The ban on Palestine Action is part of the Labour government’s campaign to criminalise solidarity with Palestine and further restrict the right to protest. From cynical judicial manoeuvres to the brutalisation of hunger-striking prisoners, every facet of this attack reveals the state’s true function: the ruthless defence of imperialist interests and the arms trade.
As we go to press, Qesser Zuhrah, Amu Gib, Kamran Ahmed, Lewie Chiaramello, Umer Khalid, Heba Muraisi, Jon Cink and Teuta ‘T’ Hoxha, eight of the Filton 24, have refused food for over 40 days.
The Labour government puts its loyalty to the Zionist state of Israel and the US Department of War above their lives. Yet none of them has been found guilty of any offence. None of them is charged with terrorist offences. All have been held without bail for 16 months.
Keir Starmer, David Lammy and Yvette Cooper have blood on their hands.
Rigged courts
The recent judicial review into the proscription of Palestine Action concluded under a cloud of political manipulation. In a highly unusual move, Mr Justice Chamberlain, who had initially granted leave for the review, was removed at the last minute.
He was replaced by a divisional court including Mrs Justice Steyn, who earlier this year ruled the sale of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel was lawful, despite accepting their potential use in violating international law in Gaza. Of course Chamberlain’s oversight was no guarantee of the court overturning the ban, but his removal makes a fair hearing far less likely.
This manoeuvre followed an identical pattern in the arms sales case where Chamberlain was also replaced by Steyn. It signals that the British state is determined to ensure its repressive decrees receive a compliant rubber stamp. The judiciary sheds its illusion of independence when confronted with challenges to core foreign policy and the interests of the war industry.
The implications of the proscription extend far beyond Palestine Action. It has been weaponised against the entire solidarity movement. Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine have had their bank accounts frozen; 2,717 individuals now face potential terrorist charges merely for holding a placard; police regularly stop people for wearing Palestine insignia
The ban has provided a pretext for increasing state repression of the Palestine Solidarity movement, including freezing bank accounts of solidarity groups; anti-terrorist police units carry out dawn raids against activists for expressing support for Palestine Action in emails – before the ban had even taken effect.
This deliberate strategy of criminalisation is designed to terrorise activists, sever internationalist links, and protect merchants of death like Elbit Systems. The state aims to silence all effective opposition to its complicity in genocide.
Hunger strikers
With no other way of protesting against their incarceration, six of the Filton 24, charged with criminal damage and injuring a police officer, started their hunger strike on 2 November. A few days later, two more political prisoners joined them.
This is the most significant hunger strike in Britain since Bobby Sands’ famous hunger strike in 1981 – although the media ignored it completely until it looked likely they might die.
The prisoners are charged with criminal damage at an Elbit weapons factory in Filton, Gloucestershire in August 2024, or damaging warplanes at Brize Norton. After Palestine Action was proscribed, their cases were retroactively designated ‘terrorist-linked’. Their lawyers are denied access to video evidence and delayed their investigation allowing Elbit to claim it has ‘lost’ vital CCTV footage.
Their demands are just: an end to censorship in jail, immediate bail, fair trials, the de-proscription of Palestine Action, and the shutdown of Elbit.
The state’s response has been one of callous brutality. They have endured solitary confinement, correspondence have been withheld, visiting rights and phone calls denied, and communicating with each other forbidden. As the hunger strikers become weaker and develop illnesses due to lack of sustenance, medical treatment has been denied or delayed, contravening Article 2 of the Human Right s Charter: the right to life.
Kamran Ahmed has been hospitalised for 3 days and subjected to inhumane treatment, including being denied access to his own medical notes and being forced to walk barefoot back to his cell. He is considered likely to be hospitalised again before long.
These are deliberate tactics to break their resistance, demonstrating that a state which brands solidarity as terrorism has nothing but contempt for basic human dignity.
For mass resistance
Far from offering an alternative to the Tories, Starmer’s Labour has seamlessly adopted and intensified their repressive framework. It is the government’s ministers who introduced the proscription, its Home Office that coordinates the crackdown, and its justice system that perpetuates the cruelty towards hunger strikers.
This confirms a stark truth: the management of the capitalist state, with all its oppressive machinery, continues uninterrupted regardless of the party in office. The Labour leadership has become a willing executor of the capitalists’ agenda, proving itself a reliable manager for imperialist interests by suppressing dissent.
This moment demands a response rooted in class struggle and unyielding solidarity.
- Trade unions, student unions and community groups – openly call for the ban on Palestine Action to be lifted.
- Union militants – disrupt the arms trade and demand divestment from Israel through strikes and blockades.
- Workers and youth – break from all parties of capital and war.
Your Party MPs must disrupt parliament’s business and demand a debate on the hunger strikers’ fate. Local branches must organise street protests.
Defend our Juries has called for protests should the judicial review uphold the proscription of Palestine Action. In addition we urge all trade unionists, all students to walk out if any of the hunger strikers die. The time for individual acts of solidarity is over – this time we need collective action!
