In Labour CND’s latest podcast, Andrew Murray discusses the wages not weapons and Gaza motions on the Congres agenda, as well as the lack of action on defence diversification and the state of the TUC.
Labour CND podcasts are published on Spotify, YouTube and FB. Give us a listen, give us a like, give us a follow – and please tell you friends about Labour CND’s new venture into podcasting!
If this is the first time you’ve come across Labour CND podcasts, Alex Gordon on the defence jobs myth, and Samantha Mason on the military bootprint astride the climate crisis are also worth a listen. And what Defence Economist Ron Smith had to say about military spending at the time of the Chancellor’s spring statement is just as relevant as the autumn budget approaches.
We reproduce below a speech by Maryam Eslamdoust, General Secretary of the TSSA transport union. Speaking in a personal capacity, she describes the impact of the US-Israel ‘shadow war’ on her father and the Iranian people. An update on the situation in Iran is available on our website here.
Hello everyone and thank you so much for being here today to discuss Israel’s attack on Iran. I am the General Secretary of TSSA. But today I’m not here in my official capacity. I’m speaking as a British Iranian woman and a daughter.
I haven’t heard from my father who’s in Iran for over 48 hours. The last time we spoke, he told me the roads out of Tehran were gridlocked. Millions of people were trying to flee the city. Petrol was gone; he couldn’t fill his car to leave the city. Millions were trying to escape Tehran. It was near midnight and I haven’t been able to get hold of him since.
That’s because Iran’s telecommunications infrastructure have been attacked by Israel. People can’t make phone calls. They can’t connect to the internet. They’re being cut off from the world. All the while missiles continue to fall, cars are being blown up in daylight and civilian neighbourhoods are attacked.
I’m hearing now that the Iranian banking system has been hacked. So overnight people’s savings have disappeared.
This is not just a military strategy by Israel or Donald Trump. It’s a strategy of collapse – to paralyse Iran, its infrastructure, and the morale of its people. And it’s not just physical, it’s psychological.
Yesterday Iran state TV was hacked live on air. Viewers across the country saw their screens cut to unfamiliar visuals and messages delivered in Farsi encouraging Iranians to rise up to revolt, misusing ‘women, live, freedom’ slogans. The day before that, at the state TV News building in Tehran, the same network was bombed while a woman presenter was live on air.
This is not just an air strike, it’s a message ‘we can get inside your buildings, your screens, your minds’. It’s an attempt to intimidate and destabilise – not just with force, but with fear.
Israel’s illegal attack on Iran is not about self-defence or security. This is about making Iran collapse as a state politically, economically, and socially. We have seen this before in Iraq, Libya, Syria. It’s the same script: isolate, destabilise, dehumanise, destroy.
And what is more alarming, it is unfolding on today’s media without any challenge. Twenty years ago, some journalists and some editors still had the courage to question war narratives. Today, far too many are simply repeating the government’s briefings and anonymous intelligence sources. This is no critical interrogation of the story. Sadly, the press is not holding power to account, it is echoing it.
There is a propaganda war, an information war. In recent days, I’ve seen social media flooded with posts in Farsi from IDF accounts using the Iranian language and the language of Iranian protest movements from two years ago, especially the slogan ‘woman, life, freedom’ to call for regime change. Those slogans were never meant to justify bombs. They were meant to highlight the suffering of civilians, Iranian women. Those who shouted them wanted dignity and justice, not war.
What I’ve seen from Iranians – both inside the country, and the diaspora – is a remarkable unity. This isn’t political unity, there are still very real debates about Iran’s future, its leadership, its systems. But right now, across the political spectrum, Iranians are united on one fundamental idea: foreign bombs won’t liberate us. Iranians don’t want their futures dictated by missiles, invasions, or destabilisation campaigns disguised as solidarity.
Let me speak about the issue that’s constantly weaponised by the western media, Iran’s nuclear programme. We’re being told once again that Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear weapons programme, but the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, has been clear there are no credible indications that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. That was their official assessment before these escalations even began.
What has Iran done in response? It’s reduced, not stopped, voluntary cooperation with the IAEA. That was originally agreed as part of the JCPoA, the nuclear deal that Donald Trump tore up in 2018. For years after that, Iran continued to comply with the deal’s core provisions. But eventually Iran said if the deal’s dead, then why should we keep making concessions? Even so, Iran remains signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the IAEA still monitors its nuclear sites. There is no legal evidence of weaponisation.
There is one country in the Middle East known to have a nuclear arsenal, and that’s Israel. It has hundreds of warheads. It has never joined the NPT. It allows no international inspection and yet it is presented in the west as a responsible actor. That is double standards of the highest order.
The demands being made of Iran right now are surrender to compliance, to regime change. These are unrealistic and dangerous. There is no military solution to this crisis. Iran will not, and cannot, surrender to conditions it knows will only bring more pain.
So what’s the path forward? Diplomacy, but real diplomacy. Iran has repeatedly said it’s willing to accept limits on its uranium enrichment programme, allow extensive international monitoring, engage in regional security talks. That has to be mutual. It means an end to the sanctions the US has imposed that are strangling the economy and civilian living standards. and restoring Iran’s full participation in global, political, and economic life – ending the policy of permanent isolation.
If the West is serious about peace in the region, it must also hold all states accountable, including its allies, and that means finally addressing Israel’s illegal wars, its undeclared nuclear weapons, and its current actions in Gaza which the UN’s own experts have said may amount to genocide.
So what do we do now. We keep speaking up. We’re not just neutral, if we stay silent we are complicit. I’m asking you – whether you’re trade unionists, policy makers, academics, journalists, or just someone who believes in justice, please do three things.
Speak up. Say clearly that bombing Iran into collapse is not a path to peace.
Demand diplomacy. Press your government to stop fuelling war and start pursuing a deal, and challenge the narrative. Don’t let our slogans be co-opted; don’t let another war be justified on false pretences.
The Iranian people want peace, they want dignity, and they want the right to shape their own future. Free from bombs, free from fear, and free from foreign coercion. Thank you.
* CND’s webinar, No War on Iran, is available in full here * Maryam’s speech was first reproduced on London CND website
Labour CND launched our first podcast, an interview with defence economist Prof Ron Smith on the day of Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s spring statement to parliament. Take a listen, you’ll find Ron has some surprising things to say about the economy, jobs, and Trident.
Introducing podcasts is just part of an overhaul of our all our digital comms. Take a look at our eye-catching social media posts like the ones above, you’ll find us @LabourCND. Watch out for a new improved and regular newsletter next month too; and come back to our re-vamped website which will be up and running in the next couple of months – with more news, views, and analysis from a range of guest contributors .
We’re now on Spotify too. You can also pick our podcasts there if you prefer.. If you do, please remember do give us a like and a follow to help spread the word.
On that point, a big thanks from Labour CND go to Bryn Griffiths, who coordinates Labour Left Podcast, for his support for our new venture. As Bryn put it, we’re the new kids on the podcast block. We’re hoping to get on board with more partner organisations who are podcasting in future.
Labour CND recently launched into a new venture for us: podcasting. Our first was released the day after the Chancellor’s spring statement: a conversation with Ron Smith that produced some interesting responses.
We asked Ron if a bigger MoD budget would benefit the British economy, and if more military spending meant more jobs. His responses were revealing. But when we asked about Trident, the answer was franker than any you might expect from an economist:
‘Trident, I feel, is a complete waste of money – and when I say that to military audiences two thirds of them applaud’
Ron is Emeritus Professor of Applied Economics at Birkbeck, University of London, where he’s researched on the economics of arms trading and defence policy for many years and published a long list of articles and books. He’s advised the Treasury and been a consultant to the National Audit Office, so we reckon he knows a thing or two.
Our conversation with Ron is well worth a half-hour listen. If you do, and if you like what Labour CND’s doing – please give us a like, give us a follow, and come back for more.
With media attention focused on GE 2024, you’d be forgiven for having overlooked news that the Labour Party has finally abandoned its longstanding legal action against five former members of Jeremy Corbyn’s office team during his leadership, including his Director of Communications Seumas Milne. The five were accused of ‘conspiring’ against Keir Starmer’s leadership by leaking a controversial report soon after he was elected leader in 2020. They ‘strenuously deny’ any involvement or complicity in the leak.
The 860-page leaked document which ostensibly examined the handling of antisemitism complaints during the Corbyn period, included unredacted emails and WhatsApp messages from critics of his leadership, which exposed factionalism and derogatory comments about Corbyn, his staff and MPs who supported him. The Forde report found, for example: ‘the criticisms of Diane Abbott are not simply a harsh response to perceived poor performance – they are expressions of visceral disgust.’
The legal suit is estimated to have cost the Labour Party millions of pounds. Documents presented in open court in late 2023 showed Labour had spent £1.5m on its action at that time, and estimated it would spend nearly £900,000 more. The figures do not reflect the full cost of the litigation. It remains unclear whether or not the party will meet the costs of the five.
A BBC report includes the view of one unnamed former shadow cabinet member that ‘this is a huge embarrassment for the party, which has wasted eye-watering sums which could have made the difference in key seats in this election’. Martin Forde KC, the lawyer who carried out the wide-ranging report into Labour Party culture told the BBC: ‘It is a great shame that money has been spent on legal fees that could have been spent on the general election.’
As Israel’s Rafah operation takes shape, and concern over Britain’s role in supplying arms to Israel grows, over 100 leading UK artists have added their names to a letter calling on Keir Starmer to take a stand against the atrocities and commit to stopping arms sales to Israel if he becomes prime minister on 4 July. The letter urges Starmer, as a former human rights lawyer, to lead the way in ‘ending UK complicity in war crimes in Gaza’.
Signatories include filmmakers, poets, musicians, actors, broadcasters, writers, and journalists. There are some familiar CND-supporting figures among them, including Juliet Stevenson, Kamila Shamsie, Maxine Peake, Michael Rosen, Peter Kennard, and Victoria Brittain. Visit Artists for Palestine for the full text and a list of a;l signatories.
Within days of the general election being announced, Keir Starmer committed Labour to a ‘triple lock’ on Trident, an attempt to demonstrate nuclear weapons are safe in Labour’s hands. He also reaffirmed Labour’s commitment to match Sunak’s 2.5% increase in military spending which NATO is demanding.
Labour will build four new Dreadnought class submarines to deliver Britain’s nuclear warheads, he said, with at least one submarine at sea 24/7. Starmer also reaffirmed Labour’s decision to match the Tory government pledge to raise military spending by 2.5% of gross domestic product as soon as possible.
This is a dangerous waste, which mirrors the approach of the Tory government. It signals more war, more military spending, and more nuclear weapons, as CND General Secretary Kate Hudson has pointed out. CND has estimated the cost of upgrading and maintaining Trident at £205 billion. The Conservative commitment to raise military spending to 2.5% by 2030, part of the Spring budget, will amount to an additional £87 billion a year.
CND Chair Tom Unterrainer commented that Starmer had offered no justification of how nuclear weapons might protect Britain’s security. ‘For a man who claims to care about international law,’ said Unterrainer, ‘there is no mention of how expanding and modernising Britain’s nuclear arsenal goes against these norms. We need a bold vision for what real security means: one that puts climate, food security, and people at its heart, not more militarism and conflict.’
There was plenty to do and say during the bank holiday weekend. Labour CND responded to the horrific scenes of a burning encampment in what the Israeli government had called a ‘safe’ haven for Gazans, drawing attention to what a Labour government’s ethical policy should be.
and we were quick off the mark too in response to Rishi Sunak’s announcement about national service. Quoting ex-military responses in the Guardian and a pertinent comment from Andrew Marr in New Statesman, we said:
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Visit @LabourCND and www.labourcnd.org.uk for regular updates
CND is off to a strong start with advice, information and tools for supporters to play an active part in the 6-week General Election 2024 campaign.
You’ll find some of what you need on a special CND webpage, which includes a campaign guide, some information from the polls, a digital lobby tool, and a bit of info on what the parties policies are.
Labour CND will be focussing on pertinent issues in Labour’s campaign, as well as taking Sunak and his team to task! You’ll find more details on the web posts which follow
