I got this yesterday, so apologies as it’s a bit belated.
‘Newsletter – 14/02/25
As the Munich Security Conference gets underway Trump, and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, have made clear their intension to rip up the Atlantic alliance and end the pretence that the US is committed to any ‘rules-based’ order.
European leaders find the US is no longer primarily focused on European security. Rather its focus is further east, to the Pacific region and China.
Although Trump presents himself as man of peace, and he may indeed bring an end to the Ukraine war, his actions in the Middle East have shown peace is not his real goal. What we are witnessing is a realignment of imperialism as we move from a unipolar to a multipolar world, and an America First desire to shift the cost of policing the world on to its allies – hence Trump’s demand the EU increase military spending to 5% of GDP.
Here in the UK we must resist our government’s appeasement of Trump and copycat tactics towards refugees and migrants, we must push back against increased defence spending and Europe’s desire to keep the Ukraine war going, and we must stand up to Trump’s plans for Gaza, and Starmer and Lammy’s unconscionable support for Israel, as the ceasefire hangs by a thread.
This is why tomorrow, Saturday 15 Feb, we march to the US embassy.
Trump says the US will ‘take over’ Gaza to build the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’. His ethnic cleansing plan is a crime against humanity. His comments this week have emboldened Netanyahu, and all indications are that the ceasefire will breakdown at any moment – Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to resume the bombing and US president Donald Trump declared ‘let all hell break loose’.
Meanwhile Israel continues to terrorise Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, and this week conducted a raid on the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem, attacking the cultural and intellectual hub of the Palestinian people.
This is why we march on Saturday, coincidentally, as Lindsey German pointed out, ‘the 22nd anniversary of the biggest march in British history, over the Iraq war– and the signs are it too will be a very big protest.’ Let’s make it huge!
Get to London, assemble midday on Whitehall and march to the US embassy.
Speakers include Palestinian activist Iyad Burnat, Zarah Sultana MP, Michael Rosen, author, poet and presenter, journalist Owen Jones, Palestinian activist, Jeanine Hourani, Eddie Dempsey, RMT senior assistant general secretary, Jeremy Corbyn, MP, Hamza Stitan, Palestinian activist, Lindsey German, convenor at Stop the War coalition, Ben Jamal, director of Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, and the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zumlot.
#All2London15Feb. Click here for coach details.
Palestine – Defend the Right to Protest
Hundreds protested outside Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday as Chris Nineham and two other Palestine activists appeared before the court following their arrests at the Palestine protest on 18 January. MPs, actors and activists gave powerful speeches linking the need to protect our right to protest to the Palestine solidarity movement. Actor Juliet Stevenson told the crowd what she had witnessed on the day in question.
We were delighted that the judge saw fit to drop the bail conditions initially imposed on Chris Nineham, which prohibited his attending Palestine protests. But that is not enough. All charges must be dropped. As Lindsey German said, ‘The right to protest is under attack, and in particular the right to protest for justice and freedom.’
Chris returns to court in July. In the meantime we must continue our campaign to defend the right to protest. We have a number of meetings taking place up and down the country. Please get along to an event in your area, and help support the campaign.
🚨New StW Merchandise🚨
We have added some new lines to our online store, including our new Defend the Right to Protest t-shirt, which has been introduced alongside the launch of our national campaign.
You can check out the merchandise by clicking the button below.
The immediate outcome of Trump telling Europe that it must look to its own defence now that America has other priorities is that Ukraine’s president Zelensky has called for the creation of a united forces of Europe. Something like this was called for ages ago by Delors or one of the other European federalists. Nobody had much enthusiasm for it, and the Brexiteer right have a conspiracy theory about such a plan, in which it is going to be the military wing of the EU to occupy Britain. This bizarre idea briefly appeared again on one of the anti-immigrant YouTube channels, which claimed that Labour was in favour of it and so going to be betray Britain.
As for Trump’s stance as a peacemaker, this was shot to pieces by the excellent Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk. I was taken in by it, as it really seemed to me that Trump was genuinely against the deployment of American troops in the Middle East. He wasn’t. He was originally all for it, but only changed his tune as a way of gaining popularity over the other Republican candidates the first time he went for the presidency. He’s just as bloodthirsty and militaristic as the rest of them. On the other hand, Libertarian Repug Rand Paul stood up in Congress this past week and said that he didn’t want America wasting its treasure and the blood of its courageous soldiery to occupy Gaza for Israel, so perhaps there is still some genuine opposition to Trump’s imperialism among similar Republicans.
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