As we welcome in the new year, we must raise our collective voices for sustainability, peace and justice more urgently than ever, says JEREMY CORBYN MP
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There has to be an alternative which refuses to accept Tory tax policies that favour the better-off. An alternative that ends the scandal of the two-child benefit policy. An alternative that builds council housing. An alternative that takes energy, water, rail and mail into democratic public ownership.
An alternative that challenges the dehumanisation of human beings seeking asylum. The rhetoric against the so-called “boat people” is appalling, racist and fuels the most dangerous forces in our society. Their heart-rending tales should shame anybody who seeks to outsource their responsibilities to fellow human beings trying to survive.
There are more refugees than ever in this world, more desperate people who want to survive, and more people who want to live and contribute to our collective good. It requires political leadership and vision to stand up and say: refugees are human beings, and we need an immigration system that treats everybody with dignity, care and respect.
Refugees are victims of environmental disaster. They are victims of persecution. They are victims of war. We know this because we can see it live on our TV screens.
Over 20,000 people have already been killed by the Israeli assault on Gaza, in response to the 1,200 killed on October 7 by Hamas. Meanwhile, there has been a horrifying increase in settler violence on the West Bank, as the Israeli Defence Force supports a system of oppression and apartheid.
Only an immediate ceasefire can bring about a halt to the killings. That should be the first step to an international demand for the end to the occupation, and justice for the Palestinian refugees in camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
FOX News and other outlets, following massive pro-Palestine demonstrations across the US, claim demonstrators are driven by foreign funds not “organic rage”
On November 4, 300,000 people took to the streets in Washington DC to protest US funding of Israel and to call for a ceasefire (Photo: Sofia Perez)
As pro-Palestine demonstrations grow in size and stakes in cities across the United States, the mainstream media machine is working overtime to claim that demonstrators are being manipulated by wealthy donors abroad. Stemming from a Free Pressarticle written on November 14, right-wing outlets have alleged that the People’s Forum, a socialist community space in New York, is bankrolling the Palestine solidarity movement, claiming that the organization has ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
On November 4, more than 300,000 people took to the streets in Washington DC to protest US funding of Israel and to call for a ceasefire. A week later, a much smaller number, between 5,000 and 20,000 descended upon Washington to “march for Israel,” although mainstream outlets such as the New York Post claimed to see a crowd of 300,000 as well.
The huge disparity in turnout for both DC events and the massive movement for Palestine cannot be due to “organic rage,” claims the mainstream media. In a November 15 segment, FOX News anchors express disbelief at the sheer scale of support for Palestine across the US, and try desperately to pin the success of the movement on outside forces.
Socialists once again accused of foreign influence
FOX News is referencing the article written in The Free Press, a media company founded by notorious Zionist Bari Weiss, which claims that two of the People’s Forum’s donors, Jodie Evans and Neville Roy Singham, are “Chinese propagandists.” The article implies, much like a long New York Times so-called investigation from August, that because Evans and Singham fund projects that do not parrot State Department talking points on China, they are being somehow influenced by the Chinese Communist Party.
This Times investigation provided the cover necessary for the Indian government to continue its attacks on left-wing media outlet Newsclick, which was accused in the Times article of “[sprinkling] its coverage with Chinese government talking points.” On October 3, Indian authorities raided the homes and offices of over 100 journalists, contractors, and former employees associated with the progressive news outlets Newsclick and Peoples Dispatch, as well as Tricontinental Research Services. Newsclick editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha and administrator Amit Chakraborty continue to languish in prison on draconian anti-terrorism charges. Prior to the raid, an Indian official had directly cited the New York Times article.
“The Chinese Communist Party uses tools like Confucius Institutes on college campuses, TikTok’s addictive algorithm, and organizations like those that Mr. Singham funds to divide and weaken America,” US Representative Mike Gallagher, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told The Free Press. Gallagher is rapidly anti-China, even for a US congress member, not only openly admitting that there is a “New Cold War” against China, but that the United States must win it.
Palestine solidarity movement accused of “dividing America”
FOX News anchors used these baseless accusations of Chinese funding and influence to attack the popular, dynamic, and youthful Palestine solidarity movement in the United States. As Israel continues it’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, its policies of raiding and bombing hospitals, schools, and mosques are becoming unpopular worldwide. But it is not the genocide that makes Zionism unpopular, claim the anchors, it’s Chinese foreign influence.
“You look at this, and you think, these kids are being used as pawns,” said FOX Business anchor Jackie DeAngelis about recent protests, which have been majority youth.
“It’s so obvious that there’s an element of just wanting to create chaos, taking over streets, dividing America. It’s very consistent I think with what the Chinese Communist Party would like to see in America, a divided America. A ruined America,” added FOX Business anchor Brian Brenberg.
Brenberg claimed that a high school demonstration he witnessed for Palestine “was being controlled by somebody else, who was very much not a high school audience.”
“It sounds like it might be this group behind it,” he said, referring to the People’s Forum specifically.
Protestors as “outside agitators”
There is a long history of mass protest movements receiving these sorts of allegations. Claims that popular discontent is influenced by nefarious outside agents is a way to delegitimize those movements. Socialists in the 20th century were driven out of the public sphere due to accusations that they were “Russian agents” in the McCarthy era. Just a few years ago, the George Floyd uprisings were plagued by accusations of “outside agitators” coming to cities and stirring up riots, rather than what demonstrators were expressing, that millions of people hit the streets because they were tired of police brutality.
In a clip from a May 2020 demonstration Minneapolis, BreakThrough News anchor Eugene Puryear asks a protester, “What do you say to the governor who’s saying, it’s people coming from outside [that are driving the protests?]” The woman, a mother of three sons, responds, “No. It’s tired people.”
“We’ve been quiet for too long,” she said. “I mean this from my heart. Tear it down!”
Organizations plan mass day of action
The People’s Forum issued a response to the right-wing media accusations. “We affirm our right to gather, rally, and protest to defend Palestine. This is as much a moral right as it is a legal one. Efforts to smear and defame supporters of Palestinian liberation will enter the ledgers of history as shameful,” read their statement.
Alongside Palestinian groups, the People’s Forum is continuing to lead and organize protests. “History has shown us that those who stand on the sidelines and remain silent in the face of injustice are often judged harshly,” stated the organization.
On November 17, the People’s Forum alongside the Palestinian Youth Movement, the ANSWER Coalition, and several other organizations are calling for another international shut down of “business as usual” to protest Israel’s genocide. There is a planned mass rally on the steps of the New York Public Library, planned closings by small business owners, student walkouts, and mass actions around the world.
Union leaders and MPs demand justice for first black woman MP
Dianne Abbot MP
DIANE ABBOTT has called on Sir Keir Starmer to prove his commitment to fighting anti-black racism amid growing anger over Labour’s “fraudulent” investigation into the left-wing MP.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, TUC president Matt Wrack and scores of socialist MPs and activists have joined the campaign to restore Britain’s first black female MP’s Labour whip.
Speaking to the Morning Star, Ms Abbott said: “I appreciate the support. But this is all about much more than me.
“The issues are Labour Party democracy and the leadership’s commitment to recognising and fighting anti-black racism.”
Labour faces increasing pressure to conclude its investigation into the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP’s comments about racism after she branded the process “fraudulent” in a statement earlier this week.
“I hope it signals the start of a public transport revolution across the whole of England,” says Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham.
Greater Manchester has retaken control of its buses after almost 40 years of deregulation.
As bus services were deregulated across the UK in 1986 – except in London where services remained under local control – the move represents the biggest change to public transport in a generation.
The privatisation of Britain’s bus sector was introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government. At the time, the government predicted that the move would lead to “lower fares, new services, and more passengers,” while removing “any potential liability on the taxpayer.”
Instead, bus use has been in decline ever since, and today, much of the sector is in crisis, with taxpayers subsidising corporate profits. In Greater Manchester, the number of passengers using buses has fallen from 355m in 1986/87, to just over 182m at the end of 2019, just before Covid.
From September 24, a fleet of 50 zero-emission Bee Network-branded buses (ZEBs) will be in service. The buses offer a range of improved features for passengers, including two bays for wheelchair users, anti-slip flooring, audio and visual announcement systems, and hearing induction loops. Over the next two years, existing buses in Greater Manchester will be gradually upgraded to Bee Network buses.
