FOLLOWING the ‘shock’ victory of George Galloway in last Thursday’s Rochdale by-election, Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hastily rushed to the podium outside 10 Downing Street on Friday to warn the country of ‘forces here at home trying to tear us apart’, and that the election of Galloway was ‘horrifying’ for the stability of the capitalist state.
Sunak and the Tories were shocked to the core at the Rochdale result, which delivered a major blow to the British ruling class as it demonstrated the massive support of workers and youth for a candidate standing on a socialist platform that includes full support for the Palestinian revolution and the establishment of an independent state of Palestine.
The panicky speech delivered by Sunak followed his emergency meeting with police chiefs last Wednesday where he whined that ‘mob rule is replacing democratic rule’ and demanded ‘more robust’ police responses towards demonstrators supporting the Palestinian struggle and demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
Sunak was widely criticised by the right-wing media for making all these dire warnings while proposing no concrete action – ‘Action not words’ was the demand from the Telegraph newspaper over the weekend.
In fact, it has emerged that the Tories are taking steps to ramp up attacks on all opposition to the genocidal war being waged by Israel, along with all the millions of workers and youth who are rising up against this Tory government and a capitalist system that supports and is complicit in the murder of nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
On Sunday, it was revealed that Tory ministers are considering proposals put forward by the government’s adviser on political violence Tony Woodcock.
Woodcock, now Lord Walney, is a former Labour MP who deserted the Labour Party after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader and for years was Chair of ‘Labour Friends of Israel’, so it comes as no surprise that he is proposing to ban MPs and elected councillors from engaging with groups such as the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Extinction Rebellion and the Just Stop Oil Campaign.
Woodcock is demanding that leaders of all mainstream political parties tell their representatives to carry out a ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to any group designated as ‘disruptive’ or who fail to stop ‘hate’ on marches.
He told the press on Sunday: ‘Rishi and Keir (Starmer) should instruct their MPs and councillors not to engage with anyone from the PSC until they get their house in order and cut hate from their marches.’
This is a novel way of defending ‘the democratic process’ – by instructing MPs not to talk to their constituents if they show any objection to Palestinians being massacred in Gaza, attend meetings or go on million-strong demonstrations designated by Woodcock and the ruling class as ‘hate marches’ because they demand a ceasefire.
In fact, the ‘democratic process’ is to be overthrown under plans hatched by Woodcock and Sunak, and replaced by a form of police state where the police, under instructions from the Tories, are given complete authority to break up demonstrations, no matter how peaceful, and arrest anyone they like.
What has shaken the ruling class to its core is the massive support for the Palestinian struggle and against the Zionist regime’s genocidal war which is supported and financed by the US, UK and world imperialism.
Hundreds of thousands of workers and young people will be demonstrating their support next Saturday, demanding victory to Palestine and for the establishment of a Palestinian State.
Any attack on this march by the police or other state forces must be met with an overwhelming response from the working class by demanding the TUC call an indefinite general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers’ government and socialism.
A workers government will expropriate the bankers and bosses, replacing the capitalist state with a workers’ state and a socialist planned economy.
It will provide all the support and material aid to the Palestinians for the victory of their revolution and the establishment of the independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.
