TRADE UNIONISTS must wake up to Britain’s role in fuelling and profiting from war, delegates at Unison conference heard at a fringe meeting yesterday.

Addressing the meeting organised by the anti-imperialist campaign Liberation together with the Morning Star Sussex readers’ group, Liz Payne of the British Peace Assembly pointed out that “No to war, No to Nato” is the motto of the World Peace Council, recognising Nato as the military arm of imperialism.

Speakers exposed Britain’s complicity in wars abroad, including Sudan — with Sudanese anti-war activist Rashid Elsheikh noting that Britain has sold arms to both sides in the devastating civil war raging in that country — and Palestine, with Unison NEC member Micaela Tracey-Ramos condemning our government’s role in facilitating Israel’s invasion of Gaza in defiance of an overwhelming public consensus that arms sales should be stopped.

Brighton-based peace activist Molly Martin Eames updated the meeting on the Brighton & Hove Ceasefire Coalition and its work bringing together organisations to campaign for peace and disinvestment in Israel, including from the University of Sussex.