SWP and Morning Star: bare-faced liars

By Darren Bedford (on the Workers Liberty website, where it is headed 'Obvious lies used in Ukraine debate) Sharp criticism of one’s political opponents, including within one’s own movement, is an inevitable, even necessary, aspect of political discourse.  What is neither inevitable nor necessary is telling outright lies about those one disagrees with.  In a …

Israel: Standing Together says end the horror in Gaza, back Biden’s deal

By Ira Berkovic The main UN agency responsible for distributing aid in Palestine, UNRWA, says that all 36 of its shelters in Rafah are empty, due to the numbers fleeing the Israeli assault on the city. Around 1.7 million people, over 75% of Gaza’s total population, are now estimated to be displaced. Many of them …

The “TikTok lawyer” and misogyny

Yakoob: proven misogynist who put a woman's life at risk One of the main arguments you hear from people backing various (supposedly) “left of Labour” candidates is that they want to feel good about the person they’re voting for. Some “independent” candidates appear to be decent individuals with some record of left wing and/or labour …

French socialists and trade unionists organise against antisemitism

By Olivier Delbeke (automatically translated from the French): The organizers of the meeting entitled “Who is afraid of the fight against anti-Semitism? For a truly anti-racist left” were sold out this Thursday evening in Paris in the premises of the Bourse du Travail à République. The organizers had obviously underestimated the enthusiastic response their appeal …

Galloway, Yakoob and the ‘independents’

  Above: reactionary spivs Galloway and Yakoob By Satya Pine Akhmed Yakoob, who got 20% of the vote across Birmingham as an “independent” in the West Midlands mayoral election, says he will stand against Shabana Mahmood in the Birmingham Ladywood constituency in the general election. Yakoob came third overall in the mayoral poll, with 12%. …

Israel: solidarity and links, not boycott

Editorial in the latest issue of Solidarity (very slightly adapted by JD): Some of the student protest encampments, and the opening of the Eurovision song contest (7-11 May), have stirred new demands to “boycott Israel” and “BDS”. Solidarity backs the Palestinians and their claim to an independent state alongside Israel and to equal rights. We oppose …

Local elections: Galloway’s Rochdale flop

By David Axon George Galloway’s "grand anti-Labour alliance" made a small dent in Rochdale’s Labour council in the local elections on 2 May. The Workers’ Party won two seats from Labour but none of the other Galloway-backed candidates – Liberal Democrats and Middleton Independents - were elected. The campaign was the opportunity for promotion of …

Message to Western pro-Palestine activists: “Use your Western privilege to actually help the Palestinian people”

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1hk0IRqEECQ Ahmed talks about himself, his background and his view of the Palestinians' stuggle I first came across the name of Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib in an article by Jonathan Freedland (itself well worth reading) in last Friday's Guardian. Freedland notes that there is a large constituency of US Jews "with the potential to be a …

Using ‘Falter’s faltering narrative’ to deny antisemitism

https://youtu.be/Iupfxe38Wj0 Judge for yourself: Sky News's 13-minute video of what happened Those of us who know a bit about Gideon Falter and his Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) have had little doubt that his widely publicised confrontation with the police at a pro-Palestine march was no accident. Now that Sky News has released a 13-minute video …

Watching the real world – not chasing “left of Labour” fantasies

Above: speakers at the No Ceasefire No Vote conference on 13 April By Rhodri Evans On Saturday some of us were walking from a Workers’ Liberty meeting in York to the rail station. At one junction we couldn’t remember whether to turn left or right. We looked at Google Maps on our phones. Before we …