A motion against Zionism and in support of the Palestinians was filibustered at the UK Green Party’s Spring Conference held this weekend. Fewer than 1,000 members, out of 220,000, took part in the online event.

The motion, “Zionism is racism”, identified Zionism as a “racist ideology”, called for a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital”, and backed “the right of the Palestinian people to resistance and liberation from Israeli occupation, domination and subjugation”.

Opponents never even engaged in a debate on the issues. They began by trying to have the motion ruled out of order, with Eleanora Folan, who runs the X account Stats for Lefties, arguing that the call for a single Palestinian state could not be moved because it contradicted the party’s previous support for a “two-state solution”.

A vote was delayed by problems with the party’s online system, which the Canary suggested might have been the result of a deliberate denial of service attack. Participants were eventually able to block the effort to rule the “Zionism is racism” motion out of order by an overwhelming majority.

All of this will be very familiar to those who lived through five years of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party.

The Labour witch-hunt was able to gain traction because Corbyn and his allies capitulated, to the point of becoming active accomplices. First, they turned a blind eye to their allies being targeted, refusing to name the Blairite slander campaign for what it was, then they endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, then they began organising and encouraging suspensions and expulsions themselves.

Zack Polanski’s leadership has shown this weekend they will act no differently. Polanski took the excuse provided by the Together Alliance march in London not to be present, consummating a series of evasions on the question of Zionism in the lead up to the conference.

[Op-ed by Human Right Lawyer Benedict Rogers.]

Archived

Almost six years ago, within hours of the imposition of a draconian National Security Law by Beijing on Hong Kong, the British government initiated a new scheme for Hong Kongers to find sanctuary and a pathway to citizenship in the United Kingdom. It was announced by the prime minister at the time, Boris Johnson, and championed by his Home Secretary Priti Patel. It received unanimous cross-party support. It was one of the few things upon which Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer agreed.

Broadly speaking, that consensus has continued.

[...]

However, there is one individual whose case is causing considerable concern among the diaspora community and those who support them. He is one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy campaigners, has endured a campaign of harassment and threats from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) here in Britain, and he has a price on his head. His name is Finn Lau and he is my friend.

Finn came to Britain in 2019 on a working visa as a chartered surveyor, but switched to the BNO visa two years later. In 2024, he was granted indefinite leave to remain. In June 2025, in accordance with the rules, he applied for British citizenship.

Yet more than nine months later, his application remains undecided. The Home Office says it is still conducting “good character” checks.

[...]

Three years ago, the Hong Kong government issued an arrest warrant for Finn and placed a £100,000 bounty on his head. He has also received various other threats which have been widely reported in the media. In the current trial of alleged spies from the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Finn has been cited as a major target of espionage. During the 2019 protests, he was arrested and detained for 48 hours – and only released because the Hong Kong police did not realise that he had played a key role in mobilising demonstrators.

[...]

Unnecessarily delaying Finn Lau’s citizenship application not only causes him uncertainty. It sends mixed messages to the Hong Kong diaspora whom we have rightly welcomed into our country. At a time when they are seeking stability and trying to settle down to new lives in Britain, this uncertainty causes them unnecessary alarm and confusion. In the same week that the Home Office told Finn they were still conducting “good character” checks, 10 Downing Street invited him to a Lunar New Year reception. This inconsistency and limbo is unacceptable.

[...]

Most likely, this delay is an administrative hiccup. In the British government, cock-ups are more usual than conspiracies. Nevertheless, the threats to Finn Lau – and the dire consequences if he were to be rendered stateless or worse, deported to Hong Kong to face certain long-term imprisonment – ought to make his case a slam dunk.

[...]

In an era of often toxic political debates, support for Hong Kongers is one of the few issues that unites our politicians across all parties and that must remain the case. So surely it is in the Home Office’s interests to spare any further bureaucracy or embarrassment by approving his citizenship – and in so doing, sending a clear and unambiguous message to the thousands of Hong Kongers who have come to the United Kingdom over the past six years: you are very welcome here.

Archived

[...]

In 2023, Lyndon Li, an activist with political connections, was followed by a Chinese man to his London church. The man had previously befriended Hong Kong activists and collected personal information on some of them. In a pub in the capital, Li says the man, who was called Harrison Chan, offered him money to infiltrate the Conservative party.

“He said China will be the future,” Li recalled. “Britain will fall.”

[...]

Since 2020, China has ramped up a campaign of intimidation, infiltration, harassment and violence against free speech activists operating in the UK. China experts warned that the programme is a part of a global project to stamp out dissent. “It’s widespread,” Laura Harth, the China director at human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders, said. “The aim is to try and control the entire overseas Chinese community.”

[...]

More than a dozen UK-based dissidents [...] say they have been the victims of so-called transnational repression. They include a former elected politician, an exiled lawmaker, several student activists and journalists, a trade union organiser, a policy researcher, two artists, a musician and a young asylum seeker rebuilding his life.

Almost all the dissidents said they believed that repression in the UK has increased sharply in the last few years.

“If you said to the Hong Kong community 10 years ago: ‘Are you being repressed?’, the answer would have been no,” said Labour MP Alex Sobel, the joint author of a cross-party report on transnational repression. “That is completely different now.”

[...]

Hong Kong claims its economic and trade offices promote commerce but dissidents believe the Communist party also uses them as a base to track dissidents. In addition to its outpost in London, Hong Kong maintains HKETOs in New York City, San Francisco and Washington DC.

Anna Kwok, of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, warned that Beijing can use these diplomatic outposts to carry out transnational repression in the US. In 2024 a bipartisan bill passed giving the president authority to shut the HKETOs down.

[...]

Many activists who fled to the UK have continued to criticise China’s communist leadership, leaving them open to ongoing targeting. A recent parliamentary report, co-written by Sobel, concluded that China runs “the most comprehensive transnational repression campaign of any foreign state operating in the UK”.

Hong Kong Watch, a UK NGO, shared a survey of 1,000 Hong Kongers exclusively with The Observer. The survey found that almost one-fifth had experienced some form of transnational repression, such as being photographed at protests or seeing sensitive information about them published online.

“China doesn’t need to [assassinate people],” Laura Harth said. “That activity creates international backlash, and the cost is much higher. You can achieve your objectives by grey-zone tactics that evade the scrutiny of local authorities.”

[...]

Finn Lau, the activist who was beaten up, said there were “more and more concerns that the Hong Kong community could be sacrificed in exchange for economic benefits”.

The government has said that its policy on China is to “cooperate where we can, compete where we need to and challenge where we must”. It has said intelligence agencies had concluded that threats stemming from the planned embassy were being “appropriately managed”.

[...]

Chloe Cheung, the young Hong Kong activist, was followed by two men who appeared to be of Chinese origin as she left a 2024 [protest] event in London. She reported the incident to the Met but received no response. On Christmas Eve 2024, Cheung, who had just finished her A-levels, had a bounty placed on her head by Chinese authorities: a £94,000 reward for anyone who could assist in her arrest and capture.

[...]

Another female dissident was offered a fake doorbell camera after her family was sent letters threatening that she would be raped if she didn’t stop her advocacy work.

[...]

The Green Party conference has voted in favour of a motion opposing nationalisation of "the five largest energy supply companies"

Following reports of US bombers leaving RAF Fairford to bomb Iran, signs have appeared directing locals to the nearby 'US war crimes base'

A number of protests were taking place in London on Saturday

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/35871215

A man who was filmed “intimidating” Al Jazeera journalists in London has been identified by Declassified as a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

Special Constable David Soffer was at the front of a mob that surrounded the film crew on Monday, shouting “go home”.

Footage shows Soffer directly approaching one of the Al Jazeera journalists, who is Palestinian, calling him a “dog” and a “donkey” in Arabic.

Exclusive: Corey Edwards said the picture was taken ‘many years ago’ and condemned Hitler’s ‘barbaric’ regime

Reform's contempt for democracy is a warning for what would happen if they won national power: sell out to the highest bidder.