Thousands March through Central London in Anger against Israeli Terror

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Thousands March through Central London in Anger against Israeli Terror

North East NHS Trusts Concede to the Demands of Medical Secretaries

LPF Meeting Opposes the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act

Vigil outside Parliament: Stop the Killing!

Well over 50,000 people marched through Central London on Saturday, April 13, to condemn the criminal massacre of Palestinians being carried out by Israeli forces in the occupied territories. The march, which was exceptional in its militancy and anger, was a sea of colour, with Palestinian flags streaming in the wind, as it forged its way through the streets from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square. Placards condemned the war criminal Ariel Sharon, as well as George W Bush and Tony Blair, and called for Israeli withdrawal and for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

At Trafalgar Square marchers filled every corner and blocked all the approach roads. From the base of Nelson’s Column crowded with people and awash with flags and banners every speaker was greeted with loud cheers, chanting of slogans and great clamour. An American flag was set on fire in the middle of the crowd to shouts of "Down, Down, USA!" and great acclaim.

A representative of the Muslim Association of Britain, which had called the march supported by the Stop the War Coalition, said that the march showed the government that this was not just a Palestinian, Arab or Muslim issue, but one which concerned all sections of the people. He said it was time the British government acted ethically, stopped its double standards and opposed the military actions of the Israeli government. He said the march sent a message to the Israeli government that its actions would not be tolerated.

A Muslim cleric then read verses from the Koran (Chapter 22, verses 39 and 40) which raised the issue of unjust attacks and favoured the oppressed as the inheritors of the earth.

Jeremy Corbyn MP congratulated the huge crowd on being present to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people. He said the root cause was a fundamental injustice done to the Palestinian people, stretching back over 50 years of insult and killing. He asked how George Bush could suggest President Arafat could bring peace when locked in a single room. He said the humiliation of the Palestinian leadership must stop at once and called for an end to arms supplies to Israel. He said that poverty and desperation themselves led to desperation. There could be no solution without economic and social justice. He said Britain bore particular responsibility, both historically and because of its relations with the USA. The message from the peace movement, he said, was break the link with Israel now! Demand withdrawal of Israeli forces! No more bloodshed! Sharon must bow to world opinion.

Former MP Tony Benn said that this was one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in Trafalgar Square. It represented the feelings of the overwhelming majority of the world’s population. The 1930s had seen great marches against fascism, later against Suez and apartheid. Today the issue was the right of the Palestinian people to their own state and an end to Israeli occupation, and George W Bush’s "crusade" against the Muslim world. He said Bush wanted peace in Palestine only to attack Iraq. The Peace Process was a fraud, as had been similar schemes concerning the Gulf War and Afghanistan. He said most empires fought wars for resources. Today’s was for oil, he said, and this was why Chavez had just been overthrown in Venezuela. This demonstration, he said, concerned the rights of the Palestinian people, the rights of the Muslim world. It concerned understanding between the great religions, the UN, peace and justice. He said the demonstrations would carry on until every Israeli soldier withdrew from Palestinian territory, until there was a return to international law.

A Palestinian speaker spoke of the hundreds of Palestinians slaughtered and the complicity of Western governments. He said the Palestinian people would win.

George Galloway MP said that George W Bush talked of "terrorists". But the Palestinian young men and women were freedom fighters. He called for victory to the Intafada. He said that the demonstration had already won a victory: No 10 had announced a freezing of arms to Israel. He spoke against the role played by Tony Blair, as well as that of the Arab regimes.

Glasgow MP Mohammad Sarwar expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and called for a free Palestine. He called on the British government to support the Palestinian people and oppose US support for the aggressor.

Lindsey German from Stop the War Coalition said September 11 was being used as an excuse to wage war on the Palestinians. She denounced the press for turning truth on its head by suggesting Blair was acting to restrain Bush. She denounced the false argument that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. She said Israel and the US possessed the weapons of mass destruction. She said it was a war on the poor. As broad as possible opposition must be built against any attack on Iraq.

Carol Regan of Palestine Solidarity Campaign said that the marchers joined millions around the world in condemning the atrocities of the Sharon government. She said the world was awaking up to the horrors of Palestine. In Britain there was a duty to build a mass solidarity campaign akin to the anti-apartheid movement. She said she was glad the government was stopping arms supplies to Israel, but it must break all ties. She said it was not an equal battle: the Palestinians had no tanks and helicopter gunships and had a right to defend themselves. She said right was with the occupied not the occupiers. The occupation must end. No Justice – No Peace!

A representative of the Arab Law Association said the march gave a clear message to the Palestinian people that we were behind them. Sharon should be brought to trial. The British government brought shame on a civilised nation. The time of the Arab regimes was coming.

A speaker from the Islamic Human Rights Commission, Mr Choudury, said it was wonderful so many were shoulder to shoulder against Israeli Zionism. Zionism, he said, was an evil ideology which breeds on blood. There would be no peace in Palestine while it held sway. He said one could not equate the occupied and the occupiers. He called for a boycott of Israeli and US goods.

A representative of the Muslim Council of Britain said the demonstration gave a clear message not just to the British and European governments but to the whole world. Full solidarity with the Palestinian masses! What was going on could only be described as genocide. He called for fairness from the media and action from the government.

Paul Mackney, General Secretary of NATFHE, the university and college lecturers’ union, expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people and said the world was with them. He said his National Executive had that day called on Blair to break ties with Israel.

Another speaker gave greetings to all the freedom fighters. He denounced Sharon for his crimes and Blair for his support for Bush.

A native of Hebron spoke of friends and family slaughtered. He said the oppressed would inherit the earth. He said we must not hate Jews, who had lived side by side with the Arabs for centuries. But Israel was an evil project.

A speaker from Al Aqsa expressed outrage at Blair and Bush supporting Sharon. He asked how a British government which was framing new regulations on citizenship could at the same time forget the rights of the Palestinians. Justice was being turned upside down. The government was aiding and abetting the Israeli war machine, supporting a state with apartheid principles. He called for the government to impose sanctions on Israel, for a boycott of Israeli goods, for pressure on Sharon to withdraw from the occupied territories.

A speaker from the Muslim Brotherhood said we must never stop affirming the Palestinian right of return to their homeland.

The speeches ended with a Muslim cleric blessing the just struggle of the participants and with a representative of the organisers, the Muslim Association of Britain, thanking the participants and saying that strength lay in such great numbers.

One hundred and fifty medical secretaries at Sunderland and seventy medical secretaries at South Tyneside accepted revised offers on Wednesday and Thursday respectively which conceded their demands on their pay claim.

The improved offers came after both Sunderland and South Tyneside secretaries had rejected previous offers and maintained their unity and their strike struggle. The strike at Sunderland had been going for six weeks and the strike in South Tyneside was in its second week. The offer gives the medical secretaries grade 3 plus 4 increments and maintains their proficiencies raising the basic salary grading from a maximum of around £12,000 per annum to around £15,000 per annum.

Liz Twist, head of health for UNISON in the North, said: "We are absolutely delighted that medical secretaries are at last being valued for the work that they do." Director of nursing at South Tyneside Health Care Trust was reported as saying: "We are delighted the matter has come to an amicable end and our offer has been agreed." The new offers are in line with those that had already been offered by Northumbria Health Care Trust and South Durham which averted strike action. Staff at Newcastle Hospitals Trust are to be balloted next week while negotiations are ongoing at North Durham Health Care NHS Trust and Gateshead Queen Elizabeth Hospitals.

Over recent months medical secretaries have refused to be passive in the face of the situation where incomes of many on the health care team have been de-valued by the government’s pay policy in the NHS over the last five years. This policy has been one of low pay offers for many in the health care team that have not kept pace with inflation. At the same time, the government has delayed by a number of years the promised review of the outdated national pay structure called "Agenda for Change". On the other hand, the struggle of medical secretaries has been characterised by them setting their own agenda on how their work should be valued, their high degree of unity and organisation and determination to get a just conclusion.

Commenting on the struggle, North East Workers and Politics said that for all health workers this whole anti-social direction in health and the attack on the living standards must be discussed and has to be profoundly understood. It has to be seen in the context of people organising to change the situation from one where the party system is marginalising them from taking the decisions on how their health service is run, funded and what health workers are paid, to one where they bring forward worker politicians from their own ranks on the basis that people must become the decision makers in society.

WDIE congratulates the medical secretaries on the successful outcome of their struggle, which has shown the power of their collective determination to take a stand for what is just and fight for their interests.

by WDIE reporter

The innovative London Political Forum (LPF) has three aims. To raise the level of political discussion in the capital, to strengthen the coherence of the forces in London determined to stop the "Third Way" programme being carried through, and to discuss how an alternative must be found so that the people can become the real decision makers in society.

The Forum’s norms safeguard the content of these aims and are equally pioneering. Speakers are required to explain their arguments and to refrain from agreeing or disagreeing with contributions, from lobbying and personal remarks about individuals or organisations. Invited speakers sometimes at first do not immediately appreciate the thinking underlying these norms. But it often begins to sink in that it is a refreshing antidote to the prevailing custom of "democracy" typified by Prime Ministers Questions, or the BBC’s Kilroy. Discarding the tendency for abuse, animosity and superficiality, the Forum allows serious issues thoroughgoing, scientific investigation, seeking truth from facts. Neither is the Political Forum the arena for general discussion on ideological issues – rather it is where the fighting forces can share experiences of their campaigns and unite in action to develop the alternative to outdated economics, politics and methods. Thus this type of discussion raises the level of political culture in opposition to the prevailing pressure in society to lower it, and hand over the prerogative to participate in politics to the so-called major parties. This is an assault on the rights of the people themselves to become the decision-makers in society. It is a process LPF is actively combating. It is charting new territory and helps to build the Workers’ Opposition. In this way the forces engaged in the growing opposition become more politicised, and emboldened to advance towards success. It is challenging but empowering.

The focus of the Forum’s meeting on Wednesday, March 22 – to elaborate a modern definition of rights – took as a starting point the opposition to the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act. The discussion carried on from last month’s meeting which had focused on the Act, and had decided that the deliberations on this occasion should centre on the issue of rights. Les Levidow from Campaign Against Criminalising Communities, Corinna Lotz (substituting for the editor of Common Cause), and Tee White, an activist from London region of RCPB(ML), all gave their views on the issue of rights. All speakers were united in characterising the legislation as dangerous and indicative of fascism and measures associated with police states.

Seeking an explanation for what the ATCSA seeks to do and ways in which it can be opposed Les Levidow traced the history of the way rights have been defined since the period of feudalism to current criminalisation of collective solidarity and resistance in contemporary campaigns against neo-liberal globalisation. Describing some of the harsh measures contained in the Act, Levidow suggested the legislation was intended to intimidate and harass people – seen in the detention without charge, trial or evidence of several people arrested and held in Belmarsh prison since December. Calling for immediate support and defence for such individuals Levidow said the state’s resort to repressive measure with impunity could be tempered by the strength of the campaign against it.

Corinna Lotz described the Charter for Democratic Rights, which, she said, gave concrete expression to the demand for an alternative. Highlighting the massive campaigns for the right to organise in unions, to strike, and to work she said the struggle against the ATCSA could act as a catalyst for a struggle for power in order to mobilise women, youth and workers as well the middle strata for an alternative to Tony Blair and New Labour. Collective dissent and political association were also rights to be defended in such a battle.

Tee White drew attention to the 2000 Human Rights Act and the weaknesses in that legislation, which revealed how rights were regarded more as privileges to be granted rather than recognition of citizens' claims on society, which a government is duty bound to guarantee and to safeguard. In the light of this, he said, it is important that the fight for a modern conception of rights must be taken to its logical conclusion.

Taking up the issues raised by the speakers, the discussion addressed the inalienable and inviolable nature of rights as being at the heart of the issue which also raised questions of how rights are perceived, what constitutes their demand in such a society, and their class character. That the question of rights can be a complicated question was also raised, being an issue with many facets. This also raised the question of what type of society exists as well as who decides on political issues in such a society. Looking deeper it was pointed out that the claims on the society of each individual and collective have to be resolved by identifying and realising what is currently absent. In this way political unity could be built, putting aside any ideological difference. Other issues raised addressed whether rights depend of the existence of a formal guarantee, that they are universal and unconditional and that an insurgent class establishes the constitutional legislation which guarantees its rights.

In view of the importance of the central issue of who decides? which presented itself forcefully as the discussion reached a critical point, it was proposed and after debate accepted that the next meeting of the LPF should be a special meeting with specific presentations on one of the premises which underlie the aims of the Forum: How the People Themselves Can Become the Decision Makers. All are encouraged to attend and to mobilise for this important meeting. Time and Venue: – Wednesday, 24 April, Essex Hall, 1-6 Essex St, London WC2R 3HY (off the Strand near Aldwych), 7.30pm sharp.

Amnesty International Vigil outside Parliament to coincide with MPs’ debate on Palestine

STOP THE KILLING!

BLACK FLAG HUMAN RIGHTS VIGIL

TUESDAY 16TH APRIL 5PM - 7PM

OPP ST STEPHENS GATE, HOUSE OF COMMONS, WESTMINSTER, LONDON SW1

"Jenin camp smells of death. Bodies are buried under the rubble of houses; others were crushed by tanks and others still lie in the streets." Resident of Jenin (12 April 2002)

On Tuesday, 16th April, Parliament will debate the current crisis in the Middle East. We call upon the British government to act immediately to stop the ongoing violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by Israel.

ISRAEL MUST STOP

¨ unlawful killings of Palestinians,
¨ the deliberate destruction of Palestinian homes,
¨ the arbitrary arrests of 1000's of Palestinians,
¨ torture and inhumane treatment of Palestinians,
¨ deliberate targeting and killing of doctors, health workers and patients,
¨ the denial of access to international humanitarian organisations and journalists.

THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT MUST

¨ immediately suspend all transfers of weapons used to commit human rights violations by the Israeli security forces,
¨ call for the immediate deployment of an international observer mission to Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Join the vigil, make your voices heard!

"The Palestinians must be hit and it must be painful. We must cause them losses, victims, so they feel the heavy price." Ariel Sharon, Israeli Prime Minister (5 March 2002)