Condemn Israeli Occupation and Aggression!
Hands off Gaza!

As many as 100,000 gather in Whitehall, July 19, to demand "Free Palestine"

There has been worldwide condemnation of the savage military onslaught inflicted on the Palestinian men, women and children of Gaza by Zionist Israel. Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza, a blatant act of state terrorism, has now led to the deaths of over 300 people including many children. The barbaric and criminal nature of these acts of terror on civilians has been such that even Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, was moved to condemn Israeli Zionism for what he termed “a deliberate form of collective punishment”, a term more commonly used in connection with Nazi war crimes. Latest reports indicate how Zionist Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza is aimed specifically at smashing Palestinian resistance.

Funeral of Mohammed Abu Khdeir,
Israel East Jerusalem The current bombardment and now invasion, which is so reminiscent of similar crimes carried out by the Israeli state in the recent past, was precipitated by crimes for which nobody has yet been brought to account – the abduction and murder of three Israel teenagers, followed by the kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian youth, Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The Israeli Zionists blamed the Hamas government of Gaza for the deaths of the three Israel teenagers, an accusation denied by Hamas, and then used these deaths as a pretext to launch attacks on Hamas and the people of Gaza, as well as elsewhere. The government and people of Gaza have heroically resisted the Zionist onslaught and despite the tragic circumstances refused to be intimidated. In recent days, for example, Hamas completely rejected the ceasefire agreement proposed by the Egyptian government, and supported by the British government, on the grounds that it had not been consulted and because such an agreement had clearly been designed to favour the interests of Zionist Israel.

Palestinians demonstrating in East JerusalemThe criminal acts of the government of Israel, including the continued occupation of Palestine and the denial of the national rights of the Palestinians, can only take place because of the continued support of US government and its allies including the government of Britain. As in the past there has been every effort to spread disinformation about the nature of the crimes committed in Palestine and against the Palestinians, with calls to “end the violence on both sides”, or similar platitudes. The aim is to present the state of Israel as an innocent and wronged party that must have the right to defend itself, while the rights of the Palestinians to nationhood and self-determination are ignored and their struggle to defend their rights and for self-defence is equated with “terrorism”.

It seems likely that the current events have been cynically engineered by Zionist Israel and its allies as an attempt to break the unity that has recently been established between the governments of Gaza and the West Bank in the run up to imminent Palestinian elections. At the same time there is no doubt that Israel has become increasingly isolated and condemned throughout the world, not least for the fact that it refuses to enter into meaningful talks with the Palestinians and continues to build new illegal settlements on occupied territory. The attacks on Gaza are therefore also an attempt to distract attention from the crime of the continued occupation of Palestine, which denies the Palestinians their homeland.

WWIE calls on everyone to condemn the state terrorism and other crimes being perpetrated against the people of Gaza and their elected government by Zionist Israel and its allies, including the British government. It calls on all to unite with the heroic Palestinian people in their just struggle against occupation, in resisting aggression and for the liberation of their homeland.

Many tens of thousands, as many as 100,000 according to some estimates, took part in the demonstration in London from Downing Street to the Israeli Embassy in Kensington yesterday, July 19. Similar demonstrations took place world-wide. The French government banned the planned demonstration in Paris.

Demonstration at the Israeli Embassy, London

Brussels      Istanbul

Cape Town       Barcelona

Washington         Paris

Berlin      Sydney

The video below shows the London demonstration gathering in Whitehall outside Downing Street.

http://youtu.be/Uj9_fQNjuwA

In the previous week there had been demonstrations up and down Britain, including a demonstration of 10,000 on July 15 to protest at the BBC’s tendentious coverage which distorts the nature of the struggle and refuses to recognise the Palestinians’ right to be.

Salford      Newcastle

Glasgow      London

On July 12, an estimated 100,000 people took part in the 130th Durham Miners Gala which was also dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the 1984/5 miners’ strike.

This year the crowds were so great that the traditional parade of banners took several hours longer to make its way to the racecourse. David Hopper, General Secretary of the Durham Miners Association (DMA), who chaired the big meeting, told the crowd that it was probably the best attendance he had seen since the pits were all open in the 1960s with 47 band groups, 80 miners’ banners and many more trade union banners than before. Dave Hopper pointed out that every year the gala is increasingly getting financially attacked by the authorities, and he said the DMA is in a very, very difficult situation to keep it going. But he hailed the support of the Friends of the Durham Miners Gala and the trade unions who have supported the gala through thick and thin, and will no doubt continue their support as long as there is a gala in Durham. He assured those that took part that whilst there had been some speculation in the press, “We will be back next year – that's a certainty!”

It was a beautifully sunny day as the contingents headed by their bands began to march through Durham before 9.00am, stopping to play for the Big Meeting speakers and guests on the balcony of the Royal County hotel. This year these included Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT, Steve Gillan, General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association (POA), and Paul Kenny, General Secretary of the GMB.

RCPB(ML) took part in the Gala with its programme, Fight for the Alternative! Stop Paying the Rich, Increase Investments in Social Programmes! For an Anti-War Government! The Party banner with the programme emblazoned on it was in the centre of the march onto the racecourse and this year there was growing interest in the views of the Party comrades and the beautifully presented Party publication and the call of the Northern Region in The Line of March which was distributed through the parade and from the Party book stall on the racecourse and was sold out of all copies. Hundreds of the Party’s Northern Region call were also distributed in a printed version of the Workers’ Weekly Internet Edition for the day.

At the Big Meeting all the main speakers summed up that the working class movement had increased the mass character of their struggles over the last year and they militantly spoke of the necessity for an alternative to the government’s austerity programme, and the necessity to build this organisation and resistance of the working class and that the working class needs its own agenda to counter the programme and agenda of “austerity” of the Coalition government. There was recognition, including from the speakers on the platform, that there was no expectation that the Labour Party would provide even one alternative policy objective, let alone the practical implementation of such a policy. This revealed that all are considering what the way forward for the working class movement is and how to step up their struggles to defeat the “austerity” agenda. Then comes the challenge of how to utilise the 2015 general election to ensure that the marginalisation of the workers’ voice and their class organisations is ended.

For this reason the call of the Northern Region of RCPB(ML) at the Durham Miners Gala addressed these very questions when it called on the whole working class movement to go all out in this intervening period to ensure that the fraudulent, anti-worker and anti-social “austerity” programme of the Con-Dem government is defeated, and that candidates who oppose the agenda of austerity are elected. It pointed out that the working class and people will prevail if they set their sights on becoming the decision-makers and persist in their struggles with this outlook. Crucial for this to be successful, the Party pointed out, is the necessity for the working class to build its own modern communist party to clear the path so that the working class can adopt its own independent political agenda to take the lead in the nations of Britain so as to vest sovereignty in the people and effect a new direction for society.

The Working Class and People Must Set their Sights on Becoming the Decision-Makers and Persist in their Struggles with this Outlook!
No to Austerity! For a New Direction for Society!