Peter Lazenby
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PRO-PALESTINIAN campaigners and trade unionists have joined forces to stage joint events marking May Day this weekend.
Trades union councils have worked with local Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) groups in towns and cities across Britain to stage joint marches and rallies.
In Leeds, the theme of today’s 134th May Day march and rally will be a call for peace in Gaza, where the Palestinian death toll is now more than 34,000.
Leeds TUC president Jane Aitchison said: “From the very first Saturday that the Palestine demonstrations were launched, Leeds TUC has been part of them.
“So when it came to the theme for our May Day march and rally, we could not think of a more important cause than the call for peace in Gaza.
“When we have seen aid workers, students, lecturers, health workers killed in this horrific war, we felt we must stand with them.
“Most of the big unions and the TUC have called for a ceasefire but politicians have not listened to us.
“If they do not listen to us we will make them listen through being on the streets and at the ballot box.”
PSC national chairwoman Louise Regan, who also sits on the national executive of the National Education Union, will be at the head of the march, which will assemble at Leeds Art Gallery at 11.30am.
Manchester is another city where Palestine support groups and trade unions have worked together.
John Nicholson of Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine said that Monday’s May Day march in Salford and Manchester would have a Palestine bloc among the trade union banners.
“Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine has organised 31 consecutive demonstrations through the streets of Salford and Manchester since October 8,” he said.
“We have been pleased to have trade union support and support from trades councils including Manchester, Salford, Wigan and Bolton.”
The march will assemble at noon outside the Working Class Movement Library in Salford.
The combined May Day and Palestine demonstrations come at the end of a tumultuous week in which students have set up protest camps at eight universities, including Leeds, Warwick, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to their institutions’ investment in firms linked to Israel and Israeli universities.
