cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/45812221
11 April 2026
Over 200 people have been arrested central London on Saturday at a mass demonstration opposing the UK government’s proscription of the direct action group Palestine Action.
Some 500 protesters set up camping chairs at the foot of the steps of Trafalgar Square, displaying handmade cardboard signs reading: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
The demonstrators were met with a heavy police presence, with vans lining the square hours before the vigil began.
What would they do if like a million protestors showed up? Would they concede at that point?
Likely yes because that would be akin to a small general strike. And if it’s a real general strike, they woud def concede as the ruling class is gonna lose serious money, and they would push politicians whose campaigns they fund to concede. Working people have one real leverage to use against their ruling class - labour power - the ability to stop creating wealth for the ruling class. I think pretty much all other leverage we have derive from that. Protest, even the right to vote.
General strikes often lead to the military being deployed against the citizens. So it’s not a sure thing that they’ll concede, at least not immediately. I do, however, agree that a general strike’s the appropriate tactic. Just don’t be surprised if it’s met with state violence.
Response to military deployment: “Fine, we’ll go home. But we still aren’t going to work. Also, we are going to stop reproducing and will watch the demographics collapse.”
Would they concede? From one million person protest? No… But make it a repeat thing and maybe.
This authoritarianism from Starmer is a sign of his weakness. So a bigger protest might scare him even more.
He’s unfit to lead, and is a backstabbing snake pretending that he wasn’t part of the Labour coup engineered by Mandelson and McSweeney that made him party leader. I’m reasonably sure that Yvette Cooper was also in on it.