In a very welcome development, a wide range of trade-union leaders have called for an end to legal action against leading organisers of the Palestine movement, reports Alex Snowdon

Twenty-two trade-union general secretaries have signed a statement demanding that Metropolitan Police charges against key Palestine solidarity movement organisers are dropped. The statement calls for charges against Stop the War’s Alex Kenny and Chris Nineham, CND’s Sophie Bolt and PSC’s Ben Jamal to be withdrawn.

Alex Kenny is also an experienced NEU activist and a former member of the union’s national executive. The statement acknowledges his role in organising and stewarding many demonstrations, including a national strike-day demonstration in March 2023.

The authoritarian legal action relates to the peaceful national demonstration for Palestine on 18 January. It is part of the wider escalation of state authoritarianism over Palestine that has seen Palestine Action proscribed on the ludicrous basis that it is a ‘terrorist organisation’, followed by the arrests of campaigners who stand in solidarity with the proscribed group. 

As the statement recognises, this clampdown extends further still, potentially to a range of issues, not just Palestine. It affirms: ‘The right to protest is fundamental to trade unions and the wider movement. The freedoms to organise, of assembly and of speech matter; we must defend them.’

Palestine protests are at the cutting edge of police and legal repression because they threaten the British state in a core area of foreign policy. However, anti-protest laws can be deployed against other protest movements and against trade unionists.

The statement is signed by the leaders of four education unions, Daniel Kebede (NEU), Matt Wrack (NASUWT), Jo Grady (UCU) and Paul Whiteman (NAHT), and also by the general secretaries of the TUC, Unite and Unison, among others. It provides the basis for union activists around the country to take up these issues in their union branches, regions and trades councils.

The trade-union leaders’ statement follows the news last week that Unite’s conference passed a motion strengthening the union’s policy on Palestine, including support for an arms embargo on Israel. On Saturday, the Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot became the first Palestinian to address the Durham Miners’ Gala, this country’s biggest annual labour-movement event. He got an excellent reception from the large crowd, as did other speakers, including Unite’s Sharon Graham and the RMT’s Eddie Dempsey, when they condemned the British government’s complicity in Israeli genocide.

On Thursday 31 July, there will be a protest at Westminster magistrates court (at 9am) to coincide with Alex Kenny and Sophie Bolt’s hearing. Union branches in London should take their banners and encourage members to take part.

Saturday’s national demonstration for Palestine is also a crucial element in pushing back against the attacks on our rights. These attacks are designed precisely to discourage mass participation in the protest movement against genocide in Gaza.

The national march on Saturday will assemble at midday by Embankment underground station. A big trade-union turnout will be another step forward in mobilising union support for Palestine and in defence of the right to protest.