Just as the Chilcot inquiry eventually exposed government failings over the Iraq war, a full independent investigation into British complicity in Israeli war crimes has become inevitable — despite official obstruction, writes JEREMY CORBYN MP
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Racist Rwanda plan and Sunak’s shock detention raids operation breach human rights and must be opposed
Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference in Downing Street, London, January 18, 2024
The Congolese independence leader’s uncompromising speech about 80 years of European colonial brutality and injustice went round the world in 1960, and within months, he had been executed by Belgian and CIA-backed forces, writes KEITH BARLOW
From nuclear bomb storage in the 1950s to surveillance flights over Gaza today, the Cyprus base has enabled seven decades of machinations so heinous that Starmer once blurted out ‘we can’t tell the world’ what goes on there, writes NUVPREET KALRA
While politicians condemned fascist bombing of Spanish civilians in 1937, they ignored identical RAF tactics across the colonies. Today’s aerial warfare continues this pattern of applying different moral standards based on geography and race, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Despite declining to show Kneecap’s set, the BBC broadcast Bob Vylan leading a ‘death to the IDF’ chant — and the resulting outrage has only amplified the very message the Establishment wanted silenced, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
Israel’s genocide in Palestine and wars against its neighbours would be impossible without constant Western support — so we must amplify the brave voices demanding a halt, argues DR RAMZY BAROUD
WE THE undersigned wholeheartedly oppose the so-called Safety of Rwanda Act and the inhumane way it is currently being implemented.
We object to people who are exercising their internationally recognised human right to seek asylum being detained for deportation to Rwanda without prior warning.
Simply declaring Rwanda safe does not make it safe. Britain is still currently granting refugee status to asylum-seekers from Rwanda.
The US State Department said regarding Rwanda that “significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government.”
The Rwanda policy is also costly and unworkable. There are only 300 places for asylum-seekers in Rwanda and costs more than £0.5 billion. The human cost is catastrophic and immeasurable.
We strongly oppose the inhumane Rwanda policy, which is cynically designed to stir up racism and division prior to the general election, to distract from the government’s appalling record on the cost of living and NHS.
Thousands of people seeking asylum have died crossing the Channel. These deaths can be avoided. The only solution to stopping people risking their lives crossing the Channel is the implementation of safe routes for asylum-seekers to Britain, like the Ukrainian refugee policy.
We pledge to campaign against the Rwanda Act and call on everyone who values human rights, a humane approach to asylum rights and opposes racism to join us on Saturday June 29 2024 in London to say “Stop Rwanda.”
Signed,
Steve Smith, Care4Calais CEO
Fran Heathcote, PCS general secretary
Gary Younge
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Diane Abbott MP
Kim Johnson MP
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
John McDonnell MP
Chris Stephens MP
Daniel Kebede, NEU general secretary
Sabby Dhalu & Weyman Bennett, Stand Up To Racism co conveners
Kudsia Batool, TUC head of equalities
Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary
Sarah Woolley, BFAWU general secretary
Mick Whelan, Aslef general secretary
Jo Bird, Usdaw equalities officer
Wilf Sullivan, Stand Up To Racism national officer
Mohammad Asif, Afghan Human Rights Foundation
Laura Cumming, Student Action for Refugees (STAR) campaigns & advocacy manager
Lindsey German, Stop the War Coalition
David Rosenberg, Jewish Socialists Group
Ben Sellers, People’s Assembly national secretary
Zita Holbourne, Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts (BARAC)
Mohammed Shafiq, PCS chair of black members committee and NEC
Ameen Hadu, Unison chair, North West TUC black workers committee
Jess Edwards, NEU NEC
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