London Socialist Historians
30th November
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign have said that thousands people attended the central London march in support of Palestine on Saturday 30th November.
It was the 22nd march since the events of 7th October 2022 since when Israel has committed a genocide in Gaza and Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
The protests, as on the 30th November, are broad in nature including trade union and Jewish blocs, and of course entirely peaceful. The demonstration had backing from the PSC, Stop the War, CND and MAB amongst others, and follows trade union days of action backed by the TUC on 28th and 29th November
It is difficult to find an historical comparator for such mobilisations. The Chartists in the 1830s and 1840s held some large demonstrations (the UK population in that period was around 15 million) culminating with 100,000 plus on Kennington Common on 10th April 1848. The Reform League in the 1860s also saw large mobilisations for the vote, notably on May 6th 1867 when a ban on meeting in Hyde Park was defied.
The Suffragettes in the early decades of the twentieth century held very large demonstrations as did CND in several waves in the 1960s and 1980s.
The Stop the War demonstration against war with Iraq on 15th February 2003 which had well over a million marchers remains the largest in UK history to date.
The thing that marks the Palestinian protests in central London is their sustained nature, and the grassroots organisation that is needed to achieve that.
While the killing goes on in Gaza and the West Bank, the demonstrations are having, and will continue to have a significant impact on British politics. The call for a total ban on arms sales to Israel remains a powerful one. As with Iraq in 2003 politicians who fail to act will find that his pursues them for the remainder of their political careers as it has done with Tony Blair
LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, the Palestinian demonstrations have made and continue to make history. That is not reflected in the media now but history is by definition a long term thing. What is done now will have impacts for a long time to come.
You’d think the Grauniad would have mentioned it on their site. There seems to be absolutely no means of getting news other than right wing blether other than through following people’s blogs.