People attending the People’s Assembly Against Austerity protest in central London, June 7, 2025
BRITAIN’S Communists meet tomorrow in Yorkshire for their 58th Congress. They will debate the urgent challenges faced by the left across the nations of Britain and more widely across the world.
Reactionary nationalism and racism, accelerated militarism and the abandonment of commitments on global warming all demand a new level of unity, a united front, not just as a slogan, but as a unifying solidarity across our communities and the organised labour movement.
How to secure that unity is a question that both unites but also sometimes divides the wider left. It is certainly not one that will be currently resolved by thinking purely in terms of political parties.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership is intensely relaxed about assaulting those least able to defend themselves – the very poorest and most vulnerable.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Leader of the Greek dockworkers’ union ENEDEP, Markos Bekris, is facing prosecution for a solidarity action that blocked ammunition bound for Israel.
One year after dockworkers at the port of Piraeus blocked an ammunition shipment bound for Israel, their union leader, Markos Bekris, is being targeted by Greek authorities for this show of solidarity. News of Bekris facing legal prosecution came shortly after his return from the West Bank, where a delegation from the All-Workers’ Militant Front (PAME) traveled to express support for Palestinian workers and trade unions.
“It is evident that this genuine act of internationalist solidarity [the cargo blockade] has provoked the reflexes of the state and the government, which – within the framework of their strategic alliance with the murderous state of Israel – are resorting to baseless accusations to justify his prosecution,” stated the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).
In the days that followed the news, expressions of support poured from dozens of trade unions. “The wave of solidarity that has appeared in the face of the prosecution is very strong,” journalist Vangelis Ilias told Peoples Dispatch. “Every day since the announcement, there have been reactions,” he says, linking this to the widespread support for Palestine among the population.
When members of the dockworkers’ union ENEDEP blocked the military cargo in October 2024, Ilias explains, they acted in line with this popular sentiment. “There were a lot of people and a lot of energy during the port action,” he says, noting that students and community groups joined dockworkers on the picket line. “It was truly a working-class-led moment.”
The government’s response: from silence to aggression
The authorities’ recent response to the action again exposed the divide between public opinion and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s administration. Throughout Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the government has maintained close ties with Israeli authorities despite ongoing demands to sever these links. As solidarity actions grew stronger, authorities shifted from silence to aggression. “One of the latest examples of this escalation happened during the Palestine solidarity mobilization in October,” Ilias says. “It was like they were sending a message that they would allow things to go up to a certain point, but not cross it. Attacks on ENEDEP’s leadership can be seen as part of the same message and crackdown.”
Legal action against Bekris has been widely understood as an attempt to suppress solidarity actions which have very concrete outcomes. Additionally, PAME argued in its reaction that the government’s declared commitment to “justice” should also be interpreted as part of the militarization trends shaping both Greece and the region. “If the Greek government and its so-called ‘justice’ are so eager to drag people into court, they should start with their friend Netanyahu, who is internationally wanted for war crimes,” the organization wrote. “They should leave alone the workers and trade unionists who stand by the peoples, on the right side of history, who stop the bullets bound for the murder of children.”
Trade unions from other countries also condemned the intimidation attempts against ENEDEP. “While workers are crushed under poverty, those in power criminalize trade union action and solidarity in order to serve the dirty interests of imperialism,” the Turkish trade union Nakliyat-İş wrote. Italy’s Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), which led two general strikes for Palestine, offered equally strong support. USB noted that for governments, “blocking weapons clearly intended to fuel the genocide of a people is not an act of peace, but a crime,” as it jeopardizes existing international alliances.
Palestinian labor organizations added their support for ENEDEP, saying that the Piraeus blockade embodied true values of international solidarity. “Anyone who refuses to load bullets for murderers defends life,” they stated. “Anyone who is on trial for saying no to war is on trial in the name of false justice.”
For Ilias, the support Bekris and ENEDEP gathered since the beginning of November remains the best tool for opposing the ongoing repression. “And this solidarity should go beyond statements – which are undoubtedly important – by also building physical support, including by showing up in large numbers in front of the courts,” he says.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir 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.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.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir 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.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.
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Palestinian children spend hours searching through piles of garbage to find food and basic supplies in Gaza City, Gaza on November 11, 2025. [Saeed M. M. T. Jaras – Anadolu Agency]
The Union of Gaza Strip Municipalities warned Friday of the consequences of 700,000 tons of accumulated waste in random dumping sites, as municipalities are unable to provide even the minimum level of essential services due to severe shortages of fuel and equipment, Anadolu reports.
Alaa Al-Batta, the union’s deputy head, told Anadolu that municipalities are facing an “impossible equation” due to the massive destruction of infrastructure, fuel shortages, and the destruction of machinery and equipment during Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.
He said these combined factors have left municipalities unable to provide even basic services to residents and displaced people, despite a month having passed since the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, with no tangible improvement.
Waste accumulation
The Palestinian official warned of a looming health and environmental disaster amid massive waste buildup across Gaza.
He said around 700,000 tons of waste are piling up in northern and southern areas of the strip, as Israel prevents access to central dumping sites located in border zones it controls under the ceasefire east of the so-called “yellow line.”
He noted that the waste accumulation has also led to the spread of mosquitoes and rodents and contamination of groundwater.
Al-Batta described Gaza’s fuel shortage, particularly for municipalities, as “the most dangerous and urgent crisis” at the moment.
He said municipalities are resorting to borrowing fuel, and when they cannot, they must reduce daily operations because they cannot run service vehicles and facilities.
He called for urgent Arab and international action to supply municipalities with the fuel required to maintain essential services.
Water crisis
Regarding the water crisis, Al-Batta said it has reached unprecedented levels as Israel has destroyed more than 700 wells across Gaza during two years of genocide, representing 80–85% of all municipal wells.
He said the daily per capita water share had dropped from 90 liters before the genocide to just 10–15 liters today.
He added that groundwater and the environment are contaminated because sewage has leaked into the soil after the Israeli military deliberately targeted sewage networks during the two years of war.
“We are talking about near-total destruction of about 2 million linear meters of sewage networks, and municipalities do not have the equipment necessary to repair or maintain them,” he said.
Al-Batta said municipal employees faced severe conditions during the genocide, leading to the killing of many of them, while others continued working without pay.
He said that over 200 municipality workers were killed while performing their professional and humanitarian duties.
He noted that about 5,000 municipal employees in Gaza have been working for 735 days without salaries, despite the war and constant targeting.
Regarding attacks on municipal buildings, Al-Batta said they were directly targeted during the two-year war. Israeli strikes also hit municipal equipment in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Jabalia, destroying dozens of essential machines.
He said Israel destroyed 15 bulldozers previously donated by Arab states and Egypt during the previous ceasefire period that began in January 2025 and ended in March.
According to the latest data from Gaza’s Government Media Office, losses in the municipal and services sector over two years of genocide amount to about $6 billion.
Al-Batta stressed that Israel is not allowing the entry of new machinery, severely limiting municipalities’ ability to clear rubble, remove waste, reopen streets, and manage the mounting crises.
The Gaza Media Office estimates that the genocide has left around 70 million tons of rubble, beneath which lie thousands of bodies of Palestinians killed during the war.
The estimates indicate 9,500 Palestinians are missing, either buried under the rubble of destroyed homes or their fate remains unknown.
Israel has killed more than 69,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 170,700 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir 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.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.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli Minister of National Security and far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir gestures to a supporter as he walks escorted by Israeli policemen through the Old City of Jerusalem on May 26, 2025 [Menahem Kahana / AFP/ Getty Images]
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a large-scale police raid in the mixed cities of Lod and Ramla on Wednesday evening, accompanied by a substantial force from Israeli police and special units.
Videos posted by Ben-Gvir on the X platform showed police officers forcing Palestinian residents to lie face down on the ground, with shouting heard in the background. The footage also showed Ben-Gvir entering homes and walking through neighbourhoods while residents were handcuffed and surrounded by heavily armed officers.
Ben-Gvir claimed the operation aimed to “eradicate the phenomenon of weapons and gunfire” in Arab communities, praising the participation of the army, police, and Border Guard forces. Critics, however, described the raid as a publicity-driven show of force and a continuation of repressive policies targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The incident sparked widespread outrage among Palestinian communities and rights groups, who accused Ben-Gvir of using policing operations as political theatre and escalating tensions within mixed cities.
The raid follows a series of highly controversial actions by Ben-Gvir, including repeated incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and a visit to Negev Prison in late October, where he appeared in a video threatening Palestinian detainees and calling to execute them.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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.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.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
People attending the People’s Assembly Against Austerity protest in central London, June 7, 2025
