On London pro-Palestinian protest – confronting a small group of Zionist counter-protestors

As part of a visit to London over the Easter weekend I went on the pro-Palestinian demonstration as part of the Bolshevik Tendency contingent.

During the demonstration the police had allowed a small group of Zionists to protest at an intersection with our route. About 50 Zionists were protected by police as they were roundly heckled by the 200,000+ demonstration.

Sky News web site bizarrely reported on this as some kind of “stand-off” between two more or less equivalent protests. Their short clip includes me carrying the BT placard “For a bi-national secular/socialist state in Palestine/Israel” while shouting “Israel is a terrorist state” at the Zionists.

I am visible from the 27 second mark for about 7 seconds (click on the image to go through the Sky News webpage with the video):

Some questions for Socialist Party members

In a 21^st December 2023 article the Socialist Party’s sister organisation in the United States, Socialist Alternative, described the 7^th October Hamas attack on Israel as follows:

“What Happened On October 7?

“Hamas militants massacred 1,200 people from dozens of Israeli communities, including working-class towns like Sderot and Ofakim, as well as seizing control of Israeli military bases. It did not spare Jews and Arabs who worked or volunteered as part of medical teams and rescue teams that provided an initial response. It also targeted other oppressed nationalities like those living in impoverished Bedouin villages in the Western Negev desert. In the shadow of the massacre, the attack included the largest-ever kidnapping incident of Israeli citizens.

“Among the kidnapped were Jews, Arabs, and immigrants — there were also babies, children, and elderly people. The mass slaughter in the various areas had an extremely sadistic character and included, as it appears from the records and the forensic autopsies, a pattern of acts of torture, burning people alive, the slaughter of babies and children, the slitting of throats, decapitations, the amputation of limbs, sexual violence and rape, in addition to the mass execution of 364 people at the Nova music festival.”
https://www.socialistalternative.org/2023/12/21/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-catastrophe-in-gaza/

This account gives the impression that the Hamas attack on Israel on 7^th October was primarily concerned with indiscriminate slaughter of civilians with the actual main target – Israeli military bases – only being some kind of side issue.

The Socialist Alternative article’s sensationalist claims about the “sadistic” nature of the “mass slaughter” read like a memo from the Israeli embassy – the facts of which by the time of the publication of the article were being widely discredited. See for instance https://www.tbsnews.net/features/panorama/what-really-happened-7-october-753058 or https://www.globalresearch.ca/what-really-happened-october-7/5837833 or https://www.unz.com/article/what-really-happened-on-7th-october/ and more recently in this comprehensively researched analysis – https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/October-7th-.pdf

There is no indication on the Socialist Alternative website that this sordid regurgitation of Israeli government propaganda about the events of 7^th October has been retracted or corrected.

So I have the following questions:

• Do Socialist Party members stand on the description of the events of 7^th October as outlined in the Socialist Alternative article?
• If so, why do you believe this account despite the evidence discrediting it?
• If not, what are you going to do about it?

Some activity in opposition to the Zionist Israeli state’s genocide in Gaza

Friday 26 January

Participated in a protest inside the Cork branch of AXA Insurance.
After a period inside peacefully disrupting their business operation on the advice of the Gardai they agreed to close for business. Those of us inside joined the rest of the group outside successfully making sure they did not attempt to reopen.

AXA invests in five Israeli banks that fund settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
AXA invests in Alliance Bernstein who fund weapons company Elbit which is the biggest supplier of weapons to the Israeli state.
AXA is directly complicit in the genocide in Gaza and the settler colonial ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.

Saturday 27 January

Marched with the Cobh Palestinian Solidarity Committee contingent on the Cork weekly protest in support of the Palestinians (thanks to Paul for the videos)

Cork protest against Israeli attack on Gaza

12th weekly protest in Cork against the Israeli state’s genocidal attack on the people in Gaza.

https://www.96fm.ie/news/96fm-news-and-sport/hundreds-march-through-cork-city/

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words

Israel starts genocidal ground attack

No to attacks on civilians!

Smash Zionists’ ‘Final Solution’ in Gaza!

For a bi-national secular/socialist state in Palestine-Israel!

Conversation with “Rebirth of Communism” youtuber

Edited audio of the conversation (2 hours long in total but this covers the main issues discussed)

Audio of BT online forum “China’s Belt and Road Initiative & Imperialist Blowback

An audio recording of the Bolshevik Tendency public meeting “China’s Belt and Road Initiative & Imperialist Blowback” held on Sunday 02 April 2023

https://soundcloud.com/bolsheviktendency/chinas-belt-and-reoad-initiative-imperialist-blowback?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Audio recording of online forum “Russia’s campaign to de-NATOize Ukraine”

https://soundcloud.com/bolsheviktendency/russias-campaign-to-de-natoize-ukraine-a-challenge-for-the-revolutionary-left?in=bolsheviktendency/sets/public-meetings&si=39e2b05eca93492e867cf324576586a4&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Fake “Socialist” Boyd Barrett supports European imperialism against Russia

Thursday 1 December saw a special session of both houses of the Irish Parliament to hear a presentation by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. 

Richard Boyd Barrett (TD for People Before Profit and a long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party – Cliffites) spoke to highlight von der Leyen’s hypocrisy in opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while not opposing Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians or the Saudi Arabian genocidal war against Yemen. In doing so, he fully endorsed her calls for a special court to investigate alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

“I also note that this week the President has called – I support her in this – for a tribunal to be established to investigate the undoubted war crimes of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. We all condemn the utterly barbaric and murderous invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We support the people of Ukraine in their struggle for self-determination.”

…

“If we are to condemn, as we must, the war crimes of Putin, we must simultaneously condemn all war crimes and all crimes against humanity…”.

However, he had not a word to say about Ukraine’s war crimes including the shelling of the civilian population of Donbass which go all the way back to the US inspired coup of 2014. Nor was there any mention of US/NATO’s massive involvement in the war, in whichUkraine has been operating as a puppet of these imperialist powers in their ongoing aggression aimed at ultimately carving up Russia.

Up to this point People Before Profit, while incorrectly describing the war as an inter-imperialist conflict (like most of the so-called Trotskyist left), has at least been critical of the role of US/NATO imperialists in the war:

“Because the conflict in Ukraine is not only a brutal imperialist invasion by Russia. It’s because it’s also a part of an international clash between Russian and western, US-led, imperialism.” 

“It has the potential to go nuclear, with horrendous consequences for the whole world.

“We should extend solidarity and support to Ukrainians in such a way that does not fuel the inter-imperialist conflict. We should give humanitarian aid and welcome refugees. We should shut down the shadow banking system used by oligarchs. We should call for debt cancellation.”

(https://www.pbp.ie/ukraine-and-neutrality/, 11 November 2022) 

It seems People Before Profit have now moved even further away from any pretence to Marxist opposition to US/NATO’s role in Ukraine by becoming open, albeit somewhat critical, supporters of European imperialist aggression against Russia.

Boyd Barrett’s full speech is available at: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2022-12-01/33/