Lindsey German on imperialism amok and Starmer’s austerity 2.0 rollout

Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to have war throughout the Middle East. His attack on Iran was a major and very clearly carefully planned operation, taking out generals, nuclear scientists, negotiators over Iran’s nuclear deal, and political advisers at the highest level. It has targeted nuclear sites and oil storage units. Blocks of flats have been hit, with many civilian casualties. It was nothing short of a declaration of war on the country. It was also completely illegal – not something that bothers the Israeli prime minister, given his impunity over Gaza. Iran has retaliated with missile attacks on Israel, some of which are getting through the Iron Dome missile defence system. As I write, the attacks are continuing and are likely to escalate.  

None of this would be happening without the repeated support given to Netanyahu’s murderous genocide in Gaza, where he has bombed, starved and imprisoned many of its citizens while the supposed ‘international community’ looks on with at most mild words of reproof. Donald Trump is fully backing Israel and is hoping that this will lead to regime change in Iran. Indeed, if Israel’s plan to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities is to succeed it will need to be carried out by the US military.

If Netanyahu is counting on none of his key backers doing anything to stop him, he is probably right on that score. While the European powers are clearly nervous about this escalation, and are calling for talks and ‘calm’, they have absolutely no intention of forcing Netanyahu back. Keir Starmer has sent more air force planes to the Middle East and has also reiterated his mantra that ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’. How many more times are we going to hear this phrase used to justify the most barbaric war crimes? How can the unprovoked bombing of a country nearly a thousand miles away be justified in the name of self-defence?

The nominal justification is that Iran is supposedly close to developing a nuclear bomb. Yet it is Israel which is the only country in the Middle East to possess nuclear weapons – an estimated 200 – which refuses nuclear weapons inspections and will not sign up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran does have such inspections from the International Atomic Energy Authority and was in talks about compliance with the NNPT in exchange for the US lifting its draconian sanctions on the country. Those talks were wrecked by Donald Trump in his first term – and he is now using supposed lack of progress to justify bombing Iran.  In the meantime he has turned the screw further imposing more sanctions. The US has also station more B52 bombers, which have nuclear capability, in Diego Garcia, strategically placed for a war in the Middle East.    

I am against the development of nuclear power and nuclear bombs in whatever country they occur, and I believe that nuclear disarmament is a key necessity towards ending war and achieving peace. But I’m also fed up with the few countries that do possess nuclear weapons insisting that other countries should not develop those weapons – and that if they do using this as a pretext for war.

Iran has said that it is prepared to hit US, UK and French assets in the region. There are plenty of them throughout Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Trump has said there will be even greater retaliation if that happens. He, like the rest of the western governments, has learnt none of the lessons of the Middle East wars. Remember Iraq? Weapons of mass destruction, regime change, bringing stability to the region. Instead over a million dead Iraqis and ignominious failure for the occupying troops.

The war criminals like Blair who gave us that disaster are still cheering on new wars. This one will be the worst yet. We must all oppose this war on Iran. That doesn’t mean supporting its government, which is repressive and authoritarian in all sorts of ways. It is up to the Iranian people to decide how to deal with that, not the discredited monarchists and their friends the imperialists. The whole settlement of the region and the central role of imperialism in it has to be challenged. For our government: stop arming Israel, expel the ambassador and break diplomatic links, and oppose any attack on Iran. Anything else leads us closer to a war which will not be contained.  

It’s still austerity whatever Reeves says

Keir Starmer’s love affair with arms spending continues unabated. Britain will, by the end of his term of office, be getting close to spending 5% of GDP on ‘defence’. The same isn’t true about other forms of public spending which are under the cosh. Rachel Reeves made great play last week that Labour is not continuing austerity and that it is expanding public spending. Tell that to people who see their nurseries and libraries close, who have to pay more money for council services, and who struggle to get treatment under the NHS. Part of the problem here is that we have had 14 years of Tory cuts and privatisation and Labour is doing little to remedy this. As one analysis put it: ‘Local government, for example, will receive average real-terms rises of 1.1% a year over the next three years. But at the end of that period its central government funding will be 50% lower than it was in 2010.’ What’s needed is the kind of generous leaps in spending that ‘defence’ is getting -but that isn’t going to happen.

Instead, cuts in PIP and disability benefits are likely to go ahead this month, despite protests from campaigners and great unease among even quite right-wing Labour MPs. We must all be on the streets and continuing to argue that austerity is real, that the majority of people in this country feel worse off, as they see both wages and social wage declining in real terms, and that we need an alternative which prioritises welfare over warfare. 

Keep protesting

I’m very pleased that there will be no charges against me and a number of others who were questioned under caution over the Palestine protest on January 18^th in London. However there are two leading members of the Palestine coalition who are facing trial next month, and more who are still waiting to hear whether they will be charged. All the charges must be dropped. The whole politics round protest has got more repressive, and these laws are designed to intimidate and prevent protestors. The process we faced was intended to have the same effect.

It has not done so and we will continue to protest. The issues are too big to ignore and there is a long history of defending the right to protest in this country. We can expect more of this from a government which supports wars abroad and is creating misery at home – it knows it will get more demonstrations and wants to limit them. They are on a loser over that one.

This week: I will be outside the court where Kneecap member Mo Chara is faced with charges on Wednesday, then off to Liverpool for a fringe meeting at Unison conference 5.30pm. I’m hoping next Saturday’s demo over Palestine will be one of our biggest yet – it needs to be.