Trump attacks Iran - London protest: We need workers' action against war and austerity

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Nancy Taaffe, Waltham Forest Socialist Party

Socialist Party members responded to the call to oppose Trump's drone strike on Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and the ratcheting up to war on Saturday 4 January.

The protest outside Downing Street, called at 24 hours' notice, rallied a crowd of several hundred. A number of young people - many have only known a cycle of war, terror and austerity - were prompted to participate. Socialist Party members gave our new year statement out.

Even though the rally was small, there was a willingness to discuss. I spoke to someone in Momentum who wanted to talk through what happened at the election.

Protesters took our "youth against war" and "workers' unity against war and austerity" placards, and 33 bought a copy of the Socialist. 12 people signed up to find out more about the Socialist Party.

Speakers included left Labour MPs John McDonnell and Richard Burgon. Steve Hedley, assistant general secretary of transport union RMT, spoke of the need to link the trade union struggle against the Tories with the anti-war struggle, and those fighting the theocratic caste inside Iran to those fighting Trump in the US and Johnson here.

Johnson didn't know about our protest, because unlike most of us he wasn't back at work. He was too busy hiding away, sunning himself on a Caribbean island.

He may have hidden his true politics from workers during the election. He may have hidden in a fridge to avoiding being questioned. But the capitalist crisis and the chaos it creates means Johnson and his kind can't hide forever.

The Socialist Party says:

No to war in the Middle East
For workers' action against war and austerity
For an urgent meeting of the trade unions and all the anti-austerity forces to fight the Tories
Kick the Blairites and warmongers out of Corbyn's Labour
Withdraw all foreign forces from the Middle East
Support the building of non-sectarian workers' struggles in Iran, Iraq and across the region
Fight for governments that represent the workers and the poor
For a socialist alternative to war and capitalism

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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

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When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.

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