UK politics

On the 5th anniversary of the violent eviction of the Old Tidemill Wildlife Garden in Deptford, occupied for two months by campaigners (myself included) to try to prevent its destruction, and that of a block of council flats next door, for a housing development, I bring the story up to date, looking at how Peabody still hasn’t finished building its development — known as Frankham Walk — and wondering whether, after all this time, expense and physical and environmental violence, it has all been regarded as worthwhile by Lewisham Council and Peabody.

Promoting a very special event on Sunday 22nd October in Conway Hall in London, ‘Grassroots Protest: Activism from Below’, in which I’ll be discussing the We Stand With Shaker Aamer campaign of 2014-15, and my ongoing work on Guantánamo, and writer, editor and activist Leila Hassan (Race Today) will be discussing her involvement in the anti-racist movement of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

My detailed report about, and the video of ‘Close Guantánamo!’, an extraordinary and hugely powerful three-hour event held at the EU Parliament on September 28, 2023, featuring nine speakers, including Mansoor Adayfi (on what was only his second trip to freedom since he finally got a passport earlier this year) and two other former prisoners, two lawyers, a UN Rapporteur, myself and others, hosted by the inspiring independent Irish MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace. As the event highlighted, the priorities for anyone concerned with justice, and with bringing to an end Guantánamo’s vile existence, are to resettle 16 men still held who have been approved for release (for which the countries of EU can help), providing adequate medical care for everyone still held at the prison, reminding the US government that it continues to have an obligation to ensure the welfare of former prisoners, even after their release, and, eventually, seeking accountability for the crimes that the US government has committed, and still continues to commit at Guantánamo.

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.

The shameful story of Ravil Mingazov, a Russian Tatar held at Guantánamo for 14 years, then sent to the UAE, where he has been imprisoned for nearly seven years, in harsh conditions, despite having been promised that he would be helped to rebuild his life as a free man. His son and wife were granted asylum in the UK in 2014, and campaigners here in the UK are currently involved in efforts to persuade the British government to bring him to the UK to rejoin his family.

Photos from, and my report about the ten coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on September 6, 2023 in London, Washington, D.C., Mexico City, Cobleskill, NY, Detroit, Brussels, Copenhagen and Minneapolis, and, for the first time, in San Francisco and Saratoga Springs, NY. The ongoing vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and, as well as calling for the closure of the prison, also highlight the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still imprisoned) who have been approved for release but are still held — as of September 6, between 348 and 4,975 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.

Photos from, and my report about the seven coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on August 2, 2023 in London, Washington, D.C., New York City, Mexico City, Cobleskill, NY, Detroit and Los Angeles. The ongoing vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and, as well as calling for the closure of the prison, also highlight the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still imprisoned) who have been approved for release but are still held — as of August 2, between 313 and 4,940 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.

As heatwaves of unprecedented ferocity grip much of the world, I ask why it is that the mainstream media are still unable to recognise that climate collapse is the biggest disaster in all of our lifetimes, and that they have an obligation to cover it as much as possible, particularly in the absence of any meaningful action from our political leaders.

Photos from, and my report about the ten coordinated global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place on July 5, 2023 in London, Washington, D.C., New York City, Mexico City, Copenhagen, Brussels, Minneapolis, Cobleskill, NY, Detroit and Serbia. The ongoing vigils take place on the first Wednesday of every month, and, as well as calling for the closure of the prison, also highlight the plight of the 16 men (out of the 30 still imprisoned) who have been approved for release but are still held — as of July 5, between 285 and 4,912 days since the US authorities first decided that they no longer wanted to hold them.

My report about last week’s Guantánamo events in London – the second meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Closure of the Guantánamo Detention Facility, attended by former prisoners Mohamedou Ould Slahi and Moazzam Begg, and an Amnesty International event featuring Mohamedou, and, via Zoom, former prisoner Mansoor Adayfi.