Video of Saturday's Gaza Protest in Exeter

Exeter's Palestine Solidarity Protest Is A Success

Following our two successful interventions on January 3^rd and 10^th, Exeter Socialist Party and Exeter Socialist Students joined probably the biggest protest Exeter city has seen in years, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Stop the War Coalition to condemn the slaughter in Gaza.

Estimates range from 700 to 1,000 demonstrators of various groups, from Christian Aid to Exeter’s very own masked anarchist bloc! Starting on Sidwell Street, the protest marched through Saturday’s busy high street and cathedral green, and concluded with a rally in Southern Hay Gardens. Socialist Party placards saturated the crowd, and CWI flags were held at the head of the procession.

While only 11 papers were sold at the event, we gained significant exposure and demonstrated effective organization, while providing a clear and relevant case for the socialist alternative to war, terror and exploitation. Many who signed our petitions also requested more information about the party. We hope to receive further contacts via our website. The demonstrations that have swept the country over the past weeks, even in regions as characteristically inactive as Exeter, are a sign of increasing awareness and of struggles to come. We are in no doubt that the spirit for change is growing.

Report by RE of Exeter Socialist Party

National Demonstration

Saturday 10 January

Stop the Massacre: Israel Out of Gaza

Assemble 12.30pm Speakers Corner, Hyde Park

March to Israeli Embassy, High St Kensington, London

Daily protests 5 - 9 January, 5.30pm-7.00 pm, Israeli Embassy, High St, Kensington, London

Exeter Gaza demonstration

There was a large turnout, in the centre of Exeter, to show soladarity with the people of Gaza. The demonstration was called by Exeter Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Exeter Stop The War Coalition.

Socialist Party members who took part handed out dozens of leaflets and collected £25 for the fighting fund. The presence of CWI flags was well recieved.

It was disappointing that a 'major party of the left' forgot to mention the role of imperialism in the atrocities taking place in the Middle East and by default the part that is to be played by Socialist ideas in it's solution.

Exeter Socialist Students intend to follow up the action by action in Exeter University where there is a large number of students from the Middle East.

Report by SB

Year of war and economic collapse ends in bloodshed

Stop the Slaughter in Gaza - Mass struggle is the only way out

Israel's government's rule has been a chain of scandals and failures. Now they are trying to save themselves from defeat in February's elections, by means of a wholesale slaughter of Palestinians in this long planned attack.

Bush, and Obama, have refused to force Israel to immediately halt the carnage. Bush used similar brutality in their occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. While Miliband makes feeble calls for a cease-fire, the White House has even blamed Hamas for the attacks and condemned the Hamas rocket fire into Israeli cities.

Abu Abas, Mubarak and the Arab league leaders condemn the massacre. But they were complicit in Israel's starving of the Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants by Israel's 16-month siege. These regimes willingly carry out the dictates of imperialism. Mubarak's authoritarian regime in Egypt collaborated in the imprisonment of the Palestinians by preventing free movement of goods and people on Egypt's border with Gaza. Mubarak even met Israel's foreign minister Livni on the day before Israel's attack.

Hamas' rocket fire cannot defeat the Israeli state's oppression of Palestinians. The Israeli ruling class do not care about the working class inhabitants of the towns bordering Gaza, but uses their plight to justify the war. The Israeli government does not defend the real interests of ordinary Israelis, rather it exploits their fears.

Every gain made in the history of Palestinian struggle has been the result of active mobilisation of the masses. Tragically for Palestinians neither Hamas, nor Fatah, nor the Arab regimes, have a strategy to defend the masses and stop the Israeli state's slaughter.

The Socialist Party and the Committee for a Workers' International calls:

· For an immediate end to Israeli attacks. For and immediate end to the siege.

· For escalation of demonstrations and protests against the war, in the Middle East and internationally.

· No trust in the world powers or the United Nations. Organize the masses in self-defense. Mass action by Palestinians and Egyptians to break the siege that imprisons Gaza and appeal for support from the working masses internationally, especially in the Middle East, including Israel.

· For united struggles by the workers and poor to overthrow all the capitalist regimes in the Arab states and in Israel. For worker's governments across the Middle East which can end the cycle of violence by resolving the contentious issues in the interests of working people and start to create a society run for the needs of ordinary people.

· For a Socialist Palestine and a Socialist Israel as part of a Socialist Federation of the Middle East.


---- DEMONSTRATIONS THIS SATURDAY (3rd January) ----

Exeter -

12noon in Bedford Square, Exeter High Street.

Organised by Exeter Stop the War.

London -

12.30pm in Embankment, Central London.


For more details please email us at socialistpartydevon@gmail.com

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22/05 Exeter branch meeting report

The meeting started off with a discussion of organisational issues. JT started off with a report back from the recent National Committee meeting (the Socialist Party elects a National Committee and an Executive Committee to run the party, debate and discuss on strategy etc., and put forward policies and plans to the yearly national congress which discusses and votes on them).

We then discussed ways to improve our internet presence, the fruits of which will be seen over time.

After then talking about fundraising ideas (details of some exciting competitions and events wil appear on this website soon) and the forthcoming National Youth and Student meeting, JL started the discussion on the Israel-Palestine question with a brief outline of the history of the conflict, starting from the dividing up of the old Ottoman Empire, a defeated ally of Germany in the First World War, between Britain and France. The strategies employed by British and French imperialism in the region led to division and ethnic tensions. The introduction and discussion covered issues such as imperialism, nationalism (for instance, why we support the right of democratic self-determination), and the reactionary, anti-working class ideologies of Zionism and Islamism which drive the Israeli state and the Hamas organisation respectively.

As usual there was an informative and comradely discussion of what is a sensitive and complex issue. All at the meeting agreed that the key to successfully analysing the situation is to look at it class terms - both Palestinian and Israeli workers are exploited and oppressed by Israeli imperialism, and Palestinians by their own ruling class, and both are increasingly hostile to those who rule them. There has been mass industrial action over welfare cuts, job cuts and non-payment of wages in both Israel and Palestine, and the key issue is uniting the struggling Israeli and Palestinian workers, and fighting for the establishment of a democratic, socialist, secular Palestinian state alongside a similar democratic socialist secular state of Israel as part of a socialist federation of the middle east.

For more information see the website of the Committee for a Workers' International, the international organisation the Socialist Party is affiliated to, and the website of our sister organisation in Israel, Ma`avak Sotsyalisti.

Next Exeter branch meeting - 22nd May - Israel/Palestine

Every fortnight, the Socialist Party holds a branch meeting in Exeter. All members and anyone interested in coming along are welcome. The meetings are informal but businesslike. We discuss events over the past few weeks and plan our activities, campaigns and interventions in the days, weeks and months ahead. We also hear reports on international news and industrial work.

One member will then introduce a discussion on a topic of interest - on the 22nd it will be Jim on Israel and Palestine. After this introduction we will debate and analyse the issues surrounding it. The purpose of this is to educate members and supporters about a wide range of important areas, improve confidence in speaking and debating in public and to deepen understanding of how we as socialists analyse the world. In the past discussions have ranged from the French Revolution to fascism, from nuclear power to the Labour Party, and so on.

We hope you can come along - Tuesday 22nd May 7.30pm Streatham Court E, University of Exeter. If you have any queries please leave a comment or email us at socialistpartydevon@gmail.com.