least 11 town mayors, torture and mass arrests.
    A leaflet from International Ukraine Anti Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS), set up in 2019, was handed out at the London protest and was well received, providing an alternative view of the current Ukraine conflict to that of the capitalist mass media.
    More information can be found on the IUAFS Facebook Group and blogspot, including many videos exposing the barbarism of the 'nationalist' battalions, and the warm welcome from the Donbas people for those they regard as their liberators - the Russian military and the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s defence forces.

Victory to the Donbas!

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades were back on the streets of London to leaflet the Stop the War march that was part of a national No to War in Ukraine day of action on Sunday. The demonstration in London ended in a rally in Trafalgar Square addressed by Jeremy Corbyn, Lindsey German and Tariq Ali and other stalwarts from the peace movement. But though the speakers recognised the dangers of a nuclear conflict and understood that NATO’s aggressive expansion over the past 30 years had played a role in sparking the current conflict some also called for an unconditional Russian withdrawal from Ukraine – which is also the demand of US imperialism and their lackeys.
     But the call of the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity movement in support of the anti-fascist forces of Donbas and their allies went down well with the protesters. Hundreds of copies of the joint statement signed by the New Communist Party together with the Consistent Democrats, Socialist Fight and Posadists Today were given out on the day. The statement was sent out with every copy of last week’s New Worker and now its been endorsed by the Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

No to Trump and No to War!

By New Worker correspondent

 Londoners braved the cold weather on Saturday to attend Stop the War’s march against war on Iran. Although there were only a few hundred on the march from BBC headquarters to Trafalgar Square, plenty more came to hear Jeremy Corbyn, Tariq Ali and Steve Hedley speak at the rally at the end of the protest.

Jeremy Corbyn took the rostrum to the usual chorus of “ooh Jeremy Corbyn” from the crowd now several thousand strong. The retiring Labour leader referred to the tragic incident of the Ukrainian airliner downed in error by the Iranians, who mistook it for a hostile US aircraft.

This was a product of war, Corbyn said: “Today, let's recognise the horror that the families of those that died in the airliner travelling from Tehran to the Ukraine are suffering from now.”

The tragedy, which claimed the lives of all passengers and crew, was an “appalling act and part of a wide pattern of appalling acts all across the region”.

“There's no excuse for shooting down an airliner, there's no excuse for a targeted assassination by one state against another,” Corbyn said.

“Let’s be clear, there can be no excuses here. Let’s also recognise that that event and the events of the last few days and weeks have consequences.

“When big powers act illegally, when people step outside the norms of international law, there are consequences.

“All this does is set off a spiral of violence and danger which will lead us to yet more wars in the future.”

But probably the best speaker of all was Steve Hedley, a senior full-timer in the RMT transport union, who called Trump a draft dodger and said that if the likes of Trump had to actually fight in a war then there would not be any war. He then finished with the rousing call of “No war but the class war!”.

Stop Trump’s war with Iran

By New Worker correspondent

Hundreds of demonstrators rallied in Whitehall on Saturday to protest against the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the top Iranian general killed in a targeted US drone attack in Baghdad last week. Left-wing Labour frontbenchers John McDonnell and Richard Burgon joined the Stop the War protesters demonstrating over the deadly attack that the Iranians have sworn to avenge in the very near future. McDonnell warned that the killing would “set the Middle East and the globe alight yet again”, and urged protesters to take direct action “on the streets in demonstrations and actions”.

“The march to war with Iran has begun, with the British government playing Trump's tune – it's time for all those opposed to another slaughter in the Middle East to organise a mass anti-war movement,” says Shabbir Lakha in Tribune this week.

The Stop the War campaign official said: “Socialists in the Labour Party must ensure that foreign policy is a litmus test for any contender for the leadership and that there is no room for a return to the days of Blairism, when the party was a voice for Western imperialism.

“But wider than that, the anti-war movement needs to urgently organise resistance to war with Iran. The situation is extremely critical and Stop the War has called a protest outside Downing Street at 2pm today to mobilise the opposition to war with Iran and send a clear indication to Boris Johnson that we will not tolerate British support for US aggression in the Middle East.

“Stop the War played a key role in the anti-Trump protests of 2018 and 2019, ensuring that the anti-war message was front and centre. The wide layer of activists and movements that came together to stand up to Trump then must now get active in the campaign to stop his wars.”

Defend Corbyn: Time to Fightback

 

Christine Blower opening the meeting

By New Worker correspondent

 

The Conway Hall was packed to the rafters this week to condemn the vicious efforts of the Blairites and Zionists  to undermine Jeremy Corbyn. Hundreds faced a barrage of abuse from a Zionist gang as they piled into the meeting in central London on Tuesday while a hundred more late-comers were turned away on safety grounds.

            Inside, the 400-strong audience heard speaker after speaker uphold the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and  slam the smears that brand Corbyn and the Labour left as “anti-semitic”. Called by the Corbyn, Antisemitism & Justice for Palestine campaign, the meeting was chaired by Christine Blower, a former teaching union leader and the panel included a number of well-known Palestinian and Jewish socialists as well as the author Tariq Ali.

Campaigners, including Lindsey German of the Stop the War coalition and Tariq Ali, called on the left to close ranks around Corbyn and defeat attempts to define any criticism of Israel as “anti-semitic”.

Richard Kuper of Jewish Voice for Labour said: “That the Corbyn project is under attack is in no doubt — from a large proportion of Labour’s MPS and a large proportion still of Labour’s bureaucracy…Labour is also under assault from the pro-Israel lobby which has been alarmed for some time about the prospect of a leader who is in favour of Palestinian rights”.

Huda Elmi,  who is running on the Corbyn slate in this year’s Labour NEC elections, said the mainstream media focus on ‘anti-semitism’ deliberately ignores the Palestinians. “The problem is Palestinians have been completely erased from it. They’re trying to subvert our ability to be loud and unapologetic about being anti-colonial”.

 “Talk about the human rights abuses against the Palestinians. We have to turn it back to that. We have stood consistently shoulder to shoulder with Palestinian people. We can’t take steps back from that.”