LABOUR’S conference vote to recognise the genocide in Gaza and demand real action against the Israeli government committing that atrocity is a significant victory for the mass solidarity movement.

Without the pressure from the streets over the last two years, such a defeat for the Keir Starmer leadership at the hands of its own party could not have happened.

It is significant that the affiliated trade unions were central to the outcome. Even unions normally regarded as supportive of the government broke with Starmer on this issue.

That reflects the immense pressure from the membership to stand with the Palestinians. And unions, as democratic class organisations, cannot be as easily manipulated and browbeaten as other parts of the party.

Conference showed that Starmer’s belated recognition of a Palestinian state, welcome in itself, has not been enough to head off the rising tide of anger at Labour’s complicity in the genocide and the mounting demands for solidarity with the Palestinians.

Of course, the vote only aligns Labour with most of the world, which has long since called what is occurring in Gaza by its proper name — genocide.

But the demands contained in the resolution are now a manifesto for action which ministers cannot be allowed to ignore.

Totally suspend the arms trade and the Britain-Israel trade and partnership agreement. Ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Comprehensive sanctions on Israel, including a ban on all military co-operation. Ensure full access of aid into Gaza. Halt any individual or business in Britain aiding the genocide.

As Palestine Solidarity’s Ben Jamal said after the vote: “The movement in solidarity with Palestine is turning the tide.

“If the government tries to ignore this momentous vote, it would not only be in denial of the facts, against public opinion, increasingly globally isolated, but also at war with its own party.”

It is now urgent to build on this victory. An immediate priority must be mobilising for the national demonstration in London on October 11.

Trade unions — both those involved in this week’s advance and those not affiliated to Labour — need to mobilise their members as never before.

And local Labour parties need to show their support, breaking the grip of the authoritarianism of the Starmer apparatus to mobilise publicly behind what is now their own party policy.

The far-right Netanyahu government in Israel has responded according to type. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that “Labour stands with Hamas. It is a disgrace for Britain that this is the party in power.”

The problem for the Netanyahu gang is not simply that it is now the policy of the governing party to oppose its racist, aggressive, genocidal conduct. It is that this has been imposed on Labour by the opinions and actions of the great majority of the British people.

And it is part of a worldwide movement of solidarity with Palestine and revulsion at Israel that only grows with each passing week. On October 11, we must take the next step forward.

Cringing at Shabana Mahmood’s Farage tribute act

HERE are some phrases that Shabana Mahmood did not use in her first major address as Home Secretary, delivered to the Labour conference this week:

Civil liberties. Human rights. Democracy.

And this in the face of a greater far-right menace than Britain has ever seen before. Instead, her agenda was entirely defined by being tough on migrants, stopping boats and tackling crime.

She pledged to be a “tough Labour home secretary.” Far more tough — largely on the vulnerable — than Labour, or at least the party’s better traditions, on this showing.

The far right will not be beaten by this diluted Farageism.