Tom Baldwin, Socialist Party National Committee
Keir Starmer has suggested some marches opposing the genocidal violence of the Israeli state could be banned, echoing other capitalist representatives in policing and politics.
They have tried to justify this curb on the right to protest by cynically using the sickening antisemitic attack in Golders Green and other incidents. Attempts to conflate demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinian people with violence and discrimination against Jews are completely wrong. The description of ‘hate marches’ doesn’t match the reality of peaceful anti-war protests, which also include many Jewish participants. This is rank hypocrisy from a government that has pushed divisive rhetoric on immigration and policies which hurt working-class people of all backgrounds. It has shown a very different approach to the march organised by far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, which will include many openly racist thugs.
Restrictions on Palestine demos are not unique – they are just one example of increased attacks on democratic rights. The big business class are desperate to clamp down on any opposition at a time of capitalist crisis when their system offers the majority only war, austerity and a cost-of-living crisis.
The Tories introduced the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act in 2022 which gave police significant powers to restrict the right to protest. Some of those opposing the law were met with violent state repression, including the use of riot shields as weapons, brought down on the heads of seated protesters.
The Conservatives also further extended anti-trade union legislation, making it harder for workers to strike. Labour’s promises to scrap these laws have still not been completed after almost two years in government. In fact, a Labour council in Birmingham won a court injunction to try and prevent effective picketing by bin workers on strike against the imposition of £8,000 a year pay cuts.
These will not be the last attacks on civil liberties under a capitalist system in which the vast majority are exploited for the benefit of a tiny super-rich minority. Attacks on the right to protest must be opposed and defied – and they can be defeated.
Former Tory Home Secretary Suella Braverman (now of Reform) was sacked after she called for stronger police action against “pro-Palestinian mobs.” Mass public support for the anti-war movement made her position untenable. This year, the Labour government was defeated in court over its proscription of Palestine Action, although disgracefully that ban still remains in place while the ruling is appealed.
The Minimum Service Levels Act was a draconian attack on trade union rights introduced following the strike wave of 2022-23. But it was almost immediately rendered useless after train drivers’ union ASLEF responded to threats to use it by saying it would escalate strike action.
These examples show the potential power of mass movements and of the organised working class. That terrifies the capitalists, which is why they’re trying to restrict it. But no amount of laws and police powers can change the fact that it is workers and not the bosses that make society run – and that our class has the power to change the world and free it of capitalist exploitation, oppression and war.
