Lindsey German on war, woke and letting racists set your agenda  

You can judge the impact of Trump’s latest plans to remove the Palestinians from Gaza and turn it into a prime real estate location by the raptures with which they were received by Israel’s far right. They have long wanted a ‘greater Israel’ with the Palestinians removed entirely. Netanyahu has also long held the belief that eventually the wars in which Israel has engaged since its inception would lead to driving out the Palestinians. ‘In the next war, if we do it right we’ll have a chance to get all the Arabs out. We can clear the West Bank, sort out Jerusalem’, the younger Netanyahu said at a dinner attended by right wing journalist Max Hastings. 

No matter that Trump’s plans amount to ethnic cleansing, show a blatant disregard for human rights, international law and the national right to self-determination, there has been remarkably little hostile criticism let alone denunciation internationally. Just as at every stage the genocide in Gaza has been in turn justified, made excuses for, ignored or been the subject of mild rebuke, so there will be an attempt to normalise this blatant breach of the human rights of the Palestinians.

It is true for sure that Gaza’s infrastructure is in the most terrible state – not just its houses, hospitals and schools but its sewage and water systems. It will take years of rebuilding after deliberate damage inflicted on it day after day by the Israelis, with huge numbers of casualties. But that must be done by the Palestinians. What they need is reparations from those countries which supported Israel’s genocide, not forcible displacement to countries outside their borders where they will live as refugees.

Dresden and other German cities suffered massive destruction in the Second World War from British and US bombing. In London 3.5 million homes and 9 million square feet of office space were destroyed or damaged from 1939-45. A full 1.5 million people were homeless. No one suggested that the populations of these cities should be displaced to France or Poland, to live in tents and camps and maybe some could be allowed back in the future. It’s a grotesque and inhumane plan – and nothing less than trying to make a fait accompli out of the genocide.

But Trump, Netanyahu and their allies want to wipe the idea of Palestine off the map. They also in the process want to wipe out any talk of genocide – which is why one of Trump’s other proclamations this week was to place sanctions on the International Criminal Court. Ethnic cleansing is a war crime and should be treated as such. Netanyahu has already been indicted for war crimes but is received as an ally in Washington. We can expect little from the human rights lawyer at the top of the British government which has been complicit in the genocidal attacks on Gaza and who is obviously terrified of saying anything to displease Trump.

Even many of those who support Trump must be disturbed at his proposal to send US troops to Gaza if necessary. That worked so well in Iraq in 2003, and in Afghanistan in 2001. Imperialism’s interventions in the region have been disastrous failures and have helped to create the present levels of instability in the Middle East today.

The present ceasefire is unlikely to hold. Netanyahu is whipping up furore about the appearance of the released hostages. This is dutifully repeated by the world’s media while it ignores the condition of the Palestinian prisoners being released, or the fact that Israel deliberately deprived Gaza of food, water and power, which will have affected the hostages.  

The Palestinians have shown astonishing bravery and resistance in the face of all this. They need the support of everyone and resistance to this ethnic cleansing. We can expect little from governments which near universally support Israel within the EU and Britain so we have to fight from below against one of big injustices of our time. Our allies are not just the people of Palestine but the mass of working people across the Middle East.  Saudi Arabia’s government immediately attacked Trump’s plans because it knows the discontent they would foster across the Arab world. That might, as it did in 2011, threaten the rulers of Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states.

We will be marching next Saturday 15th February in London to the US embassy (coincidentally the anniversary of the biggest march in British history over the Iraq war). There are signs this will be a very big protest. This weekend there have been demonstrations and protests across the country. We know that international government and media complicity over the genocide just means that Netanyahu just feels emboldened to go further. Not for the first or last time, resistance will come from below.

Opposition not impersonation is the way to defeat Reform

This Labour government truly has a death wish. Reform UK is ahead of the Tories and neck and neck with Labour in the opinion polls. Cue Labour MPs urge more attacks on migrants and Labour puts out a meme boasting of how many refugees it has ‘sent back’. There seems to be no understanding that the experience across Europe and elsewhere is that echoing far right arguments helps the far right to grow, and that many of those who look to Reform do so precisely because they don’t like Labour.

On the other hand, this rightward move alienates many Labour supporters and potential voters on the left. And it is totally unprincipled, leaving vacant any serious opposition to the lies of Reform and the far right. Meanwhile Liz Kendall – who came an ignominious last in Labour’s leadership election against Jeremy Corbyn – is launching attacks on the sick and disabled, accusing some of ‘taking the mickey’ by not working. This stuff is straight out of the Sun.

None of it is helping this miserable government, which held a 6-hour crisis cabinet meeting where Starmer urged ministers to go further and faster with presumably these dire policies and others that scapegoat while doing nothing to improve conditions for those who voted for them.

In nearly all surveys the cost of living and the NHS are by far the biggest voter priorities. This will be true for many tempted by Reform. Farage wants to charge for the NHS. Labour should be shouting that from the rooftops every day. But no. Partly because its own plans lean in the direction of more NHS privatisation. Partly because it cannot conceive of leaning to the left rather than the right. So however great the exhortations to deliver, Labour’s unpopularity is here to stay.

Time we spoke about woke

One of Reform’s key platforms is to attack what it calls ‘woke’. Farage recently attacked what he termed a ‘banter ban’ – which turns out to be a provision in the Employment Rights Bill to prevent harassment of staff in pubs or restaurants. This he claims will make it impossible to discuss veganism, or trans rights in a pub without being under threat of prosecution. Ludicrous but true.

In this Farage hopes to tap into a wider resentment which could perhaps be described as the idea that equality issues ‘have all gone too far.’ In this sense the complaints are not the open racism of Enoch Powell in 1968 or the open misogyny of Andrew Tate but something more insidious if not less dangerous. These arguments may be put by racists, sexists and homophobes but are more widely shared.

Not because there’s more racism in general in society. In fact the opposite is true. In general attitudes towards sex, race and sexuality in Britain have become remarkably more liberal and favourable to equality over the past few decades. But what is true is that the great emancipatory movements of the 1960s and 1970s, which put the ideas of equality on the map politically, have waned, and the politics they fostered have become institutionalised. The middle class has grown in all oppressed groups and has become incorporated into capitalist society in a way it wasn’t in the1960s. While the verbal commitment to equality is widespread in business, corporate, government and academic circles, the levels of discrimination and inequality in exactly those areas remain very high.

At the same time, the mass of working-class people – which includes of course the mass of women, black and Asian, and LGBT people – find that their lives in many ways worsening through low wages and poor working conditions. The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) schemes posited by management do little to change this. In fact, some discontented working-class people often experience these as form of management-speak.

They have certainly failed to challenge the fundamental inequalities and reactionary ideas at the heart of capitalist institutions. The Metropolitan Police for example, has been found institutionally misogynistic, racist and homophobic. But this doesn’t stop it parading its EDI credentials or claiming to be the arbiters and judges of supposed racism on Palestine demos.

Missing from the analysis of oppression is the question of class, usually an also-ran when discussing intersectionality. But it is by raising the class nature of oppression and how to fight it that we can begin to undercut the attacks from the likes of Farage over the need to fight oppression. Otherwise we face more divide and rule.

This week: It’s going to be busy. The demo on 15 February must be a major protest at the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. On 13 February ,two events: a protest outside the court when Chris Nineham’s hearing following his arrest on the last demo takes place. Please join if you can. If not, try to participate in the workplace day of action for Palestine, and if possible incorporate a “defend the right to protest” element to it. On Wednesday 12, I’ll be speaking online at a Scottish Stop the War meeting. And on Sunday 16, I’ll be speaking on ‘woke’ at the latest Revolution event in London.