I was on the Sheffield Gaza demo last Saturday and argued with the Alliance for Workers Liberty (AWL) member with the placard equating the IDF and Hamas. A member of Permanent Revolution was making the same point. I am not now (nor have I ever been) a member of Permanent Revolution (PR) - though I pretty much agree with their position on Palestine and on building solidarity with people in Gaza.

It made me very angry to see that placard on the demo - for the last few weeks I've had to listen to the onslaught of the IDF and the feeble military resitance of Hamas being equated - by the BBC, by liberals, by right wing newspapers and naive pacifists. To see Marxists do the same thing raised a question. Did they realise what effect it would have? Daniel from AWL is honest enough to say that "in a certain sense" the AWL knew that it would "cause trouble". In other words, it was a marketing ploy to differentiate the AWL from the SWP's (and maybe the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's) unwillingness (wrong in my view) to politically criticise Hamas. This was sectarian behaviour. The term "sectarian" isn't used as an insult here - it's a precise description. On a demo held to condemn the IDF's massacres and build support for the survival of people in Gaza, the AWL turned up to "differentiate" (their word) themselves from the SWP etc.

I didn't (and wouldn't on principle) attack another socialist physically. That's why I argued with the AWL comrade holding the placard equating the IDF and Hamas. I equated the placard's slogan with "equally handedly" condeming the violence of the striking miners with that of the police during the 84 strike. Politically that would have been a scab position, in the most violent conflict that I've ever experienced. In the context of the Gazan massacre it's at least that. I said that I thought she should leave the demonstration if she refused to lower the placard. I stand by that view. I find the AWL's position on Palestine appalling - it reminds me of Socialist Organiser (forerunner of the AWL) echoing Ronald Reagan's "evil empire" comment about the Soviet Union back in the 1980's. Some things don't change but I've never seen anything so deliberately provocative and insensitive as that placard on that demonstration at this point in the war on Palestinians.

The argument (heated, for sure) that myself and a PR member were having with 4 or 5 AWL members was ended by the chair of Sheffield PSC physically destroying the offending placard. Not my way of dealing with the situation but then I haven't had members of my family killed by Israeli rockets in the last few days.

One more thing. There's some history to this: on previous Gazan solidarity demos in Sheffield there has been anti-semitic chanting. The chair of Sheffield PSC (backed by the vast majority of demonstrators)has made it clear that this is not welcome. What should we do if a few people continued with these racist slogans? I understand that the AWL were asked by the PSC (on a previous demo) not to bring the placard equating the IDF and Hamas. What reaction would they expect to receive if they came next time waving an Israeli flag (as an AWL supporter did at a Gaza solidarity demo in London!)? It would certainly "cause trouble", "in a certain sense".



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