Article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“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.”
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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.”
Verso Books, Malm’s publisher—including of his 2025 book The Destruction of Palestine Is the Destruction of the Earth—said in a statement Friday that it is “shocked and disturbed by the Labour government’s decision to ban one of our leading authors.”
“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.”
Article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
