Members of Irish rap group Kneecap left court on 18 June to a large demonstration of supporters. Group member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh is charged with a terrorism offence after waving a Hezbollah flag at a gig in London in November last year.
By Jack Yarlett
Under anti-terrorism laws, it is a crime to express support for Hamas or Hezbollah. These charges are clearly politically motivated, designed to derail Kneecap’s increasing popularity and that of their political message. That much is clear from the fact that the charges were brought forward months after the flag-waving incident was public knowledge.
The government has also announced that direct action group Palestine Action will be banned as a terrorist organisation following a recent action where members of the group splashed red paint on a plane stationed at an RAF base. This follows counter-terrorism powers already being used to hold Palestine Action activists in prison, locked in their cells 23 hours a day in degrading conditions for over a year before even being brought to trial.
Across the board, there is unprecedented criminalisation and attacks on the Palestine solidarity movement. Students participating in encampments have faced expulsion, harassment, and arrest. One example is the University of Liverpool encampment, which was forced to end its occupation after being threatened with a possession order by the university, fighting the order in court would mean identifying the students involved and open them up to victimisation by the university. This is something which has already happened to students at SOAS University of London. At KCL a student was injured as the police made violent arrests of peaceful protestors.
All of this lays bare the absolute hypocrisy of the capitalist judicial system. While support for Palestine is criminalised and equated with support for terrorism and antisemitism, the ruling class are free to not only publicly support Israel as it enacts its genocidal war, but to actively aid and abet it by repeating Israeli propaganda and by supplying weapons and equipment. This authoritarian crackdown is not a show of strength, but a sign of weakness.
There is massive and growing opposition to British capitalism’s complicity in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and to a war against Iran. This has manifested in a huge and sustained protest movement, unprecedented unpopularity for the Starmer government, and the beginnings of a potential new left party. Without enough popular support to fall back on, Labour, like the Tories before them, are resorting to ever-harsher crackdowns on freedom of speech and protest.
Our movement must act in solidarity with Kneecap, Palestine Action activists, encampment protestors, and all others victimised for taking a stand against war and genocide. But we must also recognise how small groups can be isolated and vulnerable to repression. Nor do they have the power of the organised working class, which could prevent the shipment of all arms to Israel (see article above).
The unions should take the lead in organising a mass campaign of solidarity against all cases of repression against protestors, and to reverse the criminalisation of Palestine Action. We are strongest when we fight together as a class. Such a campaign could bring together struggles from Palestine solidarity to the Birmingham bin workers, as a step toward a force that can fight back effectively against war, racism, capitalism, and the repressive state that acts to protect it.
