At the end of last month the US Supreme Court endorsed – and effectively advanced – the Trump/MAGA sadist agenda by ruling against those working to stop ICE’s (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) abduction, kidnapping and torturing of mostly non-whites before (often illegally) expelling them to countries other than their homelands without giving them the chance to appeal or adduce the deportations as human rights violations. These include, for instance, being flown into war zones or areas where LGBTQ+ people are targets. Given that ICE (also implicated in voter suppression efforts) was recently ordered to increase the number of arrests it has to make each day back up to the previous ‘target’ of 3,000, such abuses seem certain to increase. Bo French is a candidate to lead the Texas Railroad Commission, the body that regulates that state’s oil and gas industries. But he has other interests. He enjoys posting images of non-whites at a sports event and describing them as being “…far worse than any of us could imagine…” and calling for the public execution of his opponents. After asking on social media last year whether Jews or Muslims posed the greater threat, French won the nomination in May. This is, of course, well in line with the ways in which the US government also frequently acts towards LGBTQ+ opponents. The US State Department (the equivalent of the UK’S Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office) appears to be illegally diverting a significant amount of money (the equivalent of roughly £152m) officially apportioned by Congress for human rights. It’s going to far right, Fascist and racist/supremacist groups and organisations in order to ‘safeguard western civilisation norms’. This is largely consistent with a view expressed belligerently and unequivocally by the US Vice President Vance recently when, referring to a black candidate for the US Senate in Florida, he said that because of her views and race she should “Get the hell out of here”. The same treatment is meted out to those drawing attention to and actively opposing the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, such as lawyers like Florida-based Jalal Shehadeh.  They have either been detained or had their phones and other belongings seized without cause. High profile critics of Trump continue to be subjected to deliberately intimidating searches of their homes – without cause. After all, if Trump can order an investigation by the FBI into posts on TikTok because he doesn’t like them, and can defy a court ruling that he must reverse his exclusion on media of which he disapproves, he can pretty much do anything – including apparently turning a blind eye to, even encouraging, an attack on Los Angeles and San Diego, which would take 10 million lives. In fact, Trump’s supremacist incitements to violence against non-whites reached a new low last week when he posted just about as clear a threat as possible that he will use government terrorists to kill and injure guest-workers in (in this case) Minnesota if he wants to. As long as supremacist rants of this kind on fascist propaganda outlets like Fox are broadcast, accepted and consumed by the estimated third of the adult population in the US, which is still taken in by MAGA, it’s of little surprise that not more people have yet caught up with what’s really happening; and why. Little that the Trump/MAGA cult has done in their second term more starkly highlights corruption and arrogance than their illegal campaign advertisements for next month’s midterm elections. They have been estimated to cost a total of $20 million dollars (about £15 million). So each resident in the US is having to pay to be lied to. It is illegal to use government funds for (party) political campaigning. Indeed, what is happening may even count as theft. But the Supreme Court has already ruled [pdf] that everything which a sitting president does in furtherance of their official activities automatically indemnifies them from criminal prosecution. The Trump/MAGA censorship wave continues with – according to a new report issued last week by PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists) America – a total of almost 12,000 books being banned in the school year, 2025-2026. Texas and Florida, unsurprisingly, account for by far the greatest numbers, 68% and 27% respectively. Many of those titles which the cult deems unfit to be read are young adult fiction by non-white authors. The same demographic, however, is trusted with weapons. ENVIRONMENT Minimally satisfactory though it was, the last administration did make a show of promoting electric vehicles, and a move away from transport using fossil fuels. Trump and members of his cult can’t or won’t understand the wisdom of taking (such) steps to address climate collapse. So at the end of last month they announced a significant reduction in the requirements to which car makers must adhere on the control of emissions from cars and smaller lorries produced between 2022 and 2031. Vehicles are the largest source (nearly 30%) of greenhouse gas generation in the US. In the middle of last month it was widely reported that Trump’s Environmental ‘Protection’ Agency (EPA) was planning to repeal limits to carbon pollution for coal- and gas-powered power plants. This is well in line with MAGA’s environment lying. With few objections from lawmakers, they soon did just that! Although there will be legal challenges, the time those may take and the favour with which the ultimate legal authority, the US Supreme Court, looks upon MAGA suggest that this, but the latest move for the cult in characterising climate collapse as a ‘hoax’, may well be successful. As El Niño promises to be fiercer than for many years, the emissions from fossil fuels are likely to accelerate the disaster. The cult inflicted double damage last week when its border patrol agents attacked and arrested protesters to remove a 200-year-old cottonwood tree in southern Arizona. They both destroyed ancient plant life, inflicting irreparable harm on the environment; and desecrated the ‘grandmother tree’ sacred to local populations. This was to further the building of Trump’s border wall to keep non-whites out of the US. HEALTH Of major concern are also the assertions by prominent Trump/MAGA cult members such as this one by quack secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr, that we should prefer the diagnostic conclusions of AI to those made by qualified doctors. Kennedy has also announced an ‘inquiry’ into ‘injuries caused’ by vaccines. Cult members at every level have also so far failed to make it clear why Trump’s own AI chatbot should be believed when it returns several assertions such as that Trump did not lose the 2020 election. One wonders how long it’ll be before he abandons it and takes it down. The post Paying to be lied to appeared first on Freedom Press.

UNDER INTENSE PUBLIC PRESSURE THE GOVERNMENT APPEARS TO BE ROLLING BACK AT LEAST ONE OF ITS UNPOPULAR POLICIES IN THE FORM OF THE WINTER FUEL TAX, AND IN A VICTORY FOR GRASSROOTS EFFORTS DAVID LAMMY HAS (BELATEDLY) REALISED SUPPORTING GENOCIDE MIGHT BE BAD FOR HIS LEGACY. But the direction of travel remains largely the same, directed by neoliberal and elite pressures that are also slowly reasserting themselves within the US administration. The disciplining of government, shown at its most direct under Liz Truss, is more insdious against Trump (while counting Starmer as a loyal vassal). The post Anarchist News Review: Labour U-turns, wild camping and the PKK’s end appeared first on Freedom News.

WE ROUND UP SOME OF THE TITLES TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR, FROM RETROSPECTIVES ON PUNK SOCIAL CENTRES IN LONDON TO THE LIVES OF BRILLIANT ORGANISERS AND MUTUAL AID THAT THRIVES IN THE WAKE OF WILDFIRES. Born of Struggle, Living in Hope: The Anarcho-Punk Lives of the Centro Iberico by Nick Soulsby PM Press (Oct) 192 pages | £14.99 The Centiro Iberico in London Notting Hill was for many years at the heart of Spanish anarchism in exile. Lasting for 12 years, it became a legendary music venue and the base of operations for civil war veterans such as Miguel García García, benefitting from its links to political punk through to its loss to gentrification in the 1980s construction boom. Soulsby analyses the centre and its importance to solidarity groups in Britain and Spain. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Love and revolution: A Politics for the Deep Commons by Matt York Manchester University Press (Jun) 216 pages | £25 York brings classical and contemporary anarchist thought into a dialogue with a global cross-section of ecological, anti-capitalist, feminist and anti-racist activists – discussing real-life examples of the loving-caring relations that underpin many contemporary struggles. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associational Anarchism: Towards a Left-Libertarian Conception of Freedom by Chris Wyatt Manchester University Press (3 Jun. 2025) 224 pages | £25 Wyatt’s theory of political economy aims to unite the public sphere of citizenship with the private sphere of production in a system of communal ownership, through a scheme of self-governing horizontal networks held together by libertarian politics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another War is Possible: Militant Anarchist Experiences in the Antiglobalization Era by Tomas Rothaus & CrimethInc PM Press (Jun) 448 pages | £26.99 Rothaus, who was active and present for many of the major events of the anti-globalisation movement around the turn of the Millennium, follows him through his early days as a militant across three continents. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Red Flag Warning: Mutual Aid and Survival in California’s Fire Country Edited by Dani Burlison and Margaret Elysia Garcia AK Press 184 pages | £13 Named after the term for a high fire risk, Red Flag Warning explores fires in rural and urban Northern California. It examines relationships to place and community and the importance of mutual aid, organising, community care, land stewardship, and resilience. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Continuous Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Martin Sostre by Garrett Felber AK Press 424 pages | £27 Sostre (1923-2015), from East Harlem, was an anarchist and key figure in black radicalism in the latter half of the 20th century as a campaigner, jailhouse lawyer, bookseller and political thinker. A lifelong organiser against all forms of oppression, his decades of activism are recounted by Felber in what is the first biography to have been written about him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Active Distribution meanwhile has the following due out over the summer: The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism, by Fredy Perlman Why Anarchists Abstain from Elections, by Tommy Lawson Against History Against Leviathan, by Freddy Perlman New Times, by Peter Kropotkin Society of the Spectacle and Comments, by Guy Debord Storming Heaven, by Roger Yates (Fiction) All Hands on Deck, by Jan Goodey The People’s War in Rojava (with new intro and update) Anarchist Techno Attacks, by Crimethinc Kropotkin Escapes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And Freedom Press has two books confirmed for this year: Housing: An Anarchist Approach by Colin Ward Continuing our series refreshing some of Ward’s key works. Ward produced some of the most influential anarchist writing to come out of Britain in the latter part of the 20th century, and housing was a specialist topic, taking in thoughts on squatting, tower life, self build and urban planning with a laser focus on the question of how we can, and should, be participants in the lifecycles of our own homes. Everything Continues: Anarchism and the Greek Financial Crisis by Neil Middleton Turmoil in Greece following the 2008 financial crisis was of a different order to that of anywhere else in Europe, lasting throughout the 2010s and destroying much of its economy. At the heart of popular revolt against the catastrophe was Europe’s most militant anarchist milieu, a force potent enough to control parts of Athens and overwhelm police lines, an embedded reality in the life of the nation. Neil Middleton examines the circumstances that led to this riotous assembly and how the anarchists’ story played out over a decade of tumult. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article first appeared in the Summer 2025 issue of Freedom Journal The post Upcoming Anarchist Books for 2025 appeared first on Freedom News.

IN BRITAIN, ACTION TO DIVEST FROM GENOCIDE IS SHOWING NO SIGN OF ABATING, WHILE SOUTH AFRICA IS HAMMERING THE LEGAL CASE HOME AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE ~ Dominic Free ~ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The world has failed Palestinian people. The only certainty they have is that tomorrow will be worse. We must save whatever is left of our humanity by ending Israel’s unlawful settler-colonial occupation, and its intentional starving of the Palestinian population, which is being systematically brutalised and deprived of the most elementary considerations of humanity.” ~ Jaymion Hendricks, representation for South Africa at the ICJ hearing, 29/04/25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The bombings and ground invasion of Gaza continue. Israel’s genocidal blockade of humanitarian aid to the strip is bringing famine and death. With the history of apartheid still very much in public memory, South Africa’s government pulled no punches as arguments opened in the Hague this week as the ICJ hears arguments on Israel’s humanitarian obligations to the peoples of Palestine. Anticipating Israel’s main argument that the court should not make a judgement based on a lack of evidence (which Israel itself has caused through blocking outside observation or smearing observers, including from the UN), South Africa’s Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation Zane Dangor said: “Accepting Israel’s argument that this court has insufficient facts before it would be rewarding it for its own egregious conduct.”  “The international community cannot accept the reality in which an entire civilian population is deliberately starved by Israel. Where the UN is evicted and deprived of its immunities and privileges. Where third states and humanitarian organisations are prevented from rendering humanitarian assistance in solidarity and in fulfilment of their obligations. Nor can we accept when journalists, and aid workers, and first responders are being assassinated and then hastily buried in mass graves.” AMENSTY: ISRAEL COMMITTED GENOCIDE IN GAZA Arriving at the same time is the Amnesty International Annual Report 2025 which if anything is even more blunt in its assessment: “Israel committed genocide in Gaza, including by causing some of the highest known death tolls among children, journalists, and health and humanitarian workers of any recent conflict in the world, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Armed conflict with Lebanon caused civilian deaths and mass displacement. “Israel committed the crime of apartheid, including through the forcible transfer and displacement of Palestinians both in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. State-backed violent settlers enjoyed impunity while conscientious objectors were imprisoned. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in militarized arrest raids in the occupied West Bank. Thousands of Palestinians were subjected to arbitrary detention and to ill treatment, amounting to torture in many cases. The International Court of Justice’s instructions to avert genocide and end illegal occupation were ignored. Freedom of expression and and peaceful assembly came under attack.” The full report of the devastation and horrific behaviour of the Israeli government and military is well worth reading in full. DIRECT ACTION IN BRITAIN Closer to home, multiple actions have been taking place pressuring the government to withdraw co-operation with Israel and participate in growing boycotts. The most recent action, by members of Youth Demand, saw two people leap the barriers of the London Marathon and fire off pink smoke while calling for Britain to “impose a total trade embargo on Israel, and make the super rich and fossil fuel elite pay damages to communities and countries most harmed by fossil fuel burning.” The bridge action followed on from Thursday’s road blockade, when around 25 supporters of Youth Demand disrupted traffic at first London Bridge South, departing after police arrived on the scene, then at Kennington Road. A Youth Demand Spokesperson said: “The UK continues to support Israel’s genocide through arms sales, logistical support and reconnaissance. Our leaders are participating in this genocide because they believe there is a tactical advantage to having somewhere in the middle east that is aligned with ‘Western values’. That is why they say there needs to be a ceasefire, whilst doing nothing materially to change the situation in Palestine. What are our values worth when they are based on the theft of peoples’ land and the murder of innocent children?” Such “swarm tactics” have been used regularly throughout the month to cause temporary disruption. Over at Palestine Action meanwhile there were celebrations last Tuesday (April 22nd) when actions against Manchester-based metal components manufacturer Dean Group International prompted an email to the group saying it has severed all ties with Instro Precision (a subsidiary of Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems UK), and has promised never to work with Elbit or its subsidiaries in the future. This followed a rooftop occupation of the firm’s site at Irlam, Greater Manchester in the end of March. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Images by Palestine Chronicle via QNN, Youth Demand and Direct Action Images The post Legal and grassroots resistance as Gaza starves appeared first on Freedom News.