F35 fighters on the flight deck of HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, in Plymouth, Devon
SIR KEIR STARMER’S militarism faces mass opposition after he announced today that the government is to buy 12 new fighter jets capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
The Prime Minister used the Nato summit in The Hague to break the news, which campaigners called a breach of Britain’s obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The new aeroplanes and nuclear weapons will be US-built but flown by RAF crews, based at RAF facilities in East Anglia and assigned to the Nato nuclear mission.
Under the plan, Britain will buy 12 F-35A jets, which are capable of carrying conventional munitions and also the B61-12 gravity bomb, which is three times more powerful than the weapon dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
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In the Commons, independent MP Jeremy Corbyn demanded that ministers explain how the decision complied with treaties “which require nuclear weapons states not to allow proliferation and take steps towards nuclear disarmament.”
The Stop the War Coalition asked: “On what planet does buying F-35s for around £80 million each from the US company Lockheed Martin equal job creation at home while cutting welfare?”
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary Sophie Bolt called the planned purchase a “disastrous decision by the Starmer government that makes the world more dangerous and puts the British population on the nuclear front line.”
She pledged mass action against the deployments.
“The millions that will be spent on these jets, and the millions more that would be needed to upgrade RAF Marham, will be coming out of further cuts to public services, to our NHS and our social care system,” Ms Bolt said.
Source: Potere al Popolo Bologna e provincia/Facebook
On the 80th anniversary of liberation from Nazi-fascism, left forces in Italy mobilize against genocide, armament, and the Meloni government
In the coming weeks, many European countries will mark the 80th anniversary of liberation from Nazi-fascist occupation. Italy is among the first, with dozens of events organized for April 25 – Liberation Day – despite ongoing attempts by the Meloni government and right-wing forces to rewrite or erase the memory of the Resistance. For most grassroots groups, this year’s events aim to locate the values that inspired partisan fighters in the 1940s into today’s context, marked by an aggressive rearmament agenda, support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and domestic repression of civil rights.
“Eighty years ago, our grandparents freed us from the grip of fascism. But remembering the past is not enough, especially not in the stale, institutional way the Democratic Party and center-left do,” Giuliano Granato of Potere al Popolo said during the demonstration in Naples. Along similar lines, the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) stated that April 25 should not be reduced to a mere ritual or commemoration. “It should actualize the values and ideals of the partisan Resistance, which freed, perhaps not once and for all, this country from the barbarity of war and Nazi-fascism and provided an inescapable push toward better democratic, working, and living conditions for the people of this country,” the trade union declared in its call to action.
Against Israeli genocide
These values, according to USB, Potere al Popolo, and other left groups, must necessarily include opposition to genocide. In many cities, protesters have insisted that Italy’s ongoing ties with the Israeli occupation are unacceptable. These ties, they argue, are evidence that the political establishment has failed to grasp the true meaning and importance of the Resistance. Ahead of Liberation Day, the Genoa chapter of Potere al Popolo organized an action addressing President Sergio Mattarella, criticizing him for formally honoring the Resistance while remaining silent on the genocidal war against Palestinians and on the breakdown of democratic rights under the current government.
Potere al Popolo Genoa with banner reading: “Mattarella, antifascists don’t finance wars and genocide.” Source: Potere al Popolo Genoa/Facebook
“To do so [speak of the Resistance] after cozying up to the president of the criminal state of Israel, effectively supporting the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians, is an insult to those who, since the days of the partisan struggle, have fought against all genocide,” Potere al Popolo Genoa stated. “To honor the Resistance while equating the Soviet communists who liberated much of Europe from Nazism with the Third Reich is an insult to history and memory.”
Against armament
Equally prominent as the call to stop the genocide and sever ties with Israel is the demand to reject Europe’s new armament agenda, which will come at the cost of public services, education, healthcare, and climate justice. Giorgia Meloni’s administration and mainstream opposition parties alike have supported this agenda in different ways, endorsing increased spending on so-called defense and entertaining proposals for a joint European army. These priorities stand in stark contrast with the interests of Italy’s working class and the vision of a more just society that accompanied the antifascist Resistance.
“The rearmament plan launched by the EU represents the latest folly of a continental political class disinterested in building a present and future of peace and prosperity for the peoples of Europe,” warned USB. Similarly, Potere al Popolo called on people to rally around an alternative set of priorities: “We don’t need more money to enrich the arms industry. We need money for wages, for health care and services, for envisioning an ecological revolution and addressing the real challenge of our time, which is the climate crisis.”
Against new iterations of fascism
Meanwhile, Giorgia Meloni and her ministers are pursuing a different kind of battle, one aimed at minimizing the role of the antifascist struggle, led largely by communists, in shaping modern Italy. While the mainstream opposition tends to fixate on this behavior by the right wing, Granato warns that doing so risks missing important pieces of the puzzle.
“For us, Giorgia Meloni is simply following the path she’s always been on, one clearly tied to the rise of neo-fascism. After the defeat of Nazism, the slogan of the Italian Social Movement [neo-fascist party] was ‘neither renounce nor restore’ – and that’s exactly what Meloni is doing today. She doesn’t outright deny their fascist roots, but she also doesn’t walk around openly glorifying Benito Mussolini,” Granato told Peoples Dispatch.
The most recent attempt of the right to undermine the legacy of the Resistance came in the wake of the death of Pope Francis, when the government declared a record five days of mourning and called for “sobriety” at all public events. Many understood this to be an attempt to minimize April 25 events. Liberal and right-wing local administrations seized the opportunity to scale down and cancel rallies, while far-right media ran headlines such as April 25: Day of mourning. “Sure, they can claim they were referring to the death of the pope, but the truth is, they’ve been waiting 80 years for an excuse to print something like that, because for them, April 25 has always been a defeat,” says Granato.
Progressive forces, however, resisted, criticizing the government for using the death of a pope who – unlike the administration, called for peace and solidarity – to advance its agenda. They also refused to limit the day’s activities to commemorations, echoing the partisans’ revolutionary vision of a radically different society. “We don’t stop at the official ceremonies, not just because they’re cold and formulaic, but because we believe the fight for liberation and resistance isn’t over,” Granato explains. “Just like many partisans understood back then that toppling fascism wasn’t enough, we believe that defeating the Meloni government wouldn’t be enough either.”
A group of protesters after the central demonstration in Naples, April 25, 2025. Source: Ex-OPG Je so’ pazzo/Facebook
Instead, Granato calls on the people to work together to free themselves from contemporary forms of danger and oppression: first and foremost genocide and militarization. “We worked to make today a day of liberation from militarism and genocide and to link it to the mobilization we are building, including a national assembly in Rome on May 24, and a mass demonstration on June 21, just days before the NATO summit in The Hague,” he adds.
“We believe militarism has always been a tool of fascism. The militarization of Europe today goes hand-in-hand with growing authoritarianism at home and worsens conditions for the working class across the continent.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a reception to celebrate St Patrick’s Day at 10 Downing Street, London, March 19, 2025
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[T]he Starmer-Reeves agenda is entirely dictated by the needs of finance capital, mediated through the Treasury and the military.
There is no question, of course, of arms spending being affected by this renewed austerity — on the contrary it is slated to carry on rising for the next decade. Critics of the welfare cuts should not be reticent about making this connection.
Trying to protect spending on services without challenging this renewed militarism hands the Starmerites a free pass by allowing a key argument to go unchallenged.
Starmer’s priorities have a mounting number of victims. Again in Commons questions, Northern Ireland social democrat Colum Eastwood identified one, a deeply disabled constituent able to access benefits under the Tories but now facing destitution as her personal independence payments are withdrawn.
Eastwood then asked the key question. Given all that — what is the point of Labour?
It is a question millions across the country, including many who voted Labour last July, are now asking. This is governance in the interests of capital, not labour by any stretch.
The left in Labour must transition from protest to action against the government if there is to be any positive answer to Eastwood’s question. Issuing statements is not enough if Starmer and Reeves can continue to count on votes in Parliament and canvassers in the country for their anti-worker programme.
Absent that fighting approach, the logical conclusion must be that something new, articulating the values of socialism, is needed.
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
2RY8Y78 Former President Donald Trump gesture to the crowd before his speech at the California Republican Party Convention Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
BRITAIN must unite with Donald Trump in support of freedom and capitalism, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said today.
Congratulating Mr Trump on his imminent return to the US presidency, Sir Keir said: “As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.”
The generous interpretation of Mr Trump’s outlook appeared to be an attempt by the government to efface the record of unflattering comments made about the president-elect by Labour figures, including Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Sir Keir was taunted by new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch in the Commons over the fact that the Republican Party is suing the Labour Party over the dispatch of hundreds of activists to the US to assist Kamala Harris’s doomed campaign.
Sir Keir submitted himself to a meal with Mr Trump during a recent visit to New York, which by most accounts went rather well, details including the president-elect personally offering Mr Lammy second helpings. [!]
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Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths said: “In place of grovelling congratulations like those from Prime Minister Starmer, the so-called ‘centre-left’ should learn the lesson from recent US and EU election results: capitulating to big business market forces, racism, militarism and right-wing nationalism will end in their own defeat, sooner or later.”
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
TWO peace activists were arrested at the weekend while attempting to deliver a letter to a Suffolk air base stating the opposition to an anticipated return of US nuclear weapons there.
Some 110 nuclear bombs were stored at the Lakenheath base until they were removed in 2008 after strong and constant protests.
But earlier this year, documents surfaced from the United States Defence Department detailing a contract to build defensive shelters for Lakenheath’s “upcoming nuclear mission.”
On Saturday, five women walked through the gates of Lakenheath, intending to deliver a letter to the base commanders, asking them to stop the nukes from returning.
Police stopped the women and two sat down peacefully, vowing to stay until a base commander could meet with them. Both were arrested and taken to Bury St Edmunds police station.
F35 fighters on the flight deck of HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, in Plymouth, Devon
