Climate scholar Andreas Malm was pictured speaking at the Code Rood action camp in The Netherlands in 2018. (Photo: Code Rood/CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
“This is a drift toward authoritarianism that didn’t begin with me, and it’s not going to end with me either.”
The United Kingdom’s Labour government has barred Swedish climate scholar and Palestinian rights advocate Andreas Malm from entering the country, without explanation, just days before he was scheduled to speak at a conference that will also feature a cofounder of Palestine Action—an organization banned by the UK government on highly dubious grounds.
Malm, an author and associate professor of human ecology at Sweden’s Lund University, said Friday that he was “dismayed” by the UK Home Office’s decision this week to cancel his Electronic Travel Authorization, noting that he has “been going to the UK for decades—this is where I did my archival research for my PhD dissertation and lectured at dozens of universities and participated in even more conferences.”
Malm said the UK government’s move was “nothing short of scandalous,” and he linked the decision to his scheduled appearance at the conference organized by the socialist magazine Tribune. The event was billed as a discussion of “domination and resistance in the age of [US President Donald] Trump,” featuring Malm and Palestine Action cofounder Huda Ammori.
“This is a drift toward authoritarianism that didn’t begin with me, and it’s not going to end with me either,” Malm told Al Jazeera. “If I’m now being deemed a threat to the public good because I’m supposed to have a conversation with someone from Palestine Action, this is guilt by association.”
“Never in over 55 years of publishing has a British government revoked the right of one of our authors to enter the country,” said Tariq Ali, the chair of Verso’s board of directors. “We can only assume, since no reasons have been given for banning him, that Andreas’ positions on Palestine, no different from the [International Criminal Court] and UN commissions, is the cause.”
“Verso Books condemns the silencing of critical voices and stands in support of writers and scholars who continue to speak out about important issues and contribute to open intellectual discourse,” Ali added. “We urge the government to restore Andreas Malm’s electronic travel authorisation immediately and allow him entry into the country.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the former UK Labour leader who now serves as the Your Party MP for Islington North, joined the chorus denouncing the cancellation of Malm’s travel authorization.
“This is an absurd and outrageous decision,” Corbyn wrote on social media. “What kind of society are we living in where world-renowned authors and campaigners are treated as enemies and threats? The real threat is this government’s assault on freedom of expression.”
“This is not an isolated incident—and the government should know that it is gaining a bad reputation for censorship and repression,” added Corbyn. “We know why the government has taken this decision: because it wants to silence criticism of Israel, as well as its own complicity in genocide. It will not succeed.”
Ed Miliband says that he and the Labour Party are full of shit criminalising people holding signs as terrorists despite anything he says.UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister. He asks who could possibly object to the IDF starving people to death, conducting forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing all Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He says they’ve got a genocide to do for Israel and to stop objecting.
Green Party’s Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
Reacting to President Trump’s threats towards Greenland, Green MP Carla Denyer said
“Buoyed up by his imperialistic adventures in Venezuela, where he trampled over international law, Trump is now eyeing up Greenland.
“A year of pandering to the President has had no restraining effect whatsoever. It is time for Keir Starmer and government ministers to show some backbone.
“They must make clear that the UK will not tolerate an attack on Greenland and that they will stand up for international law and state sovereignty. Not selectively, but wherever such violations take place and whoever is committing them – whether that be Putin in Ukraine, Netanyahu in Gaza, or Trump in Venezuela, and now potentially in Greenland.
“The Green Party will always reject “might is right” authoritarianism, where military power is used to trump sovereignty and the rule of law. Diplomacy, cooperation and peacebuilding efforts must be strengthened.”
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa in January 2025. Photo: Presidencia Ecuador
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has not only deepened the crisis in the country, but is also attempting to change the country’s institutions and laws through loopholes and force.
Daniel Noboa’s government in Ecuador is characterized by the implementation of neoliberal austerity policies dictated by the IMF, the violent repression of social protests, and a series of legal reforms aimed at increasing state authoritarianism, and aligning the country with US foreign policy. All this is taking place amid an unprecedented security crisis.
The security crisis
During the first half of 2025, Ecuador recorded 4,619 homicides, setting a new historical record and representing a 47% increase over the same period in 2024. This figure makes the country the most violent on the continent. No one knows what the Phoenix Plan, implemented by the Noboa government since 2024, consists of, and it has not produced positive results. On the contrary, citizen insecurity has worsened. The constant states of emergency that have militarized the country have also failed to reverse the situation.
Austerity policies
Re-elected in April 2025, Daniel Noboa has implemented a far-right program aligned with the demands of the IMF. In June, he dismissed 5,000 civil servants and merged four ministries. In the most serious case, environmental responsibilities were transferred to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Hydrocarbons, highlighting the government’s extractivist orientation. These measures represent the path toward the minimal state advocated by neoliberalism and respond to the conditions of the latest IMF loan.
On September 12, Noboa withdrew the subsidy on diesel, whose price rose from USD 1.80 to USD 2.80 per gallon until December. Subsequently, the price would depend on a band system tied to international market prices. This measure triggered a national transport strike on September 13, with transport workers quickly reaching an agreement with the government in exchange for subsidies, and subsequently the national strike called by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) on September 18, demanding the repeal of the measure, a reduction in the VAT from 15% to 12%, no mining, respect for prior consultation, and more investment in education and health. It should be noted that public hospitals are in precarious conditions, without medicines or supplies. The media reports that patients who required dialysis treatment died because they did not receive it.
Submission to the United States and constitutional reforms
On June 3, the National Assembly, where the government has a majority, approved an amendment to Article 5 of the Constitution allowing foreign military bases. This amendment required the approval of the Constitutional Court and subsequently a referendum. On September 5, the Constitutional Court rejected four of the eight questions that Noboa had sent for popular consultation and referendum, including this issue.
Authoritarian laws and the Constitutional Court as the last bastion
In June 2025, the government managed to pass three new laws that were sent as economically urgent without actually being so: on Intelligence, National Solidarity, and Public Integrity. The progressive camp filed 23 constitutional challenges with the Constitutional Court because they violate rights related to children and adolescents, freedom of expression, intimacy, and privacy, among others. The Court provisionally suspended 16 articles of these laws, prompting a smear campaign organized by the government, which accused the Court of leaving the country defenseless against crime.
The National Solidarity Law sought to institutionalize the concept of “internal armed conflict” that Noboa used in a decree in January 2024. This implied: free use of the military in police operations; prior pardon for security personnel for potential crimes and human rights violations; criminalization of opposition organizations by classifying them as armed groups; and treatment of areas, movable and immovable property presumed to belong to criminal groups as military targets.
The Intelligence Law sought to intercept any communication without a court order, require information within two days without a court order, access personal data without a court order, reinstate confidential expenses (non-transparent discretionary funds), and incinerate documents rather than keep them on file.
On September 27, the Constitutional Court definitively rejected two of the laws, the National Security Law and the Public Integrity Law, as flagrantly unconstitutional.
The Constitutional Court is the only state body that the Noboa government does not control. The National Court of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office have supported the government by implementing lawfare against the opposition, especially Rafael Correa’s Citizen Revolution party, while failing to investigate any of the signs of corruption in the current government. These include million-dollar contracts with companies owned by Noboa’s relatives, new mining concessions that also lead to his relatives, 48 generators purchased to provide electricity, of which 30 are not compatible with the Ecuadorian system, and the scandal of the contract with Progen for the electrical system, for which USD 149 million was paid without results, leaving open the possibility that last year’s 14-hour daily blackouts will be repeated.
On September 16, in Cuenca, the country’s third largest city with 800,000 inhabitants, the largest environmental march in the country’s history took place: 100,000 people marched against the Loma Larga mining project in the Quimsacocha area, which would put water sources for agricultural and human use at risk. The project had been suspended by a local court for failing to comply with prior consultation and environmental requirements.
On September 19, Noboa ordered the National Electoral Council, by decree, to organize a National Constituent Assembly without seeking the opinion of the Constitutional Court, which constitutes a violation of the Constitution and was interpreted as an attempted coup d’état. The Court admitted five constitutional challenges and the execution of the decree was blocked, although the CNE quickly launched the call for elections for the Constituent Assembly.
At the time of publication of this article, the national strike called by CONAIE continued after 20 days, with support in several cities, especially from students. Roadblocks, protests, and shutdowns are spreading throughout the country, but are strongest in the Sierra, where the Indigenous movement is the main actor in the popular camp.
Tanks and military vehicles repressed the protests in the province of Imbabura, even firing on unarmed Indigenous communities. The Minister of Government, Zaida Rovira, said that it was a humanitarian convoy “ambushed by terrorist structures”. The convoy arrived without prior warning while all internet communication was interrupted, and there is no terrorist group linked to the incident. Efraín Fuérez was killed by the military in a nearby area. A Spanish journalist reporting from the area, Lautaro Bernat, was deported.
At least 100 people have been detained and 10 are missing. On September 26, twelve detainees were sent to one of the maximum security prisons where a prison massacre had taken place the day before, killing 17 people. These massacres have been repeated even with prisons under military control since 2024. These people were falsely accused of terrorism and of having criminal records. The government has frozen the bank accounts of popular leaders and organizations without a court order, claiming without evidence that the strike is being financed by the Venezuelan drug trafficking organization, “Tren de Aragua”.
The former president of CONAIE, Leonidas Iza, leader of the 2019 and 2022 uprisings, suffered an attempt on his life by agents of the National Intelligence Directorate on August 18, 2025. Four children from a suburb of Guayaquil were tortured and extrajudicially executed by the military in December 2024. The level of authoritarianism is such that the US State Department itself denounces it in a report that points to serious human rights violations in Ecuador between 2024 and 2025. International reports show that since 2024 there has been an increase in crimes of abuse of power in the execution of official duties, torture, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions.
Noboa’s response to the Constitutional Court’s rejection of the two laws was, on September 30, to send a new urgent economic law to facilitate donations to the National Police and the Armed Forces.
There are no negotiations with the actors on strike. Faced with demands for more democracy and state investment, the government responds with austerity, increased repression, and a communication strategy that seeks to establish the false narrative that all protesters are criminals and/or terrorists. In line with this, on October 8, the presidential guard, after attacking an Indigenous demonstration in the province of Cañar, broke the windows of the presidential motorcade’s vehicles and then claimed that it was an attempt to assassinate the president. This would be the first time that an attempt has been made to assassinate a president by throwing stones at the presidential motorcade, which is protected by the military, police, and private security, who had been warned about the protest by the mayor days earlier.
Pilar Troya Fernández is an Ecuadorian anthropologist with a master’s degree in gender studies and a researcher at the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. She was an advisor to the National Secretariat of Planning, an advisor to the National Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation, and Deputy Secretary General of Higher Education in Ecuador. She currently resides in Brazil.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool, September 30, 2025
…
The flag-waving and standing ovations point to a rigged conference — with many delegates “deluded,” as one speaker from the floor at the Morning Star’s packed fringe meeting put it. Labour has become a hostile environment for the left — many socialist MPs stayed away, and the defeats inflicted on the government — such as over Palestine — were down to affiliated unions, not constituency party representatives.
Inside the hall many seemed to think compulsory digital ID cards were a brilliant policy, though it is almost impossible to find anyone who supports it in the real world. On the streets of Liverpool few had anything good to say about the party, and the mood of the protests at the conference gates — both the far right’s sizeable Sunday rally and the demonstrations for worthwhile causes such as opposing cuts to disability benefits — was grimmer and angrier than in previous years. There is real hatred for the government from the right, from the left, and among people who do not consider themselves political.
The disconnect is a product of Starmer’s most consistent political attribute — authoritarianism. Here is a leader who, unable to persuade Labour members to support his march to the right, used suspensions and expulsions to force it on the party, banning constituency parties even from debating contentious issues. Rule by fear has been extended to the country now he is in power — with mass arrests of peaceful demonstrators and a bid to decapitate the peace movement by charging its most prominent leaders. His withdrawal of the Labour whip from MPs who dare to stand up for their principles shows an unprecedented intolerance for dissent.
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Supporters rally ahead of a Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) May Day rally at City Hall on May 1, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
“As the US braces for more extreme heat, wildfires, and hurricanes, the Trump administration has been systematically defunding our communities to give handouts to billionaires,” said one organizer.
A broad coalition of progressive organizations on Thursday announced that they are uniting for a mass mobilization event aimed at taking on the billionaire class.
The upcoming Make Billionaires Pay marches, scheduled to occur nationwide on September 20, link together multiple crises—ranging from authoritarianism to the climate emergency to US President Donald Trump’s mass deportations—by pointing the finger at the ultra-wealthy oligarchs who have been supporting them all.
Candice Fortin, US campaign manager for climate action organization 350.org, said that billionaires are the connective tissue that links together the major problems currently facing the United States and the world.
“This isn’t a new story—billionaires have always prioritized profit over people,” Fortin said. “This is a system working exactly as it was designed, but now without even the pretense of justice. As the US braces for more extreme heat, wildfires, and hurricanes, the Trump administration has been systematically defunding our communities to give handouts to billionaires. They’re dismantling our democracy, attacking immigrants, and feeding the war profiteers.”
Tamika Middleton, managing director for Women’s March, also emphasized that today’s crises are closely linked together.
“Women, migrants, queer and trans people, and communities of color have long been at the center of overlapping crises, from climate disaster to economic injustice to gender-based violence and forced displacement,” she said. “These are not separate struggles; they stem from a global system designed by billionaires who exploit our struggles to maintain power.”
Organizers said that these planned actions will focus on advocating for taxing extreme wealth, ending Trump’s mass deportation program, and transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
The marches are being convened by Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), Women’s March, Climate Defenders, and 350.org, and more than 100 other organizations have endorsed them so far.
The flagship march is set to take place in New York City at the same time the 2025 United Nations General Assembly will be taking place. Other marches are set to occur simultaneously across the country.
Orcas discuss Donald Trump and the killer apes’ concept of democracy. Front Orca warns that Trump is crashing his country’s economy and that everything he does he does for the fantastically wealthy.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers his keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool, September 30, 2025
