The total capitulation of Starmer and his government to ruling-class interests is leaving them morally and politically bankrupt in the face of the great crises of our times

One day people will find it hard to believe the things we are living through. In the middle of a genocide, when Israel is launching a murderous new invasion of Gaza city, when it is systematically slaughtering journalists and doctors, and deliberately starving thousands of people to death, a Labour government is trying to criminalise a movement demanding the end of the slaughter.

As well as implementing the ban on Palestine Action and arresting hundreds for opposing it, the police are stopping people from marching near synagogues, while at the same time allowing fascists to organise protests right outside migrant hotels. Four leaders of the Palestine coalition face trial for organising peaceful protests and, in their most ludicrous move so far, the police have banned the banging of pots and pans as a protest against Israel’s manufactured famine in Gaza.

At the root of all this is the fact that Starmer’s government is complicit in the genocide against which so many are protesting. The huge movement has caused a crisis for the government over Palestine. The government knows it is losing the argument. The pressure has forced Starmer and Lammy to condemn Israel’s atrocities and to call for a ceasefire.

However, there are practical steps they could take that would have an immediate impact on Israel. They could stop all arms sales and military support. They could expel all Israeli diplomats and they could impose sanctions. These moves coming from the US’s closest ally would have a huge impact.

Unfortunately, Labour’s leaders have no independent politics or convictions that would allow them to challenge Trump and Netanyahu or to break Britain’s tradition of supporting Israel, so it resorts to repression.

For Starmer this is a pattern. Completely wedded to the establishment, he and his cabinet of chancers have done nothing to bring in the change he promised vaguely during last year’s election. So they resort to increasingly authoritarian measures. Labour MPs who show any signs of decency or independence of mind are suspended. Disabled people are demonised to justify cuts to their benefits. Starmer tweets daily about what he calls the scandal of increased immigration.

This is deeply damaging. Not only is it bringing the left into disrepute, it is actively shifting politics further to the right in this country.

These moves are backfiring. Starmer’s government is the most unpopular since polling began. There is now not just massive opposition to Israel but huge sympathy up and down the country for the Palestine movement. We must turn that sympathy into active involvement. That means reaching out into every community, every workplace, every college and university to boost the turnout at the national demonstrations and local protests.

We must also organise protests against the shocking cuts to services in the sixth-richest country in the world. We need to support every strike by workers as the cost of living continues to spiral, and we have to broaden the movement against the racist protests outside asylum hotels.

This won’t be easy, but the magnificent Palestine movement shows what can be done when hundreds of thousands of people are brought together in a concerted campaign. The emergence of the new party is a huge boost, and an opportunity to strengthen resistance on the ground. We need to ensure that it isn’t just a talking shop or an electoral machine but that it becomes a vehicle for the kind of mass working-class action that can break this government.

From this month’s Counterfire freesheet