This Is Not A Change
As ever: Fuck Labour and all right-wing fascist corrupt politicians
As one of my friends said recently, any of us waiting for a breath of fresh air from Andy “Friend of Israel” Burnham are bound to be disappointed. His admission last week that Labour had “got things wrong” over Gaza were taken by some as being perhaps the first signs of contrition for having actively supported a genocide. But that’s not the case. It’s just spin.
If he was serious he would have said:
“My Labour government will immediately suspend the sale of all weapons components to Israel.”
“My Labour government will instruct the RAF to immediately cease all intelligence gathering flights on behalf of Israel from the Akrotiri base in Cyprus.”
“We will immediately ban the use of all UK airports and bases for all Gaza related military activity.”
“We will close down all the Israeli owned Elbit weapons factories in the UK.”
“We will expel the Israeli ambassador and actively pursue the ICC warrant for Netanyahu.”
“We will investigate & prosecute any UK citizen who has served with the IDF and plausibly committed war crimes.”
“We will immediately rescind the proscription of Palestine Action, release all detainees, and quash all convictions.”
“We will recognise the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry that Israel is committing genocide and commit to implementing the July 2024 ICJ ruling in full.”
“We will take all reasonable steps to prevent or mitigate the risk of genocide in Gaza, starting by imposing comprehensive sanctions on Israel.”
“We will ban all trade in goods and services with Israel’s illegal settlements, and all other trade that aids or assists Israel’s violations of international law.”
“We will reverse the authoritarian use of public order and anti-terror legislation to suppress protest in support of Palestinian rights.”
He will, of course, do none of these things. He felt pressured into a few mealy-mouthed words and vague soundings because he knows Labour have taken an electoral pounding over their slavish devotion to the Zionist death cult. This is arse-covering at a professional level.
As well as arresting people for opposing genocide, they are now even arresting people for reading out a poem that opposes genocide. Yes, to Labour, pacifists are terrorists (but terrorists are their friends).
And so far Burnham has announced he’ll allow British air bases to be used to bomb Iran. Really. He is going to get us involved in illegal US wars and terrorism. Burnham is a fuckwit.
And just as no substantial change over Gaza, no break with the racism and Reform-aping of Starmer’s Labour. Burnham voted in support of Shabana Mahmood’s racist Immigration and Asylum Act.
Ever more emboldened by the electoral surge and media normalisation of Reform, and in a chilling echo of Mussolini’s Blackshirts, masked and uniformed fascist thugs have been appearing on Scotland’s streets (an echo of their racism in England), intimidating and assaulting people of colour, Muslims, immigrants and asylum seekers. The huge Palestinian solidarity movement that has emerged over the last few years is their biggest and most feared target. In our thousands and our millions, we are all Palestinians.
(Much of this post based on my friend’s words, I can’t take the credit.)
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