The event, planned for October 20, was to expose how Western media amplify Israeli propaganda while silencing voices documenting Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Instead, the Press Club is reportedly considering Israel’s ambassador, retired IDF lieutenant-colonel Amir Maimon, as a replacement speaker, a move critics say perfectly illustrates the very censorship and bias Hedges intended to discuss.
Amid an ongoing genocide in Gaza, where more than 278 Palestinian journalists have been killed, many deliberately targeted, the Press Club’s decision to silence a veteran war correspondent while platforming a representative of the Israeli occupation underscores a disturbing alignment with state propaganda.
It signals a betrayal of journalistic ethics and Australia’s public right to hear unfiltered truths about Israel’s war crimes.
Rather than promoting balance, the National Press Club has chosen complicity, showing that press freedom ends where Israeli interests begin.
The BBC has just run scared from Green Party leader Zack Polanski’s truth-telling. Despite interviewing othermajorpartyleaders around the time of their conferences, Laura Kuenssberg refused to do the same with Polanski. And the Green leader has suggested this is because of his strong anti-genocide stance.
Polanski has criticised the Labour government’s intensifying crackdown on people’s democratic rights in recent days. So the BBC‘s decision to de-platform him looks very much like complicity in this draconian behaviour.
Why are Kuenssberg and the BBC scared of Polanski?
Polanski called the BBC out himself:
I'm Jewish. I'm also Mancunian.
Every other national party leader was interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg during their conference.
Maybe the BBC thought as someone who also supports Palestine – I had nothing to say?
It’s easier for the BBC to silence smaller parties when our awful electoral system does that too, of course. Because Labour got one MP for every 23,000 votes in 2024’s general election, for example, while the Greens got one MP for every 485,000 votes. So our system considered a Labour vote to be over 20 times more valuable than a Green one. That’s why we’ve ended up with Labour dominating parliament (holding 63% of its MPs, despite getting only 33% of the votes) and Greens holding just 0.6% of MPs despite getting over 6% of the vote.
No excuse
But that doesn’t excuse the BBC‘s cancellation of Polanski’s interview at precisely the time people around the country need to hear his voice. Because as he said last week, the government is conflating opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza with last week’s synagogue attack in a dangerous attempt to suppress freedom of speech. And the BBC‘s silencing of Polanski’s voice allowed this to continue unchallenged at the worst possible time.
Wish I could say I was shocked, but here's the Labour government constraining the right to peaceful protest again…
'You can protest but only according to our rules. The rules are: you're not allowed to use any of the tactics that make protest effective.' https://t.co/mrxYHYx55s
Amazing that "un-British" is now being used to describe anything the Government wants to ban. I mean, it's not like there isn't a really sinister precedent here, with the term "un-Deusche Wesen" (un-German character) being used to justify burning books on or about 10th May 1933. pic.twitter.com/WP8WvQ49Q2
I had to leave the Green Party Conference early today to visit the mosque that was firebombed in Peacehaven. It's times like this we've got to come together as a community to stamp out hate and those thay seek to divide us. pic.twitter.com/sUqOQ8jEv2
Amid what genocide experts, international legal scholars, and humanitarian organisations have overwhelmingly called genocide in Gaza, Green members also agreed on the need to hold the army responsible (Israel’s IDF) to account as the terrorist organisation it is:
A Green government would proscribe the Israel Defense Forces as a terrorist organisation.
The forces currently actioning war crimes and genocide upon the people of Gaza on behalf of the Israeli government.
Clearly, the BBC can’t be trusted to fairly report on the actual political alternatives people have in this country. Good thing the Canary is about to call the fuckers out.
West Yorkshire councillors Jakob Williamson and Stan Bates spoke to the Canary ahead of a regional Your Party rally on 8 October. They told us about the issues their constituents are facing, and how they hope Your Party will help to deal with them. They also urged people organising Your Party to pull together and ‘leave their egos at the door’.
Williamson and Bates parted ways with the Labour Party earlier this year. And in August, they formed a ‘Unity’ group on Wakefield Council along with fellow councillor Peter Girt. In a statement, they announced their intention to participate in Your Party’s efforts to build a new left party:
‘The enthusiasm is there. We just need unity and focus.’
In a recent Your Party meeting locally, Williamson said there was “a lot of optimism about a new party launching”:
We’re enthusiastic. And people are just wanting the party to get set up, and so people can crack on, leafleting, canvassing
Speaking about his hopes for the party, he added:
I’m not joining something that’s a carbon copy of the Labour Party structures.
He called for the new party to be “a nimbler organisation and a little bit more streamlined”, with less internal discussion and more focus on being “a campaigning force”:
That time we used to spend in the Labour Party having arguments with the same people could be spent engaging with the local community
Bates agreed, opposing “echo chambers and talking shops” where “good ideas just went to die”. And while “there’ll be hiccups” with setting up a new party, he said:
I think we’ll get there. Because there’s just massive support for it.
Williamson added that he didn’t really care about what had been going on behind the scenes, stressing:
everybody just needs to pull together and make it work now… If we’re gonna let egos or whatever else get in the way of this historic chance to set up an alternative, then those who are leading on it have failed us, basically… Leave the egos, leave the factionalism, at the door. I don’t care about it. Let’s just pull together, and let’s just get on.
The project is bigger than every individual, he insisted:
If we let this fail, … we’re letting millions of people across the country – who desperately need a new political vehicle to improve their lives – down. And to be honest, if people let this fail, it’d be unforgivable… I’d never forgive them for it at all.
Council housing is a key issue to hammer home
What local people care most about, Williamson stressed, are “economic issues”. A new party needs to address those and, on top of that:
affordable housing has to be a cornerstone
Bates said that building council housing worked well in the past, and the economic argument makes perfect sense. It creates employment, stimulates the economy, and houses people. “That’s my top priority,” he insisted, and Williamson agreed. Bates remembered how, when he was younger:
I came out of the army. I got a council house. No problem… I got a mortgage from Wakefield Council. No deposit. And I bought my house under that scheme. We need to bring things like that back… There was plenty of council housing, and even the lowest-paid worker could afford to live
Times have changed thanks to increasing privatisation and worsening workers’ rights, he pointed out, but:
There’s no economic argument for what we’re doing, unless you want to make the billionaires even richer. That’s the only motive behind it, innit?
And he reminded us that even the Tories didn’t mess with nationalisation until Margaret Thatcher came along. It was a moderate, mainstream reality. But now, media and political elites ridiculously treat public ownership as “extreme hard-left policies”.
Williamson added that how we argue for change matters too, saying:
we need to speak the language… of ordinary people, and just address the real issues. There’s a lot of distractions at the minute, whether it’s with the flags and stuff like that. We just need to focus on the core priorities – cost of living, people needing a roof over their head.
Sort public transport out
Bates asserted that:
Public transport’s a big issue around here as well. The buses are atrocious.
He worked “for the bus companies” in the past before full privatisation. And he said that, while it wasn’t perfect:
It was just far better, more reliable, cheap fares
Williamson added that:
municipal bus ownership needs to be a factor in the new party as well. We should be owning these services, providing public services owned by local authorities, democratically controlled, so passengers and workers have an input into that. That’s the only way we’re going to improve things.
That would help to sort out the problem of “poor wages, poor conditions, such as poor pensions and working time”.
And the issue of privatisation feeds into other issues the council deals with too.
The problem is austerity, privatisation, and lack of accountability
Speaking about the council, Williamson stressed:
we have no real influence, because we’ve outsourced everything… Wakefield’s outsourced a lot of services which don’t always make sense… it goes to the heart of democracy, really
He lamented that:
I think Wakefield’s lost about 50% of its grant funding from central government over the last 15 years
Apart from saying we need to “look at how councils can raise money themselves”, he also called out the wastage of money via private contracts. He said:
we seem to have a bit of an ‘outsourcing by default’ sort of mindset in the council.
With one contract he’d looked at, he explained:
nobody had done any detailed financial work, any impact assessments, any full options appraisal, no cost-benefit analysis, just nothing at all. So the question is, how do you know this is the right decision for the council?
And he added:
There’s definitely some element of wasted money.
Bates, meanwhile, slammed the lack of scrutiny from councillors, many of whom “don’t want to put any effort into this”. He said:
It’s a massive problem. It’s the culture that’s developed over the years… Nobody asks awkward questions
Your Party needs to “put wealth and power back into the hands of ordinary people”
Both Bates and Williamson argued against careerism in politics. Williamson insisted in particular that the new party should be “more rigorous in who they’re selecting” as candidates. These should be real trade unionists and:
people who’ve been active in the community, whether it’s running food banks, whether it’s running a local kids’ nursery group or whether it’s a litter-picking group or something like that. We need people who’ve proven themselves in wanting to deliver for the local community.
He said the party should also campaign for “mandatory recognition of trade unions” in the workplace, adding:
we need a party that, at its heart, is going to seek to radically transform society and put wealth and power back into the hands of ordinary people, and away from the millionaires and billionaires. That’s what I’m looking for in this new party.
Bates is on the same page, and stressed that the “core values” need to be investment in sorting out “council houses, public transport, utilities”, because that “just makes economic sense”.
What is the government’s job? To fight for the soul of the nation? Usher in an era of ‘patriotic renewal’? Or scapegoat minorities? You’d think so, given the noises of Westminster party HQs.
I’d prefer them to run the country well. That begs the question, run the country in whose interests?
The major political parties have no interest in fixing the UK’s real problems
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are quite clearly running the UK in the interests of Blackrock, Palantir, and the Tony Blair Institute (TBI). They also gave a £21.7bn subsidy to three oil giants, BP, Eni, and Equinor to extract more fossil fuels. Then greenwashed it as ‘carbon capture and storage’.
What about Kemi Badenoch? I’ve no idea. No one pays her any attention. Not even her own party.
Nigel Farage has no interest in fixing Britain, or even talking about it. The last thing he wants is Reform’s competence under the microscope. Its plan to slash public spending by an extra £50bn will destroy local government. Reform MPs voted against workers’ rights. Its manifesto proposed reducing job security.
But before you dismiss Reform voters as gullible, please admit that Labour voters were conned too. So were Tory voters who backed Boris’s “oven-ready Brexit” and plan to “level up the North”.
Yes, it was obvious to anyone who looked that £350m a week for the NHS was a jar of magic beans. But anyone shocked at the winter fuel allowance removal should have seen the warning signs when Keir Starmer abandoned his ten pledges.
No plan, other than to scapegoat marginalised communities
I keep hearing that hard times push people to vote for the far-right. What I don’t hear is an explanation of that mechanism. Austerity has been around since 2010. Millions of people have struggled since the financial crash in 2008. Foodbank Britain has been around for years. Why the 16-year delay?
Rational concerns about falling living standards are being turned into irrational fears about foreigners. Framing it as an issue of control is an incoherent position. But who’s out there being coherent? If your choice is Labour or Reform, who looks the most consistent? Frankly, neither of them makes much sense.
People feel insecure. They are worried about the future. ‘Growth, growth, growth’ is meaningless to parents unable to get their child a SEND appointment. Disabled people worry about having their support payments being cut. We currently live in a country where newly qualified GPs can’t get a job while people are screaming out for GP appointments.
We need honest, brave, and *actually* competent leaders
Patriotism is about pride. It’s about feeling your group is strong. In control of its destiny. And Starmer looks weak. Weak for accepting £2,000+ glasses and £15,000 suits. He looks weak for answering every question with word salad platitudes. He certainly looks weak for letting water companies walk all over us. And, weak for selling Britain to US tech-bros.
It is deep in human psychology to choose leaders who will fight to defend us. I’m not advocating international affairs be settled by single combat. Although as a 3rd dan blackbelt in jiu jitsu, I’d represent us well.
But given the choice between one with a backbone and one without, people will choose the leader who comes out swinging. Even if they know he’s a fraud, a la Farage.
British people want leaders they can be proud of. We’re not after perfection. Just honest, brave and competent. Is that too much to ask? In Majority, we’re building a progressive alliance to bring forward exactly those people for next year’s council elections. You’ll get training and support. Message us via the Majority website if you want to take a stand.
If the government want to show some patriotism, take water back into public ownership. It would cost nothing. Simply enforce the fines. Jail directors according to the law – two years for serious pollution. Share prices would drop to zero. And for once, the government would look like it has a backbone.
Last weekend saw community groups from across the country come together, for networking and focused workshops, to arm themselves with the tools and resources they will need to ensure bottom-up, community politics have a stake in the new socialist Your Party we are building.
Transform event: grassroots gather to push Your Party forward
Groups in attendance spanned the entirety of the UK, from Enfield, Islington, Brighton and Hove to Huddersfield, York and Glasgow. Diversity and inclusion were on full display at the Transform convention in Birmingham. Five representatives from each group were invited to attend so that each group could immerse themselves in the workshops and networking groups on offer, maximising the rich value of the resources and discussions shared.
It was also the first time that Zarah Sultana and a member of the Independent Alliance other than Jeremy Corbyn, have shared a stage, signaling that leadership was healing the open wounds made visible in the last couple of weeks. Ayoub Khan, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, joined Zarah in speaking to all the activists in attendance about what we are building and how we will break through in our hometowns.
Salma Yaqoob, a prominent local voice in Birmingham and a proud NHS worker, spoke about the importance of the threats the left are fighting against: the rise of fascism and hate in our communities and the fear that is being felt by minoritised people. Drawing comparison to social movements in the past, Yaqoob reminded those in attendance of the victories won by previous civil rights movements and the historic nature of the grassroots organisation across the country.
Enfranchising people is what democracy should be all about
Ayoub Khan delivered a strong speech providing a sense of stability. Khan spoke of how he was able to secure his majority, by making sure that every voter knew that their vote mattered, regardless of the media narrative and any sense of futility in a vote for anyone other than an establishment party. Khan argued that his assertion to every voter, that all he cared about was that he had their vote, was what broke through the mentality that only an establishment MP can win in a first-past-the-post electoral system. This speaks to the inherent principle in the Your Party movement that we need to enfranchise people back into our democracy, and ensure that they recognise that their voice and vote matters.
Zarah Sultana spoke last, giving a rallying, energising speech, stressing the vital importance of grassroots groups in holding leadership accountable, demanding transparency and true change with a seat at the table for communities across the country. Sultana argued that this party should not be “led by MP’s in Westminster”, but instead, be led by its members in a one-member, one-vote system, urging members to maintain pressure on the leadership and executive.
This suggests that the concerns raised nearly two-weeks ago about a threat to the nature of the party we are building, the pursuit of a truly democratic party representing the interests of the majority, likely remain.
A real party of the masses
Finally, Anwarul Khan, national organiser for Transform, detailed the itinerary for the day and the objectives for those in attendance. Specifically, these were listening to each other to learn from each group and to share strengths and weaknesses to better empower the much-needed influence of grassroots socialist groups in the formation of Your Party.
Speaking after the event, Anwarul said:
Wow, what a day! Given the events of the last few weeks, whether it was the fallout in Your Party or the far-right marches, the flags, the rape of a young woman by racists or the shooting of a 9-year old with pellet guns for being ‘brown’; the convention has been a welcome recharge….. We saw hundreds from all over the UK, coming together from dozens of groups representing thousands of activists and members. I was determined that this would be a peer to peer event, where we the people on the ground that are actually doing the work, got to talk, and importantly be heard. We managed to be there at the right time and I feel it’s given the movement and party the pep it needed to get going again. I have already had numerous other groups contacting me to get involved in the network of local groups we have been developing. Now representing approximately 20-25% of the constituencies in the UK, this really feels like what Your Party is; a Party of the Masses.
Transform organised a number of workshops for activists and members to attend, with focused topics. These included increasing voter turnout, how to be an elections agent or organiser, analysing electoral data, community outreach strategies, and fundraising. These also delved into the weaponisation of antisemitism, engaging with the Muslim community, best practice for communicating with the news media, and effectively using social media for local engagement. There was also a network meeting for groups organising for Your Party, strengthening the connections made across the country.
Community democracy ‘has to be at the heart’ of Your Party
After speeches, I asked Zarah Sultana directly as to the perceived importance of the work that grassroots groups are doing, the permission given to the leadership, and how vital local organising will look on the road ahead:
Community democracy has to be at the heart of what we are building, otherwise it will look, or operate functionally, like any other party. Unless we have democracy, how can we honestly say it’s not a ‘Labour 2.0’… it cannot be a top-down model where the power of the party is concentrated in the hands of 5,6 MP’s. As people who organise locally, we know the knowledge, experience and skillset that our communities have, they should have the power. We have to be a vehicle for that. People might feel better because there’s a new party, but eventually the cracks will show that democracy isn’t at the heart of this, and people will be very angry. That’s why it’s important to address these issues now, as annoying and frustrating as it is, you can’t redo member democracy further down the line. It’s really important we are honest about that, and that we get it right.
Ayoub Khan was also asked about the importance of community level organising and importance of transparency:
I think from my perspective, and many residents here in Birmingham, the enthusiasm is around making sure this ship is on track and seeing that journey through, that is priority number one. Where you have issues and teething problems, and because there is this drive for local elections, those problems need to be dealt with in parallel and that journey is key.
Transparency is paramount. I am a firm believer, as are the other Independent Alliance MP’s, that honesty, integrity, and especially transparency, is very important if you want buy-in from communities. I think the public at large are so disenfranchised by the old politics, where decisions are made behind closed doors, and the people are not truly participating in that democratic process. We hope in the coming weeks and months that will become very obvious.”
With groups across the country reporting feeling sidelined and “instrumentalised” in the rollout of regional assemblies and the lack of access to local membership data, it is clear that there is a renewed focus and importance on protecting the interests of local communities, ensuring that those who do the graft actually get a seat at the table, redistributing power from the few to the many, once and for all.
Community assemblies have become more and more a part of grassroots organising in the last couple of years, with the aim of people-powering a democratic revival. And new Green Partyleader Zack Polanski gave us his thoughts on events like assemblies and how to really make them count.
Zack Polanski: we need to do politics ‘with’ people, not ‘to’ people
Zack Polanski was positive about assemblies, insisting that “bringing people together and having conversations” is “really important, and I want us to do more of that”. But he also asked:
What do you do with that information next? … How do you then turn that into changes that happen in your communities so we can help turn the country around town by town, village by village, city by city, and that transforms the country?
And his perspective is clearly in favour of the way things work in the Green Party, where they:
have one member one vote, so any member can create policy, get other members to sign it, bring it to our party conference and then it’s voted on by the party membership.
If that fails, members can “find a more consensus-building way” to get support for a similar idea.
He stressed that he’s seen this system bring together “working-class communities, disabled communities, migrant communities, LGBT communities, people who often feel like they don’t have a voice” in a place where they have an equal voice, and this represents “real access to democratic grassroots power”. He added:
not only is it important, I think it is the only way we’re gonna stop fascism, because actually people feel like politics is done to them, rather than with them.
‘Don’t just notify. Consult!’
Zack Polanski gave a specific example of how failure to consult can actually empower the right further, saying:
when there’s actions that need to happen for climate – like low-traffic neighbourhoods, for instance – if people aren’t properly consulted, and if they’re not brought in from the very beginning, it’s very easy for the right to then weaponise it as ‘no one’s listening to you’
And he stressed:
Let’s make sure that we’re not falling into that mistake, and making sure from the very beginning people aren’t just notified, they’re actually consulted.
Speaking about what he’s learned from going around the country and talking to ordinary people in the street, he said:
The less you talk, the better it is. Just keep listening. And then if you’re asked a question, obviously, answer the question, but it’d be better to ask a question and just be quiet.
In our latest CanaryPod joint podcast between the Canary’s Ed Sykes and Collective’s Sean Halsall – leader of Southport Community Independents (SCI) – we discuss how corporate elites have shifted the goalposts of what ‘normal politics’ is to the point where far-right extremists look likely to win the next general election.
CanaryPod: episode 3
This CanaryPod edition is all about how ‘what’s normal’ has shifted so far to the right in recent decades.
After World War Two, the British public expected politicians to focus on building and protecting a system that ensured their wellbeing. But as Margaret Thatcher‘s Tories took control in the late 1970s, that changed. An elitist offensive convinced the public it was ok to destroy communities, attack workers’ rights, and sell off public services. And Tony Blair proved this idea had gravely infected the Labour Party too.
Media and political rhetoric around the ‘War on Terror’ then divided people even more by dehumanisingMuslim communities and further fostering hatred and distrust of ‘the other’. Meanwhile, the power and wealth of the super-rich kept increasing. And in the 2007/8capitalist crash, politicians bailed out bankers who’d gambled with the whole global economy while forcing devastating cuts onto ordinary people, killing tens of thousands in the process. As Halsall said:
I don’t think people would have allowed it at any point in history if they understood what was happening.
But most didn’t.
The Overton Window theory says the public see some policies as acceptable, and some as unacceptable. That determines what ideas politicians can propose or get away with while still keeping hold of power. And by 2008, powerful elites had made bold pro-human projects like post-WW2 NHS-building seem unthinkable.
In situations like this, Halsall stressed:
people instinctively know that they’re being screwed over, but don’t quite have the language to verbalise how it is they’re being screwed over, or why, or by who.
People who can harness that anger and inspire resistance have the power to shift the Overton Window. And Jeremy Corbyn did that from 2015 to 2019, once again normalising centre-left proposals of actually funding public services properly and stopping corporations from bleeding them dry. But the super-rich lied and schemed to stop this and put establishment voices back in control of Labour. At the same time, their cynical weaponisation of antisemitism allegations combined with years of Islamophobic propaganda to prepare the ground for Britain openly backing Israel’s genocide in Gaza. We’re living through this reality because, as Halsall insisted:
what was on the fringes of the right before has now been pushed to the centre and become normalised in society.
Corrupt elites against ordinary people
What mainstream media and political voices say is normal, however, is not necessarily what ordinary people think is normal. The British public overwhelmingly wants nationalisation of key services, for example. Three quarters want higher taxes on the super-rich, like a wealth tax. 60% want a fairer voting system, with most people now opposing single-party rule in particular. Over half of the British public oppose Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. And perhaps because we rarely hear any of that from our establishment politicians or journalists, trust in politicians and governments is at a record low, while trust in the media is plummetingtoo.
On issues like nationalisation, Halsall stressed:
the mainstream media will just tell you it’s a terrible idea
And he lamented that:
there’s so many people… in politics who… will just change their principles and core values for the sake of making sure they’re personally okay… It’s depressing to see the political class filled with these people who should be nowhere near politics… it just devalues and undermines everything democracy’s meant to be about. And is it any wonder that people have just lost faith in politicians of all ilks?
Far from amplifying ordinary people’s views, however, the increasingly right-wing political and media establishment hasnormalised far-right figure Nigel Farage. The millionaire Thatcherite doesn’t represent the interests of his Brexit-voting supporters, whose areas austerity hit the hardest. But the mainstream media has helped to create an Overton Window where Farage and his racist scapegoating diversion tactics are the centre of gravity.
Change the media. Build community power.
Supporters of a new left party want democracy and decency, a focus on public services and tax justice, and investment in housing and future sustainability. Even supporters of the ruling Labour Party want a focus on the NHS and the economy. Very few of the above will want politicians and the media to keep limiting their narrow focus to hatred and division. But these establishment forces won’t back down without a fight.
If the left is to stand a chance of fighting back, Halsall asserted, we need to:
get better at working together, sharing ideas, and helping each other where we can. Because as soon as they’re done with refugees and immigrants, it will be everyone who believes in socialism and having an NHS and things like that.
He added that community-building is the key to challenging what establishment forces want us to see as ‘normal’, saying:
Building communities is the only way you combat fascism. Community, knowing each other, getting along together, that is the quickest way to dispel this idea that any of us have actual differences that mean anything…
If your neighbours are Muslim and come eat, they pop around, bring you some food and stuff, you’re probably not gonna hate those people. So as soon as people are humanised, we have interactions with people and communities back, and we can all operate together. Because we are so much more successful at looking after ourselves and supporting each other than the state will ever be….
Whether you’re Muslim, Christian, gay, straight, trans, you need a house, you need food, and good, secure work, or a benefit system that supports you… The people exploiting us are the ones telling us to hate each other. Maybe they’ve got something to gain from that.
He also stressed the importance of changing the media landscape too, insisting:
We need a different story. And it’s places like the Canary where we’re gonna get that story from. You’re certainly not gonna find it in the Murdoch press. So yeah, support all independent left-wing journalism in the UK. We need it more than ever!
Laughter is the kind of wholesome and unifying thing the world needs more of. But not when it serves to whitewash the war crimes of dictatorial regimes. And that’s why comedians are calling out their peers’ participation in the “world’s largest comedy festival” in Saudi Arabia.
As the Canary has reported, the chauvinist Saudi regime commits countless human rights abuses. It has strong links to the non-state terrorism of groups like Al-Qaeda and Daesh (Isis/Isil). It created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen via a brutal bombing campaign, leading it towards Earth’s worst famine in a hundred years. And it played a key role in the destructive escalation of the Syrian civil war. Indeed, before the US-Israeligenocide in Gaza, Washington’s lucrative support for Saudi Arabia was possibly the best proof that the empire had no interest in human rights or democracy in the world.
Now, Saudi rulers want us to just laugh about it all.
Don’t laugh at the regime, though…
Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka rejected an offer to help whitewash the Saudi regime’s crimes. And she shared an image showing the type of censorship performing comedians would have to submit to:
Indeed, organisers fired comedian Tom Dillon after he “joked on his podcast about Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record”. He had transparently said “they are paying me enough money to look the other way”. Other comedians, meanwhile, joined Okatsuka in rejecting high-value offers.
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), however, seems to be hoping that his aggressive bankrolling of “high-profile events featuring major international artists, celebrities, and sports figures” will whitewash his regime’s abuses.
HRW researcher Joey Sheasaid performing comedians who don’t call out Saudi Arabia’s abuses:
risk bolstering the Saudi government’s well-funded efforts to launder its image
just one small example of how, over a longer period of time with enough of these events, with enough of these high profile investments, this whitewashing strategy is incredibly effective.
A number of comedians have slammed their peers for participating. Zach Woods took a satirical shot, saying:
Name one comedian who hasn’t whored themself out to a dictator
He added, sarcastically:
Ugh, what a cock block Human Rights Watch is for comedy!
I was not offered the gig but it should go without saying that there’s not enough money for me to help these depraved, awful people put a “fun face” on their crimes against humanity.
He added:
I am disgusted, and deeply disappointed in this whole gross thing. That people I admire, with unarguable talent, would condone this totalitarian fiefdom for…what, a fourth house? A boat? More sneakers?
And he said:
I don’t understand how being rich can make someone such a whore. Poor people desperate to improve their (or their families lives), sure. Still not acceptable but I can understand the desperation to put food on the table. But this? I mean, it’s not like this is some commercial for a wireless service or a betting app. This is truly the definition of “blood money”. You might as well do commercials for Lockheed Martin or Zyklon B.
The only way people may forgive performing comedians, he suggested, is if they use their platform to take a shot at the regime with a comment like:
Alright, so it’s great to be here. I’m gonna be killing it tonight! But in the good way! Straight up. No MbS.
Moldova went to the polls on Sunday in what officials in Chisinau and Brussels have called a “milestone on the European path.” Yet with opposition parties banned, observers blocked, and voters in key regions sidelined, the election is being described less as a democratic contest and more like an attempt at forced pro-EU outcome.
Moldova went to the polls on Sunday in what officials in Chisinau and Brussels have called a “milestone on the European path.” Yet with opposition parties banned, observers blocked, and voters in key regions sidelined, the election is being described less as a democratic contest and more like an attempt at forced pro-EU outcome.
Moldova went to the polls on Sunday in what officials in Chisinau and Brussels have called a “milestone on the European path.” Yet with opposition parties banned, observers blocked, and voters in key regions sidelined, the election is being described less as a democratic contest and more like an attempt at forced pro-EU outcome.
Watchdogs can’t watch
The Moldovan Central Election Commission (CEC) last week denied accreditation to more than 30 international organizations and 120 observers from over 50 countries. Among those barred were Russian experts nominated to the OSCE’s official mission – a first in European electoral practice.
Moldova’s foreign ministry claimed the decision was taken “in line with national law.” The Patriotic Bloc, an opposition alliance, accused the authorities of deliberately creating an observer blackout. Its lawyers listed applications from reputable NGOs in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and the US that were ignored or rejected.
Moscow called the move a “blatant breach” of OSCE commitments and summoned Moldova’s ambassador. The EU, usually vocal and critical of democracy standards in the region, remained conspicuously silent.
Parties erased by decree
Elections are meant to let citizens decide. In Moldova, key players were simply removed from the ballot.
• On September 26, two days before the election, the Heart of Moldova party was suspended for 12 months by court order, accused of money laundering and illicit campaign finance. The CEC struck all Heart of Moldova candidates from the Patriotic Bloc’s list. Its leader, former Gagauzia governor Irina Vlah, called it “a political spectacle.”
• The same day, the CEC barred the Great Moldova party, led by Victoria Furtuna, citing undeclared foreign funding and links to the already banned SOR party. Furtuna had already been sanctioned by the EU in July for receiving support from fugitive oligarch Ilan Șor.
• In June 2023, the SOR Party itself, led by exiled businessman Ilan Shor, was dissolved by the Constitutional Court, accused of corruption and “threatening Moldova’s sovereignty.” Pro-EU Moldovan President Maia Sandu celebrated the ban as a victory against “a party created out of corruption and for corruption.” Opposition leaders called it the end of pluralism.
The bans came on top of sweeping new laws rushed through parliament this summer, allowing the government to strike “successor parties” of banned groups from the ballot and to bar their members from holding office for five years. The Venice Commission and OSCE warned such blanket exclusions could violate basic political rights.
Rivals under investigation, in exile or behind bars
Even where parties survive, their leaders have been sidelined.• Igor Dodon, Moldovan president from 2016 to 2020, remains under criminal investigation for treason, illicit enrichment and the notorious “kuliok” bribery case. He claims the charges are fabricated, but has been under house arrest for much of the past two years.
• Marina Tauber, vice-chair of the outlawed SOR Party, is being tried in absentia after fleeing to Moscow in early 2025. Prosecutors are seeking a 13-year sentence for fraud and money laundering. Tauber insists the trial is political revenge for her role in anti-Sandu protests.
• Evghenia Gutsul, elected governor of the autonomous Gagauzia in 2023, was sentenced in August to seven years in prison for allegedly funneling Russian funds to the SOR Party. Her supporters protested outside the Chișinău courthouse as she declared the verdict “a sentence not on me, but on Moldovan democracy.” Russia called her jailing politically motivated; the EU has stayed silent.
With opposition leaders jailed, exiled or under investigation, Sandu’s PAS faced little organized challenge at the ballot box.
Transnistrian voters pushed aside
For Moldovan citizens in the breakaway region of Transnistria, the chance to vote was slashed. In 2021, over 40 polling stations were opened for residents east of the Dniester. This year, just 12 stations were approved – all on government-controlled land, many kilometers from the demarcation line.
Days before the election, the CEC even relocated four of those sites further inland, citing security threats. The Interior Ministry warned of possible bomb scares and provocations in the “security zone.”
Critics call it voter suppression. Russia’s ambassador Oleg Ozerov described the changes as “unprecedented,” noting they were announced less than 48 hours before election day. Transnistrian authorities accused Chisinau of deliberately reducing turnout in a region that leans heavily toward opposition parties.
By contrast, more than 300 polling stations were opened abroad, including 73 in Italy, where the Moldovan diaspora numbers some 100,000, and only 2 in Russia, where up to half-a-million immigrants from the EU candidate country reside, according to the interior ministry in Moscow – a disparity that hints at the government’s priorities.
Team members of independent media outlet Declassified UK have sent a letter to parliamentary authorities calling out the rejection of its application for a press pass. The motive for parliament’s decision seems to be Declassified‘s work exposing UK complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. And the outlet called this:
a flagrant and partisan attempt to suppress investigative journalism.
Internal emails reveal that officials cited our “in-depth investigations… from a particular standpoint”, when rejecting our application.
They also flagged a recent investigation we published that raised concerns over pro-Israel bias in Westminster.
First, the authorities claimed that “space and capacity” had driven their decision. But as the Declassified letter asserted:
documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal there is no limit to the number of press passes that can be issued – and that capacity was not even discussed as a consideration.
It added that:
Other reasons for rejecting the application were clearly bogus, including a claim that Declassified’s focus on UK foreign policy does not count as “politics”.
“Partisan interference” weakens democracy
The letter, which over 3,000 people have now signed, insisted that:
a diverse and critical media is vital for UK democracy and accountability.
It also called for an urgent review of the decision and the way parliament processes future applications in order to “avoid any partisan interference”.
Without Declassified‘s reporting, there would be even less information in the public domain about the extent of Britain’s involvement in the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza. Because the outlet has consistently reported on the role RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus has played in supporting Israel’s decimation of the occupied Palestinian territory. And it has regularly exposed the shady manoeuvres behind the British state’s draconian crackdown on anti-genocide activists, and the Israel lobby‘s role in particular.
Declassified is exactly the kind of outlet we can trust to hold politicians to account in a meaningful way. So if we want true democratic accountability, we should all get behind them and force the political establishment to let them in.
Andy Burnham arrived at the Labour Party conference to annoy Starmer purely by breathing, again. The mayor of Greater Manchester told the audience at a Guardian fringe event that he’s absolutely double-dog dare definitely not running for leader, then continued to say a lot of things in opposition to the prime minister, who everyone hates.
Andy Burnham lays into Starmer’s Labour at conference
Among other things, he wants to scrap not being able to use disabled bus passes before 9.30am, called out MPs losing the whip, and essentially challenged Starmer to outlive him.
I don’t think there is any prospect of rejoining any time soon but I do think you call out what has put the country in this position.
When asked if he wanted to rejoin the European Union, he replied:
Long term, I’m going to be honest, I’m going to say it… I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin. People prosper more when they’re part of unions.
This comment is in direct opposition to his definitely not leadership opponent, prime minister Keir Starmer, who last year said the UK would not join the EU in his lifetime. At 55, Burnham is eight years younger than Starmer, so he essentially just really weirdly challenged the prime minister to outlive him?
Not standing for Labour leader? Probably…
Burnham also denied launching a bid to be the new leader of the Labour Party, but didn’t deny that there’d been conversations where other MPs asked him to challenge Starmer. He also essentially said the Telegraph were shit-stirrers and that his interview, where they all but announced his leadership bid, was:
overwritten, and inaccurate in some respects.
Asked about his supposed leadership bid, Burnham simply said:
I can’t launch a leadership campaign, I’m not in parliament, so that is the bottom line.
Which isn’t a no. He did, however, call out the ridiculousness of MPs having the whip suspended for disagreeing with the government, such as voting against benefit cuts.
He said:
If the party is being run in a factional way, it won’t be able to benefit from having a range of voices working together.
However, seemingly his main motivation for not becoming PM is that he’d have to live in London and that it was a: “mistake to assume I’m desperate to go back there”.
As a northerner, that’s something we can agree on.
Activists from Climate Resistance have projected demands for wealth taxes at venues across Liverpool. The group lit up the city with its demands to coincide with the start of Labour Party conference.
Labour conference lit up to send a clear message: abolish billionaires
The guerilla projections, which illuminated buildings including the Liver Building and Albert Docks, demanded a “wealth tax now”:
Another called for Labour to “fund climate action”:
One projection made clear that Labour is not the party of the left:
Instead, it has been serving the interests of wealthy capitalists at every turn. Given this, Climate Resistance sent a message to the billionaire Labour backers calling the shots:
Labour needs reminding who it’s there to serve
The group’s action joined others ramping up calls for a wealth tax on the rich. On Monday morning, youth campaigners from Green New Deal Rising added their voices to this outside Labour’s conference. With ‘Rachel Reeves’ double in tow, the group enacted a mock Autumn Budget scene. Reeves’s doppelganger stood between two red budget boxes, one reading “billionaire’s budget”, the other “people’s budget”.
The top 10% in the UK hold more wealth than the rest of the population combined. According to YouGov, three quarters of Brits support a wealth tax.
Sam Simons, spokesperson for Climate Resistance, said:
It looks like the government has forgotten it is supposed to serve the people rather than company profits, so we decided to give them a little reminder. The alarming rise of the far right we’re witnessing right now is a direct result of the government’s cowardice in facing up to the real source of our problems: the profiteering of the super-rich at the expense of us all. Our bills are rising, our NHS is crumbling and our future is overshadowed by the threat of a climate breakdown. The only way forward is to tax extreme wealth out of existence and use the resources to fund public services and climate action.
On 26 September, Keir Starmer announced that his historically unpopular Labour government was resurrecting Tony Blair’s failed Digital ID policy. It was hard to see what could go wrong: the least trusted people in parliament pushing through the most suspicious policy for the least credible reasons. Despite this, the petition to stop Digital ID is already one of the most signed in UK history at over two million signatures:
Keep this number in mind, because we’re going to show you how much that went up by between us starting and finishing this piece.
Debate incoming on Digital ID thank to the petition
We demand that the UK Government immediately commits to not introducing a digital ID cards. There are reports that this is being looked at.
We think this would be a step towards mass surveillance and digital control, and that no one should be forced to register with a state-controlled ID system. We oppose the creation of any national ID system.
ID cards were scrapped in 2010, in our view for good reason.
The petition is hosted on the UK Government and Parliament site. We have a system in the UK where any petition which reaches 100,000 signatures on the official site must be debated in Parliament, meaning there is some genuine weight to this.
As far as we can tell, the petition is currently the fourth largest in history, with the top three being:
‘Call a General Election’ relates to the current Starmer government, and was debated in January this year. The government did not decide to dissolve itself in response, but they have done an excellent job dissolving their credibility ever since.
Having breezed past two million, this is clearly a huge issue for the British public. Elements of the media are having a hard time grasping this monumental backlash, however:
Journalist Lewis Goodall doesn’t seem to understand that petitions aren’t mass participation events like elections, so you would never expect to see a majority of the country signing one. That’s us being charitable, by the way, as Goodall has also been pulled up for this:
Anyone covering/interested in digital ID would be well advised to look for insight on it anywhere but X. Yet another example of where this site/online right opinion is fevered/way off the beat with the public.
Guess who need digital/reliable ID most? Those in poverty.
Digital ID is backed by Tony Blair and and mega-billionaire Larry Ellison, with the New Statesman recently looking at the unseemly links between these people and the Starmer government:
Since 2021, Larry Ellison’s personal foundation – the Larry Ellison Foundation – has donated or pledged at least £257m to the Tony Blair Institute, making it a think tank like no other in the UK.… pic.twitter.com/xsOM09MyJb
A new YouGov survey shows that most Germans now believe Israel is committing genocide. This view challenges their government’s decades long position of unconditional support for the Israeli occupation, which is rooted in Germany’s dark Nazi past but now weaponised to crush any dissent and justify complicity in mass atrocities.
Israeli occupation’s right to ‘self-defense’: an obsession of German government
After the horrors of the Holocaust, where six million Jews and five million ‘others’ – including disabled, Roma, and gays – were murdered, Germany vowed ‘never again’. But over the decades ‘never again’ has become a state doctrine that elevates Israel’s right to self defence and security above free speech, civil rights, and even human life in Gaza, evolving into what many see as a government obsession.
In the aftermath of the Nazi holocaust, West Germany enshrined Israel’s security into national identity through the principle of Staatsräson, or ‘reason of state’ – meaning it is a top national priority deeply connected to Germany’s responsibility for its past crimes, and in the 1952 Reparations Agreement Germany agreed to pay billions in compensation to the newly established Israeli state. Eventual diplomatic relations in 1965 marked the start of the ‘special relationship’ between the two countries. This belief that defending Israel honours the memory of the Holocaust victims still drives much of Germany’s political agenda today.
Unwavering support for Israel at the heart of Germany’s foreign policy
This has meant that successive German governments have placed the Israeli regime at the heart of their foreign policy. In 2008, Angela Merkel told the Israeli parliament that Israel’s right to exist is just as important to Germany as it is to Israel itself, and she called this support “fundamental and non-negotiable”. Most recently, chancellor Olaf Scholz and the current chancellor Friedrich Merz, who last week had a criminal complaint filed against him for aiding and abetting the Israeli occupation’s genocide in Gaza, have said the same. For many German leaders, supporting Israel is not just about history but supposedly about preventing past horrors from happening again, and they wrongly see Israel as a safeguard against those dangers.
This unwavering support comes at a great cost to the freedom of those living in Germany who are shocked and disgusted about the ongoing genocide in Gaza and outraged about the Israeli occupation’s system of apartheid and land theft in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and take to the streets demanding change from the German government.
Clampdown on anything pro-Palestine in Germany
Things have become much worse since October 2023, with the country dramatically clamping down on pro-Palestinian activism and political expression. Authorities have equated dissent with antisemitism, banning demonstrations, and arresting protestors, including many for carrying Palestinian flags or chanting slogans such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, labelling these actions as ‘terrorist support’.
But this repressive environment extends beyond policing protests. Events, exhibitions, and awards have been cancelled over statements made by people who are critical about the Israeli occupation. This includes the barring of the UN’s Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, twice, from holding public events in Germany.
In the case of Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian-American journalist and founder of the Electronic Intifada, the German government threatened him with fines and up to one year in prison for speaking at the ‘Palestine Conference in Exile’, via Zoom, accusing him of violating German laws. Despite a legal order banning him from participating, Abunimah gave the speech anyway.
Anti-Zionist Jewish activists have also seen their bank accounts frozen, and the state has aggressively surveilled and harassed civil society groups that operate within the Palestinian solidarity movement.
No funding for any organisations or projects critical of the occupation’s crimes
In November, 2024, the German parliament also passed a controversial antisemitism resolution, known as Never Again Is Now: Protecting, Preserving and Strengthening Jewish Life, which mandates that authorities assess culture and scientific projects for ‘antisemitic content’ before granting funding. The resolution, which uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism – that anyone who criticises Israel is antisemitic – is meant to ensure that:
no organizations or projects that spread antisemitism, question Israel’s right to exist, call for a boycott of Israel or actively support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement receive financial support.
But the real reason for this resolution is to silence critics of the Israeli occupation.
Migration control has been transformed into a weapon of political repression, with foreign nationals who express Palestinian solidarity or criticise Israeli government policies continuing to face deportation or threatened with losing residency, with national security arguments masking political motives. This has raised serious human rights concerns not just about Germany’s treatment of these migrants but also about the erosion of freedom of expression and association, which end up marginalising Palestinians and Arab-Germans in society.
Germany complicit in genocide
Germany has been an accomplice to the occupation’s genocide in Gaza from the beginning, as it remains one of the Israeli occupation’s closest economic and military allies, and is the second largest arms exporter to the regime, after the US, with export licenses between 7 October 2023 and 13 May 2025 with individual export licenses for the final export of military equipment to Israel holding a total value of almost £425 million. This included firearms, ammunition, weapon parts, special equipment for the army and navy, electronic equipment, and special armored vehicles.
Though Chancellor Merz announced a partial halt to approving arms exports to Israel in August 2025, Germany has since implemented a more comprehensive freeze, with no new export licenses granted to Israel from that point through mid-September, effectively stopping new military deliveries that could be used in Gaza.
But the government continues with existing contracts and broader defense ties remain, showing Germany’s ongoing commitment to Israel’s security. This limited embargo has increased criticism both in Germany and abroad, and highlights the widening gap between German public opinion, which points to an increased awareness and empathy for Palestinians – and largely condemns Israel’s actions as genocide, and official state policy.
German government stance doesn’t represent public opinion
According to the YouGov poll, only 19% of German voters expressed positive or somewhat positive views on Israel – marking a steep decline in recent months, while 62%, across all parties, believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This shift shows there is growing anger over the Israeli occupation’s military actions, and disagreement with the German government’s absolute backing. A poll has also found that more than half of Germans support recognising a Palestinian state.
Al Jazeera’s recent documentaryGermany’s Israel Obsessionshines a light on these tensions, while journalist Antony Loewenstein, draws on his own Jewish heritage, to explore how Germany’s overwhelming focus on combating antisemitism has been used to silence Palestinian solidarity, criminalise activists, and cancel cultural events.
The result of this Israel obsession is that the space for open discussion and honest debate is getting smaller all the time, and risks Germany moving away from democracy and more towards authoritarianism – all while hiding behind the excuse of protecting its historical responsibility to the Jewish community.
Over the weekend, we had a timely reminder for why we need to break the top-down model long held in our democracy, pushing instead for bottom-up politics where our leaders are informed by and responsible to the members of the grassroots organising groups popping up across the country. We also saw a clear, real-time example of the power that ordinary people can have in holding leadership to account, seen in the statement put together through Transform’s network of allied community groups, resulting in a change of rhetoric from Your Party co-leader, Zarah Sultana.
It is clear that leadership have been at odds with each other, seemingly due to a lack of collaboration, communication and transparency, instead busy playing tug of war politics. In contrast, groups across the country shared their concerns together, often with differing views as to who was ultimately responsible, but all united in their call for the leadership to be grown-ups, sit around the table and talk to each other, with respect and integrity.
Your Party: a microcosm of top-down versus bottom-up politics
This breakdown in relations at leadership and executive level, responded to by a show of local and collective leadership, reaffirms why such a mass movement is so crucial for safeguarding our democracy. Decentralising power, instead spreading it across the mass membership of this movement, is the only way that top-down corruption or abuse of power can be prevented.
The Sortition Foundation, which champions citizen assemblies, says:
Citizens’ assemblies are an innovative and powerful way to make political decisions. They break the hold of career politicians on decisions, and bypass the powerful vested interests that often exert undue influence on policy outcomes.
Most groups on the ground are engaging in this process in the spirit of inclusion, diversity, respect and understanding. There is no gatekeeper mechanism deciding who is allowed to get involved, speak or organise in the movement, but instead determined by respectful, collaborative working to focus attention on local issues and actions, discuss national issues, and setting expectations as a collective. This is fostered through an ethos of listening to understand, rather than to respond, ensuring all topics can be discussed and all voices can be heard.
However, the same tired battle seen at leadership level is also one we can see at grassroots; one of ownership and control.
Gatekeeping stifles local organising
For example, one northern red-wall town has shown that these age-old instincts to dominate and control the political discussion will stifle local organising. One member’s personal views of who should be allowed in and which perspectives, largely influenced by destructive identity and personality politics of the right, has led to a gatekeeper effect. This has left many feeling excluded and unable to engage with this person, as when there is disagreement, instead of working to understand others’ differences, it has led to repeated messages making others feel harassed and intimidated.
This has resulted in two separate pages for Your Party organising, and one member arranging a public meeting without collaboration from other local socialist activists, resulting in currently only one person confirmed to attend the first public meeting for their town. When this issue was confronted, requesting a more collaborative and inclusive approach to organising, the response received was that politics was ‘nasty’ and if they don’t like it, they shouldn’t be in politics.
This clearly is not sustainable for a mass-membership party of the working class, and will only provide further ammunition for the far-right to diminish the effectiveness of socialism. This movement cannot be about dominating the conversation, but about facilitating discussion and debate, to understand issues from a variety of perspectives.
Couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery
At a time when every member is deeply concerned about the threat of Reform and the far-right, this lack of cohesion at a local level must be prevented, particularly in areas of high deprivation and inequality where ordinary people are left feeling forgotten, disenfranchised and demoralised.
These voters are prime for Reform’s deliberate incitement of that anger, despite there being no real solutions offered by Reform to tackle these systemic issues in our society. Your Party has an opportunity to engage with these voters on a personal level, in their communities, alongside their neighbours and fellow citizens, to offer the very real solutions that only socialism can provide.
On the ground, parish councils are facing a potentially huge increase in Reform councillors, due to the policy of hiding their party allegiance, instead standing as Independents ‘concerned about their community’.
In Culcheth, a parish council in Warrington North, Independent borough councillor Neil Johnson has chosen to personally attack other elected representatives on other parish councils, causing considerable anxiety and fear for other candidates. This has led to a local parish election with no left-wing candidate on the ballot, with even right-wing Labour deciding not to stand a candidate due to the fear of harassment.
So how do we fix it?
Ultimately, it is important to remember that the true leaders of this movement are the communities that empower the party, itself. Until communities elect local leaders, if they choose to do so, there should be no single person or entity gatekeeping or dictating what must be believed in order to come to a public meeting. Instead, it should be centred on the values and principles inherent to a socialist movement; compassion, understanding, equality and respect.
If we can’t respect others by hearing their perspective, we cannot expect others to hear our own with that same respect. We must learn from what has come before us, and what we are witnessing now in our divisive, polarised politics; hate breeds hate, distrust breeds distrust. Whereas, if Your Party leads with respect and compassion, we are more likely to foster that in communities up and down the country, taking oxygen away from the fire that Reform are working hard at setting alight.
It is exactly this broken, abusive and aggressive style of politics that needs to be consigned to the past. Playground antics and bullying have become normalised, notably since David Cameron’s debate with Ed Miliband in 2015, growing increasingly more abusive every year since.
It could be argued that this rhetoric has opened the door to the far-right and the assumed mentality that ‘might is right’, further mirrored by Trump, Musk, Netanyahu and other far-right actors. In order to close that door, Your Party groups, and its leadership, must provide the antidote through collective, democratic ownership of this new socialist party, strengthening respect and compassion in our communities through active listening to understand people’s anger; not shut them out.
We wake daily to new spectacles of violence and humiliation: kidnappings in broad daylight, attacks on unions, LGBTQ people, women, and immigrants, the erosion of long-cherished rights. It’s no longer a tricky question whether we have tipped into authoritarianism. The answer is yes.
To fight back, we have to confront what the Trump administration is exploiting: fear.
We are living in fear, cowed by it. Each workplace and free speech crackdown, each violation of democratic norms, feeds on the paralysis that fear produces. Fear is the fuel of authoritarianism. Democracy is its antidote. But all around us is evidence of how thoroughly democracy has been hollowed out—and it didn’t start with Trump. Democracy is its antidote. But all around us is evidence of how thoroughly democracy has been hollowed out—and it didn’t start with Trump.
After witnessing “huge positivity and hope for the future” at a local Your Party public meeting last week, independent organiser Khalid Sadur says there are still questions about how things are going to work going forwards.
‘Community campaigning as the bedrock of the new political party’
Sadur is the leader of Enfield Community Independents (ECI), which has been organising since 2024 against the local council’s Labour-Tory axis. He received Jeremy Corbyn’s endorsement in a low-budget challenge to the local political establishment last year, and now represents the main opposition to Labour-Tory domination in the area.
Speaking about the recent Your Party meeting in Enfield, Sadur told the Canary that:
ECI hosted a Your Party Enfield public meeting bringing together nearly 200 people from all parts of the Borough; inclusive of community groups and people of all ages, backgrounds and faiths. Corbyn himself pre-recorded a special message outlining the importance of community campaigning and this being the bedrock of the new political party.
The evening clearly highlighted the need for something new and resident-led in the Borough. The complete dissatisfaction with the current Labour council was clear but there was no real appetite to revert to the Conservatives either.
Criticising how “for far too long in Enfield, councillors have seen elected office as a status symbol and a means to a political end”, he said the area needs:
true representative democracy where councillors are engaged with their local area and are answering emails and solving problems for residents.
With this mission in mind, he asserted:
The meeting ended with huge positivity and hope for the future, especially with the local council elections coming up in May.
‘Unprecedented grassroots involvement’ and remaining questions
Speaking about the “thousands of local assemblies and regional rallies” Your Party is planning before November’s founding conference, and the plan for members to contribute to party documents, Sadur stressed that:
Grassroots involvement on this scale is unprecedented, culminating in a one member, one vote at conference for all those in attendance, either in person or online.
And in the interest of building “a proper alternative” nationally, he said, “we look forward to residents taking part and getting involved”. He added:
For too long, politics has been seen as something done to people rather than constituents actually taking an active part.
While “the nature of the consultations being planned is encouraging”, he asserted, some questions remain. For example:
Will Enfield Community Independents fold into the new Your Party or will it just maintain an affiliation at a local level?
Can people sign up and be members of both?
How will the local Your Party assemblies work and who will attend the 13,000 strong founding conference?
Sadur hopes there will be answers to these questions in the coming days and weeks. But in the meantime, the organising in Enfield will continue.
Carla Ferstman On 7 January 2025, almost 9 months ago, former Presidential candidate in Venezuela and Essex alumni Enrique Márquez (He graduated from the University of Essex with a masters’ degree in Electronic Systems Engineering in 1994), was arrested by unidentified armed men. He has remained detained ever since with only minimal communication with his […]
I gotta get back to doing stand-up comedy. I mean the **** is so smelly and deep no matter where you look. Don’t you just love those countless television and radio commercials showing Americans how those lovely corporations are there to help you? I mean, everything being sold, even healthcare and medicines, is there to make our lives better. Thank God they haven’t yet taken away the listing of side effects on most of the drugs Big Pharma insists we need to take in order to live. (Of course, there are cases when a [slight] percentage of us are in quite dire straits, in actual life and death struggles). How about those commercials where everyone taking the newest miracle drug dances around with each other like they did on VE Day 1945?
The car commercials are great. Especially when the average price of a new car or SUV or pickup truck is well over $50k, or with a BMW or Mercedes well over $70k. Factor in the overwhelming number of working stiffs out there, duh, like 90% of us, who have trouble affording a $20k used car. The bandits in corporate Amerika have the whole deck rigged when $20k a year covers about six month’s rent for so many families. We haven’t even gotten to health care costs yet:
A few years ago my wife, who was not yet eligible for Medicare, was costing us $7k a year in hospitalization insurance premiums. For the first time in her life she gets a kidney stone. Knowing how much an ambulance costs ($ 600-700 for the ride over to the ER) she was in so much pain she could not literally get out of bed. Between the ambulance and the ER charge ( and let me say that everyone involved in caring for her, from the paramedics to the nurses and doctor, were top shelf human beings). The next month we get a bill for over $2500 as Blue Cross only paid like $400 or $500 of the $3000 visit to the ER. You see, technically she was not admitted to the hospital, only to the ER. Blue Cross was shrewd enough to call their plan Hospitalization, so we got squat!
It seems like the politicians, from both parties, have copied the accident attorneys with their mantra: “I’m out there fighting for you!” No boxing gloves needed for these jokers. We should know by now that the Republicans are only out there fighting for YOU when they send undocumented laborers away from their **** jobs. They are fighting to keep the top bracket of Americans (duh, like less than one percent of us) from paying their fair share, as the rest of us pay through the nose for housing, food, clothing, doctor bills etc. Let’s call a spade a spade (No pun intended). The Republican Party has a history of making sure that people with black (and now brown) skin don’t live near us white people or go to school with our kids… except the high school football and basketball stars who they find a way in. Now, the Democrats, who say they “Feel your pain,” with 10% few exceptions suck up to their corporate or billionaire donors and turn a blind eye to the needs of us working stiffs. Instead of fighting to stop funding phony wars and other foreign interventions, they go right ahead with this empire. Lip service is what they decide to give us.
So, that is why this writer says you must be careful where you step when you walk outside of your little cocoon.
As it does every 11 September, Catalonia’s independence movement commemorates the date in 1714 when Catalonia heroically lost the war against Castile and was subjugated against its will.
Its institutions, which were more democratic than those of Castile, were abolished. Its respectful confederalism between Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Country and Aragon became a simple and impoverishing dependency on Madrid. Its Catalan language, with its rich literature and lively popular use, was banned and persecuted. Trade with the Mediterranean gave way to the conquest of America; thousands of Catalans were humiliated by being forced to destroy their own homes and thousands more were mercilessly murdered.
Catalonia has never accepted this situation and has always wanted to regain its full sovereignty, but it has suffered constant imposition and repression. Now Spain is part of the EU and claims to be a democracy, so it would not be appropriate for it to bomb and subjugate Barcelona as it has done in the past. For this reason, since 2010, a powerful independence movement has emerged which, every 11 September, has organised the largest mass demonstrations in Europe. This 11 September, three large demonstrations were held across the territory: Barcelona, Girona, and Tortosa.
Catalonia’s independence: young people are rising up
These demonstrations, despite being massive and unthinkable in other parts of the world, had two notable features. On the negative side, there was slightly less turnout than before the 2017 referendum (this can be considered normal given that there have been 15 consecutive years of mass demonstrations). And on the very positive side, more and more young people are demonstrating:
These are young people who were unable to vote in the 2017 referendum, but who are deeply convinced that Catalonia needs to break free from Spain if it is to survive and have a better future. They clearly perceive that the Spanish state considers us its property and treats us like a colony.
The independence movement must find a way to overcome Spain’s refusal to allow a democratic solution (because they know that Catalonia would vote to leave). Spain wants to force us to remain part of its state, something that is unjustifiable in a democracy.
At the same time, we are also disappointed with the EU, which has allowed Spain’s abuse. Spain is trying to marginalise the Catalan language so that Spanish ends up being the language spoken in Catalonia. It is also strangling the Catalan economy, reducing funding for Catalan infrastructure and social services, coercing Catalan politics, prosecuting pro-independence activists, organising clandestine operations to defeat Catalan independence, illegally spying, infiltrating police into social movements.
All this makes a political solution seem more complicated, but at the same time, it makes Spanish imposition unbearable, especially for young people. And many people already live mentally outside Spain, oblivious to the unifying elements of banal Spanish nationalism.
Spain cannot hold Catalans captive
The fact is that Spain does not want to resolve the conflict, but rather wants us to accept the status quo as inevitable. However, we Catalans are the descendants of one of the greatest medieval nations that ruled the Mediterranean, and our desire for freedom is unshakeable. That is why, despite the continuous waves of migration that have arrived in our country, recently at some of the highest rates in the world, this immigration has been successfully integrated into Catalan society rather than diluting it and causing the Catalan language to disappear.
Sooner or later, Spain will have to accept that it cannot keep Catalonia captive against its will. The desire for freedom of Catalan nationalism, which is resistant, would be reason enough to justify the need for freedom, but in addition, Catalan society has ways of being and doing things that are too different from those of Madrid, where, around the monarchy and an aggressive and domineering Spanish nationalism, an extractive economic class is articulated that vampirises the entire state for its own benefit.
That is why it is important to know that Catalonia will not stop fighting until it achieves freedom.
We recently asked Your Party supporters what their priorities were for a new left party. And five key priorities shone through.
Amid Your Party’s growing pains, it’s more important than ever for ordinary supporters to make their voices heard and to keep our focus where it needs to be – on pulling together to create a better country and a better world.
An analysis of the comments we received shows five main areas people want Your Party to focus on. These are:
Democracy and decency
NHS, education, and public welfare
Housing
Tax justice and redistribution
Sustainable economy and climate
1) Democracy and decency
A mix of 14 years of Tory rule and the corporate capture of the Labour Party has understandably destroyed people’s trust in establishment politicians. That’s not just on the left. It’s across the political spectrum. Ordinary people feel too often that the political class ignores their opinions, and many now understand that our electoral system is a big part of the problem. As one person said:
Inequality, electoral reform… many things need addressing but initially focus on inequality that resonates with most people.
To try and break free from our highly unequal system, people want more participation. They want to shape policies directly. And they want measures to prevent and punish bad behaviour from politicians. A number of people, for example, called for rules to end corrupt and immoral behaviour from MPs (like, for example, supporting genocide), opposing both second jobs and money from corporate lobbyists. One comment said:
Proportional representation, the fairest system that can be devised. Cap individual and corporate political donations, and ban donations from foreign states and individuals with close ties to foreign states. Cap election spending – and enforce the rules! Within the party, mandatory reselection for all elected representatives.
Another insisted:
All elected representatives at any level are free from the cost of sponsorship that buys influence. A party of peace not war. Elections and selection at local level and policy comes from a manifesto passed at conference. 1 member 1 vote.
We currently have a corrupt government of liars, which is supporting war crimes abroad while repressing peaceful protests at home and attacking disabled, immigrant, and LGBT communities. And many Your Party supporters desperately want an inclusive and compassionate organisation, which completely severs the toxic link between politicians and war profiteers in particular. For them, fighting for democracy and transparency are essential for ingraining ethics and empathy into the transformation they want to see.
Your Party supporters are passionate supporters of a public NHS. Indeed, many people see it as the number one priority to renationalise it and fund it properly. As one person said:
For me the NHS is a priority. Stop the privatisation. Health should not be a commodity
Another added:
We need our publicly owned, publicly funded, free at the point of use NHS to be reinstated with adequate numbers of properly paid, fully qualified staff. We need more beds and proper funding with private elements removed. For the UK to have a healthy economy it first and foremost needs a healthy workforce. Plus a national pharmacy, as Corbyn planned, to stop big pharma ripping us all off.
There were also calls to expand it to include better mental healthcare and social care.
In short, people want to see an end to private profiteering in our public services.
Build truly affordable housing. Re-establish a meaningful social housing base with local government responsibility.
Another stressed:
Social housing has to be high on the list, waiting lists are horrendous, people are having to wait years on end, can’t afford to buy and private rented is too expensive for families on a low income.
Another added:
Major Home building program – Good quality social housing with affordable rents.
The issues of rent controls, taxation of second homes, and limits on landlord profiteering all came up.
4) Tax justice and redistribution
The question of how to actually fund public projects for the good of the country also came up. People mentioned countless ideas, including a wealth tax, financial transaction tax, and the closing of loopholes and tax havens. One person suggested this should be a key focus for a new left party:
I’d want it to be fundamentally about re-distributive taxation. Yes tax wealth and tax it heavily, but also put very high taxes on high incomes.
Another insisted:
Simple message – ‘Tax wealth not work!’
There is a lot of economic inequality in Britain. And it’s clear there are many ideas out there on how to distribute wealth more healthily. Some think those in the 2017 and 2019 manifestos of Jeremy Corbyn‘s Labour Party were already on the right track. Others think progressive economists should actually play a role in the new party. But the desire for more economic equality is strong.
5) Sustainable economy and climate
People also highlighted that it’s the capitalist profiteering and inequality that’s been driving so much destruction in the world. And there was a strong sentiment that caring for the planet more is part of caring for ourselves and our own future. As one person said:
tackle climate change for heavens sake and plastic pollution, bee killing chemicals, undersea mining, over fishing, the task is huge if we are to save the planet let alone the NHS
Another pointed out that meaningful climate action needs to target the people running and benefiting the most from the current economic system:
By all means let’s clean up the state of the world but not by taxing the people, by taxing the corporations polluting the planet.
A different person stressed the urgent need to address the current dynamic between humans and the planet, insisting:
we ARE nature and the health of the natural world and the health of us human mammals are the same thing… There is more than enough evidence out there, showing that the multiple and interlinked crises, we face come back to this root cause of separation and disconnection to ourselves as nature.
Listen, engage, and unite
It’s important to mention that, in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of people who signed up to support the creation of a new left party, the comments we received were a drop in the ocean. And the most accurate representation of what all of those supporters want will be when they vote on the new party’s policies.
Social media is its own world. But it gives us a snapshot into how people are thinking. It shows us the hope, creativity, empathy, and wisdom that so many ordinary people have. It also reveals their disappointments and frustrations. And too often, it can bring the worst out of people, intensifying distrustful or unempathetic behaviour. But listening to each other and connecting with each other is vital.
If we look past the negativity we stumble across, we can find real inspiration. And the more we connect, the more we can agree on a common cause. We want meaningful democracy, quality public services, a stable living situation, an economic system that’s fair, and a world that’s worth living in. Sure, there’ll be some disagreements on the details. And there are other issues of concern on top of these. But in the knowledge that the rich and powerful will do everything in their power to defeat or undermine the left, we must maintain focus.
Utopia isn’t just around the corner. It’s on the horizon, and we need to build the path towards it brick by brick. But it’s too far away for us to build it alone. We need to work together – respectfully. And empowering each other and engaging with each other is an important first step.
Thank you to everyone who responded to our request for comments. There were many excellent contributions, and we really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts. You can see all of them here.
No CCF Government will rest content until it has eradicated capitalism and put into operation the full programme of socialized planning which will lead to the establishment in Canada of the Cooperative Commonwealth.
— 1933 Regina Manifesto
During two months of campaigning to lead the NDP we’ve questioned the foundation of our economic system more than all branches of the party over the past few years. But our position has deep roots in the NDP/CCF and is more relevant than ever as capitalism destroys the prospect for human survival.
In a recent hit piece labelling me a “perennial gadfly” National Post columnist John Ivison mockingly noted, “Engler is campaigning on a platform to abolish capitalism.” At the more liberal end of the corporate press, Toronto Star reporter Mark Ramzy buried my candidacy in a long piece devoting significant attention to the more capital friendly contestants, simply noting I was running “for the leadership on an anti-military and anti-capitalist platform.” The Western Standard, Queen’s Journal, Rebel, Left of the Box and others have all described me as an anti-capitalist candidate and hundreds of thousands have read or watched my launch commentary, releases and videos saying I’m running to challenge capitalism. In recent days thousands of “capitalism can’t be fixed” leaflets and posters for the Toronto launch of a ten-city national tour have been distributed.
Aside from this recent flurry of anti-capitalist rhetoric, it’s remarkable how little discussion in NDP circles there has been of our wealth-concentrating, ecologically destructive economic system. But challenging capitalism is more important than ever.
Capitalism is a system of minority and class rule that is based on the private ownership of the means of livelihood. Capitalist collectives (corporations) have socialized labour while operating as privately owned workplace dictatorships that centralize power in the hands of a small elite.
Capitalism is a threat to humanity. The system’s need for constant profit maximization and growth is imperilling human survival. The last three years were the hottest in 100,000 years and CO2 levels are the highest in millions of years. Canadians have among the highest per capita GHG emissions, yet Canadian capital continues to expand its heavy GHG emitting tar sands extraction.
It’s not just the climate crisis. The search for corporate profits is driving mass species extinction, soil depletion, ozone layer thinning, loss of arable land, freshwater depletion and other ecological crises.
Capitalism is imperilling our ability to live on the planet but it’s also destroying our health. The growing health impact of plastics, a late twentieth century corporate invention, is a case in point. Researchers have found that most of us now have as much as a small spoon worth of plastic particles in our brains.
Capitalism also damages our mental health. Incessant messages to buy this and buy that are destabilizing. A staggering amount of resources and ingenuity are devoted to convincing us we need this or that (always more) to be satisfied.
At the same time as it wages a war on our psyche, capitalism alienates us from our labour. It devalues work, generally paying the hardest working people the least. In recent years Canadian capital has waged an unrelenting war on working class organizations, driving Canada’s private sector unionization rate to its lowest level in 80 years.
As capitalists attack unions, the system concentrates wealth in the hands of an ever-smaller elite few. Canada’s wealthiest family, the Thompsons, have nearly $100 billion. Canada has about 75 billionaires, who control more wealth than millions of Canadians. According to data from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the richest 1% of Canadians hold 24% of the country’s total net wealth while 53% of all wealth is held by the top 10%.
Wealth concentration is a threat to democracy. Through their ownership of shares, large shareholders have an excessive amount of power within the political system. They buy political parties, own the media, fund think tanks, organize themselves in business lobby groups, amongst other things. In short, they try to mould societies’ political, cultural and economic structure to their benefit.
But my campaign does not just criticize capitalism. It offers an alternative.
One dollar one vote capitalism should be replaced with one person one vote economic democracy. Wherever there’s social labour, there should be community ownership and workplace democracy.
As my late uncle Allan Engler argued in Economic Democracy: The Working Class Alternative to Capitalism the required social change should “be based on workplace organizations, community mobilizations and democratic political action; on gains and reforms that improve living conditions while methodically replacing wealthholders’ entitlement with human entitlement, capitalist ownership with community ownership and master-servant relations with workplace democracy.” (You can watch my father’s series of videos called Economic Democracy or No Democracy — An Anti Oligarchy Manifesto seeking to popularize the themes.)
And these ideas are clearly growing in popularity.
In its first ten days of fundraising my bid to lead the NDP on an anti-capitalist platform has raised over $55, 000. Additionally, we’ve more than doubled the nomination threshold to participate in the leadership race with over 1,000 party members, covering all the party’s regional, equity and age requirements, signing my nomination form.
Despite fulfilling the nomination and financial criteria, there’s a possibility the party brass will block me from the race. But even those who don’t plan to vote for me should reject this type of anti-democratic manipulation. All but the most reactionary party members should want capitalism to be on the agenda in the NDP leadership race.
This is the CCF/NDP tradition. According to the 1933 Regina Manifesto, the aim of the party is to “REPLACE the present capitalist system” while the 1969 Waffle manifesto says, “Capitalism must be replaced by socialism.”
If I’m not allowed to participate in the race don’t expect much discussion of capitalism. If I’m allowed to run expect everyone in the race to be questioning the odious economic system by the end of it.
Pride in Labour will hold a rally titled ‘Conference Cancelled, Democracy Denied’ outside the Wheel of Liverpool on Saturday 27 September. The group will be there to protest at the Labour Party’s disgraceful decision to cancel the women’s conference.
Labour Party women’s conference cancellation: a move to push trans women to the margins
This cancellation is not just a scheduling issue, it is a deliberate attempt by the party leadership to silence women and shut down democratic debate, particularly on trans inclusion. Labour’s leadership has shown contempt for women members, denying them the right to meet, organise, and hold the party to account.
Avery Greatorex, Co-Chair of Pride in Labour, said:
Let’s be clear: cancelling the Women’s Conference is an attack on women, and especially on trans women, who are constantly scapegoated and pushed to the margins. It’s cowardly and authoritarian. Labour’s leadership is terrified of its own members, so it has decided to shut them out altogether. This is not the behaviour of a democratic party, it’s the behaviour of a leadership more interested in control than liberation. We will not be silenced, and we will not let them divide cis and trans women from one another.
The group is holding the protest outside the Wheel of Liverpool at 3.30pm on Saturday 27 September. Pride in Labour is calling on Labour members, trade unionists, community organisations, and allies to join them to demand democracy, inclusion, and accountability from Labour’s leadership.
Momentum continues to build around the Irish presidency campaign of independent candidate Catherine Connolly, with Sinn Féin (SF) coming out at the weekend to give their backing to the Galway West deputy. The announcement from SF leader Mary-Lou McDonald on Saturday means that all significant left-wing(ish) parties now back Connolly’s campaign, with the Green Party, Labour, People Before Profit, and the Social Democrats all voicing their support.
Catherine Connolly: Irish presidency campaign takes off
McDonald said:
We [the party’s executive committee] met this morning and the party leadership voted to support Catherine Connolly for President. This followed extensive consultation with our elected representatives and wider party nationally. We have two priorities to get Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael out of government and to keep them out of the Áras [president’s residence]. Today’s decision allows us to do that.
She went on to say that Catherine Connolly would be a “champion for Irish Unity in our time” and:
a voice for citizens with disabilities, the marginalised, and those too often ignored by those in power.
The Green Party’s Roderic O’Gorman TD (Teachta Dála) backed Connolly’s campaign by saying:
As a Party, we have been particularly impressed with how Catherine has placed advocacy against the genocide in Gaza, and the issue of climate change, at the centre of her election campaign.
The Galway West TD’s political stance is certainly well to the left of her campaign rivals, ex-soldier and Gaelic footballer Jim Gavin (selected by Fianna Fáil) and Fine Gael candidate Heather Humphreys, the latter of whom has attracted negative publicity for attending parades held by the sectarian Orange Order.
Connolly speaking out and standing up for social justice
Meanwhile, Catherine Connolly has spoken out forcefully on issues such as any potential alteration to Ireland’s “triple-lock” system which requires consent from the Dáil, Irish government, and United Nations before Ireland can send more than 12 troops abroad.
She warned of the danger posed by the “warmongering military industrial complex” and said:
We will not give it away [our neutrality], and we will not give away the triple-lock, no matter what lies you [the government] tell us, no matter what narrative you spin, we know what’s going on.
one of Ireland’s greatest strengths, and I will defend it with clarity and conviction.
The former barrister and clinical psychologist has also criticised the failed policies on housing that have stuffed the wallets of landlords but led to homelessness and a lack of affordable homes. She can be seen repeatedly calling for more social housing to be built.
She has also strongly condemned so-called Israel’s genocide in Gaza, refusing to be compromised by the lying mainstream media’s narrative on the topic. On today’s BBC Talkback programme, she refused to rule out Hamas being part of a post-Holocaust government in Palestine, stating that:
Hamas is part of the fabric of the Palestinian people.
A symbolic position, but an important one now more than ever
While the role of president is largely symbolic, the actions and words of the Irish president are closely followed. The stances on Palestine of the incumbent Michael D. Higgins have often attracted worldwide attention, while Mary Robinson’s position as an overwhelmingly popular left-leaning figure – at times her approval ratings were as high as 93% – probably had some role in Ireland’s shift to becoming a more progressive country.
While it may be difficult to see the significance of who sits in place at the Áras an Uachtaráin (Residence of the President) when a generally inoffensive person takes up the role, the potential presence of an overwhelmingly toxic figure as president perhaps brings the position’s importance into sharper relief.
This year saw thug, rapist, and racist Conor McGregor consider a run at becoming head of state, with all the disastrous implications that would mean for Ireland’s reputation. Thankfully, he didn’t receive the support required to begin his reign of terror/idiocracy.
At the official launch event of Catherine Connolly’s campaign this evening at Wynn’s Hotel in Dublin, Labour’s Marie Sherlock said the:
role of president carries immense moral power and influence” going on to say it “has never been more important…in a world that feels like it’s gone mad.
As the planet burns and a genocide rages on, every political role takes on more importance than may have previously been the case.
The times they are a-changin. And quickly. And not in a good way. And it’s scary.
The façade of democracy is being ripped away by politicians who never liked it but lately feel emboldened to admit it. Most important of all, they have begun to act like unapologetic authoritarians. And brag about it. Suddenly the “F word” is on our minds.
According to historian Robert Paxton’s definition:
Fascism is a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.
Based on Paxton’s definition, I developed the following:
Fascism Worry Checklist
If you answer ‘true’ to four or less questions, you live in an ordinary, but likely severely unequal, 21st century capitalist country. If you answer ‘true’ to five and up to seven questions, be worried about the potential for fascism in your country. If you answer ‘true’ to eight or more questions, good luck. And seriously consider joining with other activists in defending the bits of democracy that you have left.
(Answer true or false)
10. The loyalty of the police in defending all people, democracy and the rule of law is in question, at least in part because the far right has significant support inside their ranks.
9. A popular political party pushes the idea that a ‘successful’ strong man, often a billionaire, is needed to lead the nation against its enemies, foreign and domestic.
8. My country glorifies the military. Everyone is expected to react with an unquestioning patriotism no matter what it does.
7. Those who profit from waging war have created powerful lobby groups. Their self-interest is to define rivals as enemies who must be ‘defended’ against, justifying ever increased spending.
6. While external ‘enemies’ excuse militarism, internal minority groups have become targets of hate campaigns to justify paramilitary militias who are supposedly ‘defending’ the nation and its values.
5. Specialists who have been trained in propaganda targeting other country’s affairs and in overthrowing ‘unfriendly’ governments are available for hire by domestic politicians.
4. A mass movement to oppose ‘socialism’ can be easily mobilized by the wealthy to defend their ‘property’ against increased taxes or efforts to reduce inequality and provide better social services.
3. Verifiable, objective truth is ignored by growing numbers of people. Instead, they believe ‘Big Lies’ or conspiracy theories, which are becoming more common.
2. A political movement has been created in which loyalty to a leader above all else is the critical test of party membership.
1. Many ‘important’ people, especially the wealthy, no longer trust democracy or believe in elections and are willing to manipulate results to get their way.
How real is the threat of fascism? At a minimum, the extreme right is a threat to the very limited, mostly one-dollar, one-vote democracy that capitalists allow us. Supporters of the system claim capitalism is integral to liberal democracy, but that is absurd. Everywhere fascism has taken power or grown quickly it is because the wealthy and powerful have thrown their support behind it and against democracy. When forced to choose between their ‘property rights’ and democracy, capitalists choose self-interest, which is maintaining their wealth and power. All over the world rich people are abandoning conservative parties in favour of the extreme right or are pushing the traditional parties of wealth to the extreme right.
I wrote the above for a book that I subsequently turned into 43 videos titled Economic Democracy or No Democracy — An Anti Oligarchy Manifesto for the Your Socialist Grandfather YouTube channel. Suddenly it seems much too topical. Urgent even.
As Your Party hits a stumbling block, grassroots democracy organisation Assemble is stepping up to build a genuine party of the people. And it means one that can win for Palestine, for the climate, and for the people instead of the billionaires.
However, to do so, Assemble will need all hands on deck. It aims to raise £150,000 to train 10,000 volunteers that can run people’s assemblies across the country.
Assemble to the rescue as Your Party falters
Assemble is the sister organisation to Youth Demand and Just Stop Oil that delivers grassroots democracy. It has been in talks with Your Party for months. Crucially, it has been organising on the ground, preparing to deliver a huge training programme to turn local supporters into organisers and facilitators that can run mass assemblies all over the country.
Now the leaders of Your Party, Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn, are at odds, and only just beginning a process of reconciliation between them. Nevertheless, the people are demanding the project goes ahead. Given this, there is no time to wait.
There is a proposal called ‘Our Party’ which suggests a way forward. It calls to:
implement the founding process of regional assemblies and [democratic sortition] Conference as was originally published by Your Party.
Supporters of Your Party can all agree on this – and Assemble is in service to make it happen. In fact, it’s exactly what the group has been doing for the past 16 months with huge success.
Building the movement from the bottom-up
To achieve this, Assemble plans to galvanise over 10,000 people to help facilitate huge regional deliberative meetings. Already, Assemble has been in discussions with Your Party to create the training program to mass upskill the movement and build it from the bottom-up.
When the centre hesitates, the Left must organise. Assemble says that the “deep and empowering” training programme will cost £150,000:
to infuse the movement with a course of more than five trainings on facilitation, community outreach, anti-oppression, assembly culture and assembly organising.
It’s why it has now launched a crowdfund, so that supporters of Your Party can help make its plan a reality.
Importantly, the group has noted that:
All funds will go to building a democratic organisation owned by its members.
As soon as crowdfunds come in, it plans to spend it on:
A ‘Mega Training Weekend’ in October. This will involve 500 trained and 500 trainers
An online training course. Assemble will run regular trainings on facilitation, how to run an assembly, community outreach, respect – and more.
In-person regional training days. These will train 10,000 facilitators to host regional meetings and listen to the input of 60,000 people.
Assemblies at universities with Youth Demand, Your Party meetings, and more.
Your Party supporters: Assemble!
Assemble has already kickstarted the training programme. So, supporters can sign up now if they’re ready to tear down and rebuild the UK’s broken politics brick by brick.
The current programme is as follows:
1. Culture of Inclusion & Respect Workshop: Mondays 7pm.
2. Facilitator Training: Tuesdays 7pm.
3. How to Run an Assembly training: Alternate Wednesdays 7pm.
4. How to mobilise training: Alternate Wednesdays 7pm.
5. Building the movement intro Call: Thursdays 7pm.
Your Party supporters can help Assemble continue its extensive and ambitious programme to help the party hit the ground running by donating to its crowdfund here.
Your Party branches in Scotland have united in an open letter to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, urging them to “work together in the interest of the many”. It comes just as Sultana has issued a statement affirming her determination to reconcile with Corbyn and move the party forward in a “unified way”.
Your Party Scotland branches: a letter urging unity
Groups from Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Forth Valley, Glasgow, and Lanarkshire have come together to:
demand transparent leadership from those who seek to lead our movement.
Your Party in Scotland have made a series of demands of those leading the process of founding the new party. These include a de-escalation of the serious disagreements seen earlier this week, a relaunch of membership in earnest, and transparency of leadership going forward.
Hundreds of people have already attended public meetings across the country, showing the need for a new kind of politics, which goes beyond a handful of MPs.
The proto-branches say it is now time to work together, towards a founding conference, as we:
fight the encroaching far-right and threats of global fascism.
Your Party doesn’t belong to MPs…
In the letter, published on Friday, the groups wrote:
In Scotland, as across Britain, this is a generational opportunity to build something new. Drug deaths remain at record levels. Rough sleeping and homelessness represent the very worst of a housing emergency. Local councils and services have been hollowed out. Austerity from Holyrood has done little to protect us from the worst indulgences of right-wing governments in London.
Tens of thousands of us, as the public already knows, recognise this cannot go on. Only a radical political programme can start to reverse this societal decline, and there is no time to waste.
Your Party doesn’t belong to MPs: it belongs to all of us. As grassroots organisers we will stay motivated and united. Across Scotland, mass meetings have already been held which shows an undoubted appetite for a new kind of politics – many other groups are in the process of being set up. This public setback cannot be allowed to slow the momentum behind Your Party. The stakes are far too high.
Centring the grassroots of our movement
Already, it seems the Your Party leadership have heard and heeded the call. In her statement, Sultana echoed much of this sentiment and said that her:
motivation has always been to ensure the collective strength of our movement, put members first and
build the genuinely democratic conference and socialist party we so urgently need.
Once again, Sultana has stepped up to lead the fledgling left party forward, and importantly, she’s resolved to do it in a way that centres “the grassroots of our movement”.
Labour Party officials are attempting to stifle debate on Israel and Palestine at the party conference, to prevent calls for the government to take meaningful steps to end complicity in the Zionist entity’s genocide in Gaza. The disgraceful move comes amid the Labour government’s symbolic, but largely tokenistic – and entirely inadequate in isolation – recognition of recognition of a Palestinian state.
Labour conference sees shameless suppression of motions for Palestine and against Israel
Ahead of the party conference in Liverpool which begins on Sunday 28 September, the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) met on Thursday. It decided to rule out more than 30 motions constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) and affiliated organisations had submitted. Shamefully, the CAC ruled out every motion on Palestine.
Contemporary motions at conference have to meet the criteria that the issue must not have been substantially addressed in the National Policy Framework (NPF) Annual Report 2025 which was published on 8 August. It ruled out of order the overwhelming majority of Palestine motions on the grounds that the motions do:
not relate to a new issue not substantially covered in the NPF report.
This is despite the fact many focused on events that took place after the NPF Report was published. This includes the announcement of the Israeli government’s plans to militarily occupy Gaza City on 8 August. And, on the 10 August, Israel murdered five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza City.
The motions also make demands on the Labour Party that the NPF Report does not include. For instance, one calls for an end to all arms trade and military cooperation with Israel. Others urge comprehensive sanctions, and a ban on trade that aides or assists Israel’s violations of international law.
A three-fold increase in Palestine motions: growing anger at the Labour leadership’s position
The number of motions sent to the Labour conference demanding the party takes more action on Israel and Palestine has dramatically increased since last year. In 2024, CLPs and affiliated organisations sent just three motions to conference. This ten-fold increase shows the growing level of anger from the grassroots at the leadership’s position. Recent polling has found that 72% of Labour’s 2024 voters want a full arms embargo on Israel.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal said:
Just days after a UN Commission of Inquiry confirmed that Israel has committed and is committing genocide in Gaza, it is shocking that Labour officials are trying to block a large influx of motions in solidarity with Palestine from being debated at this year’s party conference. By continuing to deny that Israel is committing genocide, the government seems determined to ignore the overwhelming evidence as well as growing public outrage at its ongoing failure to take meaningful action to end British complicity with Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. The government needs to accept that it cannot simply clamp down and silence those speaking out against Israel’s genocide. Labour Party members must be allowed to debate these issues in Liverpool.
John McDonnell MP said:
With more than 30 motions on Palestine submitted to this year’s Labour party conference, it is clear that party members see Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people as a major issue that needs to be raised on conference floor. This week’s landmark report by a UN Commission of Inquiry, that concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, should be a wake-up call. The government should join those including Sadiq Khan who have spoken out this week to make clear that what we are witnessing in Gaza is genocide and urgently implement sanctions, including a full arms embargo and a ban on all trade that aids or assists Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. Delegates must not be prevented from discussing these issues at conference.
