MORE than a thousand people rallied in Glasgow on Saturday despite the wind and snow to demand an end to war and an end to the slaughter in Palestine.

The national demonstration, organised by Stop the War Scotland and backed by the STUC and  Scottish CND, assembled by the McLennan Arch on Glasgow Green and marched through the city’s streets, growing as it went. 

In a concession to the weather, speeches were moved inside and marchers packed the hall to capacity in the city’s Renfield Centre to hear from trade unionists and peace campaigners but not from independent socialist MP Jeremy Corbyn, whose train journey to Glasgow had been delayed by the snow.

Addressing the rally, former Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said: “We march against the reactionaries, the illegal settlers, the occupiers, the misogynists, the militarists and the monopolists.

“Real security does not lie in war, real security does not lie in the proliferation of nuclear weapons, real security does not lie in rearmament: it lies in peace, it lies in non-proliferation and it lies in unilateral disarmament.”

Mr Leonard condemned Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s so-called “renewed aid” while Israel is banning the UN relief and works agency.

On Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, he declared: “If the international arrest warrant for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is — and I quote — ‘not a matter for the home secretary,’ then I don’t know what is.

“We are a signatory of the International Criminal Court, so of course it is a matter for the Home Secretary.

“This no time for abstention, for neutrality, or for silence.

“Let’s have less talk about de-escalation and pauses. The horror of the slaughter of innocents must end — and it must end now.”