IN advance of today’s mass demonstrations in support of Palestine, the Tories have launched a campaign to crack down on all opposition to the genocidal war being waged in Gaza by the Israeli regime backed by the US and UK governments.
Last week, Tory Prime minister Rishi Sunak claimed ‘mob rule is replacing democratic rule’, and demanded ‘more robust’ police action to break up and arrest all those marching and demanding an end to the bombings and deliberate starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
The Tories and the ruling class have been ratchetting up demands for action against pro-Palestinian marches with increasingly virulent attacks on the right to demonstrate.
Yesterday, the Daily Telegraph carried a front page headline ‘Pro-Palestinian protests making London no-go zone for Jews’.
The inside pages carried an article written by Robin Simcox, the government Home Office ‘independent advisor on extremism’.
Simcox said that the Tories and its state agencies had the power to combat extremism, but had failed so far to use them to their full extent, claiming that this had led to a ‘permissive environment for radicalisation’ developing in Britain.
This permissive environment that allowed events like the pro-Palestinian marches to take place had led to parts of London being ‘no-go areas for Jewish people’ and this had become ‘normalised’.
Simcox is calling for outright bans on Palestinian demonstrations and the banning of any organisation or groups ‘who propagate extremist narratives but who lurk just below the terrorism threshold’.
Next week, Tory minster Michael Gove will be announcing a new government definition of extremism which is expected to name a list of ‘extremist groups’ that the Tories define as promoting an ideology that ‘undermines the rights or freedoms of others’.
According to the Telegraph this definition also includes any group or individual ‘who seek to undermine or overturn the UK’s liberal system of democracy and democratic rights’.
This definition would of course be applied to any trade union or striking worker defying the Tory anti-strike laws and undermining the freedom of the bosses to exploit its workers, along with anyone standing in opposition to the mass murder being committed daily in Gaza by the Zionist regime.
While a collapsing Tory government in the UK is preparing to designate all who call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to genocide as ‘terrorists’, even if they are entirely peaceful, over in the US, president Joe Biden was being forced to make a U-turn on his previous position of uncritical support for Israel.
In his State of the Union address Biden called for an immediate six-week ceasefire and urged Israel to allow the entry of more aid, warning Israeli leaders that humanitarian aid should not be treated as a secondary matter or used as a bargaining chip.
While still stressing he has been a ‘lifelong supporter’ of Israel, the US’ main ally in the oil rich Middle East, Biden emphasised that the only true solution is the two-state solution based on international and Arab legitimacy, and the full membership of the State of Palestine in the United Nations.
Biden further demanded a complete withdrawal from the land of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Biden’s speech reflected the massive pressure on his administration, and his re-election chances, by millions of workers and youth across America who have demonstrated in support of Palestine and against the continued arming of the Israel regime and the blocking by the US of all motions at the UN calling for a ceasefire.
The mass uprising of workers and youth across the UK and US has caused a huge crisis in the ruling class as it turns in desperation in the UK to using the state forces to crush all opposition to genocide, while in the US Biden is attempting to appease this movement with calls for an independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The time is now ripe for the powerful international working class to put an end to the war in Gaza by organising general strikes in the UK, US and Europe to bring down their governments and bring in workers governments and socialism. Capitalism has had its day and the time has arrived when it must be buried, and replaced by world wide socialism.
Forward to the victory of the World Socialist Revolution. There is not a moment to lose and there is a world to win!!!
