Over 200 arrested as hundreds gather to defy Palestine Action ban in London
(www.middleeasteye.net)
from pete_link@lemmy.ml to world@lemmy.world on 12 Apr 04:05
https://lemmy.ml/post/45812225
from pete_link@lemmy.ml to world@lemmy.world on 12 Apr 04:05
https://lemmy.ml/post/45812225
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/45812221
11 April 2026
Over 200 people have been arrested central London on Saturday at a mass demonstration opposing the UK government’s proscription of the direct action group Palestine Action.
Some 500 protesters set up camping chairs at the foot of the steps of Trafalgar Square, displaying handmade cardboard signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
The demonstrators were met with a heavy police presence, with vans lining the square hours before the vigil began.
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What would they do if like a million protestors showed up? Would they concede at that point?
Likely yes because that would be akin to a small general strike. And if it’s a real general strike, they woud def concede as the ruling class is gonna lose serious money, and they would push politicians whose campaigns they fund to concede. Working people have one real leverage to use against their ruling class - labour power - the ability to stop creating wealth for the ruling class. I think pretty much all other leverage we have derive from that. Protest, even the right to vote.
General strikes often lead to the military being deployed against the citizens. So it’s not a sure thing that they’ll concede, at least not immediately. I do, however, agree that a general strike’s the appropriate tactic. Just don’t be surprised if it’s met with state violence.
Response to military deployment: “Fine, we’ll go home. But we still aren’t going to work. Also, we are going to stop reproducing and will watch the demographics collapse.”
Would they concede? From one million person protest? No… But make it a repeat thing and maybe.
This authoritarianism from Starmer is a sign of his weakness. So a bigger protest might scare him even more.
He’s unfit to lead, and is a backstabbing snake pretending that he wasn’t part of the Labour coup engineered by Mandelson and McSweeney that made him party leader. I’m reasonably sure that Yvette Cooper was also in on it.
Being a moral and prosocial person in the Anglo sphere/West is not just bizarre but quickly becoming illegal altogether. That’s no recipe for a successful civilization and non-cancerous ideology but what do I know.
It sucks. It’s like our leadershit goes out of their way to make bad choice after bad choice. And they damn near always double down on their shitty positions instead of admitting when they are wrong, even if presented with a mountain of evidence.
I’m sure they’re financially motivated to make these “bad choices”, lol, and what is bad, really? Do you think these people know what values and ethical standards are? They just care about the bag, come on. But I agree, it sucks, and you know they’re only gonna get progressively heavy handed as things break down and the people become understandably angry. And I just moved to the UK too! Oh well… At least Bristol is still pretty safe, and seemingly for everyone ranging from hijabis to transfolk.
I don’t understand how it’s illegal to argue for human rights.
That’s not condoning Hamas, or bring anti semetic. Acknowledging that displacing millions of people and destroying entire countries is bad should not be this controversial. Two wings don’t make a right, it just ruins millions of lives.
Because ‘Palestine Action’ provides aid, which means they have to work with Hamas… the legitimate government organization that would be the only possible route to deliver aid since Israel keeps explicitly targeting anyone else that tries to do anything in Gaza.
So, for the Ameriisraeli empire, of which the UK is merely a pathetic subject to, that means Palestine Action is supporting Hamas. Which because they’ve declared Hamas a terrorist organization, gives them the legal, social, and ‘moral’ pretext to demonize and arrest anyone supporting ‘Palestine Action,’ the charity supporting the people of Gaza.
It shouldn’t be controversial to support the victims of the worst and longest genocide in human history. But doing so from an artery of the empire doing the genocide is unsurprisingly illegal and controversial. And until it affects the citizens of said empire, if it ever does, there won’t be enough movement to actually change anything.
The best we can hope for is the continued resistance to the empire from the other 6 billion people on the planet.
It’s a bit of a stretch to call Hamas “legitimate,” since they gained power in a coup (which Israel tolerated, if not overtly supported) against Fatah, and have suspended elections ever since. But they are the existing government in Gaza regardless, and nobody can do aid work there without engaging with them.
…Didn’t they win that election?
Let’s hope that the May elections send the appropriate message, and Labour eject Starmer and all the other Labour Together Blairites and SDP wannabes.