Editorial from the Socialist issue 1366 (6 May 2026)
A brutal daylight knife attack on two Jewish men in Golders Green in north London on 29 April has raised fear for their safety among Jewish people living in Britain. The stabbings followed the horrific attack on a synagogue in Manchester last October and arson attacks on volunteer-run ambulances and other sites in London this year.
The attacker, who is reported to have a history of violence and allegedly also attempted to stab a Muslim man he knew in South London earlier in the day, has been arrested. The motivations of the attack are not clear, but the Met Police declared it a terrorist attack.
The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has raised the terrorism threat level to ‘severe’, the second highest level. There is unconfirmed speculation that the attacker could be in some way linked with the brutal Iranian regime. Many will presume that the attack is motivated by opposition to the actions of the Israeli regime in Gaza and the West Bank, where brutal slaughter and repression remain the order of the day.
The Socialist Party completely opposes terrorism. Violent attacks by individuals or small groups, including and especially those carried out indiscriminately on ordinary people, alienate the mass of ordinary people, and are used by the ruling class to justify further repression. They are the opposite of what is needed to bring an end to war and oppression, including national oppression — a united mass struggle against the capitalist system, led by the working class.
Opposition to the Gaza onslaught which has claimed over 75,000 lives is widespread among workers and young people around the world. The movement ebbs and flows but has, for example, found expression in general strike action in Italy last autumn. In the US, there has been an historic shift away from support for government aid to the Israeli regime. The anti-war mood is a factor in the dramatic collapse of support for capitalist establishment parties – and the political instability that brings. It will be a part of the picture when Labour suffers big losses in the elections on 7 May.
Capitalist politicians are cynically attempting to use this horrendous attack to undermine the anti-war movement. Opportunistically, Tory MPs, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, and Sir Keir Starmer raced to Golders Green to claim to support Jewish people living in Britain. But they and their system are the authors of division as well as of falling living standards and war. They have no solutions to any of the problems of society.
There has been an angry response to Starmer despite the government rushing out various announcements of measures like police funding. But they have no serious ideas about how to keep the Jewish community in the population safe in a world where capitalist politicians are daily ramping up tensions and divisions. From Trump to Farage to Starmer, they do this in the hope of building any base of support for themselves. But in defending profit-before-all-else free market capitalism over the needs of society, a stable base of support is a pipedream for all of them.
For example, social media has been identified by many as a source of antisemitic hate, with a tiny minority able to promote vile antisemitism, likewise misogyny, islamophobia, etc, online. But Starmer’s government has refused to take any decisive action to impose democratic public control on the social media billionaire owners.
Gaza protests
While seeking to defend capitalism, they also cannot stop the fall in living standards for the overwhelming majority of people and so they seek to cast blame elsewhere and sow division. After this stabbing incident, there has been a concerted attempt to lay the blame for antisemitic attacks on the mass demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza, with many commentators from the capitalist establishment again labelling them ‘hate marches’.
The BBC reported that the “government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall KC called this week for a ‘moratorium’ on pro-Palestinian marches claiming it was ‘impossible’ for them not to incubate antisemitism”. Asked if he wanted tougher policing of language used during marches, or if he wanted to stop some protests altogether, Starmer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
Across the country, there have been hundreds of Palestine marches since the Israeli regime unleashed its offensive in October 2023. Millions of people have probably participated over the last two and half years. Among them there are likely to have been a tiny minority who hold reactionary racist and antisemitic views, but the mass marches have included Jewish people, and have demanded a ceasefire, an end to bombing, and peace.
Capitalism fuels division
The root of racist division in society, including antisemitism, is not anti-war demonstrations but the system of capitalism which Badenoch, Farage and Starmer all defend. Antisemitism has its origins in the development of societies based on class division as propertied classes sought to defend their exploitative and unequal systems, and Jews were scapegoated at various times.
Capitalism means economic exploitation of the majority by a tiny minority, accompanied by the repression and division necessary to maintain such a system. Workers have a collective interest in ending capitalism. The working class has the potential power to do that, flowing from our class’s role in the production process, making and running everything that society needs. That shared collective experience also contributes to the potential to build solidarity and cut across the ideologies of capitalist division.
There has been a 2% increase in hate crimes recorded outside London in the year ending March 2025. “That includes a 19% increase in religious hate crimes targeted at Muslims (excluding the MPS), with a spike in these offences seen at the time of the Southport murders and subsequent disorder”.
In that period, the Labour government of Keir Starmer has been attempting to out-Farage Reform UK with attacks on migrants, attempting to scapegoat them for the problems of society.
However, polling published last December found that, despite the capitalist propaganda, only 36% thought that ‘being British’ meant being born in Britain, down from 74% in 2013. The biggest factor in these changes is that, in almost every part of the country, workers live, work and struggle alongside workers from different backgrounds.
How can we overcome divisions and come together amid fear and suspicion heightened by the recent attacks and build on the potential for solidarity? The trade unions are the biggest mass workers’ organisations in the country, organising workers from all backgrounds. In the strike wave of 2022-23, over a million workers took action together giving a glimpse of the potential to overcome division in our common interests. The pay rises they won from a Tory government claiming there was no money show how a mass movement can win for all sections of the working class.
Working-class people of all religions and none have the potential to cut across the divisions by organising collectively. The trade unions should now take the initiative with a call for a mass march uniting the struggles against racism, austerity and war as part of a sustained strategy on the theme: ‘No to austerity, make the rich pay! Workers’ unity not division – jobs, homes, and services for all, not racism!’ Added to that must be the defence of the right to protest. That would have an immense appeal and would help cut through the racist lies.
16 May demo
More immediately, there is a Palestine march called for 16 May to commemorate the Nakba, the annual day which remembers the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 when the state of Israel was formed. Far-right thug Tommy Robinson has provocatively called a Unite the Kingdom march and rally on that date too. The Golders Green events and establishment response will embolden the small minority of dangerous violent racists and antisemites who will be on that march making both Palestine marchers and Jewish workers and young people less safe.
Therefore, the appeal the Socialist Party has put out regarding the planning of the 16th is now even more necessary. “The trade union leaders, along with anti-racist, anti-war, Palestinian solidarity campaigns, need to say clearly now: we are all marching together to oppose racism, war and austerity: to oppose war on the Palestinians, to stand alongside Muslim and all other communities that feel vulnerable on that day, and to fight for a decent future for all of us – for jobs, homes and services.
“Socialist Party trade union members will be arguing that the trade unions should take a lead on ensuring that happens – and, crucially, organise defensive trade union stewarding.” It is a mistake to march towards the Robinson hate march without the necessary mass mobilisation and organisation and we appeal to the organisers to seek an alternative route given the lack of time to prepare. But a well-attended and well-stewarded march can be organised as a show of strength and preparation for building the united movement we need.
We also need debate in the anti-war movement about a socialist programme for peace in the Middle East and the rights of the Palestinians. The Socialist Party has marched in solidarity with the Palestinians since our inception, as have our forerunners. We campaign to bring the full strength of the trade unions with their six million members to the heart of the anti-war movement.
We also put forward socialist ideas on the thousands of leaflets we distribute on the Palestine marches. We call for “an independent, socialist Palestinian state, alongside a socialist Israel, with guaranteed democratic rights for all minorities, as part of the struggle for a socialist Middle East.” We have always fought against antisemitism, as well as against all forms of racism. Our opposition to the actions of the right-wing Israeli government is part of a programme that draws the conclusion that we can have no trust in capitalist politicians internationally.
For the working class to challenge the divisive capitalist establishment and the likes of Robinson, we also need a new mass workers’ party. That must be a place for discussion and debate among members fighting for common aims, working out the means to get there collectively. That means a socialist programme which aims for the power, wealth and resources of society to be in the hands of the working-class majority not the tiny billionaire capitalist class.
Trade unions taking steps to create such a party would massively build the confidence of workers to stand up against racist division and austerity and its capitalist authors – and offer a socialist alternative.