Defend the right to protest

Keir Starmer and his Labour government do not want you protesting. They want to be able to plan the next round of austerity attacks on our public services in peace. They want to continue to get away with making excuses for the Israeli state’s brutal attacks on Gaza.

But two years of watching genocidal slaughter unfold continues to motivate hundreds of thousands to march in solidarity with Palestinians. Many will be inspired by the ‘Block Everything’ mass strike in Italy to defend Gaza. It showed the power of organised mass working-class action (see page 15). In Spain too, school students have walked out. Germany has seen its biggest protests yet. And in France, strikes and protests against austerity have brought down a prime minister. No wonder Starmer doesn’t want you to protest.

There are 1,001 reasons to build the fightback against Starmer’s Labour. We are fighting for the trade unions to take the lead by organising a weekend demo against Labour austerity. It’s TUC (Trades Union Congress) policy, now it needs to name the date (see page 5).

800,000 signed up in support of Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party. There are over six million members of the trade unions. A demo properly built for in workplaces, schools and communities up and down the country could be huge. A united working-class fightback would be a counter to attempts by the bosses to stoke racism and division.

Your Party enthusiasm shows the huge potential for the working class to develop its own mass party. Socialist Party members are joining, engaging in the process, making the case for the trade unions as the existing mass organisations of the working class to have a collective democratic voice, and for it to fight for socialism. If you want to help and fight to transform the world then join us!