European protests 2011-26

Photos from, and my report about the ten vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on June 5, 2024, the latest in an ongoing series of monthly coordinated global vigils that began last year. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is July 3.

Photos from, and my report about the eight vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on May 1, 2024, the latest in an ongoing series of monthly coordinated global vigils that began last year. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is June 5.

Photos from, and my report about the nine vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on April 3, 2024, the latest in an ongoing series of monthly coordinated global vigils that began last year. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is May 1. This month’s vigils featured a special one-off vigil from inside the European Parliament, at an exhibition of prisoners’ artwork attended by former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi.

Photos from, and my report about the eight vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on March 6, 2024, the latest in an ongoing series of monthly coordinated global vigils that began last year. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is April 3.

Photos from, and my report about the eight vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and around the world on February 7, 2024, the latest in an ongoing series of monthly coordinated global vigils that began last year. The vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and the next date is March 6.

Photos from, and my report about the 21 vigils that took place across the US and around the world on January 11, 2024, marking the shameful 22nd anniversary of the opening of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay. Monthly vigils resume on the first Wednesday of every month next month, on February 7.

Photos from, and my report about the nine coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on December 6, 2023 across the US and around the world, coinciding with 8,000 days of the prison’s existence, marked by a photo campaign involving former prisoners, lawyers, politicians and campaigners from around the world, for which we received an impressive 170 photos.

My reflections, at the end of an unprecedented summer of catastrophic, human-induced climate chaos, about what we can do and how we can cope with ever-increasing climate collapse in the face of a persistent refusal, by politicians and the media, to respond to the gravest existential threat in all our lifetimes with anything resembling the urgency that is required.

My first long read of 2023, looking at how thoroughly catastrophic climate change made itself apparent in 2022, and yet how, still, our political leaders and our mainstream media continue to ignore the gravity of the situation. Instead, it is left to climate scientists and climate activists to take the lead, and I review their efforts last year, via the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and via activism including road blocks, targeting oil refineries and private airports, and, most visibly, throwing soup on Van Gogh’s ’Sunflowers’, also examining whether or not these techniques are successful. I conclude by urging UK readers to consider another option: the velvet revolution envisaged by Extinction Rebellion, who are calling for 100,000 people to turn up outside Parliament on Friday April 21, and to refuse to go away until the dreadful stasis of 21st century capitalism’s toxic ‘business as usual’ is brought to an end.

My report about the failures of the COP27 climate summit, the implausibility of keeping the global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the widespread actions by protestors over the last two months, and the need for a velvet revolution to bring about the change we need, in the face of paralysis from our leaders.