Bristol
At the end of the workplace day of action, 150 education workers from the NEU, UCU and Unison gathered in central Bristol to commemorate the lives of children and education workers who have been murdered in Palestine.
It was a sombre event as so many have died, but whilst remembering the dead, we have to continue to fight as hard as we can for the living!
Trade unionists have been making links internationally to provide solidarity, and we will continue to attend and support marches and workplace actions here, until a ceasefire is called and Palestine is rebuilt for the Palestinians.
Sheila Caffrey
Tower Hamlets, East London
“We’ve got members of Unison. We’ve got members of Unite. We’ve got members of the National Education Union (NEU).”
“And the Royal College of Nurses (RCN)”, somebody shouted from the crowd. And a doctors’ union BMA member also spoke at the protest later too.
200 people protested outside Tower Hamlets Town Hall. “We’re here to get our feet-dragging politicians to back a ceasefire now”, the organiser from Tower Hamlets Unison told the crowd.
Teachers kicked off the protest, before marching to join the council workers outside the town hall. They were joined by NHS workers from Royal London hospital next door, and more. And more and more local residents joined when they saw what we were protesting about.
Almost everyone we asked agreed to sign the Socialist Party’s petition to get anti-war, anti-cuts candidates standing against the Tories and Labour. Only one person refused, because they were certain there was going to be an independent candidate standing anyway! There was a queue to sign our petition at one stage.
Ian Pattison
Students protest on day of action
Queen Mary University London
Students walked out of classes to protest the suffering of Palestinians under siege by Israeli state terror in Gaza.
Queen Mary University invests in Barclays, which invests in Israeli arms companies. Students have been calling for the university to divest for months; we are not okay with our tuition fees being used to arm the occupational forces. The university has not complied and has yet to release any statements.
The university workers’ union, UCU, supported this walkout and members spoke to the crowd. Socialist Students members also spoke, expressing our disappointment and anger in our university. The youth and working class, together, hold a lot of power; we need to use it to fight for those who are under attack.
Nandi Shalita
UAL and Goldsmiths
Around 100 anti-war demonstrators marched from the University of the Arts London (UAL) Camberwell campus across south London to Goldsmiths, where hundreds of students handed in a list of demands to senior management. The demands called for the university to issue a statement calling for an immediate ceasefire, to uphold academic freedom and to protect students’ and staff’s right to protest.
Socialist Party and Socialist Students members gathered names of people to help us stand candidates against Starmer’s warmongering Labour in the local and general elections this year, as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. We spoke to people about the need for a socialist transformation of society, which would put an end once and for all to the endless cycle of war and oppression that the capitalist system generates.
Oscar Parry
Northampton students protest in solidarity with Palestine
Protesters marched across the University of Northampton’s (UoN) Waterside campus.
Chants of “Rishi Sunak/Keir Starmer you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide,” rang out across campus, along with, “Free Palestine,” “Genocide is crystal clear”.
Speakers outside the Learning Hub highlighted UoN’s ties to Hewlett Packard. The tech corporation provides the Israeli state with computer hardware and high-end servers. Israeli police use data collected on HP systems to enforce segregation.
Socialist Students and Socialist Party members spoke out and helped lead chants on the march. We highlighted the need for political action in solidarity with Palestine and criticised all major British parties for being complicit.
As one Socialist Students organiser told the protest: “The horrors carried out by the IDF every day expose the rotten brutality of the capitalist system. If the politicians say that ‘coming out [protesting] does nothing,’ don’t listen to them. They are lying. Millions of people in the anti-war movement across the world add pressure on the Israeli government to stop its brutal assaults. In Britain, the movement already forced the hated Home Secretary Suella Braverman to resign. Imagine what can happen if we keep going.”
Ben Edge
