UK: Starmer’s Labour Government Continues to Support Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
By Laurence Humphries, RCIT Britain, 8th November 2024
Since the agreement to set up a State of Israel in the Balfour declaration of 1917 the British government and the Labour party have been strong supporters of Zionism. It set up a “Friends of Israel” support group after the election of the post-war 1945 Labour Government. in 1948, the Atlee government, together with the Stalinist Soviet Union, recognised the State of Israel. Like other imperialist governments it continued to support the colonial settler state as it constituted a bulwark of imperialism against all Arab countries in the region.
It is therefore only logical that Starmer’s Labour Party unconditionally sided Israel since the beginning of its war against Palestine. Foreign secretary David Lammy visited Tel Aviv where he met with Netanyahu and emphasised the right of Israel to exist despite the ongoing genocide which has provoked global outrage. Lammy even asserted that no genocide was taking place. While in opposition the Labour party manoeuvred to oppose an unconditional ceasefire but changed its mind when large sections of its Muslim and Arab supporters opposed their position and many resigned from the party. In the May general election Labour was defeated by Pro-Palestinian candidates in cities with a large migrant Muslim population.
“Despite election promises that their foreign policy would be governed by a respect for international law, Israel continues to receive unwavering support, something Starmer proclaimed as a “Labour tradition back in 2021. The latest example of this was the UK government's abstention on a UN resolution demanding that Israel end its "unlawful presence" in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip within a year, which was overwhelmingly passed on Wednesday. It put the UK among the 57 states that failed to back the motion, against 124 voting for it. The UK’s military complicity in the ongoing genocide, however, goes deeper than the supply of weapons to Israel’s occupation forces. Rather, since October last year, reports continue to emerge of the British military’s active involvement in the war, primarily through intelligence gathering and the funnelling of (mostly US) weapons to Israel through the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus. It is also from here that UK jets conduct their air strikes on Yemen to break the naval blockade that Sanaa has imposed on all shipping headed to Israel”. [1]
UK government suspends some arm sales to Israel
“The UK has suspended some arms sales to Israel, saying there is a "clear risk" the equipment could be used to commit serious violations of international law. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK would be suspending 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, affecting equipment such as parts for fighter jets, helicopters and drones. Chief executive of Amnesty International UK, Sacha Deshmukh, criticised the restrictions as "too limited and riddled with loopholes". The non-profit organisation has continuously called for a ceasefire and to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Today’s decision means that while ministers apparently accept that Israel may be committing war crimes in Gaza, [the government] is nevertheless continuing to risk complicity in war crimes, apartheid - and possible genocide - by Israeli forces in Gaza," he said.”. [2]
This decision shows that this Labour government is not serious as it continues to aid the Apartheid state. It knows full well that the Zionist state is committing war crimes, killing children, women and defenceless Palestinians and deprives them of many of basic amenities like running water and electricity. Palestinians access to hospital treatment is impossible as the IDF forces bomb hospitals and health workers and prevent humanitarian aid which leads to starvation and death. This is a clear case of ethnic cleansing, and the reformists are guilty of supporting these crimes against humanity.
Despite such horrific conditions, the brave fighters of the Palestinian resistance continue to defend their homeland and to resist the Zionist monster! The RCIT – including its comrades in Israel / Occupied Palestine – has sided with the struggle of the Palestinian resistance led by petty-bourgeois nationalists and Islamists like Hamas without lending political support to its leadership!
Trade union bureaucracy supports Zionism
Labour’s unconditional support for Zionism has a material basis in the fact that this party is dominated by a bureaucracy and the labour aristocracy. As Lenin argued in his famous book on imperialism, the labour bureaucracy is privileged caste in the workers movement which has been bought off. Leon Trotsky, the leader of the Fourth International, also emphasised in his writings the reactionary role of the trade union bureaucracy. His advice is to drive this bureaucracy out of the workers movement remains a task of revolutionary communists today.
“There is one common feature in the development, or more correctly the degeneration, of modern trade union organizations in the entire world: it is their drawing closely to and growing together with the state power. This process is equally characteristic of the neutral, the Social-Democratic, the Communist and “anarchist” trade unions. This fact alone shows that the tendency towards “growing together” is intrinsic not in this or that doctrine as such but derives from social conditions common for all unions” [3]
“Up to now, we have not mentioned the Labour Party, which in England, the classic country of trade unions, is only a political transposition of the same trade union bureaucracy. The same leaders guide the trade unions, betray the general strike, and lead the electoral campaign and later on sit in the ministries. The Labour Party and the trade unions – these are not two principles, they are only a technical division of labour. Together they are the fundamental support of a domination of the English bourgeoisie. The latter cannot be overthrown without overthrowing the Labourite bureaucracy.” [4]
The huge pro-Palestine marches that have taken place in Britain have shown that the leading layers of the bureaucracy oppose support for Palestine and rather side with Zionism. In big trade unions like Unison and Unite officials have been warned not to support these marches and threats have been issued. That is not to say that trade unionists and workers have not supported them. To their credit many rank and file trade unionists have joined the solidarity demonstrations for Palestine. There are also exceptions as the leadership of PCS, the civil service union, and the National Education Union have supported Palestine and continue to aid and help the solidarity movement in Britain.
Two state solutions is no solution
The sectors of the ruling class in major imperialist powers in the United States and Europe now claim that a two-state solution would be the answer to the continuing war in Palestine. This is, as the RCIT has argued, a reactionary concept. It forgets that the creation of the state of Israel was based on the expulsion of 85% of Palestinians and that illegal Zionist settlers continue to steal the land of the Palestinians. A two-state solution would be a terrible trap for the Palestinian people, similar to lead to the Bantustans in South Africa. It would still allow the Zionist oppressor to continue dominating the area. The correct solution is to smash Zionism and to destroy the oppression. We advocate a single Palestinian state from the river to the sea where Jews would have full religious and cultural rights.
“Why do we call it [a two-state solution, Ed.] reactionary? Because it violates the historic rights of the Palestinian people. As it is well known, the creation of the Zionist state in 1948 was based on the expulsion of 85% of all Palestinians living on that territory. When Israel expanded its colonial control in 1967 by occupying Gaza and the West Bank, even more people were forced to flee.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are about 14.3 million Palestinians living in historical Palestine and the diaspora. Of these, more than 5.3 million live in Gaza and West Bank, 1.7 million in the 1948-occupied territories (i.e. the state of Israel), 6.4 million live in other Arab countries and about 800,000 in non-Arab states. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations. More than half of the Palestinian diaspora – i.e. people living outside of Gaza, West Bank and Israel – are stateless, lacking legal citizenship in any country. (…)
For all these reasons, it is evident that the Israeli Apartheid state would never accept a democratic solution which allows the return of the Palestinian refugees. This is why Zionism is structurally oppressive, racist, and incompatible with democracy. Hence, this state must be abolished. It is for the same reason that Israel is violently opposed to the creation even of a Palestinian mini state in Gaza and the West Bank. It is opposed because it fears that such a state could strengthen the Palestinians and its resistance forces and pose a threat to Israel at a future stage. The sophisticated and surprising 7 October attack of Hamas has certainly increased such fears among the Zionists. However, it is theoretically not excluded that a shift in the relation of forces both in the Middle East as well as globally could result is the creation of a Palestinian mini state. However, this would a reactionary solution not only because it would prevent to millions of people to return to their homes in 1948-occupied Palestine. (…)
The RCIT and its comrades in Israel / Occupied Palestine have always insisted that the only solution is the destruction of the Zionist state. Israel must be replaced by a single Palestinian state from the River to the Sea which would allow the right to return of all Palestinians. (…) Such a state should be democratic and secular, i.e. it would treat all citizens as equal irrespective of their religious or ethnic background. While the Jews would be a minority in such a state, they would have full religious and cultural rights. It is likely that some of the Zionist settlers could not accept the loss of their dominant position, as it was the case with many white settlers in Africa. But all those who accept to live as equals with the Palestinians will be welcomed. Such a state has to be a workers and poor peasant republic as part of a socialist federation of the whole region. Only a state which expropriates the monopolies and billionaires can ensure that the Palestinians get back their land and their homes. Only a socialist economy could elaborate a plan to rebuild Gaza and the West Bank and to share the wealth equally among all citizens.” [5]
The RCIT puts forward the following revolutionary demands:
* For mass protests including strikes organised by the TUC to force and prevent the Labour government from selling Arms to Israel
* Support “Workers for Palestine”! Stop the production of F-35 fighters which are being used to bomb and kill Palestinian children and women in Gaza!
* Fight within the unions against the pro-Zionist bureaucracy!
* Defend Gaza – defeat Israel! Victory to the Palestinian resistance currently led by petty-bourgeois nationalists and Islamists like Hamas without lending political support to its leadership! Smash the Apartheid state of Israel!
* For a free and red Palestine from the river to the Sea! For the return of all Palestinian refugees back into their homeland!
Footnotes
1) Labour promised 'change'. But with Israel, it's business as usual | Middle East Eye
2) UK suspends some arms exports to Israel - BBC News
3) Leon Trotsky: Trade Unions in the Epoch of Imperialist Decay (1940) (marxists.org)
4) Leon Trotsky: The Errors in Principle of Syndicalism (1929) (marxists.org)