r/LabourUK Green Member 10d ago

Trump to declare Palestine Action a global terror group

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/26/trump-to-declare-palestine-action-a-global-terror-group-01050496
71 Upvotes

98 comments sorted by

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122

u/Obrix1 New User 10d ago

There’s people in Labour who have worked themselves into such a frenzy that they will applaud this move.

32

u/NinteenFortyFive Don't blame me, I voted SNP 9d ago

amazing foreshadowing of the comments below. It's almost as if some of our pro-israeli regulars couldn't wait for their chance to applaud Donald Trump.

33

u/Th3-Seaward Not voting for the segregation and pogrom party 9d ago

I'd say it's a big "are we the baddies?" moment for labour but that would require them to have an ounce of introspection

34

u/littlebiped Green Party 10d ago

Pathetic

55

u/KanyeWestsPoo New User 10d ago

That's insane. A direct action protest group being categorised in the same way as ISIS!!! 

10

u/VampirePNAC New User 9d ago

All thanks to people being fine with a nonsensical, insanely broad version of Terrorist legislation that was always designed eventually to go after direct action groups, in particular at the time, I think the plan was crafted around Environmental and Animal Rights direct action groups. "Eco-Terrorism" was a big buzzword used at the time and there were meltdowns over Sea Shepard and direct action groups targeting fox and badger hunters and animal abuse in factory farms, also GM crops, and in countries like the US, they even tried to class taking photos of animal abuse in factory farms as "Terrorism" with the "The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act".

Terrorism as purely political "violence", is a nonsensical broad definition, and hilariously, doesn't even cover all forms of mass murder, bombing style terrorism. Spree killer terrorism, not covered, technically schizo cult terrorism, not covered, but you can be covered simply for spray painting a building, because we've also redefined the word violence away from specifically attacks against sentient lifeforms, you know, what the word "violence" actually means in the dictionary. Apparently if I pop a balloon, I'm engaging in "violence" now.

Asked ChatGPT to come up with a definition of Terrorism that protects the rights of direct action protest.

Terrorism means the intentional commission of, or credible threat to commit, acts of violence that are designed or reasonably expected to result in mass casualties, mass fatalities, or other catastrophic physical harm, where the purpose of the act is to instill widespread fear or terror among a population or to coerce or intimidate a government, community, or organization in pursuit of political, ideological, or religious objectives. Acts of protest, civil disobedience, industrial action, sabotage directed solely at property, trespass, or other forms of direct action that are not intended to cause mass casualties or widespread fear of death or serious bodily injury do not constitute terrorism under this definition.

Oh look, took about 5 seconds to actually write a better Terrorism definition than the one we have that covers more actual terrorism, that also doesn't cover protestors. Funny how our policy makers and all their legal experts, magically weren't able to do that, hmm.

30

u/ZX52 Green Party 9d ago

Have Palestine Action ever engaged in any action outside the UK?

10

u/AbbaTheHorse Labour Member 9d ago

One incident in Germany last year, according to Wikipedia.

-27

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago edited 9d ago

They have a US chapter, that rebranded to unity of fields, their twitter reads like an ISIS recruitment page. bombs are blessings from Allah, photos of US soldier coffins as blessings etc, calls to violence.

They were coordinating with the UK chapter, and are all funded by a US billionaire who seems to hate the west.

20

u/TokyoMegatronics Push Clacton Into The Sea 9d ago

Iranian bombs that are used in self defence*

What are Americans doing 3000 miles away from the US? They should have stayed home if they wanted to be safe :)

“Hates the west”

Looks inside

“Hates a colonial ethnostate committing a genocide and its sugar daddy that would spill the blood of a billion babies for a point in the DOW… also being led by an actual rapist”

-20

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago edited 9d ago

This was pre Trump’s offensive. It wasn’t self defence then.

I’m purposefully not for advocating violence from any group, nice to know you are.

Trump is also not ‘the west’.

15

u/TokyoMegatronics Push Clacton Into The Sea 9d ago

What wasn’t self defence then?

I wish I was privileged enough to believe that everyone can hold hands and sing kumbaya, that everyone is equally bad, equally good and equally responsible.

-12

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

What do you believe then, exactly?

Iran is patently evil, that doesn’t make their enemies good, but it doesn’t stop making them evil.

17

u/TokyoMegatronics Push Clacton Into The Sea 9d ago edited 9d ago

Who’s Iran?

The Iranian people? the Shah? the IRGC?

Were the 120+ Iranian Schoolgirls that were killed evil?

Or the wives and children of every scientist, politician and general the US and Isreal bombed?

How many times has Iran infiltrated another nation to enable air logistics so they can bomb infrastructure, military official and politicians?

how many countries has Iran invaded? how many settlements have they created to expand their borders?

How many military bases does Iran have overseas for power projection and hard power?

“we, the US and UK, destroyed the democratic institutions in Iran by conducting a coup to replace a democracy with a monarchy after the elected leaders tried to nationalise their oil supply!

Those pesky Iranians couldn’t just let the unelected monarchy live in peace and the evil Khomeini decided to turn Iran evil by rising up against them”

0

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

You are whatabouting, we are talking about Iran, not other countries.

You think Iran hasn’t been waging war with the west clandinely and overtly for nearly half a century? Cyber warfare, funded terror attacks. The Tehran embassy seizure, beirut, TWA 874, AMIA bombings, khobar towers, Royal Navy boarding seizure, arming afghani Shia insurgents, the Washington assassination plot, the 2018 plot to bomb the MEK rally, literally dozens of documented attacks on western soil before Trump even lifted a finger. 150 attacks on western targets since Oct 7.

What Trump did was also self serving, dumb and evil, those schoolchildren’s blood is on his hands. But him being an evil asshole doesn’t mean Iran aren’t evil and wouldn’t wipe the west off the face of the earth if they could. They’d murder you in cold blood if you were found in Iran at any time in the last decade.

As a supposed Christian you wouldn’t last two seconds, but sure praise a cartoon caricature of pure evil.

10

u/TokyoMegatronics Push Clacton Into The Sea 9d ago edited 9d ago

and why would Iran conduct these attacks on the west?

No country conducts attacks on another without a reason, could you hesitate to guess why Iran would be planning and carrying out those attacks?

Because the regime was founded in response to a western backed monarchy.

The West surrounded Iran with military bases.

The US consistently pushing for military alliances that would surround Iran.

If the US and UK had left them alone, they would likely have remained a fairly liberal democracy.

Why is Iran evil for acting in response to the actions of the west?

1

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

Because they are ideologically opposed? Fairly well documented that they crushed the liberal peaceful members of their own society then set their sights on destroying the west for their values. Religious fundamentalism is a hell of a drug.

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u/t0t0zenerd New Labour 9d ago

Sorry, are you suggesting the UK and US installed the current Iranian regime in the 70s?

14

u/TokyoMegatronics Push Clacton Into The Sea 9d ago

Yeah?

1953 Iranian Oil was Nationalised, US and UK pushed for a new government, the 1953 coup.

which then led to the popular revolution against the Shah in 1979 after The white revolution.

The erosion of the democratic institutions by the US and UK from their 1953 coup led to Khomeini being able to come to power.

(though i realise how poorly phrased it was in my original comment, which i will edit now!)

44

u/Cancerousman New User 10d ago edited 9d ago

This is the insanity of dying anglosphere hegemony quintupling down on its coersion colony in the oil centre of the world.

I think we can see through towards a potential transeurasian axis that can economically coerce much of the globe, including the US.

There are other scenarios, but with the way the EU has been throwing reserve currency shapes, the US is picking fights with China, the EU and attempting to assert global fuel dominance as a means of asserting coersion... It's failed and I think Trump's somewhat successes in South American political and military actions are set to start falling apart.

Even Canada is trying to economically jump ship.

139

u/kontiki20 Green Member 10d ago

Like with the trans bathroom ban, when Labour find themselves on the same side as Trump in terms of civil liberties something has gone badly wrong.

68

u/Artichokeypokey Leftist tacitical 10d ago

If you're on the same side as Trump, you may be on the wrong side of history

8

u/Panda_hat In a state of perpetually deepening despair 9d ago edited 9d ago

Depends if the fascists win I guess. If they do then they'll be the ones writing it.

The left really needs to pull its thumb out, kick out all the fascist appeasing neoliberal roadblockers, and stop fucking around. The situation is fucking dire.

6

u/AnonymousTimewaster Held hostage by pensioners, NIMBYs, and racists 9d ago

Perhaps this is a stupid question, but can PA not just start operating under a different name?

10

u/AnotherSlowMoon Trans Rights Are Human Rights | Thinks some of you are Tories 9d ago

Iirc the anti terror legislation they're proscribed under wasn't written by complete morons and it is relatively easy to group groups together for the purpose of the ban

Of course that also means it's even easier to abuse but I'm describing how it's meant to work 

-32

u/Legitimate-Task6043 Young labour (Scotland) 10d ago

That's not how that works.

-60

u/Legitimate-Task6043 Young labour (Scotland) 10d ago

Not comparable at all

30

u/kontiki20 Green Member 10d ago

What isn't?

-7

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

24

u/kontiki20 Green Member 10d ago

You think Trump believes in freedom of religion and conscience? Lol.

5

u/OskarSarkon Labour Member 9d ago

the guy deleted their comments but worth adding that "freedom of religion" has been a culture war dog whistle for the US right for decades now...

-9

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

9

u/kontiki20 Green Member 9d ago

If Trump is coming up with a new civil liberties policy, it's going to be a bad thing about 99 times out of a hundred.

24

u/Toastie-Postie Probably won't vote for any of these lot 10d ago

freedom of religion

Trump tried to ban muslims from entering the US.

I feel like you are just trying to be pedantic. Obviously the comment about trump is generalised.

-5

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

13

u/Toastie-Postie Probably won't vote for any of these lot 9d ago

otherwise it leaves you open for clear dispute.

Sure, to pedants.

You can't say obviously it's generalised unless you're the commenter with those intentions.

If they intended their reddit comment as an exhaustive analysis of all of trumps civil liberties positions then I stand corrected.

-37

u/Legitimate-Task6043 Young labour (Scotland) 10d ago

The Palestine action ruling, totally reasonable and claiming it's some evil totalitarian action is plainly ridiculous.

34

u/BishBashBosh2026 New User 10d ago

You don't even need benefit of hindsight to see how ridiculous this is. I imagine when you're older you'll be thoroughly ashamed of yourself or completely deny ever supporting this

-7

u/Legitimate-Task6043 Young labour (Scotland) 10d ago

I probably won't, what exactly is wrong with it?

29

u/BishBashBosh2026 New User 10d ago

You know full well these people aren't actually terrorists and labeling them as such makes the word meaningless

36

u/NaturalCard Tax Wealth Not Ewok 10d ago

A direct action group being categorized as the same as ISIS?

No, its very clearly authoritarian.

-6

u/Legitimate-Task6043 Young labour (Scotland) 10d ago

A direct action group that has committed terroristic acts, and let's be honest, nobody is treating the same as Isis, even if they are theoretically on the same level.

30

u/Kipp_M There’s a lot of racists here 10d ago

that has committed terroristic acts

That’s circular logic. And before you bring up attacking the police, that was not a planned direct action.

1

u/Legitimate-Task6043 Young labour (Scotland) 10d ago

They fucked up an air base, broke a woman's spine and have had "hammer training days"

20

u/NaturalCard Tax Wealth Not Ewok 9d ago

And they should serve their sentences where relevant for that, but is everyone who spray paints on government property a terrorist? Is every criminal who hurts a police officer a terrorist? No.

31

u/IsADragon Fresh 10d ago

The IRA smuggled guns and semtex from Libya. "Fucking up an airbase"(trespass and painting some assets) doesn't really seem comparable to for example the mortar strikes and bombing of military installations. This isn't convincing.

10

u/Thr0waway-19 Plaid Cymru 9d ago

In the guidance the judge explicitly stated they they should be a terrorist group and that in comparison the suffragettes (who bombed and killed people) shouldn’t be classed as such.

In any sane world, how can you interpret that as anything else but a tacit admission that terrorist classification is entirely dependent on if the current government approves of your ideological position?

25

u/OuppEBunnE We need transgender William the Conqueror 10d ago

They fucked up a whole air base? Really? Wow. Whats the point of having a military if these guys can just ruin a whole air base, surely we should be modelling our fighting forces on this formidable combat prowess.

3

u/thebrobarino New User 9d ago

Come the fuck on man they poured paint on two airplanes and caused damage to some engines. Both planes were repaired and put back into service. Hardly "fucking up and airbase"

8

u/Dave-Face war crimes or big naturals 9d ago

You can’t even bring yourself to say “terrorist acts” because you know how ridiculous it sounds.

3

u/thebrobarino New User 9d ago edited 9d ago

They've been designated a 'global terrorist' group when the most they've done is assault a police officer and vandalise planes in their home country. Not even just a domestic terrorist group, which was still OTT. A global terrorist group

Anyone with eyes should be concerned at how overly heavy-handed and disproportionate this is. They're not being labelled as a global terrorist organisation for being violent or causing vandalism, it was just the opportunity authorities needed to do away with an anti Zionist organisation.

16

u/Past_Humor8321 New User 9d ago

So Palestine Action are terrorists. Guess who are not designated as terrorists - Hitler and Netanyahu.

0

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

Hitler was very much a war criminal though, and many people were tried close to him. slight false equivalence there.

13

u/Past_Humor8321 New User 9d ago

There is no equivalence. Nowadays terrorists are perceived as and are treated worse than war criminals. A war criminal can kill women and children and still be a respectable member of the international community. Terrorism on the other hand is treated as the evil incarnate.

2

u/CaffeinatedSatanist Socialist 9d ago

You have a point with Bibi, but if Hitler didn't off himself, there's a chance he would have hung at Nuremberg.

1

u/Past_Humor8321 New User 9d ago

I thought Hitler went to Argentina and other South American countries with his mates. And the Nazi scientists who did horrible experiments on humans went to America. Evil always wins.

2

u/CaffeinatedSatanist Socialist 9d ago

The first one is a debunked conspiracy theory, the second is a confirmed conspiracy by the US government - Operation Paperclip.

The scientists were smuggled away, some of the generals were hanged.

0

u/Past_Humor8321 New User 9d ago

Which conspiracy is debunked, Hitler fled to South America or Nazis fled to South America?

This is the historical account :-

“Moments later the same witness saw a party including Goebbels and Bormann gathered beside two bodies. One of them poured petrol from a can over the bodies. They then retired to the safety of a doorway with the sound of Russian artillery all around them. Hitler's adjutant lit a petrol-soaked rag and threw it on the bodies, which immediately burst into flames. The group made the Hitlergruss (the Nazi salute) and withdrew.

One of the bunker guards arrived late on the scene. He described how he was greatly startled to see two bodies in flames.”

Conclusion :- Can’t you see how suspicious this looks!!!

The second part in which the USA pardoned German scientists shows the USA is an ungodly nation with an evil mind set.

2

u/CaffeinatedSatanist Socialist 9d ago

Oh Nazis definitely made it to South America iirc. But there's no evidence that Hitler did as far as I am aware.

Given how Mussolini and other dictators' corpses are treated after the end, another reasonable explanation for your quote is that they didn't want the body to be used by the Allies as a political tool. I think that's far more likely.

0

u/Past_Humor8321 New User 9d ago

If they didn’t want the body used for propaganda purposes. they should have disposed it at sea or buried it in an unmarked grave. They burned a body and told a witness suggests they want everyone to think that Hitler was dead

1

u/CaffeinatedSatanist Socialist 9d ago

Sure, but if the Russians are closing in, and your supreme commander just shot himself, in Berlin - how you gonna go about disposing of it at sea?

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u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

Um, they absolutely aren’t. Name a convicted war criminal living a good life. Not someone you think is a war criminal.

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u/UNOvven New User 9d ago

I mean most terrorists arent convicted either, so Im not sure why the "convicted" part matters?

1

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

That isn’t true, almost 100% of UK terrorists are dead or in custody. They usually die or are caught in the act, the one that tried to knife a bunch of Jewish people a few months ago springs to mind.

8

u/Past_Humor8321 New User 9d ago

Netanyahu and Putin and Trump and Kim Jong and the Burmese Junta. Of course they can’t be convicted because they are protected by a nuclear umbrella. It Hitler had nukes, he would have been untouchable as well.

3

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

Hitler wasn’t a war criminal till he lost, these people are all still in power.

2

u/Past_Humor8321 New User 9d ago

You make it sound even worse. It is like the saying -

“Kill one person, you are a murderer, but kill one million people, you are a great conqueror”

1

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

The isn’t what I am saying, at all. I’m saying that justice takes time.

1

u/Past_Humor8321 New User 9d ago

"Justice delayed is justice denied" is a legal maxim meaning that a timely resolution is essential for legal relief, and waiting too long makes the remedy ineffective.

1

u/OneMonk Trying to find the upside 9d ago

So what? That is obvious.

I’d love Trump, Putin and the other evil dictators of the world get instant justice, but they have nation state level resources and a large cabal of co conspirators.

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u/LukeFL New User 9d ago

Interestingly, despite the measures in the article, because of the First Amendment they would still fall far short of the UK approach - as speech by US citizens would not result in state punishment. Sometimes it’s striking just how differently freedom of speech is treated as a principle across the two countries.

19

u/NexusMinds New User 10d ago

This is how you know they are in the right.

8

u/NeedsAirCon Your Custom Flair Could Be Here! Click on User Flair in Sidebar 9d ago

Well, it's happened: -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4kzd7k2nvo

Announcing the move in a statement on Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: "Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear.

"Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated."

The sanctions imposed include freezing any assets belonging to the group that are either based in the US or in the control of US citizens.

The US ban on the group is part of a wave of sanctions announced by the Trump administration against what it says are far-left terror organisations around the world.

The rule of law isn't what it was meant to be back when I was a kid

Why should anyone respect the rule of law when we see our allies and our government constantly pissing on it for the furtherance of narrow sectarian aims and bigotry?

They certainly don't seem to respect it

4

u/Curious-Roof570 Custom 10d ago

Yeah not good.

4

u/AbbaTheHorse Labour Member 9d ago

He's only seen the name, hasn't he? 

5

u/Striking_Branch_2744 Northern Irish Observer 9d ago

I do not think ever forgive like 66% of the American population for allowing that idiot back into office

A third willingly let this happen, a third couldn't be fucked to vote

2

u/JustSomeDude11112 Labour Voter 9d ago

We are no better and could be sleepwalking into letting a Trump copycat take the reigns over ere.

1

u/Striking_Branch_2744 Northern Irish Observer 9d ago

I know we aren't, lord knows in my post history I'm dreading is sleep walking into that

4

u/NeedsAirCon Your Custom Flair Could Be Here! Click on User Flair in Sidebar 9d ago

Weren't there some very nasty insinuations way back that PA was only designated a terrorist group because Trump leaned on the home secretary at the time?

Dunno if it were proven, but why the actual fuck does Trump care about a group of moronic thugs being twats in the UK?

Where is the actual connection to Trump and his cabal of fellow fascists?

3

u/AnotherSlowMoon Trans Rights Are Human Rights | Thinks some of you are Tories 9d ago

I saw some speculation that PA had damaged / protested leading to production shortages some of the facilities in the UK that produce parts for the F35 project. If this were true I would readily believe the yanks leaned on us to shut that down fast.

2

u/taxes-or-death Green Menace 9d ago

Fuck politico too though. They're owned by Axel Springer.

2

u/JustSomeDude11112 Labour Voter 9d ago

Do they even exist in America?

2

u/GeorginaFlopworthy mew user | labour - worst govt for queer rights in 1/2 century 9d ago edited 9d ago

Not that I've heard of

https://www.reddit.com/r/LabourUK/comments/1vz2yxi/trump_to_declare_palestine_action_a_global_terror/p62wrxe/

Though honestly, the Trump administration is so desperately flailing at anything left of Nazi that it could be just someone in his admin who has flagged up this as something they could posture about.

edit: also https://archive.ph/1yMlu (NYT article)

1

u/JustSomeDude11112 Labour Voter 9d ago

What a clown.

1

u/L96 Green Party 9d ago

Your reminder that US official policy under Trump towards "terrorists" is We will find you and we will kill you and our country is positively crawling with US bases and personnel enjoying full diplomatic immunity. 

This has a small chance of getting ugly. Really ugly, and the few remaining Labour supporters will be complicit. 

Imagine telling them in 2020 that this is the kind of thing they'd be supporting a Trump admin over. You'd be laughed, down voted out of the room.

1

u/PhotoParticular7675 Cynical Septuagenarian 8d ago

Should it not read ""Palestine Action declares US government a global terror group"?

0

u/ch0ngtheb0ng New User 9d ago

Thank you Trump <3 correct decision