by Morgan Tritton, Hertfordshire Socialist Students
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets of central London on 11 October, in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The voices of the Palestinian people, and their right to self-determination, are being silenced during the so-called peace talks that aim to enable warmongers, Donald Trump and Tony Blair, to profit from the devastating destruction of this genocide.
Keir Starmer and his Labour government are intensifying its discouragement of people protesting and organising. Labour’s attempts to brand anti-war protests as “un-British” are transparent.
People at the march recognised that the right to protest has never been handed down by the capitalist class or their big business politicians. Workers and students themselves have always fought for this right.
Many young people, attending a protest for the first time, joined our Socialist Students contingent after hearing our speeches at the protest. Many people voiced anger at the betrayal by the UK government, complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and condemned the growing attempts to criminalise the anti-war movement.
Restraints on political activity are a major concern on campuses today. Both Starmer and university vice chancellors fear a united student movement, especially one that fights for socialist change alongside workers. In response, they have increased surveillance and restricted organising, aiming to weaken student politics, and intimidate young people into silence.
At the University of Hertfordshire, students are currently unable to hold campaign stalls or demonstrations on campus, due to university security. But these limitations have only fuelled Herts students’ determination to protest, with several students attending the march on 11 October.
From the youth walkouts against Trump, organised by Socialist Students in September, to the recent March for Palestine, student and worker action is shamefully labelled as ‘poorly timed’ by those in power, determined to divide us. Starmer and other politicians defending capitalist class interests fear mass mobilisation of us.
Starmer’s two-year-long backing of the Israeli state’s war on Gaza has, together with continued austerity, destroyed any remaining trust young people once had in Labour. Young people therefore need, and will fight for, a new mass workers’ party that truly represents students and workers. We should be at the forefront, alongside trade unions, in shaping this new socialist alternative.