Scott Hunter, Swindon Socialist Party
Horror continues in Gaza and across the Middle East. Six months on, the ‘ceasefire’ of October 2025 is anything but. Although the slaughter has slowed, at least 700 Palestinians have been killed since last October as the Israeli state continues to conduct airstrikes and other armed incursions. Aid remains below agreed levels and the prospect of implementing any of the Gaza reconstruction efforts outlined in the deal seems remote. Murderous violence against Palestinians in the West Bank continues.
At the same time, Trump and Netanyahu’s war in Iran and Lebanon continues to destabilise the region and the world. Netanyahu is desperate to escalate conflict in the region, in part to keep himself in power. The spectre of a renewed onslaught in Gaza remains.
When Trump and Netanyahu launched their onslaught on Iran in February, Farage and Badenoch came out in slavish support. They were forced into a rapid U-turn as the unpopularity of the war became clear. That Keir Starmer did not immediately declare wholehearted support for Trump’s failed ‘regime change’ mission is in part a reflection of the huge anti-war mood, as well as the weakening of US imperialism. Starmer has given permission for Trump to use US airbases in Britain to carry out his military operations.
What all the establishment politicians fear is the conclusions people might draw: not just about the bankruptcy of their political parties but of the whole rotten capitalist system. They fear most of all the organised working class – represented through the trade unions – entering the scene, with their power to shut down society and threaten the bosses’ profits. A glimpse of that potential power was shown in the magnificent general strikes in Italy last year.
We need to get organised! The trade unions should play a central role. Not only do they have the power to organise mass demonstrations democratically, including defensive stewarding against police and far-right provocation, but they also organise workers in defence and logistics industries.
The Socialist Party has raised the call for a conference of workers in those industries to discuss how best to organise opposition to war and in defence of those workers threatened for doing so. The Trades Union Congress passed a motion last September to organise a mass weekend demonstration against austerity. It should name the date and link the struggles against austerity, racism and war.
