Stop the war – support the Palestinians!

Millions upon millions throughout the world are again demanding an end to the carnage in Gaza – not least in London where the biggest demonstrations in support of the Palestinian Arabs in the Western world are regularly taking place. Across the bourgeois political spectrum mainstream politicians justify their crawling to American imperialism by parroting Zionist lies and claiming the public as a whole largely support Israel. But a recent YouGov poll tells a different story.
    The survey commissioned by Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Council for Arab-British Understanding shows that there is an overwhelming level of public support in this country for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
    The survey conducted on 20-21 December 2023 found that 71 per cent of the British public believe there definitely (48 per cent) or probably (23 per cent) should be an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. Only 12 per cent felt that there should definitely not (6 per cent) or probably not (6 per cent) be an immediate ceasefire.This echoes the results of a similar YouGov poll on 19 October,     demonstrating robust and continuing public support for an end to the current violence in Gaza.
The poll also found that only 17 per cent of people approve of the Sunak government’s handling of the conflict and only 9 per cent approved of the Labour Party’s handling of the conflict.
    Chris Doyle, Director of CAABU, says “This poll shows a total and utter lack of public confidence in the way both the UK government and the Labour Party have handled this. The figures could hardly be lower. This should be a wake-up call to the political leaderships to realign themselves both with public sentiment, international law and the need to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza”.
    There’s not much chance of that happening in the near future. Crawling to the Americans comes as second nature to the ruling class who believe that their global interests are best preserved through the might of US imperialism. Since the Second World War grovelling to the White House has been almost compulsory for Tory and Labour leaders who drone on and on about “partnership” and the “special relationship” to justify British imperialism’s slavish support of American power throughout the world. So it’s no surprise to read this week that Keir Starmer regularly liaises with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
    But some Labour MPs disagree. One former shadow minister, told the parliamentary news blog PoliticsHome, that Labour should support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and expressed concern over how much the US position appeared to be influencing Labour's foreign policy approach. "We don't have an independent foreign policy, a Labour policy," the MP who was not named, said. "We have outsourced it to the US administration: that's not helpful. I don't like it”.
    Starmer and his cohorts would have us believe that we live in what the Americans call the “free world”; that the USA is some sort of democratic utopia and that anyone who opposes imperialism is evil, mad or both. Backed by bought and paid-for labour leaders and a daily dose of lies from the bourgeois media these people think they can play this cynical game forever and ever. We must prove them wrong.