Britain: communists kick Rees-Mogg off campus – fight imperialism! Join the RCP!

On Friday, communists kicked Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg off of Cardiff University campus. Establishment politicians and the media have responded with a frenzy of condemnation. We will continue stepping up the struggle to bring down our imperialist ruling class!

[Originally published at communist.red]

The Cardiff Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) organised and led a rally of students and workers against Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was invited to speak at Cardiff University Conservative Society last Friday.

For three hours a crowd of protestors peacefully surrounded the building where Rees-Mogg was speaking.

Our comrades led chants of revolutionary slogans, and gave speeches attacking Rees-Mogg as a vile representative of British imperialism, and an active supporter of the genocide being carried out against the Palestinian people.

When Rees-Mogg finally exited, surrounded by six heavy-set security guards, there was a spontaneous rush on Mogg’s getaway car, and a number of protestors were manhandled and dragged away.

A video of this incident went viral, propelling the protest to national headlines, and resulting in an interview on LBC with Fiona Lali, campaigns organiser for the RCP.

Media frenzy

The media frenzy that ensued has been nothing short of hysterical, not to mention extremely hypocritical.

‘Pro-Gaza students harass Jacob Rees-Mogg hurling vicious foul-mouthed abuse’ read one headline from the right-wing Daily Mail. And from our friends at The ‘Torygraph’: ‘Jacob Rees-Mogg chased off campus by crowd of hard-Left demonstrators’.

Where is the uproar from these same bosses’ rags over Israel’s massacre in Gaza? Where is the outrage over our right to free speech and assembly being clamped down upon by the establishment?

There’s not a peep from these ladies and gentlemen when our comrades are arrested and harassed by the police for standing with the Palestinian people, nor when protestors in the United States are brutalised on campuses.

But when members of parliament are inconvenienced by the rightful disgust at their actions; when ordinary people get organised to express their rage – suddenly our precious ‘democracy’ is under attack from the far-left mob!

They accuse us of hounding, intimidating, and curtailing Rees-Mogg’s right to speech – give us a break!

Rees-Mogg can easily access the BBC and the mainstream papers to spew his right-wing rubbish / Image: fair use

Rees-Mogg can easily access the BBC and the mainstream papers to spew his right-wing rubbish, as well as having a regular spot on GB News.

The idea that his right to express his views is under threat by protests is laughable. It is our democratic rights – the rights of ordinary workers and young people – that are being trampled upon.

This episode has once again revealed the role of the gutter mainstream press: it is nothing more than a mouthpiece of the ruling class.

Establishment closes rank

The establishment parties have also closed rank to denounce our actions.

Richard Holden, the chairman of the Conservative Party, complained that “no elected politician should have to put up with this shrill intimidatory idiocy.”

Labour shadow minister Jo Stevens also chimed in to express her ‘concerns’: “we cannot accept a culture of intimidation in our politics… The right to lawful protest is sacrosanct, but harassment and intimidation is unacceptable.”

We expect criticism from the chairman of the Tory Party, who are openly complicit in Israel’s war crimes.

But how disgusting is this haughty scolding from the so-called ‘Labour’ leadership, who run to defend Rees-Mogg, and to attack ordinary workers and students.

A ‘Labour’ party worth its salt would stand on the side of the oppressed, and against the oppressor. But Labour didn’t lift a finger to oppose this visit. In fact, the Cardiff University Labour Society also condemned the protest!

The reason for this is plain and simple: Starmer’s Labour also has blood on its hands. Hiding behind empty ‘humanitarian’ phrases, these Red Tories have supported Netanyahu’s war every step of the way. They are no different from their colleagues across the aisle.

Step up the struggle!

We will not be cowed by this circus of condemnation. To be attacked by our class enemies shows that we are doing something right! We will wear it as a badge of honour.

We are proud to have led a demonstration against this Tory warmonger. We have every right to protest in this way over the bloody onslaught in Gaza.

We will continue our protests, and we will step up our struggle against our ruling class.

This weekend, we are holding the founding congress of the Revolutionary Communist Party, where we will discuss our plans to organise a force that can bring down British imperialism and the Zionist occupation.

We will take a leaf out of the mass protests in the United States and we will mobilise for such a movement here, putting forward a communist programme.

While Starmer’s Labour sides with the Tories, we, the revolutionary communists, stand with the working class and the Palestinian people.

So If you stand on the side of the oppressed and exploited, and you agree that we need to overthrow this barbaric capitalist system once and for all, join the RCP today!

Mass student protests are kicking off across the world, taking inspiration from students at Columbia and Yale in the United States. A mood of righteous anger and hatred of western imperialism and its crimes is bubbling just beneath the surface. 

Revolutionary communists all over the world are fighting to give this an organised expression. With organisation the working class is everything, without it it is nothing. Our slogan is: not a cent, not a bullet for the Israeli war machine.

From academics in institutions with connections to the IDF, to dockworkers and transport workers that the merchants of death rely on to move their weapons, to the workers in the defence industries, our class has the power to shut down this war. 

Join us in the fight to bring down imperialism. This summer, we will be bringing together as many of the world's revolutionary communists as we can for this practical task, with the founding conference of a new organisation, a world party of socialist revolution: the Revolutionary Communist International. Join us there!