Adam Harmsworth, Coventry Socialist Party
Every day the Israeli state’s bombs, bullets and blockades inflict brutal suffering on thousands upon thousands of Palestinians. The Israeli state does so with the backing of capitalist leaders worldwide, including the leaders of Britain’s establishment parties Tories and Labour.
The Socialist Party was part of the 40-candidate-strong Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) stand in the election, against Israeli state terror, as well as opposing anti-working-class policies here in Britain too. A record number of independents also stood to challenge Tories and Labour on Gaza and more.
The anti-war movement must continue, grow, and organise beyond the general election. Labour won because the Tories are so hated. But it was clear that a portion of the population are no longer prepared to vote Labour.
Regular protests continue in many cities, and student demos have turned into encampments, inspired by those in the US. Working-class, poor, and oppressed people have to come together and fight for the real change we need.
That is what is needed here in Britain, in Palestine, and the rest of the Middle East.
The Socialist Party fights for the Palestinians’ right to their own state. That can only be won on the basis of a democratically organised mass movement, fighting for socialist change – a socialist intifada.
Such a mass movement – with the working class developing its own mass organisations, including mass workers’ parties – would be echoed across the region. Including in Israel where, as the war goes on, Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition gets weaker and anti-government protests grow.
A struggle of the working class, fighting for a socialist programme to take power into its own hands, and pushing for socialist change across the Middle East, is the only route by which a real resolution to the conflict is possible.
The Socialist Party is fighting for:
- End the siege – for the permanent withdrawal of the Israeli military from the occupied territories
- For a mass struggle of the Palestinians, under their own democratic control, to fight for liberation
- For the building of independent workers’ parties in Palestine and Israel and links between them
- For an independent, socialist Palestinian state, alongside a socialist Israel, with guaranteed rights for all minorities, as part of the struggle for a socialist Middle East
- No trust in the capitalist politicians, internationally or in Britain. Fight to build a workers’ party in Britain that fights for socialism and internationalism
