Demonstrating in London on Saturday
As the United States and Israel continue to pound Iran with bombs and missiles, and the devastating attacks on Lebanon escalate, thousands of protesters rallied in central London on Saturday.
The demands were clear—end the war on Iran and Lebanon and stop allowing the US to use British bases for its imperialist tirades.
“They know this is illegal and a war crime. We need to remind them that we notice,” Ellen, an NHS worker, told Socialist Worker.
“Trump hasn’t thought it through, but for Israel this is just about land. It wants to destroy neighbouring countries’ economies and steal more land—that’s why they are going into Lebanon.”
“I have been coming to the Palestine demonstrations because this was always about the US, Britain—all of the West,” one protester who had travelled from Derbyshire told Socialist Worker.
“Britain is involved in Iran now and that’s shocking, it shouldn’t be allowing the US to do its war from here,” she said.
“It’s about Israel wanting more land in Lebanon, and the US wanting to basically take over Iran—that needs to be stopped.”
Tariq, a British-Palestinian student, said he didn’t want Britain to be involved “in another forever illegal war”.
“The US and Israel want to crush anyone who might be independent from them. It applies to Gaza, Lebanon and now Iran.
“They feel threatened—they don’t care about Iranian women or people. They care about imposing their hegemony on the Middle East.
“The likelihood now is that the US relents but Iran remains decimated.”
Protesters were thinking of how to step up resistance to the imperialist death machine. “The first step is to disentangle ourselves from the US imperialist world order,” Tariq argued. “We shouldn’t allow our bases to be used by the US.”
Ella said, “I stick my BDS—boycott, divestment, sanctions—stickers on Israeli goods in supermarkets. We have obligations to sanction those breaking international law.
“We need to keep protesting and aiming for things like divestment in pension funds. It is multiple acts of resistance so those in government don’t forget.”
As the march rallied at Whitehall, Abbas Edalat slammed Keir Starmer’s “fully complicit” military bases.
“This war of imperialism is an extension of the genocide against Palestine. The same playbook of war crimes and terrors has been used against Iranian people,” he added.
“This is not just about an attack on Iranian people, this is to destroy Iran as a civilisation. They have been attacking schools, apartment blocks, heritage sites and more.”
“Now is the time to step up our message of peace,” general secretary of the PCS union Fran Heathcote told the rally.
“We must say no to British bases being used by the US, and no the special relationship.”
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