Build the Socialist opposition

Cas Middlemas, Aberystwyth Socialist Party

Keir Starmer was asked in Parliament if he would consider suspending all arms licences to Israel in light of the tens of thousands of people who have been killed in Gaza in the last year. He answered: “No”, without hesitation. That says it all.

We know Starmer has spent the last year watching the same horrific footage coming out of Palestine that we have. We know he has heard the same reports of polio returning to the Gaza Strip. Yet he has chosen to toe the line of Joe Biden and US capitalism by backing Israel’s brutal slaughter.

This Labour government, much like the Tories before it, does not represent the interests of the working class. Starmer and the other Labour leaders are not moved by empathy, but by money. It is the desire to look after the profit interests of the super-rich that leads Starmer’s government to consistently  back the Israeli state’s actions in Gaza, while cutting services here.

They have the money for war but not to help heat pensioners’ homes this winter. The MP who asked Starmer to consider suspending arms licences to Israel was Zarah Sultana, one of the seven Labour MPs suspended for voting against the two-child benefit cap.

Standing against war and child poverty is enough to get you chucked out the Labour Party – how can it claim to represent working-class people?

We need to build a new mass workers’ party, one that represents the interests of workers internationally by standing against war. The trade unions could bring together anti-war campaigners, student and community activists to fight the pro-war capitalist politicians like the ones that currently make up our government.

If you agree, you should join the Socialist Party and get involved in the fight for a better world.