“They will not silence us. When there is finally justice & freedom for the Palestinian people, we will know that we stood on the right side of history.”
By Louise Regan, Chair, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
The trade union movement has a long and proud history of standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people. What we have witnessed, live streamed on our screens, over the last 19 months has shocked us all – scenes of devastation, destruction, the sheer number of children murdered has been sickening. Alongside this the silence from our political leadership has been deafening.
The huge national demonstrations with hundreds of thousands of people marching for peace and for justice have been diverse with many trade unionists and trade union banners there, joining the call for a permanent ceasefire and for our government to stop arming Israel.
Throughout that time, our political opponents have opposed a ceasefire, tried and failed to demonise the marches, and continued to support Israel’s genocide. Their attempts to suppress our right to protest culminated in heavy handed policing on the 18th January when the Metropolitan Police banned the planned protest at the BBC.
Chris Nineham, Vice Chair of Stop the War and Chief Steward was violently arrested and many others. Following that Ben Jamal, the Director of PSC was interviewed and then charged. Since then, others including Alex Kenny, Khalid Abdullah and most shamefully 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos have been called in for interview. Their alleged crime wanting to lay flowers and children’s toys outside the BBC to remember the thousands of children murdered in Gaza.
We have the fundamental right to protest, to ensure our voices are heard and to speak out against injustices and what we have witnessed over the last 19 months in Gaza and still continuing now, is horrific.
We are told that we are causing disruption. Protest is meant to be noisy it is meant to disrupt that is the whole purpose, we want our voices to be heard and our demands to be met. We stand in a long history of struggle from the protests against apartheid in South Africa, the war in Iraq and the suffragettes fighting for votes for women – our society is better for the protests that have come before us and many trade unionists have been at the heart of these struggles.
Those before us fought for this right and we must fight to keep it.
Let’s be clear if they stop us protesting for Palestine, they will stop us protesting on other issues. They have already targeted climate change activists they will come for our movement to silence our voices.
As trade unionists it is essential that alongside speaking out for justice for the Palestinian people, we defend our absolute right to protest.
The anti-protest legislation brought in by the last government was designed to make it harder to make our voices heard but we are not going to be silenced. Looking at what is happening here and globally, the rise of the far right, the re-election of Trump who is already waging war on the Palestinian people, attacks by our government on disabled people, it is going to be more important than ever that we can be out on the streets protesting, opposing the rhetoric of hate and standing in solidarity with the oppressed both here and globally.
The situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate with no aid being allowed in for weeks and the World Food Programme recently announcing they have run out of supplies. Across the West Bank there has been a massive escalation in violence against the Palestinians. Now has to be the time for trade unionists to escalate our actions. Alongside building for the national marches and local actions we must push forward with the call from Palestinian civil society for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Building these campaigns in our workplaces, our trade union branches and our local communities. They will not silence us. When there is finally justice and freedom for the Palestinian people, we will know that we stood on the right side of history.
- Louise Regan is the National Chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and an executive member of the National Education Union (NEU). You can follow her on Twitter/X; and follow the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
- March for Palestine on May 17 in London. Full info here.
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