People take part in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in Lewisham, south-east London, May 2, 2026
CAMPAIGNERS have hit back at Sir Keir Starmer’s latest threats to ban some pro-Palestine marches, saying restrictions would “strike at the root of free assembly and free speech.”
The Prime Minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today on Saturday “there are instances” in which he supports a moratorium on peace demonstrations.
“I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect,” he said. “I think it’s time for, I would say, some people protesting to just reflect on what the Jewish community is going through and the overall impact that this is having.”
Stop the War coalition co-founder John Rees said the PM’s comments were a “threat” to the massive marches the coalition has helped organise since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
A ban would “strike at the root of free assembly and free speech in this country,” he told Sky News.
He also warned the PM against “completely fallacious” conflations of pro-Palestine demonstrations and attacks on Jewish people, such as last week’s knife attack in Golders Green.
Mr Rees said of the man charged with three counts of attempted murder after last Wednesday’s north London stabbing: “These kinds of individuals are not attached to the Palestine movement.
“They are not attached to the marches. There’s no evidence that they’ve ever seen a march, let alone been on one, or that the organisers would for a second condone it.
“We have to be absolutely clear here, there is no threat whatsoever to the Jewish community from these marches.
Keir Starmer says that he’s banning words and phrases now as well as placards.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
It linked the “multidimensional economic, financial, political, security and environmental crises” engulfing the planet — and noted that the “aggressive escalation of American imperialism” is intensifying them all.
It identified the United States as “the primary threat to global peace and security,” not so much a world policeman, as it has often thought of itself, but a global gangster that bullies, steals and destroys.
It connected US aggression against Cuba and Venezuela in the western hemisphere with its violence in the Middle East, and the genocide perpetrated by its ally Israel against the Palestinians.
And it brought together grassroots organisations, trade unions, peace campaigns and youth groups on an international basis to plan co-ordinated resistance.
No festival is so international as May Day, the workers’ day, with marches in Havana and Chicago, London and Rome, Baghdad and Beijing.
Rallies took up the message of defiance everywhere. Over 100 US unions took up the call “no work, no school, no shopping” for May Day, with specific marches like New York’s highlighting the connection between corporate power and state brutality under the slogan “Amazon delivers Ice.”
The Israeli police raided youth club premises to snatch Palestinian flags ahead of the demos, fearing any show of solidarity with the victims of their state’s relentless terror. In Cuba, electricity and energy workers took centre stage, as a whole nation saluted those trying to keep the lights on and the power flowing in the face of a brutal US siege.
So it was fitting that the International Meeting of Solidarity with Anti-Imperialism, dubbed 100 Years With Fidel, called on the world to stand with Cuba just as Cuba — exporter of medical care and education, valiant ally of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, beacon of socialism on the doorstep of the world’s most aggressive capitalist power — has so often stood with the world.
It made important commitments. One, to keep promoting convoys to breach the blockade and deliver essential supplies to Cuba. This is practical solidarity, like that organised in Britain by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign through its Cuba Vive appeal.
Two, to build links between left media organisations to counter the labyrinth of lies built up by the news and opinion monopolies that dominate global communications.
Three, international mobilisation and protest. The ceasefire in Gaza — hugely inadequate and regularly violated as it is — was brought about by the global scale of protest for Palestine. Trump told Benjamin Netanyahu, “you can’t fight the world.” The US should be made to feel, through protests at embassies and pressure on governments, that to attack Cuba is to fight the world.
The US threat to Cuba is urgent — Donald Trump reiterated military threats on May Day itself. It is not something we can’t do anything about.
The US needs to know it will pay a heavy price for attacking Cuba, and that means pressure on our own government to grow a backbone. Britain votes against the illegal US blockade of Cuba every year — why can’t it stick up for its own sovereignty and protect British companies that trade with Cuba from extraterritorial US punishment, as China has just done for its companies sanctioned for trading with Iran?
As we saw in Havana, building ties across borders provides the surest defence against the world war Trump threatens, which our own rulers seem willing to join.
With the most reactionary racist, climate-denialist, violence-worshipping zealots taking US imperialism on a global rampage, winning that world is not just an existential question for Cubans, but for us all.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Donald Trump sings and dances, says that it’s fun to kill everyone …Climate science denier Donald Trump confirms that he knows nothing about democracy and that more liquid gold is being secured according to his policy of global privateering.
THE police should not be above scrutiny, Zack Polanski has said, amid a political furore over a post he shared about officers’ behaviour during the Golders Green stabbings.
The Green Party leader also hit out at Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley – who wrote an open letter criticising the politician over the repost – saying the commissioner’s move was not “an appropriate way to do politics.”
Mr Polanski retweeted an X post which accused officers of kicking the suspect in the north-west London attack in the head after he had already been incapacitated.
He has faced criticism, including from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who branded him “disgraceful” and “not fit to lead any political party.”
Mr Polanski told Sky News: “I think you can both recognise the bravery of officers who run towards incidents that most of us, including myself, would certainly want to run away from – and find the appropriate forum to say that no-one, especially the police, should be above scrutiny.
“The reason why I’ve apologised is I accept that wasn’t the appropriate forum.”
PSC Cymru co-chairwoman Bethan Sayed [… and what?]
PALESTINIAN campaigners in Wales were celebrating this weekend after 115 Senedd candidates pledged for Palestine — including backing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
Candidates signing the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Cymru pledge include 46 Green candidates, 37 from Plaid Cymru, eight from the Liberal Democrats, six from Labour and five independents.
PSC Cymru co-chairwoman Bethan Sayed said: “Reaching over 100 pledges is a milestone and is a clear message that Palestine is on the ballot in this Senedd election.
“Wales has always aspired to be a nation that stands on the right side of history, a globally responsible nation that holds human rights and international law at its heart.
“Support for Palestinian rights stretches across every community and every constituency in Wales. Polls show public backing for this issue.
“Voters will be watching closely to see who has the conviction to stand with them.”
The pledge commits elected candidates to uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, stand up to Israel for its crimes of genocide and apartheid — and ensure the Welsh government is not complicit in these crimes.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Nigel Farage objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
People take part in a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally in Lewisham, south-east London, May 2, 2026
