Following his recent arrest, along with three other party comrades, for the ‘racially aggravated crime’ of offering for sale a book that tells the truth about the history of zionism, Comrade Ranjeet Brar talks to Press TV.
Western governments and media like to tell us that they are the upholders of freedom of speech. But their increasing resort to censorship and repression against expressions of sympathy and support for the cause of Palestinian liberation tells another story.
It is, in fact, a sign of weakness. Having very publicly lost the argument in the global court of public opinion, the imperialists are left with no other way to contain the indignation of their home populations against their complicity with Israeli war crimes than by closing down all discussion and trying to surround the issue in a wall of silence and fear.
The decade-long campaign to weaponise the very concept of antisemitism has brought us to the point of banning history books and criminalising those who stand with Palestine for its liberation and against the 75-year imperialist-backed genocide of its people.
Meanwhile, the very obvious contradiction between our rulers’ statements and actions on the one hand, and the reality on the ground that is reaching workers through many channels not within the control of the corporate media on the other, means that the crude attempts to criminalise and silence those who speak the truth is in the end only fuelling the anger of the working class and deepening its growing sense of alienation from key pillars of bourgeois rule: in particular, politicians, media and the justice system.
The British ruling class may find that in trying to criminalise pro-Palestine activity, they are only pushing more members of the working class to find out the very truth they are trying to keep hidden.
How far the British ruling class is able to travel along the road to open authoritarianism will depend on us.
