🧵 I realise that many people get frustrated talking about past events (‘old history’), especially when we are supposed to be ‘moving on’. The past is the past, right? Why stir things up?

But I’m afraid that isn’t the way it works. 1/ Because sometimes the events that happen and political decisions that are made are important, not just because of the circumstances at the time & the outcome of those events, but because of the lessons we learn from them about the way we do our politics. 2/

For anyone still parroting the ‘both sides’ nonsense, don’t take our word for it. Pick up any neutral, straightforward, factual book on the Israeli-Palestine conflict and read about 77 years of occupation, oppression, violence, bombing, forced removal, displacement … (1/5) … apartheid, village demolitions, daily military harassment, erection of walls, illegal settlements, extra judicial killings, ethnic cleansing, mass imprisonment, endless war crimes, economic blockade, UN resolutions ignored, peace treaties ripped up. (2/5)

A couple of summers ago, I spent a few weeks researching the formation of parties of the left, mostly in Europe but also from around the world. (1/8) Almost all were born as coalitions (a combination of groups leaving the main social democratic party & independent socialists, left greens & factions / smaller parties). None of it was easy. The negotiations were torturous, the fallings out were numerous & splits common. (2/8)

Starmer’s statement, talking about “appalling scenes” and a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, apart from being the height of hypocrisy, is depressingly emblematic of a wider body of opinion amongst our political class. 1/7 It is an attitude that refuses to acknowledge the UK’s direct complicity in the creation of these “appalling scenes” - a narrative which talks about the medical needs of children as if it was a natural disaster. But it’s also in denial of history. 2/7

Of course @Keir_Starmer & all the people around him understand that the way people experience racism is different. They may play dumb, but this isn’t about that. (1/5) It’s actually about the maintenance of a hierarchy of racism which has been so central to the Starmer project. Antisemitism is not just at the top of the tree, but the only one that is allowed to be discussed with any seriousness by the political and media class. (2/5)

One of the very predictable outcomes of Labour’s proscription of Palestine Action & the abuse of anti-terrorist legislation was that the police would fail to grasp the difference between, say, holding a Palestine flag, or signs saying “Israel is committing genocide” … 1/8 … and supporting a proscribed organisation. This is exactly what’s happened in Kent, with one officer telling Laura Murton:

“Mentioning freedom of Gaza, Israel, genocide, all come under proscribed groups, which are terror groups that have been dictated by the government.” 2/8

It’s quite likely that Parliament has just voted for something illegal, something that will be challenged & overturned in court. Even if it’s not, the proscription of Palestine Action is one of the most flagrant abuses of anti-terrorism law possible & morally repugnant. (1/6) Only 26 MPs voted against the proscription, while many considered to be on the ‘left’ voted for the proscription (including Momentum-supported pair Navendu Mishra & Chris Webb). Many others abstained. (2/6)

🧵 The amount of pressure / leverage that can be applied to the Parliamentary Labour Party is limited. In the past I’ve absolutely advocated for this strategy & I can understand why people think it might work again, but we have to understand the recent history of the party. 1/14 We aren’t dealing with Ed Miliband’s Labour here. It has changed beyond recognition, exactly because the people who’ve now got a vice-like grip over it, were determined that they would never lose control again after getting the fright of their lives between 2015 & 2017. 2/14

🧵 The latest local elections are a perfect example of why it’s naive to say that local politics has nothing to do with national issues. (1/18) Of course, the duties you’ll be carrying out will be at a local level, and you’ll be responsible for local services & the interests of your community but whether people like it or not, if you are representing a national political party, that is something you cannot avoid. (2/18)

I see a lot of people celebrating the passing of the Employment Rights Act yesterday. I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but there are some things that need to be known - and you won’t get it from the media … /1 … who are either hostile to the whole idea of workers rights (the rightwing press), or uncritical and uninterested in the detail (the liberal press). 2/

🧵You don’t miss it until it’s gone.

I know there are different views on Zelensky & Ukraine, but I think there is something deeper going on, which you can’t help notice if you look beyond the latest social media headlines. (1/11) I think, in truth, we’re seeing the consequences of the abandonment of the peace / anti-war movement by large chunks of the left. (2/11)

🧵 I’m watching a human sea of people heading back to a bombed out Northern Gaza (the UN say 66% of buildings have been damaged, but the reality is that they are returning to a flattened landscape & there is nothing really left). (1/13) I’m thinking about the bodies still to be discovered under the rubble. And yet, I’m listening to interviews with tearful, optimistic, resolute voices talking about return & rebuilding. (2/13)

🧵 As Palestinians are still being murdered with impunity, just days before a ceasefire is supposed to come into effect, we’d do well to reflect on what has made their lives so dispensable, as compared to others.

What was the source of that dehumanisation? (1/10)


I think one very important factor, which is hardly talked about at all is the so-called War on Terror. For long periods since 9-11, western populations have been fed the narrative that whole populations are complicit in Islamist terror. (2/10)

🧵 As socialists, it’s not just about wages, funding, resources. We want all this, but we also have to look deeper at the root causes of how services have been deprived of that funding & people have become materially less well off by flatlining pay & worsening conditions. 1/7 The root causes, in this neo-liberal, capitalist system, lie in the pursuit of profit in every walk of life. The marketisation of our schools, health care, arts, culture, community resources, public land, local council services is the issue. 2/7

So, @BBCNews. This isn’t the story & you would know it if you did any actual journalism at all. This is the story:

Maccabi Tel Aviv are notorious for having a far right / fascist fan base, extreme even in Israel. (1/4) Inspired by the IDFs genocide, they have been touring Europe (yes, despite not being in Europe, they get to be in the Champions League!) causing mayhem, chanting anti-Arab songs & attacking ethnic minorities in cities around Europe. (2/4)

🧵From October 7th 2023, Israel has been telling the world that the only possible reaction to the carnage of that day was vengeance, collective punishment, civilian bodies upon bodies. Of course, it’s not true. There were a hundred other courses that could have been taken. (1/8) 41,870 Palestinians killed in 365 days (one in 55 of the population of Gaza). 16, 756 of them children. 11,346 of them women. And that doesn’t include the missing, the buried & those killed in the West Bank. A collective punishment beyond comprehension. (2/8)

🧵 For me, the biggest lesson that there is for the left coming out of the Corbyn years is the inability to defend our own activists & the movement. Not enough care or thought has ever been given to this, but it was the cancer at the heart of our project. (1/7) It started almost as soon as @jeremycorbyn won the leadership in Sept 2015 & the development of Momentum. Those who felt that they should control the politics decided there were people who were expendable. Key activists were manoeuvred against & others thrown under the bus. (2/7)

🧵 My objection to @keir_starmer getting any applause is endless, but let’s just talk about today: once again, he used the whip to openly bully MPs. Not to hold them to collective responsibility as Shadow Cabinet members, note, but as *backbenchers*. This is unprecedented. (1/4) Starmer & his team are using the Parliamentary whip in a way that it hasn’t been before - even under Blair. Parliamentary democracy is hardly perfect but one of the things that is sacrosanct is that backbench MPs should be able to vote as their conscience dictates. (2/4)

🧵 Just to recap, because events move so fast, it’s hard to make sense of them: firstly, a group of far right politicians, social media ‘names’ & organised fascists jumped on a tragedy to claim that the person responsible for the carnage in Southport was a Muslim / refugee. 1/13 The exploitation of the tragedy by the right began the moment people like Farage, Grimes & Robinson started to ‘cast doubt’, talking about a cover up & how the country had had enough. The logic being, if it was a Muslim, that crime would justify the tarring of all Muslims. 2/13

🧵 Clearly, one of the reasons there is such a vicious backlash against Muslims in Britain right now is the fact that they have been more visibly active in politics over the last year or two, especially within the protest movement over the genocide in #Gaza. (1/10) This, after a long period of being ignored & excluded from any voice in British politics. The reasons for that marginalisation are complex but real. They include the stigmatisation of Muslims, but also the wider British Asian population, over the ‘war on terror’ & Prevent. (2/10)

🧵 I don’t think many of the media or people on platforms like this understand quite what @Keir_Starmer has done. Parliamentary democracy is designed to have a number of safeguards to stop party leaders behaving as despots: one of those is limits of the use of the whip. (1/9) Of course, Parliament is not perfect & in some ways very undemocratic in the way it works, but there are some elements that are important in terms of preserving the independence of constituency MPs, who are not just a tool of a party leadership. (2/9)