Thousands of people marched in the center of London on Saturday to demand an end to bombings in Iran.
After assembling near Parliament at Westminster, the demonstration moved south, crossed the Thames via Vauxhall Bridge, and ended with a gathering in front of the US embassy.
The march was organized by the main groups of the “Palestinian Coalition,” which has been leading mass protests in the capital for two and a half years against the massacres carried out by Israel in Gaza. Among these groups are the “Stop the War Coalition” (STWC), the Campaign for Solidarity with Palestine (PSC), and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).
The Palestinian Coalition, primarily STWC and PSC, has led this movement into a dead end, focusing its energy on futile demands for Starmer, the main warmonger and apologist for genocide, to adopt a policy of peace. This sterile perspective – demanding pressure on the political leader of an NATO power (the UK and Starmer) to change its foreign policy and pressure a third power (the US and Trump) – once again formed the main demand from the platform.
In a message read from the platform, former leader of the Labour Party and current president of Your Party, Jeremy Corbyn, declared: “We stand united today to state loudly and clearly: do not bring Britain into another illegal war. Let us follow the example of Spain, whose Prime Minister [Pedro Sánchez] clearly indicated that we would not in any way participate in this illegal war. The UK has for too long blindly followed the US in their catastrophic interventions around the world. We are here to defend another vision: a foreign policy based on cooperation, equality, and sovereignty.”
Corbyn, who is one of the vice presidents of STWC, was unable to attend the gathering, stating that he was in Amsterdam with the Hague Group, a historic meeting of 40 states seeking to hold Israel accountable for its genocide in Gaza. The coalition was convened last January by the Progressive International, largely led by the former Finance Minister of Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left), Yanis Varoufakis, best known for his betrayal of the Greek working class.
The Hague Group initially had nine members: Belize (which withdrew), Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa. Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, another prominent figure of Your party, are both members of the Progressive International Council. The elevation of leaders of a coalition of capitalist states is a perspective that seeks to pressure the current political power. It is a dangerous trap that the working class must reject.
Speaking on behalf of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Sophie Bolt suggested that the mass demonstration’s pressure regarding Gaza had already influenced Starmer’s policy: “Initially, regarding the UK, Starmer stood up to Trump, didn’t he? He resisted and declared: ‘No, we will not let the British army engage in an illegal war.’ That was a good thing. Why did he act like that? Thanks to us. Thanks to the pressure we exerted on this government. The pressure of the Palestinian movement. The massive opposition to Trump and his wars. But now, of course, he has given in. Shame on Starmer!”
As usual, the same call was made by Bolt, declaring: “We must keep the pressure on this government.”
Another figure to be pressured was the Foreign Minister, David Lammy, who had played a key role in Starmer’s support for Israel’s genocidal war crimes. Bolt declared: “Trump now claims he will choose the next Iranian leader himself. Isn’t it good that David Lammy reacted by saying that it was up to the Iranian people to decide. Indeed, it is up to the Iranian people to decide. But why did he not condemn the atrocious murder of Iranian schoolchildren? Why did he not condemn the assassination of the Iranian supreme leader?”
Kevin Courtney, former co-leader of the National Education Union, spoke on behalf of the Campaign for Solidarity with Cuba. He emphasized: “We are right to demand that our government take action […] Speak to your MP, speak to your councilor […] And tell them that you will not vote for them if they do not support you.”
Speaking on behalf of the Stop the War Coalition, Lindsey German, a leader of the pseudo-left Counterfire movement, stated that “the message of this gathering to Keir Starmer today should be very, very clear: stop appeasing Donald Trump all the way to World War III.”
German said about the attack on Iran: “This war crime follows another war crime of equally colossal proportions: the genocide perpetrated for two and a half years against the people of Gaza. If this genocide had been stopped, we would not be witnessing this attack on Iran today.”
The main reason the genocide continues unabated is that the mass opposition has been mobilized through this perspective of pressuring the fully complicit warmongering governments, as advocated by the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) and its pseudo-left international counterparts.
Insisting that mass anti-war sentiment should advocate for a change in the foreign policy of capitalist states has been a focus of STWC since its founding. In 2003, as the invasion of Iraq loomed, representatives of the Stop the War coalition adopted the slogan “Vive la France!” – because Paris had stated at the time that it would veto a UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force – urging Tony Blair’s Labour government to abandon its alliance with Washington.
German’s final message to “Starmer and Trump” was that “regime change must start at home.” This meant that “Keir Starmer should leave Downing Street” but only if he continued “to lead us into these wars.”
A shocking rewrite of Starmer’s Iran policy. His policy has never been not to support Trump in his bombing and regime change operation. It was just about finding the best way for Britain to fully participate under the guise of “legality.” Leaks published last week in The Spectator – and reported by the WSWS – made this clear: British officials had been informed 17 days in advance of the planned offensive and were in intense discussions with Washington on how the Labour government could assist.
At the London demonstration, the Socialist Equality Party distributed thousands of copies of the statement: “Stop the Criminal American-Israeli War against Iran!” It explained that a “successful struggle against the criminal war waged against Iran” could not “be conducted well by appealing to any part of the political establishment.” It required “the independent political mobilization of the working class.”
“The International Committee of the Fourth International has determined that the construction of a real anti-war movement must be based on four essential principles:
First, the struggle against war must be based on the working class, the great revolutionary force in society, uniting behind it all progressive elements of the population. Second, the new anti-war movement must be anticapitalist and socialist, because there can be no serious struggle against war without a fight to end the dictatorship of finance capital and the economic system that is the fundamental cause of militarism and war. Third, the new anti-war movement must be completely and unambiguously independent of all parties and political organizations of the capitalist class, and be hostile to them. Fourth, the new anti-war movement must, above all, be international and mobilize the immense power of the working class in a unified global struggle against imperialism.”
The article was originally published in English on March 9, 2026.
