ABOUT 400 activists rallied on Saturday at Glasgow’s La Pasionaria memorial in a united demand for “welfare not warfare.”

Stop the War Scotland had planned to gather for the event at the Buchanan steps in the city centre, often a focus for protest in the city. But after permission was refused by the authorities, the focus shifted to the Clyde, where dozens once boarded ships to join the international brigades in Spain.

An outspoken critic of the Labour government’s proposals to slash welfare spending, Labour MP for Alloa & Grangemouth Brian Leishman, told the rally: “We are at a crossroads. Do we want to live in a country that prioritises corporate profits and war or do we create the society people voted for last summer and desperately need?

“Austerity and tax cuts for the wealthiest are political choices,” Mr Leishman said, but “another way is possible. We must reject austerity and instead tax extreme wealth. That’s how we go about creating a more equal country that is caring, compassionate and looks after people in need.  

“The welfare cuts my party have put forward are not the true values of the Labour Party. That’s why I will never sign up to these awful welfare cuts. We will continue to fight.”

Stop the War deputy president Andrew Murray condemned Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government’s complicity in the Palestinian genocide and ratcheting up the confrontation over Ukraine, arguing these actions were “being paid for by renewed austerity, attacks on the living standards of the poor, and taking away the entitlements of the disabled.”

Closing his speech in the shadow of La Pasionaria, in a parting shot to those who favour war over welfare, he echoed her famous words: “They shall not pass.”