We need a united movement that opposes Starmer's militarism and austerity

Today, Friday 16 May, so far over 100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. The total confirmed killed since the genocide began in October 2023

Today, Friday 16 May, so far over 100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. The total confirmed killed since the genocide began in October 2023 now stands at over 53,000. The scale of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza is entirely documented and the highest courts in the world have deemed it plausible genocide and issued an arrest warrant for its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the words of its own prime minister and government officials, the stated aim of Israel’s brutal and escalating assault is to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from Gaza entirely. It’s why the IDF continues to deliberately bomb hospitals, schools and tented refugee camps and,for the last two months, has refused to let any humanitarian aid into Gaza at all, causing mass starvation among the Palestinian population.

This week, challenged in the High Court for continuing to maintain the supply of parts for F-35 fighter jets that Israel is using to carry out its deadly airstrikes in Gaza, lawyers on behalf of the government argued that maintaining the supply of F-35 fighter jets was more important than preventing genocide.

A recent report by the Palestinian Youth Movement exposed the fact that the Labour government has lied about suspending arms exports that could be used for offensive purposes in Gaza (apart from the F-35 parts of course). It also revealed that Labour has licenced more military equipment to Israel in October – December 2024, than the Tories did in 2020 – 2023 combined. In the last year alone, Britain has flown over 600 surveillance and reconnaissance flights over Gaza providing information to the Israeli military that is likely used in the targeting of Palestinian civilians.

There can be no doubt that Keir Starmer and David Lammy are active participants in Israel’s genocide. But what should also be made clear is that it is ordinary British people that are paying the price for this deadly foreign policy.

The cost of those surveillance flights runs in the tens of millions. The F-35 spare part supply chain that the government believes is sacred is produced by BAE Systems which is contracted by the British government with public money. Last year, BAE Systems made £3bn in profit, and it’s CEO Charles Woodburn boasted that they were “well positioned to capture additional defence spending”. No surprises then when Keir Starmer announced an additional £13bn in defence spending in February, the company’s stock jumped 4.4%.

The increase of £13bn in defence spending, to 2.7% of GDP and plans to raise it to 3%, is being directly funded by cuts to the foreign aid budget and Personal Independence Payments for disabled people. This extra money is readily available to fund weapons of mass destruction but couldn’t avoid the cuts to winter fuel allowance for the elderly, scrap the two-child benefit cap that has pushed 1 in 3 children into poverty, or fund our NHS and education sector which are crumbling.

How else can this be seen except a robbery of working-class people and our vital public services in order to line the pockets of arms dealers responsible for facilitating genocide? This is Starmer’s war abroad funded by war on working people at home. They are two sides of the same coin.

We need a united movement against Starmer’s militarism and austerity. It’s why one of the main slogans of The People’s Assembly’s national demonstration on 7 June is ‘Welfare not Warfare’. The fight to stop the cuts, to fund our public services, to tax the rich are part and parcel of opposing spending public money on sending weapons to Israel.

On 7 June, we need a sea of Palestinian flags in the midst of trade unionists and striking workers, disabled people and housing activists, climate campaigners and ordinary people from all walks of life, marching through London and taking the fight straight to Keir Starmer. We will demand an