Gaza War leaflet
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There are more local demonstrations this weekend. We are planning to leaflet those in Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Oxford and London.
Up at Wood Green today, smaller than previous gatherings there, I handed out a smattering of leaflets (there was a separate Fight Imperialism, Fight Racism grouplet that joined the march). They held a rally in Crouch End that I cycled past on my way home.
Some thoughts:
The Liberate Palestine angle does seem to predominate over stop the war or peace, maybe that’s just SWP successfully getting their branding out.
I wasn’t keen on their talk of booing MacDonalds and other businesses they feel support Israel, I think consumer boycotts are bad politics in any case.
I was going to have a rest this Saturday saying I would only leaflet an event that was on my doorstep. Then I bought a copy of the Morning Star (to see our ad on page 2) and saw that there one in Kingston only a couple of miles away.
There were about 70 there. Apart from Muslims, many seemed to be christian do-gooder types though there was also a banner from Jews Against the War. No sign of SWP, SPEW, FIFR, the new RCP, etc. When I approached one of the speakers who had led chants of “No Peace without Justice” and suggested “No Peace without Socialism” might be better even he said he didn’t know about these things.
The other chant was “No Ceasefire, No Vote” presumably aimed at the Labour Party. That won’t make any difference round here where all three local MPs are LibDems (including their Leader). All three voted for an immediate ceasefire in that House of Commons vote but the speaker was a bit churlish in claiming that they didn’t really mean it, presumably because she didn’t want the chant to be interpreted as a call to vote Liberal.
About half of those present got a leaflet.
Report from Oxford :
“Jeremy Corbyn was putting in an appearance so that always draws in a few more. Probably slightly under twice what we had two weeks back. Got rid of quite a few leaflets.”
Local press report here:
Hopefully it is these sort of sentiment that motivates most protestors (rather than Palestine nationalism) :
“One demonstrator Jed said: “I find the whole scenario upsetting. People shouldn’t do this to each other. People just feel they want to do something don’t they, have your voice heard.”
Paul Garroway, who marched with his son Otis, said: “I want to stop the genocide. This is a human rights disaster.”Report from Glasgow:
“managed to distribute over 200 of our ant-war flyers.”
Report from Cardiff:
“We found it hard to get people who were going to be part of the demo/march to take our leaflets, passers-by seemed more willing but only about 30 in total. There were around 300 demonstrators at the most, SWP and ‘Socialist Party’ (ex-Militant) prominent amongst them.”
Report from London
“Local members covered an event this morning at the entrance to Brockwell Park, which is only 2 miles from Head Office. Turned out to be just a literature stall. After leafletting the few there the comrades leafletted the nearby Herne Hill market for about an hour, handing out some 80 in all. No sightings of any SWP, etc.”
There is another national demonstration planned for 13 January. Hopefully it won’t need to happen as a permanent ceasefire will have been agreed by then. Otherwise how much further destruction, killings, maimings and other miseries will those at the receiving end have had to suffer.
Off topic?
I was in Bruce Grove, Tottenham, when l walked passed someone flypostiing. A flyer against Israel or something like that? Then clearly it was Labour, usually it’s the swp around Seven Sisters.
I mentioned that l was SPGB, a few times, l asked the person to mention our position on the War, to people, that we are against all wars, not just the Gaza War. The person was alone and clearly didn’t want to be seen/caught, wasn’t then clearly unable to engage with me?
I didn’t want to take a photo…if I’m there again I will try to get one, if possible.If it was a Labour poster about the Gaza war it would be a photo of Starmer saying “I won’t call for a ceasefire until Biden does. In the meantime, as a responsible prospective prime minister of capitalist Britain, I will follow his lead on the matter”.
Unfortunately the war is still going on and so there are still protests against it. There will be local demonstrations all over the country this Saturday in preparation for another national one in London on the following Saturday (13 January). Local Party members and sympathisers will be leafletting some of these, including in Portsmouth and Folkestone as well as Oxford and London.
Two London branch members braved the cold yesterday to leaflet the anti-Gaza war demonstration in London held in conjunction with similar events in 30 cities worldwide. There are now only 100 leaflets left at Head Office. We will probably need a new wording for any future leaflet now that the UK has joined in the war (supported by the Labour Party).
There was a banner from the Clapham Town Branch of the Labour Party. As this is the electoral ward in which our Head Office is situated, I gave them a leaflet and asked if they expected to be expelled from the Labour Party. They replied no and that they had been told they could by Lambeth Labour Party and said that the two Labour MPs for the borough (Florence Eshalomi and Bell Ribeiro-Addy) were there too. So maybe Starmer’s incoming Labour government might have a problem here with some of its backbench MPs.
I went to the Stop the War meeting at the Tyneside Irish Centre last night, if that’s the opposition to it, it is rather dismal.
I think in total maybe 20 people there in total. A few Morning Star old timers who I recognised as ex CPers from yesteryear, and the usual group of displaced Trots (ex SWPers, expelled Militants, even an ex 1980s RCP bloke who hadn’t joined the neocons).
Most of them seemed to be looking for a leader to act as their new Lenin/Trotsky and to help them re enact the October Revolution (with them playing a prominent part)
At the entrance there was a bloke from Counterfire. I’ve got to be honest I had no idea who they were (to be fair when I gave him an older copy of the Standard and our leaflet, he didn’t know who we were either).
Using my legendary skills of wit and repartee, I found out that they were the ex SWP rump of Trots who still thought that the SWPs “turn to Islam” was the correct call.
As I said, I did a swap for his one page news sheet for a copy of the Standard, but I have a feeling that I was robbed.
As it happened, at the same time as the Stop the War meeting there was also a leaving do for an old time union convenor going on at the same time at the Irish Centre as well, which I didn’t know about.
Coincidentally I knew a couple of the people who were going to the leaving party and was having a bit of a laugh and crack with them, as well as a couple of other people I knew ‘cos I’ve been a member at the Irish centre for years.
At this point Lindsey German walked in with all her acolytes and disciples and seemed to think we were the welcoming committee for the The Stop the War meeting, with her taking the role of the new Lenin (or maybe Rosa Luxemburg).
She seemed genuinely disappointed that nobody knew who the feck she was. (I recognised her but said nowt) and swept upstairs to the pre booked meeting room.
Positive out of the negative was that I managed to sell two copies of the Standard from the Union leaving do and gave a half dozen of our leaflets to them.
I also distributed about another half dozen leaflets who came to the Stop the War meeting as well.
I’ve got to be honest and say that I didn’t have the heart to listen to the usual bollocks that the sub SWPers from the Stop the War mob were likely to come out with.
Obviously the working class need to oppose all capitalist wars, but the manipulative group of egocentric Lenin wannabes at the top of the Stop the War movement are not going to be part of the end to those wars.
So rather than that I went down to the main bar and had a couple of pints with an old fellow I know there.
He thinks that Kerry are going to win the All Ireland Football Championship. He might be right, but surely it’s got to be be Mayo’s turn, finally!
Always decent pint of Guinness at the Irish Club!
Report from Sheffield:
“Attended the rally on Saturday last and can advise that in the region of 250 to 300 gathered with various speakers, some of whom were clearly SWP members, addressing the crowd.
On behalf of the party I distributed about 160 leaflets and in some instances had a chat with those whom interested, so hopefully the party will have received some hits on our website using the QR code.
There was at one point a distraction of 5 or 6 people signing Rule Britannia whom were largely ignored and told to move on by the police so didn’t come to anything.”Since that Saturday there have been 10 hits on our site from the QR code on our leaflet.
Thanks for the updates, and for going out to the rallies. Hopefully this will generate some more interest.
Being in Ealing in West London yesterday I gave out the last handful of the branch’s leaflets at a pro-Palestine rally there of a hundred or so people. This time I listened more carefully to what the speakers had to say. It seems that the position of the protestors is hardening into an anti-Israel rather than an anti-war one, with chants of “Israel — terror state” and “Palestine free, from the river to the sea” and even cheers for the “resistance”, ie Hamas (though not mentioned by name as it is illegal to express support for them).
There were also chants of “Sunak, Starmer, Netanyahu you can’t hide, you are guilty of genocide”. Every mention of Starmer was booed.
The SWP was present both on and off the platform and there were other speakers saying the struggle was anti-imperialist and even anti-colonialist.
One of the speakers was an imam. I’d never heard one before but this one seemed the equivalent of a trendy vicar. Young, dressed in ordinary clothes. His message was that the Koran said that Allah rewards suffering (all religions say that) and so the people of Gaza would get their reward, but he didn’t say what form this would take, whether going to paradise or being freed from Israeli state oppression. He joined in chants of “free free Palestine” but not of “from the river to the sea”.
Following the latest US veto at the UN, ie green light to Israel to continue its campaign of killing and destruction in Gaza, anti-war demonstrations will be continuing. We have therefore ordered a further 1000 leaflets from the printers.
Some will be distributed at a march in Bolton this Saturday.
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