From CPGB-ML
Communists arrested for telling the truth about zionism and imperialism. Free speech is dying in Britain today.
Four members of the CPGB-ML were arrested in London yesterday (see video above). They were manning a party stall at a demonstration in support of Palestine and against the genocide in Gaza.
They have been held in a south London police station since their arrest. While we are still not sure of the exact charge, video footage of their arrest makes it clear that the excuse used was ‘incitement to racial hatred’, based on the cover design of our party’s pamphlet on zionism.
The police have long been aware of this pamphlet, having taken copies of it from our stalls numerous times over the years. Therefore, the decision to move against us yesterday was a political and not a legal one.
So far, in all media coverage, the arrests have been referred to as on grounds of ‘inciting racial hatred’. The name of our party and the details of the pamphlet in question have been carefully ommitted from all reported details.
It is our belief that the arrest of our comrades, the 3.00am raids on their homes, and the confiscation of our literature is aimed at fueling the ruling class’s present narrative around the growing pro-Palestine and anti-zionism protest movement. They want to try to stop the anti-genocide movement in its tracks by scaring away ordinary workers on the basis that they are mixing with racists and promoting hate.
They want to keep the wider population from joining this growing movement against Israeli zionism by conflating it with racism.
What does our pamphlet say?
We are happy to defend both the contents and the cover of this pamphlet in court, since they reflect long-established truths about the origins, purpose and history of zionism. This is a history all workers need to understand if they are to make sense of the present genocidal Israeli regime.
Where does the ideology of zionism come from in the first place
Does zionism really represent jewish people? Does Israel?
How have the WW2 holocause of European jews and charges of ‘antisemitism’ been weaponised by western states, via their laws, politicians and media?
Why does zionism have the unequivocal and unconditional support of regimes in London, Washington, Berlin and Paris, despite its many and blatant crimes?
Why do Israelis consider themselves justified in setting up a racist, apartheid regime in which Palestinians are third-class citizens (at best), suspected, hounded and criminalised even if they do nothing at all?
Why has Israel been getting away with its steady ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since 1948?
Why is Israel so important to the western imperialist powers?
How is it possible that protesting against war crimes and genocide is now being labelled as ‘hate speech’?
These are questions that our pamphlet raises and answers. As our party has done in our work on Palestine consistently since our founding 20 years ago, and as our founding comrades have been doing since the 1960s.
We stand ready to defend our analysis, our organisation and the cause of Palestine, which is the cause of anti-imperialism and anti-racism. The cause of truth and justice. The cause of self-determination, national liberation, freedom and equality. The cause of all progressive humanity.
Meanwhile, every servant of the state who cooperates in the persecution of our comrades is guilty of collusion with Israeli war crimes. They should consider carefully their position on this, since the verdicts at Nuremberg after WW2 made it clear that ‘following orders’ is no defence.
We are asking as many people as possible to join us this afternoon for a protest outside Sutton police station, where our comrades are being held.
2.30pm at 6 Carshalton Rd, Sutton SM1 4RF
If you can’t join us in person, please circulate this information as widely as you can. If you are an independent journalist, please get in touch for an interview or use the above video on your channels.
If you can send us a brief solidarity message, please record it on video and send by email to info@cpgb-ml.org.
Our demands: Anti-zionism is not racism!!
- Drop all charges; we are doing nothing wrong!
- Defend free speech and stand up for the truth! Criticism of zionism is not antisemitic; zionism is a racist ideology, and, by claiming to speak for all jewish people, is itself antisemitic.
- Defend Palestine! Refuse to let the British government continue its drive to criminalise support for Palestine.
- Defend civil liberties and oppose collusion! By arresting our comrades, who are criticising zionism and British imperialist support for zionism, the Met police are making themselves an accessory to the war crimes currently being committed in Gaza.
- No cooperation with zionist war crimes and the Nato war machine!
These are the solidarity messages from the Platform and the League to the CPGB-ML
Support CPGB-ML comrades in their struggle for solidarity with Palestine!
Release unjustly arrested party members immediately!
The Palestinian people’s struggle to end the 75-year occupation is a struggle for justice, and it is the duty of all peace-loving, justice-defending people including communists to stand in solidarity with them.
To fulfill this mission of the times, CPGB-ML continues to struggle for justice to expose the genocidal nature of Israeli zionism and to defeat the imperialist war drive.
By responding to this struggle with illegal arrests, the British police authorities are proving themselves to be on the side of the genocidal forces and servants of imperialism. Moreover, British imperialism is responsible for the historical origins of the tragedy of the Palestinian people.
The pamphlet of the CPGB-ML comrades, which was labeled “racial hatred” by the British police, is a voice of justice that tells the truth about the history of Palestine’s genocide by Zionism and British imperialism and represents the demands of the Palestinian people and the will of the anti-imperialist forces.
World Anti-imperialist Platform supports the struggle of the Palestinian people!
World Anti-imperialist Platform strongly supports CPGB-ML’s struggle for solidarity with Palestine!
We strongly condemn the unlawful arrest of the CPGB-ML by the British police!
Immediately release the unjustly arrested CPGB-ML members!
Free Palestine! No cooperation with zionist war crimes!
November. 26, 2023
World Anti-imperialist Platform
