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Britain 2032. A dystopian state of the nation

NOVEMBER 23, 2025

Ian Hodson looks into the future and makes an assessment of what three years under Reform rule might look like.

Foreword: A Nation Rebuilt on Fear

When Reform UK swept to power in the 2029 election, taking nearly every English constituency and unexpected gains in Wales and Scotland, supporters declared a new era of pride, sovereignty, and national rebirth.

But by 2032, what emerged was not renewal.

It was a country hollowed out by authoritarianism, exclusion, and forced conformity.

This assessment details what Britain became.

1. THE GREAT PURGE OF CITIZENSHIP

1.1 The Three-Generation Rule

The British Heritage and Security Act 2030 required proof of three generations of British lineage for full citizenship.

Thousands who had lived here their entire lives teachers, nurses, delivery drivers, parents, children, were reclassified as:

• Provisional Residents,
  
  
• Non-British Dependents, or
  
  
• Foreign-Aligned Persons.
  
  

1.2 Evictions and Exclusion

Those unable to meet the standard were:

• evicted from public housing
  
  
• removed from NHS patient lists
  
  
• barred from state education
  
  
• denied passports
  
  
• stripped of voting rights
  
  

The government’s justification:

“National resources must serve real British families.”

1.3 Segregated Access Zones

Non-white residents were redirected to Alternative Community Access Zones for basic services.

These were segregation centres in all but name.

Complaints were labelled anti-British agitation.

2. THE MEDIA TAKEOVER

2.1 The Fall of the BBC

In 2031, the BBC was dismantled and sold.

GB News Media Group gained control of the national broadcaster.

2.2 The Free Speech Ethics Code

All media were ordered to follow a strict content code banning:

• “woke messaging”
  
  
• “identity propaganda”
  
  
• critical journalism
  
  
• satire
  
  
• reporting that could “undermine national unity”
  
  

Investigative journalism disappeared.

Local radio died.

National news became state-scripted.

3. EXIT FROM THE ECHR: THE END OF RIGHTS

Leaving the European Court of Human Rights removed the last external safeguard.

3.1 The Work Sovereignty Act

This law abolished:

• the minimum wage
  
  
• health and safety laws
  
  
• unfair dismissal
  
  
• employment tribunals
  
  
• discrimination protections
  
  
• whistleblower safeguards
  
  

Employers were told workers were now “free to compete.”

Wages collapsed.

3.2 No Regulators Left

HSE, ACAS, and the EHRC were defunded or dissolved.

There was nowhere to appeal.

4. UNIONS OUTLAWED

4.1 Leaders Arrested

Union general secretaries, regional organisers, and reps were arrested on charges of

• “economic sabotage,”
  
  
• “domestic extremism” and
  
  
• “obstructing national productivity.”
  
  

4.2 Membership Criminalised

Union membership became an offence punishable by detention,

Union assets were seized.

Collective bargaining died overnight.

5. THE END OF UNEMPLOYMENT – AND OF DECENT WORK

5.1 Forced Workfare

The British Work Contribution Scheme required all adults to work at least 30 hours.

Refusal meant:

• loss of benefits
  
  
• relocation to Work Preparation Centres
  
  
• or loss of residency rights
  
  

5.2 Pensioners Drafted

Under the Elder Contribution Act, pensioners were forced into

• agricultural labour
  
  
• care work
  
  
• neighbourhood “Civic Patrols”
  
  

Those who refused lost all top-up benefits.

6. TRANSITIONAL RESIDENCY CAMPS

6.1 New Internment Sites

Across the UK, fenced compounds called Transitional Residency Centres (TRCs) housed

• those with revoked citizenship
  
  
• families awaiting lineage checks
  
  
• “heritage-incomplete” communities
  
  

6.2 No Oversight

The centres were

• privately run
  
  
• heavily monitored
  
  
• legally inaccessible
  
  
• shielded from media scrutiny
  
  

No statistics were published.

7. FOREIGN POLICY COLLAPSE

7.1 Ukraine Abandoned

Reform ended support for Ukraine and demanded repayment.

International trust evaporated.

7.2 The New Axis

Britain aligned with far-right governments across Europe and US isolationist factions.

It became known as “Europe’s rogue democracy.”

8. A NATION OF WORKERS COMPETING TO SURVIVE

8.1 Wage Auctions

Gig platforms allowed workers to bid downwards for shifts.

£2–£3/hour became normal.

8.2 Collapse of Public Services

Health services prioritised “work-ready” patients.

Education became indoctrination:

• British Heritage Academies
  
  
• Patriot Technical Colleges
  
  
• censored curricula
  
  
• monitored teachers
  
  

9. THE NATIONAL ATMOSPHERE IN 2032

Britain felt:

• watched
  
  
• divided
  
  
• fearful
  
  
• impoverished
  
  
• exhausted
  
  

Neighbour reported neighbour.

Propaganda filled screens.

Food queues lengthened.

Public speech shrank into whispers.

Britain survived, but it no longer lived.

10. THE VANISHING OF DISABLED PEOPLE

Disabled people didn’t become invisible.

They were made invisible.

10.1 The Reassessment for National Fairness Act

Disability benefits were abolished.

Assessment was outsourced.

Most claimants were declared “fit” in minutes.

Support ended immediately.

10.2 Mass Institutionalisation

Those unable to work were taken to:

• Residential Work Centres
  
  
• Community Independence Hubs
  
  
• Secure Assisted Living Facilities
  
  

Families often lost all contact.

10.3 Removal From Public Life

Accessibility laws vanished

• disabled parking bays removed
  
  
• assisted travel abolished
  
  
• mobility grants scrapped
  
  
• wheelchair access no longer required
  
  

Disabled people vanished from public spaces.

10.4 Hospital Exclusion

Hospitals prioritised those “most able to return to the workforce.”

Those with complex needs were diverted to institutions.

10.5 Behavioural Conduct Orders

People with learning disabilities, autism, or behavioural differences faced criminal penalties for,

• “non-compliance with independence targets”
  
  
• “public disruption”
  
  
• “dependency behaviours”
  
  

Many disappeared into Secure Stability Units.

10.6 Media Erasure

Disability disappeared from screens, storylines, and public appeals.

10.7 The Unpublished Statistics

Independent estimates suggested:

• tens of thousands institutionalised
  
  
• thousands dead
  
  
• vast numbers unaccounted for
  
  

The state stopped counting.

11. TESTIMONIALS FROM A BROKEN BRITAIN

Personal Stories Collected from Survivors, Witnesses, and Families

11.1 Amina — The Nurse Who Lost Her Citizenship

Amina, born in Birmingham, worked 18 years as an NHS nurse.

Her grandparents were Kenyan; she couldn’t produce their documents.

Her citizenship was revoked.

Her NHS ID stopped working.

Her children were removed from school.

She now queues in an Alternative Access Zone.

She still keeps her NHS lanyard in her handbag.

She says she can’t throw it away: “it’s the last proof I belonged.”

11.2 Peter — The Disabled Man Who Disappeared

After a four-minute reassessment, Peter lost his benefits and care support.

Officials arrived with a “Streamlined Support Pathway” order.

He texted his sister once,

“They’re taking us to a centre. Keep fighting.”

She never heard from him again.

The centre denies he was ever there.

11.3 Margaret and Bill — Pensioners in the Fields

In their seventies, they were forced into agricultural work.

Bill collapsed on the first day.

The supervisor shouted,

“If you can’t hack it, you shouldn’t get benefits.”

They now sort onions twelve hours a day.

Margaret says the worst part is hearing her husband apologise for “letting the country down.”

11.4 Olivia — The Teacher Watched by Cameras

Olivia’s pupils asked why children from “heritage-incomplete” families were removed.

She told them it was unfair.

A parent reported her for undermining unity.

She was suspended and placed on a “Behavioural Excellence” course.

She still teaches.

She refuses to give up.

11.5 The Fennings — A Family in the Camps

Unable to prove three generations, the Fennings were taken to a Transitional Residency Centre at dawn.

Inside were bunkbeds, floodlights, and ration queues.

Jacob, aged 9, asked,

“Are we criminals?”

His mother couldn’t answer.

11.6 Tom — The Worker Who Outbid Himself

On WorkMatch, Tom once bid £1.27/hour for a 14-hour shift.

He won the bid.

He told his daughter everything would be okay.

He knew it wasn’t true.

11.7 Keisha — The Campaigner Silenced

Her community group was raided.

She was detained for three weeks and forced to sign a National Integrity Contract.

She still organises, quietly. “If we stop speaking, they’ve won.”

11.8 Liam — The Boy in the Behavioural Unit

Liam, an autistic 13-year-old, had a meltdown in the lunch queue.

He was accused of “behavioural non-compliance” and taken to a Secure Stability Unit.

When his mother finally saw him, he whispered: “I’m trying to be normal, Mum.”

She hasn’t stopped fighting for him.

11.9 Matt — The Journalist Who Stopped Writing

After submitting a piece on camp conditions, he was told,“Your commitment to national values is under review.”

He shredded his notes.

He hasn’t written since.

12. THE FINAL TRUTH. HOW BRITAIN FELL

Britain did not collapse through a coup.

It slid — step by step — into authoritarianism wrapped in patriotism.

Reform said they would give Britain back to the people.

Instead, they built a country where:

• rights vanished
  
  
• neighbours feared each other
  
  
• dissent was criminal
  
  
• and entire communities were erased
  
  

The powerful prospered.

Everyone else tried to survive.

This is Britain in 2032 – a warning written in advance.

Ian Hodson is National President of the BFAWU.

Image: https://www.rawpixel.com/image/6038956 Creator: rawpixel.com  Licence: CC0 1.0 Universal CC0 1.0 Deed

INTERNMENT CAMP

Advocates Warn of ‘Forced Labor’ Camp for Homeless People in Utah Designed to Enforce Trump Order

An advocate for the National Homelessness Law Center warned that the 1,300-bed facility could be a “pilot” to put homeless people into similar conditions to Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.”


A conceptual rendering of Utah’s planned homeless services campus north of Salt Lake City, published on September 3, 2025.
(Image from the Utah Office of Homeless Services)

Stephen Prager
Oct 28, 2025

COMMON DREAMS

In an effort to fulfill President Donald Trump’s executive order on homelessness, Utah is building a massive facility that housing advocates warn will function as an “internment camp” where the unhoused will be subject to forced labor.

Last month, Utah’s homeless services agencies came to an agreement for the state to acquire a nearly 16-acre parcel of rural land in the Northpoint area of northwest Salt Lake City to construct the first-of-its-kind facility, which is slated to have 1,300 beds.

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The genesis of the project began in July, following Trump’s “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” executive order, which threatened to withhold funding from states and cities unless they criminalized homeless people camping on streets and ordered the attorney general to expand the use of involuntary civil commitment for adults experiencing homelessness.

Despite a large body of evidence showing their effectiveness at curbing crime while keeping people off the street, the order also required the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to end its support of “Housing First” policies that provide unhoused people with homes without the requirement of behavioral health treatment or sobriety.

Less than a week after Trump’s homelessness order, Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, as well as the state Senate president and House speaker—both Republicans—sent a letter to the state’s Homeless Services Board, which was created last year following a legislative push by the Cicero Insitute—a far-right think tank that has proposed aggressive measures to criminalize homelessness and which has had major influence over Trump’s crackdown on the homeless during his second term.

In the letter, the leaders agreed with the Trump administration that they “do not support ‘Housing First’ policies that lack accountability.” They directed the Board to “accelerate progress on a transformative, services-based homeless campus that prioritizes recovery, treatment, and long-term outcomes, not just emergency shelter.”

As far back as 2023, Trump has proposed using “large parcels of inexpensive land” to set up “tent cities” or camps for homeless people, coupled with a pledge to use “every tool, lever, and authority” to clear encampments from city streets. On the podcast Invisible People, which focuses on homelessness in America, Eric Tars of the National Homelessness Law Center said Utah’s new facility could be a “pilot program” for that effort around the country.

“Their end goal is not just jail,” Tars said. “They want to put up more of these Alligator Alcatraz sprung structure type facilities,” referring to the ramshackle immigration detention facility constructed in a remote part of Florida’s Everglades earlier this year, where detainees have been cut off from access to their lawyers and are widely reported to suffer from inhumane treatment.

He noted that, under a proposal drafted by the chair of Utah’s Homeless Services Board, Randy Shumway, more than 300 of the beds in the facility are slated for involuntary commitment. Other homeless people will be sent there for substance abuse treatment “as an alternative to jail” and will “receive care in a supervised environment where entry and exit are not voluntary.” Shumway referred to the facility as an “accountability center.”

“An individual would be sanctioned to go there. It would not be voluntary, Shumway said during a presentation, according to the Standard-Examiner. ”They would be there for a period of probably 90 days with the opportunity to detox in order to get mental and behavioral health care, to get substance use disorder support, to get physical health care, and to be surrounded by a community that’s helping them in healing.“

According to the proposal, the beds not slated for civil commitment will include “work-conditioned housing.” Tars said that this is “the thing that scares me the most,” because it “means forced labor.”

He noted that other anti-homeless bills recently proposed in Republican states have a “forced labor element” to them. In Louisiana, a bill punishing outdoor camping introduced earlier this year proposes requiring those convicted to serve up to two years of “hard labor.” Another bill introduced in West Virginia would have required those arrested for camping to take part in “facility upkeep” and other forms of vocational training.

Tars said that at the Utah facility, “even though theoretically you could come and go, they’re going to be actively enforcing anti-camping, anti-loitering, all these other laws... if you step foot off the campus,” which he noted is over seven miles away from downtown Salt Lake City and “in the middle of nowhere,” with “no public transportation.”

State officials have said they expect the facility to cost $75 million to construct, plus more than $30 million per year for ongoing operations. Bill Tibbitts, deputy executive director of Crossroads Urban Center, a low-income advocacy nonprofit based in Utah, has said that for a facility to treat such a large number of people adequately, the cost “will be much higher than $75 million.”

Tibbitts also warned that the construction of a homeless shelter in such close proximity to a facility for involuntary commitment would create an atmosphere of fear that would deter homeless people from seeking help.

“A 300-400-bed mental and behavioral health facility that people are not allowed to leave is not a shelter but an incarceration option,” Tibbitts wrote in an email to the Utah News Dispatch. “Having such a facility colocated with a shelter would probably lead to a sense that if you do not follow the rules in one facility, you could be moved into the other.”

Although the Trump administration has portrayed homelessness as primarily the result of addiction or mental illness, Tibbitts noted that “the majority of the people who visit a shelter are not chronically homeless—they just need a place to stay following a short-term period of financial hardship.”

“A senior citizen who had their rent increased beyond what they could afford,” he said, “is not going to want to go to a quasi-correctional facility to get help finding a place to live that they can afford.”

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for INTERNMENT CAMP

With these race remarks, Trump and the GOP are raising a frightening specter from history

Judy Helgen,

 Minnesota Reformer
October 24, 2025 2:08PM ET


Flags fly near a banner depicting Donald Trump during a "No Kings" protest. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

It’s here and it’s happening. The recent revelations about Republicans “joking” about an affinity for Nazism should wake us up to the reality of the moment. When President Donald Trump says immigrants have “bad genes” and are “poisoning the blood of our country,” he has raised the specter of eugenics that thrived in our country and of course in Germany during the 1930s. There’s a direct line from this thinking to the Holocaust.

We need look no further than Minnesota for insight into this ugly history. During the early 20th century, Minnesota and many other states passed eugenics laws to support so-called racial purification. Laws in 31 states allowed the sterilization of mentally disabled and “feeble-minded” people, epileptics and more. Minnesota passed a sterilization law in 1925, and more than 2,000 people — mostly women — were sterilized. In California around 20,000 were sterilized from 1917 to 1952.

Through the 1930s, American scientists at the prestigious Cold Spring Harbor Lab in New York promoted eugenics and maintained a Eugenics Record Office. David Starr Jordan, who wrote early major works on the fishes of North America and was president of Stanford University, was a white supremacist and supported forced sterilization programs aimed at poor Black, Indigenous and Hispanic women as well as the mentally disabled.

We know that Charles Lindbergh, the Minnesotan famous for his solo flight across the Atlantic, was a eugenicist and talked of preserving the inheritance of European blood and guarding against its dilution by foreign races. He praised Hitler. Margaret Sanger, who was the first president of Planned Parenthood, was a eugenicist.

The Minnesota Eugenics Society was founded in 1923 by Charles F. Dight, who served as president until his death in 1938. He actively promoted reproduction of the “fit” and race betterment (the State Fair held “fit family” contests).

During the 1930s, Dight communicated with Hitler, praising him for his plan to “stamp out mental inferiority among the German people” and “advance the eugenics movement.” If carried out effectively, Dight wrote, “it will make him the leader of the greatest national movement for human betterment the world has ever seen.”

Our country has had a history of restricting immigrants, e.g. the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act that limited immigrants from eastern and southern Europe and Japan.

Trump castigates immigrants as criminals and insane, even though immigrants have lower crime rates than that of American citizens.

How could the President release 1,500 convicted insurrectionists yet push to deport immigrants? He’s likely a true believer in the nonsensical race science that was predominant a century ago.

Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde, who spent a quarter-century in Minnesota, told Trump at the now famous prayer service early this year, “The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry plants and meatpacking plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors.”

Aren’t we all the immigrants or the descendants of immigrants? And don’t we all have defects?

Let us not forget: We are called to protect the vulnerable, to treat everyone as equals, to “do unto others as we would have them do unto us.”

Judy Helgen, PhD, is a retired research scientist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. She lives in Falcon Heights.

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Trump Ripped for ‘Absurdly Low’ and ‘Racist’ Refugee Cap Prioritizing White South Africans

“Let’s call this what it is—white supremacy disguised as refugee policy,” said the head of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

US President Donald Trump displays an article about Afrikaners as he meets with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 21, 2025.
(Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Jessica Corbett
Oct 30, 2025
COMMON DREAMS


After months of reporting, President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday officially announced that it is restricting the number of refugees for this fiscal year to 7,500, with most spots going to white South Africans—a policy swiftly denounced by human rights advocates and Democrats in Congress.

“This decision doesn’t just lower the refugee admissions ceiling. It lowers our moral standing,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge. “For more than four decades, the US refugee program has been a lifeline for families fleeing war, persecution, and repression. At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the program’s purpose as well as its credibility.”

The Trump administration’s notice in the Federal Register doesn’t mention any groups besides Afrikaners, white descendants of Europeans who subjected South Africa’s majority Black population to a system of apartheid for decades. Multiple rich Trump backers—including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, venture capitalist David Sacks, and Palantir founder Peter Thiel—spent time in the country during those years.

The 7,500 cap, initially reported earlier this month, is a significant drop from both the 40,000 limit that was previously reported as under consideration by the Republican administration, and the more than 100,000 allowed under former Democratic President Joe Biden.

Four congressional Democrats who serve as ranking members on related committees—Reps. Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), along with Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Alex Padilla (Calif.)—issued a joint statement condemning the new cap, which they noted is “an astonishing 94% cut over last year and the lowest level in our nation’s history.”

“To add insult to injury, the administration is skipping over the tens of thousands of refugees who have been waiting in line for years in dire circumstances to come to the United States, and it is instead prioritizing a single privileged racial group—white South African Afrikaners—for these severely limited slots,” they said. “This bizarre presidential determination is not only morally indefensible, it is illegal and invalid.”

The four lawmakers continued:
The administration has brazenly ignored the statutory requirement to consult with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees before setting the annual refugee admissions ceiling. That process exists to ensure that decisions of such great consequence reflect our nation’s values, our humanitarian commitments, and the rule of law, not the racial preferences or political whims of any one president.

The reason for this evasion is evident: The administration knows it cannot defend its egregious policy before Congress or the American people. While nearly 130,000 vetted, approved refugees—men, women, and children fleeing persecution and violence—wait in limbo after being promised a chance at safety, Donald Trump is looking to turn refugee admissions into another political giveaway for his pet projects and infatuations.

We reject this announcement as both unlawful and contrary to America’s longstanding commitment to offer refuge to the persecuted. To twist our refugee policy into a partisan straightjacket is to betray both our legal obligations and our moral identity as a nation.

“Let’s call this what it is—white supremacy disguised as refugee policy,” declared Guerline Jozef, executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. “At a time when Black refugees from Haiti, Sudan, the Congo, and Cameroon are drowning at sea, languishing in detention, or being deported to death, the US government has decided to open its arms to those who already enjoy global privilege. This is not just immoral—it’s anti-Blackness codified into federal policy.”

This week alone, Hurricane Melissa killed more than 20 people in Haiti, and health officials said that the Rapid Support Forces, which are fighting against Sudan’s government, killed over 1,500 people—including more than 460 systematically slaughtered at a maternity hospital—in the city of el-Fasher.

“We reject the idea that whiteness equates to worthiness,” Jozef said of Trump’s new refugee plan. She also took aim at the president’s broader anti-immigrant policy, which has included deporting hundreds of people to El Salvador’s so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).

“From Del Rio to Lampedusa, Black migrants and other immigrants of color have been criminalized, beaten, caged, and disappeared in CECOT camp in El Salvador—while their humanity is debated like a policy variable,” she said. “This moment demands our humanity, our resistance, not silence.”



Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA’s director for refugee and migrant rights, also tied Thursday’s announcement to the broader agenda of the president—who, during his first term, faced global condemnation for policies including the forcible separation of families at the southern border.

“Setting this cap at such an absurdly low number and prioritizing white Afrikaners is a racist move that will turn the US’s back on tens of thousands of people around the world who are fleeing persecution, violence, and human rights abuses,” said Fischer. “Refugees have a human right to protection, and the international community—including the United States—has a responsibility to uphold that right.”

“This announcement is yet another attack by the Trump administration on refugees and immigrants, showing disregard for international systems meant to protect human rights,” she added. “The Trump administration must reverse course and ensure a fair, humane, and rights-based refugee admissions determination.”

The announcement came just days after Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to South Africa, far-right media critic Brent Bozell, faced intense criticism for refusing to say whether he would support or oppose repealing laws allowing Black Americans to vote during his Senate confirmation hearing.

‘That is not story’: Greta Thunberg turns focus to Gaza genocide after release from Israeli detention

October 6, 2025 

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Monday spoke publicly for the first time after being released from an Israeli prison, where she said she was beaten and forced to kiss the Israeli flag, Anadolu reports.

Thunberg was among 171 people deported by Israeli authorities after being detained for taking part in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. The group was flown to Greece and Slovakia following their release.

There were cheers as Thunberg and other activists arrived in Greece, greeted by supporters after their ordeal.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg spoke at Eleftherios Venizelos Airport in Athens, Greece’s capital, emphasizing that her personal experience was not what mattered most. “I can talk for a very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me,” she said.

“But that is not the story. Let me be very clear, there is a genocide going on in front of our very eyes, a live-streamed genocide,” Thunberg said.

“No one has the privilege to say we are not aware of what’s happening. No one in the future will be able to say we did not know.”

Thunberg accused Israel of “continuing to worsen and escalate their genocide and mass destruction with genocide of intent, attempting to erase an entire population, an entire nation in front of you.”

“We cannot take our eyes away from Gaza, from all the places of the world that are suffering, living on the forefront of this business-as-usual system: Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan, Gaza, and many, many more,” she added. “What we are doing is the bare minimum.

“I will never comprehend how humans can be so evil. That you would deliberately starve millions of people living trapped under an illegal siege as a continuation of decades of oppression and apartheid.”

Sweden: Reports of Israel mistreating climate activist Thunberg would be very serious if true

October 6, 2025 at 1:16 pm



Sweden’s newly appointed foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard in Stockholm, Sweden on September 10, 2024 [Atila Altuntaş/Anadolu Agency]

Sweden’s Foreign Minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, said on Sunday that if reports of Israel mistreating Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg following her detention from the Gaza Aid Flotilla are true, the situation would be “very serious.”

In an interview with the Swedish news agency TT, Stenergard referred to reports claiming that Thunberg was mistreated following her detention by Israeli authorities.

Commenting on the reports, she said: “I have taken note of the reports of allegations of abusive treatment. If the reports are true, this is very serious.”

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the embassy are working to bring the Swedish citizens home as soon as possible,” she added.

The Foreign Minister also confirmed that, even before the detention, Sweden had already informed Israel of the importance of respecting the security and consular rights of the Swedish activists.

On Saturday, Turkish activist and journalist Ersin Çelik, who was part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, claimed that Israeli forces had “severely tortured Greta before our eyes,” according to Anadolu Agency.

Israel Droned Flotilla Activists and then Abused Greta Thunberg

by Caitlin Johnstone / October 6th, 2025

Who would have imagined five years ago when we were seeing Greta Thunberg amplified by every mainstream western liberal institution that we would one day hear reports that she has been captured and tormented by the Israeli military for trying to bring formula to starving babies?

The Guardian reports the following:

“In an email sent by the Swedish foreign ministry to people close to Thunberg, and seen by the Guardian, an official who has visited the activist in prison said she claimed she was detained in a cell infested with bedbugs, with too little food and water.

“ ‘The embassy has been able to meet with Greta,’ reads the email. ‘She informed of dehydration. She has received insufficient amounts of both water and food. She also stated that she had developed rashes which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.’

“ ‘Another detainee reportedly told another embassy that they had seen her [Thunberg] being forced to hold flags while pictures were taken. She wondered whether images of her had been distributed,’ the Swedish ministry’s official added.

“The allegation was corroborated by at least two other members of the flotilla who had been detained by Israeli forces and released on Saturday.

“ ‘They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,’ the Turkish activist Ersin Çelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.

“Lorenzo D’Agostino, a journalist and another flotilla participant, said after returning to Istanbul that Thunberg was ‘wrapped in the Israeli flag and paraded like a trophy’ — a scene described with disbelief and anger by those who witnessed it.”

https://x.com/mehdirhasan/status/1974560607572828354

These reports, as shocking as they are, also happen to more or less reflect exactly what the Israeli regime said it intended to do to Global Sumud Flotilla activists when they were captured.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said last month that Sumud activists must be treated as terrorists in order to “create a clear deterrent” from future flotilla activism, declaring that “Anyone who chooses to collaborate with Hamas and support terrorism will meet a firm and unyielding response from Israel.”

“We will not allow individuals who support terrorism to live in comfort. They will face the full consequences of their actions,” Ben-Gvir said at the time.

After the flotilla activists were abducted by the IDF, Ben-Gvir filmed himself taunting them and calling them “terrorists”.

Israel, needless to say, has an extensively documented record of torturing and abusing individuals who’ve been given the “terrorist” label by the regime.

So it would appear that they singled out the most high-profile activist on the flotilla for abuse in order to send a message and deter future efforts to break the siege on Gaza.

https://x.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1973946884126658827

This comes as CBS News publishes a report confirming what we’ve been saying since last month: that Israel launched multiple drone attacks against the Global Sumud Flotilla.

Citing two US intelligence officials, CBS reports that Benjamin Netanyahu personally authorized attacks in which drones were deployed from an Israeli submarine to drop incendiary devices onto the boats to set them on fire.

Israel has been documented using quadcopter drones to drop incendiary firebombs on tents and buildings in Gaza. Last month Trump’s middle east envoy Tom Barrack casually admitted during an interview that “Israel is attacking Tunisia,” which was where the boat carrying Greta Thunberg was docked during the first drone attack.

Like the reported mistreatment of Thunberg, these drone attacks would also fit in perfectly with the Israeli government’s depraved and cynical decision to treat the flotilla activists as terrorists.

https://x.com/DecampDave/status/1974258862808043881

After the initial claims of a drone attack on the flotilla, the information ecosystem was flooded with hasbarists claiming it was ridiculous to blame Israel for the attacks, and that the fire hadn’t come from a drone at all.

Odious genocide propagandist Eyal Yakoby got nearly ten million views on a tweet where he falsely claimed to have video evidence showing that the fire was actually the result of a misfired flare from one of the boat’s crew members. Anyone who’d actually watched the video would have seen that it showed nothing of the sort, but because Yakoby inserted a narrative above the video claiming it shows that, I had people in my Twitter notifications telling me for days that it had been conclusively proven the fire was started by a flare.

I encountered even some solid Palestine supporters expressing doubt about the drone attacks when the reports first emerged, because it seemed too heinous to be believed. But this just goes to show that there really is nothing you can put past these freaks.

Israel and its apologists lie about everything. Everything, everything, everything. We are far past the point where it is reasonable to give Israel the benefit of the doubt when we hear reports that it has done something evil. If you’ll launch drone attacks on activists trying to bring aid to starving civilians, there’s nothing you won’t do.

Caitlin Johnstone has a reader-supported Newsletter. All her work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. Her work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece and want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. All works are co-authored with her husband Tim Foley. Read other articles by Caitlin.

Israel and the Global Sumud Flotilla

Estranged Realities

by Binoy Kampmark / October 8th, 2025

Showing that cloddishness that we have come to expect from them, Israel’s detention of the activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) was a coarse and violent affair. Having been intercepted in international waters on route to Gaza to break the Israeli-imposed blockade, the 470 or so activists, hailing from some fifty countries travelling on 40 boats, were duly taken to the Ketziot prison complex in the Negev desert in southern Israel. According to GSF, the endeavour was intended to “break the illegal siege on Gaza by sea, open a humanitarian corridor, and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”

US activist David Adler, who was released and deported to Jordan on October 7, issued an audio message shared with Al Jazeera through the advocacy group Progressive International describing the events: “We were kidnapped, stripped, zip-tied, blindfolded and sent to an internment camp on a police van without any access to food, to water, to legal support.” His Jewishness, along with that of a fellow activist, had been noted by the captors. “After interception, we were violently forced onto our knees into positions of submission, where the two Jews of the flotilla were taken by the ear and ripped from the group for a photo-op with [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir, staring at the flag of the State of Israel, taunted by his goons.”

Over the course of five days, Adler endured “serial and systematic violations” of basic human rights. At night, riot police accompanied by attack dogs would raid the prison to strike fear into the interned activists.

Adler’s accounts received solid corroboration from other members of the flotilla. Spanish lawyer Rafael Borrego, after arriving in Madrid, spoke of “repeated physical and mental abuse”. The authorities “beat us, dragged us along the ground, blindfolded us, tied our hands and feet, put us in cases and insulted us.” A statement to Reuters from nine Swiss nationals referred to “inhumane detention conditions and the humiliating and degrading treatment”.

Australians on the GSF referred to instances of kicking and slapping of detainees by prison guards, the use of sleep deprivation techniques, the confiscation of medication and instances of humiliation by being caged and bellowed at by “an Israeli government minister” (Ben-Gvir could hardly resist the opportunity). Surya McEwen recalls being “slapped, having his arm dislocated and having his head slammed into the ground.”

Much attention was also focused on the celebrity activist, Greta Thunberg, who was on her second outing. “I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me, but that is not the story.” A report from The Guardian noted her dehydration, the provision of “insufficient amounts of both food and water”, the outbreak of rashes caused by bed bugs. She had also been forced to hold and kiss the Israeli flag as images of her were taken.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said in a statement to Swedish news agency TT that she had “taken note of the reports of allegations of abusive treatment. If the reports are true, this is very serious.”

The reaction from other countries has not been quite so explicit. Australian activists on the GSF were less than impressed by the efforts of their diplomats, given the relative lateness of their release and complaints of mistreatment. US activists also received a cold response from their consular officials. Adler recalls being told by the US general consul that, “We are not your babysitters. You’d have no food, no water, no money, no phones, no planes.” US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who gleefully accepts the distorted offerings of information from the Israeli foreign affairs ministry, had a personal observation on Adler’s conduct, calling him a “self-absorbed tool of Hamas”.

Israel, for its part, aggressively sought to denude and denigrate the merits of the flotilla, both in terms of its mission and the integrity of its participants. Customary libels were offered: Thunberg and her fellow activists were useful idiots, and various organisers behind the effort to break the blockade were terrorist sympathisers with links to Hamas. No mention needed of the humanitarian crisis taking place in the hellish enclave of Gaza as, apparently, there is nothing to mention.

As for allegations of mistreatment, the Israeli foreign ministry was brusque and dismissive: “The lies they are spreading are part of their pre-planned fake news campaign.” Ben-Gvir, however, spoke on October 5 of how “proud” he was of the harsh conditions that the detainees were being kept in. “These are the terrorists of the flotilla,” he declared. “Supporters of murderers.” On his visit to Ketziot prison, he reasoned that the flotilla members, being “terror supporters”, deserved “the conditions of terrorists”.

Israeli authorities also claimed that the flotilla carried little humanitarian aid to speak of. In a sharp statement, the GSF called such accusations by Ben-Gvir and other officials “verifiably false” and “obscene. The boats were meticulously documented, loaded with medical supplies, food, and other life-saving goods for people in Gaza being systematically starved by Israel.”

On arriving in Athens after being deported, Thunberg praised the “global, international solidarity” of the GSF where hypocritical, mealymouthed governments had failed. “This is a last resort. That this mission has to exist is a shame.” At this writing, negotiations on the US proposed peace plan continues, as does slaughter and starvation in the Strip. As, it would seem, the estranged reality that permits mendacity to flourish.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com. Read other articles by Binoy.

Brazil: The Global Sumud Flotilla set an example of courage! We will continue to denounce the genocide in Palestine!

By Israel Dutra

Published 9 October, 2025

First published at Revista Movimento.

We have just received photos of the Brazilian delegation in the Flotilla, with clenched fists, newly arrived in Jordan and preparing their return. And even though dozens of delegations have already left the dungeons of the genocidal state between yesterday and today, six activists of multiple nationalities remain imprisoned.

Yesterday we welcomed the first member of the Brazilian delegation, Nico Calabrese, an Argentine with an Italian passport and a member of Rede Emancipa, at a combative event at Galeão airport. Nico, along with Campinas councilwoman Mariana Conti and PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party) Rio Grande do Sul president Gabi Tolotti, are members of MES (Socialist Left Movement) and part of the Brazilian delegation that set an example of struggle, maintaining morale in prison despite the taunts of fascists like Ben Gvir and the mistreatment they were subjected to. MES as a whole highlights the importance and strength of these comrades and so many others in our country’s delegation.

Thiago Ávila and Greta Thunberg led the mission, symbolizing this struggle for the whole world. Greta’s speech yesterday was a manifesto of resistance, worthy of a giant: “We are not heroes, we are here to support the Palestinian people.” And it’s true.

Also present were activists from around the world, members of the European left, South African Mandla Mandela, grandson of the historic leader; Portuguese Left Bloc MP Mariana Mortágua, as well as Argentine MP Celeste Fierro, from the MST (Socialist Workers' Movement) and FITU (Left and Workers' Front-Unity).

The Flotilla was a very important humanitarian and internationalist mission, celebrated with festivities by Palestinian children and fishermen, as we saw in the beautiful images that moved us in recent weeks. It was a catalyst that boosted solidarity with the Palestinian people, a strong point of support amid strikes and mass demonstrations in many European countries (with Italy at the forefront), but also in countries in Asia, Africa, and Oceania. It was an important battle that gathered more strength and determination in the face of the ongoing massacre in Gaza.

And on this date, two years after October 7, peace negotiations are dragging on due to the policy of Netanyahu and Trump, which is to seek a “peace of the graveyards” or a peace of the colonizers. Their proposed agreement was, in fact, an ultimatum to the Palestinian people, worn down by military defeat imposed through genocide.

The resistance of the Palestinian people is incredible. The demoralization of the state of Israel has reached extremely high levels, even in the imperialist countries that most support it, such as the United States and England.

The demonstrations will continue. In Brazil, solidarity with the Flotilla led to significant pressure on the Foreign Ministry and the Lula government, which, albeit belatedly, ended up denouncing the policy of the genocidal state.

The struggle in defense of Palestine will continue to be the dividing line of humanity. The activists returning to Brazil become committed references — such as Greta and Thiago — to continue denouncing the Palestinian holocaust. The families and the impressive support network that has been set up do justice to the bravery of those who spent more than thirty days sailing and almost a week detained in Israeli dungeons.

We hold back our cries, wave our flags more strongly, and feel proud of our people and the members of the Flotilla who broke through the siege and inertia, setting an example of a new internationalism, alive and active, that is just beginning.

Long live the resistance around the world in defense of Palestine! We celebrate the release of our people, but there will only be freedom when Palestine is free. Humanity will only be free when the Palestinians have the right to their land.

We also acknowledge the efforts of all the other members of the Brazilian delegation. Free Palestine from the River to the Sea!

Luizianne Lins – Teacher, federal deputy for the PT (Workers' Party) Ceará and twice mayor of Fortaleza;

Mohamad El Kadri – Brazilian, son of Lebanese immigrants, president of the Latin American-Palestinian Forum, coordinator of the Palestinian Front of São Paulo, and PT activist;

Bruno Gilga Rocha – USP (University of Sao Paulo) worker, active in the University Workers’ Union, MRT activist, and part of the Brazilian coordination of the Global Sumud Flotilla;

Magno Carvalho – Activist with the USP Workers’ Union and CSP-Conlutas. Veteran of international solidarity initiatives with the Palestinian people;

Lucas Farias Gusmão – Activist and internationalist from Bahia;

⁠João Aguiar – Activist with the Global Movement for Gaza and the Palestine Nucleus of the PT/SP;

Ariadne Telles – Human rights lawyer from the Amazon and activist for the Bem Viver Movement;

⁠Lisiane Proença – Popular communicator, traveler, and cultural agitator;

Victor Nascimento Peixoto – Professor and researcher of Islamic history. Activist and popular communicator;

Miguel Viveiros de Castro – One of the founders of the Indymedia Brazil network and the Calafou Cooperative in Catalonia (Spain). He directed the documentaries “Brad, uma noite mais nas barricadas” (Brad, one more night on the barricades) and “Mundurukania, na beira da história” (Mundurukania, on the edge of history).

Touch one, touch all: Brazil must protect its citizens on the Global Sumud Flotilla

By Israel Dutra

Published 2 October, 2025

First published in Portuguese at Movimento Revista. Translation by LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal.

The next 24 hours will be decisive. As the genocide of the Palestinian people continues to spark outrage across the globe, the Global Sumud Flotilla — the largest humanitarian initiative of its kind — continues moving towards the waters of Gaza.

After departing from Barcelona, ​​passing through Tunisia, and arriving in Greece to set sail to its final destination, and enduring all manner of sabotage, international harassment and drone attacks, the flotilla has now become a global phenomenon.

The flotilla, led by Greta Thunberg from Sweden, Thiago Ávila from Brazil, and other Palestinian activists, is carrying food, medicine and other humanitarian aid supplies, with the clear aim of breaking the Zionist siege on Gaza.

Onboard are parliamentarians from Europe and Latin America, such as Mariana Mortágua of Portugal’s Left Bloc and Celeste Fierro of the Socialist Workers’ Movement (MST) of Argentina. There are also 16 Brazilian activists on board: three comrades from the Socialist Left Movement/Socialism and Liberty Party (MES/PSOL), Mariana Conti (PSOL Campinas City Councilor), Gabi Tolloti (PSOL president in Rio Grande do Sul), and Nico Calabrese (Emancipa Network coordinator and crew member); as well as Luizianne Lins (Workers’ Party parliamentarian), Mohamed Kadri (Palestinian Forum leader), Bruno Gilga and Magno Carvalho (of the University of Sao Paulo Workers Union, Sintusp), and other activists.

The Zionist State of Israel has promised to intercept the flotilla in the coming days and hours, accusing it of terrorism. It has used all kinds of psychological torture and threats against it. It wants to prevent outrage over the worst genocide in the 21st century spilling over into international solidarity and support.

Demonstrations that have swept the world have brought down governments and ensured popular pressure prevailed: when Spain rose up, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was forced to send the Furor and announced several trade embargoes against the State of Israel; after a general strike over Gaza paralysed Italy, the far-right government was also forced to send a ship to the Greek coast to accompany the flotilla. Other countries, such as Turkey and Greece, are talking about doing the same. The world’s eyes are on Gaza.

The United Nations assembly was a stark illustration of the current political tensions: Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s speech, an example of how to criticise US President Donald Trump, denouncing the live-streamed genocide in Gaza; the withdrawal by delegations in protest at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intervention; and, finally, Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s heroic intervention, defending the need for the world to stop the genocide and even calling for a volunteer army to fight in defence of Palestine. For this statement and his subsequent participation in a demonstration in support of Gaza, Petro had his visa suspended and is now barred from returning to the United States. The UN was a portrait of the global situation.

Yesterday afternoon, after several hours of meeting, Trump and Netanyahu held a media conference announcing an “agreement” and urging Hamas to accept it or face the consequences of a “final solution.”

The agreement was met with outrage from Palestinian activists and resistance fighters, as well as from the English left, who denounced former British PM Tony Blair’s stance, pointing to him as politically responsible for the new phase of the occupation.

For now, we must continue to mobilise in Brazil, supporting the flotilla members whose lives are at grave risk. The Italian and Spanish military boats did not cross into the red zone (150 miles from the final destination), which the flotilla vessels must pass through to reach Gaza with its humanitarian aid. We need to continue to demand that Brazil’s foreign ministry protects them, in line with the open letters being promoted by parliamentarians and the Global Sumud Flotilla. Let us follow the example of the Italian dockworkers and students who have already stated: if you touch the Flotilla, we will blockade everything.

The Brazilian student movement has called for vigils and actions on October 2. The Palestinian Front has called for large-scale events this weekend, particularly October 5.

Brazilian universities are mobilised. Following student sit-ins, Unicamp and the Fluminense Federal University cut commercial and academic relations with the State of Israel.

The world’s eyes are on Gaza. And the eyes of Brazil are on the flotilla. Brazil must take responsibility for its citizens, ensuring their safety, repatriation and physical integrity.

We will continue to support the Palestinian-led and organised fight for a free Palestine — from the river to the sea!