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From The Socialist newspaper, 8 January 2020
Trump attacks Iran - London protest: We need workers' action against war and austerity
(Click to enlarge)
Nancy Taaffe, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
Socialist Party members responded to the call to oppose Trump's drone strike on Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and the ratcheting up to war on Saturday 4 January.
The protest outside Downing Street, called at 24 hours' notice, rallied a crowd of several hundred. A number of young people - many have only known a cycle of war, terror and austerity - were prompted to participate. Socialist Party members gave our new year statement out.
Even though the rally was small, there was a willingness to discuss. I spoke to someone in Momentum who wanted to talk through what happened at the election.
Protesters took our "youth against war" and "workers' unity against war and austerity" placards, and 33 bought a copy of the Socialist. 12 people signed up to find out more about the Socialist Party.
Speakers included left Labour MPs John McDonnell and Richard Burgon. Steve Hedley, assistant general secretary of transport union RMT, spoke of the need to link the trade union struggle against the Tories with the anti-war struggle, and those fighting the theocratic caste inside Iran to those fighting Trump in the US and Johnson here.
Johnson didn't know about our protest, because unlike most of us he wasn't back at work. He was too busy hiding away, sunning himself on a Caribbean island.
He may have hidden his true politics from workers during the election. He may have hidden in a fridge to avoiding being questioned. But the capitalist crisis and the chaos it creates means Johnson and his kind can't hide forever.
The Socialist Party says:
- No to war in the Middle East
- For workers' action against war and austerity
- For an urgent meeting of the trade unions and all the anti-austerity forces to fight the Tories
- Kick the Blairites and warmongers out of Corbyn's Labour
- Withdraw all foreign forces from the Middle East
- Support the building of non-sectarian workers' struggles in Iran, Iraq and across the region
- Fight for governments that represent the workers and the poor
- For a socialist alternative to war and capitalism
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In The Socialist 8 January 2020:
Iran
Suleimani's assassination - Middle East thrown into turmoil
Trump attacks Iran - London protest: We need workers' action against war and austerity
Defend the right to strike
Build union resistance to Tory attacks
Defend the right to strike! - RMT and NSSN lobby parliament
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Readers' opinion
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