blog of the post capitalist transition.. Read or download the novel here + latest relevant posts
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The Free is a book and a blog. .”the most detailed fictional treatment of the movement from a world recognizably like our own to an anarchist society that I have read.. imagined strongly enough to allow readers to believe that events could happen this way.” 555,225 blog reads so far (2023).
on 23 Jul, 2026
by a Western Banned News Agency. via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-I7O
By Mustafa Fetouri, Libyan academic, award winning journalist and analyst
When Gamal Abdel Nasser led the Free Officers Movement to power in 1952, Africa’s political landscape was mostly vacant – with independent nations limited to Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, and apartheid-ruled South Africa. Yet, by his death in September 1970, more than 40 African countries had achieved sovereignty. This monumental shift was no coincidence.
Under Nasser, Cairo transformed into the hub of global anti-colonialism – a diplomatic base and logistics center for liberation struggles from Algeria’s National Liberation Front (FLN) to movements in the Congo, Angola, and Southern Africa.
By exporting the ideals of the July 23 Revolution, Egypt helped engineer Africa’s decolonization wave, anchoring a Pan-African momentum that forged the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and championed a multipolar world order through the Non-Aligned Movement.
Marking its 74th anniversary today, the legacy of the July 23 Revolution underscores Nasser’s early recognition that the survival of Egypt’s domestic development programs and regional initiatives required strategic depth.
Mapping out Egypt’s geopolitical destiny in his 1954 manifesto, The Philosophy of the Revolution, Nasser conceptualized Cairo’s foreign policy within three interconnected spheres: the Arab world, the African continent, and the Islamic sphere.
While the Arab world was bound by a shared language and history, the African sphere offered the most fertile ground for a systemic challenge to European empires. Nasser argued that a colonized Africa left Egypt’s southern flank dangerously vulnerable. Conversely, a liberated continent would secure Cairo’s vital interests – including the crucial waters of the Nile – and solidify Egypt’s role as the vanguard of the developing world.
Meanwhile, the Islamic sphere provided the cultural and civilizational network necessary to mobilize transcontinental solidarity against foreign hegemony, ensuring that Egypt never stood isolated against imperial powers.
To turn this geopolitical vision into reality, Nasser transformed Cairo from a regional capital of cinema and arts into the operational center of African decolonization. Crucially, arts and literature flourished alongside these movements. The city evolved into a dual Pan-Arab and Pan-African sanctuary for liberation fronts that European empires were actively trying to crush.
From Nelson Mandela seeking military backing for the African National Congress (ANC), to Jomo Kenyatta’s representatives from Kenya, and Amilcar Cabral’s PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) vanguard, the architects of African revolution found resources and safety in Egypt’s capital.
Continue reading “How Nasser defied British, French and Israeli looting – and led all Africa in ongoing anti Colonial revolution.”
🌪On July 19, 1936, organized workers defeated the fascist military in Barcelona who rose up against the Second Republic, beginning the social revolution.🪨 Yesterday as today we continue to face injustice and the ruling classes that destroy communities and crush social rights and life on the planet. All for the benefit of an economic system that gobbles up natural resources to convert them into private accumulation of wealth.Organized, we are capable of anything!
Long live the Confederation✊/https://t.me/thefreeonline/6223 / https://t.me/thefreeonline/6222
“Hace unos años conocí a un héroe de la Revolución Social llamado Diego Camacho (seudónimo: Abel Paz), que escribió la biografía clásica «Durruti: El pueblo armado», además de una docena más de libros y películas geniales en castellano (español).
Un anciano ágil y sonriente, con un Ducados en la boca, se quejaba en broma de que nunca le habían dado ni un céntimo por la versión inglesa del libro sobre Durruti (¡editado en 14 idiomas!). Yo le dije que intentaría traducirle algo de sus extensos libros, pero nunca pude hacerlo.
Diego sobrevivió a su exilio, a sus torturadores y a sus carceleros (pasó más de 10 años en prisiones fascistas) y volvió al final a vivir a Barcelona, donde de niño había asistido a la Escuela Libre «Natura», de Ferrer.
Se pasaba el tiempo contando lo que había visto, inspirando sin descanso a nuevas generaciones de jóvenes, e incluso haciendo giras para promocionar la película «Tierra y libertad».
¿Qué pudo ser tan impactante como para que todas las partes colaboraran en el asesinato de decenas de miles de personas y en amordazar a la gente hasta ahora, con la intención de borrar de la faz de la tierra todo recuerdo de aquellos acontecimientos?.
«Las tropas tomaron posiciones, al mando de un teniente que no tenía mucha paciencia y ordenó a sus subordinados que atacaran la barricada sin protección. Justo cuando empezó a gritar las órdenes de ataque, un capitán le apuntó con su arma… y lo mató de un disparo.
Los soldados dejaron de disparar y empezaron a acercarse a nosotros, gritando con entusiasmo “Viva la República”… Todos empezamos a fraternizar como locos; se quitaban los uniformes y todos explicaban cómo les habían engañado sus superiores…»
pagina 439
«Barcelona se había convertido en un laberinto de barricadas, muchas de ellas estratégicamente inútiles, pero significativas, construidas por todos los vecinos, que con cada adoquín apilado ponían su anhelo de cambio social y político»…
(Mi nota: Era una gran ciudad moderna y un hervidero de actividad social y política. Otra toma del poder por parte del ejército, esta vez controlado por los fascistas, fue la gota que colmó el vaso. Cuando los activistas de la CNT hicieron sonar las sirenas de las fábricas como aviso, todo el mundo dijo por fin «No pasarán» y construyó las barricadas.)
«Para mí, el tiempo que pasé en nuestra barricada del barrio del Clot… El bar Fornos convirtió su salón en un abrir y cerrar de ojos en un restaurante popular gratuito. Los trabajadores de la cervecería Damm habían dejado cientos de botellas, los de las tiendas apilaron jamones y salchichas, pan recién hecho…»
«Barcelona se estaba transformando, y también las relaciones sociales. Por ejemplo… en la barricada conocí a Lola, una amiga de la familia cuya pareja, Antonio, causaba problemas constantes por sus celos obsesivos. Ella iba de un lado a otro, echando una mano, rodeada de hombres.Más tarde Antonio llegó con un camión lleno de activistas.
No vi ni rastro de sus habituales celos; estaba encantado de verla allí, solo preocupado por su hija de cinco años. El camión pasó en medio de vítores desenfrenados a favor de la CNT y la FAI. ¿Cuánta gente más vivió cambios similares?»
«El 27 de julio, la federación local del sindicato CNT publicó un manifiesto en el que pedía el fin de la huelga general y animaba a la gente a volver al trabajo. Las expropiaciones generalizadas (tomas de empresas) fueron una respuesta al abandono que nos encontramos al llegar.
La mayoría de los propietarios se habían ido, tanto los grandes como los pequeños, por miedo a las represalias de los trabajadores (maltratados). Convocaron asambleas abiertas y colectivizaron la industria… En menos de 36 horas, la base económica pasó (sorprendentemente) de ser propiedad privada a colectiva. «-…
Diego estuvo allí, vivió esa revolución que aterrorizó a todos los opresores. Ahora ya no está, pero a nosotros también nos inspiró, y le habría encantado que lo citaran en estas nuevas ediciones de The Free.
El libro es ante todo una novela, pero los escenarios y el trasfondo exploran versiones creativas de «La Idea», en el contexto del colapso de los recursos y del clima.
El truco está en vivirlo en directo, en asomarte más allá de las anteojeras cotidianas.
Otros mundos y sistemas sociales no solo son posibles, sino que están al caer, pronto, te guste o no.
ISBN-10: 1501006894 de la 5.ª edición impresa
Nota: La traducción al castellano de «The Free» tiene el título provisional «De Acracia a Anarres» y cuenta con tres capítulos nuevos. Todavía hay que hacer algunas correcciones lingüísticas. Tenemos pensado enviar copias en PDF por adelantado a algunos amigos para que nos den su opinión. ¡Deja un mensaje en los comentarios si te interesa! https://wp.me/pIJl9-I6F
original de The Free
“Some years ago I met a man called Diego Camacho (pen name Abel Paz) who wrote the classic biography ‘Durruti: The People Armed’, and a dozen more great books and films in Spanish.
An agile grinning old fellow, with a Ducados in his mouth, he complained jokingly that he never got a cent back from the English version of the Durruti book (now in 14 languages!). I said I would try and translate something for him, but I was never able.
Diego outlived his exile, torturers and jailors (he spent more than 10 years in fascist prisons) and came back again to live in Barcelona, where he had attended the ‘Ferrer’ Free School, Natura, as a child. He spent his time explaining what he’d seen, tirelessly inspiring new generations of youth, even touring to promote the film ‘Land and Liberty’.
“‘I wandered from group to group. All talk was of the rapid victory over the army (takeover attempt) in less than 12 hours of street fighting with the troops… one incident… In the blink of an eye the multitude had raised a colossal barricade across the Paralelo.’ (a main street).
‘The troops took up positions, commanded by a lieutenant, who showed little patience, and ordered his subordinates to attack the barricade without protection. Just when he began yelling the orders to attack a captain turned his weapon… and shot him dead. The soldiers stopped firing and began to approach us, shouting enthusiastically ‘Viva La República’… We all started fraternizing like crazy; they were stripping off uniforms and all explaining how they’d been misled by their superiors…’
Barcelona had been converted into a labyrinth of barricades, many strategically useless, yet meaningful, built by all the neighbours, who placed with every piled up paving stone, their longing for social and political change.’…
(My note: This was a big modern city and a beehive of social and political activity. Another takeover by the army, this time fascist controlled, was the last straw. When the CNT activists set off the factory sirens in warning, everyone finally said ‘They Shall Not Pass’, and built barricades.)
‘For me the time spent at our local barricade in the Clot neighborhBar Fornos had its bhall converted in a twinkling into a free Popular Restaurant. The Damm beer workers had left 100’s of bottles, store workers piled up hams and sausage, hot bread…’- ‘Barcelona was being transformed, and so were social relations.
For example… at the barricade I met Lola, a family friend who’s partner Antonio caused constant problems due to his obsessive jealousy. She was running about, being useful, surrounded by men. Later Antonio arrived with a lorry-load of activists. I saw no hint of his usual jealousy he was delighted to see her there, only worried about their 5 year old daughter.
The lorry went through amid wild cheering for the CNT and FAI. How many more people experienced similar changes?’
” ‘On the 27th July the local federation of the CNT union published a manifesto calling for the end of the General Strike, and asking people to go back to work. The generalized expropriations (workplace takeovers) were a response to the abandonment, which we found when we got there.
Most of the owners had gone, both big and small, for fear of reprisals by the workers. They called open Assemblies and collectivized industry… In less than 36 hours the economic base passed from private to collective property. ‘-…
That’s what happened. Instead of installing the National Catholic dictatorship the military fascists accidentally provoked a leap into future, allowing a unique, short-lived Social Revolution, light years ahead of State Communism or predator Capitalism.
Diego was there, he lived that revolution that terrified all oppressors. He’s dead now, but he inspired us too, and he’d have enjoyed being quoted in these new editions of The Free.
The book is a novel first, but the settings and background explore creative updates of ‘The Idea’, in the context of resource and climate collapse. The trick is to play it live, to peep around our daily blinkers.
Other worlds and social systems are not only possible, but are coming, pronto, like it or not. .
ISBN-10: 1501006894 5th Print Edition page 439
by Jonathan Cook at https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/britains-big-brother +Podcast on Jul 17, 2026 via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-I6x
Or is it a process that gradually unfolds, where restraints on executive power are dismantled piece by piece until the tide cannot be reversed?.
Is the turn to authoritarianism something that can only be understood after the event, when all opportunities to halt the slide have been missed?
And how do we admit to ourselves that we have been stripped of our most basic and cherished freedoms – of speech, assembly and protest – when we are no longer free to speak, meet or protest?
The unpalatable truth is that Britain is already far down this path. And if you are unaware of the earthquake that has been taking place, that may be because – just as you might expect when authoritarianism comes calling – the very first to be smothered are the voices sounding the alarm.
A media owned by billionaires and the state – the parties that, in an age of growing popular discontent, have most to gain from the accretion of executive power and the silencing of dissent – have no reason to illuminate the encroaching darkness.
An ostensible Labour government under the outgoing Keir Starmer has done much of the foot work to usher in the new, ominous political climate.
It was precisely Starmer’s credentials as a human rights lawyer that provided the British state with the cover story it needed for an unprecedented assault on the freedoms fought for by earlier generations.
There are few signs that his successors, whether it be a new figurehead in the genocide-supporting Labour Party or Nigel Farage’s immigrant-bashing Reform, will change direction.
The logic driving Britain’s slide towards authoritarianism is being set not just by politicians, but by a British establishment that needs to sell its collusion in genocide and illegal wars abroad and to find easy scapegoats – immigrants – to blame for its failures at home.
The job of the main political parties, reliant on billionaire donors who also own the corporate media, is to shore up these narratives.
It was Starmer’s home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who incautiously gave the clearest expression to the British state’s vision of our future.
In a speech in January she laid out her ambition to harness new developments in AI to create an all-powerful, all-seeing “Big Brother” surveillance state of the kind foretold by George Orwell in his dystopian novel 1984.
Mahmood even compared this future to the “panopticon” – a reference to 18th-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s perfect prison: a central watchtower (the state) surrounded by a circle of windowed cells where the inmates (the public) would be visible at all times.
Bentham understood that this was not just about physical control. As he observed, the sense of being constantly observed would be a “new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind”. The inmates would police their own behaviour to avoid punishment.
Starmer’s successor, Andy Burnham, is reportedly keen to keep Mahmood a key figure in his government. But this isn’t about a single government minister.
Mahmood is the symptom of a deeper malaise, not its cause. The architecture of the new systems of control, as well as the erosion of freedoms and the cultural traditions that supported them, were already well advanced when she was appointed to the Home Office.
Whoever holds the reins of power in the months and years to come will be able to exploit these existing powers to the maximum, and then extend them further.
Once the spirit of authoritarianism takes hold, it becomes ever harder to stuff it back into the box. Only concerted mass protest can remind the state where ultimate power resides. And it is precisely this kind of protest that is being demonised and criminalised one step at a time.
If it is possible to identify a single moment when the new authoritarianism moved out of the shadows, it was some 15 years ago. That was the moment the state launched its protracted campaign against Julian Assange to vilify and incarcerate him.
The founder of the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks had incensed the United States and its loyal British sidekick by publishing details of war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq both wanted to be kept secret.
It was probably no coincidence that, at the time, Starmer was head of the Crown Prosecution Service and making repeated trips to meet Washington’s most senior law officers. Contrary to protocols, records of these discussions were destroyed by his officials.
We will never know what instructions Starmer was given by the US regarding Assange. But a possible clue survived the further, and highly irregular, destruction by Starmer’s department of related correspondence between UK and Swedish prosecutors from that time.
One of the few surviving emails is revealing. It shows that Sweden was considering dropping an investigation into Assange for lack of evidence, as he was holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London fearful of what lay in store.
Starmer’s staff, who were supposed to be neutral arbiters between Sweden and Assange’s legal team, angrily told the Swedes: “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!”
In another email, the same CPS official told Swedish counterparts: “Please do not think this case is being dealt with as just another extradition.
Later, with the active connivance of the UK and its courts, the US showed its true hand. Washington began extradition proceedings on the preposterous grounds that Assange had committed “espionage” by publishing details of its war crimes.
Assange was caged in a high-security prison in London for years, often unableto meet his lawyers, his health failing, on a trumped-up, nakedly political charge.
This was a terrifying, unprecedented assault on the right of journalists to publish evidence of state wrongdoing in the public interest. And yet the billionaire-owned media could barely stifle their yawns.
There was a two-fold gain from Assange’s decade-long abuse and the trampling of his legal rights.
First, it established a very visible precedent in which the rule of law was turned on its head. The roles of victim and victimiser were reversed.
Assange, who had published incontrovertible evidence of US and British war crimes, was the one behind bars. British officials who approved and hid those crimes not only evaded justice but were free to hound and smear Assange.
This has been the theme ever since, as the British state has intensified its curbs on speech and protest, with Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians often serving as the testing ground for authorising this new crackdown.
In the second half of the 2010s, Jeremy Corbyn – Starmer’s predecessor as Labour leader – found himself and his supporters roundly vilified as “antisemites”.
Why? Because they tried to bring attention to Israel’s criminal actions – a forewarning of what was to come, as Israel unleashed what legal experts, Holocaust scholars, human rights groups and United Nations investigators have all concluded is a genocide in Gaza.
In a properly functioning democracy, those who smeared Corbyn and other critics of Israel would have been permanently discredited.
Instead, UK officials – the same officials colluding in Israel’s current crimes by shipping arms to Israel, by carrying out surveillance flights to guide Israel’s bombing campaigns against Gaza’s civilians, and by offering diplomatic cover – simply stepped up the demonisation campaign.
As millions of Britons took to the streets, the Starmer government – and the British state behind it – not only labelled them as antisemites but radically rewrote the statute books to criminalise opposition to Israel’s genocide.
Direct action group Palestine Action, which had been targeting Israeli arms factories operating on UK soil, was proscribed as a “terrorist” group equivalent to al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
Holding placards protesting the genocide, as thousands of respectable British citizens did, became “support for terrorism”, risking a jail term of up to 14 years.
Reality was once again inverted.
Britain continues to actively support Israeli state terrorism.
But it was those ringing the alarm – those trying to stop these shipments, those opposed to British collusion in Israeli state terrorism, or those simply appalled by the undermining of basic rights to protest – who were arrested and charged as terrorists.
Meanwhile, documents show Elbit Systems continues to enjoy unrestricted access to British government officials.
Second, in stigmatising and isolating Assange for publishing details of US and UK war crimes, the British state was able to draw its own fake distinction between “good” and “bad” journalism – a distinction the billionaire-owned media was only too happy to embrace.
Assange, whose independent platform WikiLeaks had held Washington and London’s feet to the fire for committing war crimes, had in the process shamed the establishment media for their unwillingness to do likewise.
He exposed the extent to which corporate journalists, dependent on access to the rich and powerful for stories, conspire in the covert, unaccountable ways power is exercised by the state.
The media are not watchdogs; they are lap dogs, representing the interests of the billionaire class.
The British state – and its security services – made clear they would not tolerate truly independent or critical media that could expose their hypocrisies or bring them to book.
In response, the billionaire-owned media not only hung Assange out to dry. It joined the government in a chorus of claims that independent outlets were either peddling “fake news” or serving as “Kremlin assets” spreading “disinformation“.
It amplified the pressure from politicians on social media platforms, the billionaires’ new plaything, to tighten their algorithms to hide independent journalists, and stymie these dangerous new competitors in the battle for truth.
Similarly, corporate media cheerled the government’s decision to ban Russia Today, the Russian state’s news channel. It quickly became all but impossible for UK audiences to hear Russia’s version of eventsin the mainstream media, as Britain and European states built the case for permanent confrontation with Moscow.
The European Union imposed an even more draconian ban – upheld this month by the EU’s Court of Justice – that makes it a criminal offence to repeat any information reported by RT, and other banned outlets, even if demonstrably true. The law’s purpose is to supposedly “protect public order and safety”.
In recent weeks, two prominent US commentators, Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker, have been denied entry to the UK over their criticisms of Israel. Uygur was due to speak at an Oxford University debate.
In this new authoritarian climate, truth is defined as whatever the state wants their citizens to know. Meanwhile, disinformation – “Russian propaganda” or “antisemitism”– is whatever those same states insist their citizenry must not hear.
This is a brazen reversal of 350 years of the western Enlightenment, with its professed belief both in the primacy of reason and that ideas must be tested through debate and critical scrutiny.
Now it matters not what is being said, but only who is saying it.
And unsurprisingly, the billionaire-owned, western media has endorsed this new regime. After all, its voice – representing the interests of the super-rich – is guaranteed a hearing.
No surprise, then, that this same privileged media corps has continued to meekly accept its exclusion from Gaza by Israel as the biggest crime in modern history unfolds – even now, in the midst of a supposed ceasefire that Israel keeps breaking.
Because what matters is who is allowed to speak: Israel, not Gaza’s Palestinians, whether what Israel says is true or, as invariably turns out to be the case, a lie.
In line with this precept, the billionaire-owned media has barely raised a murmur as Israel has slaughtered Gaza’s journalists in unprecedented numbers – killing more of them than in two world wars, Vietnam, the Yugoslav wars and Afghanistan combined.
The lives of Palestinian journalists – like the reporting they have had to do alone under Israeli bombardment – count for nothing in the western media because of who they are.
Genocide – the what – has been erased as a crime because it is we – the West – who are helping to carry it out.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, reportedly facing a political and donor backlash, scrapped last year its annual Global Impunity Index – which measured where journalists are murdered with impunity – after it became clear Israel would top the rankings.
Now the same committee is being accused of caving in to these pressures by raising doubts about who counts as a journalist in Gaza – doubts that will serve to embolden Israel, which claims that Palestinian journalists, indeed all Palestinians, are terrorists in disguise.
The who has to be rewritten because the what cannot be denied.
The same story is unfolding in the UK, where independent British journalists have been detained at the airport or had their homes raided at dawn by counterterrorism police for “wrong-think” about the Gaza genocide and British complicity in it. They too face up to 14 years in jail.
That has sent a chilling message to other journalists, those that lack the protection of a billionaire patron or the state, about what can be said.
None of this is, or will be, confined to Gaza. The upending of Enlightenment values, as should be clear by now, is part of a much bigger political project to normalise and entrench this creeping authoritarianism.
The proscription of Palestine Action and placard-holding has paved the way for the British state to designate any opponent – challenging its lawbreaking or contesting its right to dictate truth – as a criminal or a supporter of terrorism. A precedent has been set, and now approved by the UK courts, that will be hard to reverse.
The state has many tools at its disposal, some of which it is already wielding, again to no protest from billionaire-owned media “watchdogs”.
A particularly powerful one is “debanking”: forcing individuals or groups who disrupt the narrative of western state moral and legal authority out of the financial system, driving them into a kind of purdah that makes it near-impossible for them to function in the modern, western world.
Notably again, Assange and WikiLeaks were an early victim of the use of debanking as a political weapon. Washington imposed sanctions in late 2010, shortly after WikiLeaks exposed US and British war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, cutting off almost all of its donor revenue.
Sanctions – what some describe as a “financial death penalty” – have already been imposed on several judges and staff of the International Criminal Court over the issuing of an arrest warrant against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for committing crimes against humanity in Gaza.
UN legal expert Francesca Albanese, at the forefront of highlighting western complicity in Israel’s genocide, has also been debanked.
In Britain, Palestinian and Islamic-run charities have long faced harsh restrictions on their ability to operate financially, usually on the basis of claims that they may be funnelling donations to proscribed groups.
But this has gradually expanded to mainstream Palestine solidarity organisations and to individuals caught up in the ban on Palestine Action.
In an even more disturbing, if predictable, development, Lloyds Bank has now debanked the Canary, a leftwing publication whose criticisms of Labour’s capture by Big Business have long proved a thorn in the party bureacracy’s side. The Canary can no longer pay staff, and its news operation is in jeopardy.
This is the same Canary that the Labour Together project led by Morgan McSweeney – who propelled Starmer to power on behalf of the billionaire-friendly, pro-genocide Labour right – identified early on as a threat. His mantra was reportedly: “Destroy the Canary or the Canary destroys us.”
As investigative journalist Paul Holden sets out in his book The Fraud, which documents Labour Together’s covert, law-breaking operations, McSweeney almost succeeded in destroying the Canary. He created an astroturf group, Stop Funding Fake News, that lobbied advertisers to boycott the publication.
Labour Together under McSweeney’s successor, Josh Simons, would then launch a smear campaign on Holden and refer him to British security services as a supposed Kremlin asset.
Like a bad penny, Simons has turned up again, this time giving up his Makerfield seat for Andy Burnham to return to Westminster. Simons is now one of Burnham’s political advisers.
This systematic assault on the right to scrutinise the British state’s actions has been extended to the legal profession too.
Last month, Dan Kovalik, a respected US human rights lawyer and professor, was detained at Liverpool airport by counterterrorism police and questioned over his criticisms of western foreign policy in Gaza and Iran.
Fahad Ansari, a British human rights lawyer, was detained by police last year on return to the UK from a family holiday in Ireland under Schedule 7 of the draconian Terrorism Act of 2000.
Both men had their electronic devices seized, despite protests that this was unlawful and violated their privileged lawyer-client communications.
Ansari’s detention appears to be a blatant act of political retaliation and intimidation. He had made legal representations challenging a Home Office decision in 2021 to expand the proscription of Hamas to its political wing. Hamas has never launched a military operation in Britain.
For the submission, Ansari had assembled a group of experts to argue that the expanded proscription – long desired by Israel – was having a profoundly chilling effect on the work of lawyers, scholars, human rights groups and journalists in documenting and discussing Israeli crimes in Gaza.
Five UN legal experts wrote protesting the abuse of Ansari’s rights as a lawyer, warning that “such measures threaten to criminalize, stigmatize and have chilling effects against lawyers and legal associations carrying out lawful work in national security and counter-terrorism matters”.
That seems to be precisely the point. Harassing lawyers is a feature, not a bug, of Britain’s new authoritarianism.
An even more visible victim of this new assault on the legal profession is the highly respected barrister Rajiv Menon.
He has worked on some of the most important human rights cases of modern times, challenging failures and abuses of power by the state in relation to the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence, the deaths of nearly 100 Liverpool football fans at Hillsborough, and the 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.
He is currently facing contempt of court proceedings after making a closing speech in January that persuaded a jury not to convict six Palestine Action defendants of any of the charges brought by the British state against them. In 2024, the six had targeted an Elbit factory.
Continue reading “Britain’s Big Brother state is already here – we just don’t realise it yet”🌪On July 19, 1936, organized workers defeated the fascist military in Barcelona who rose up against the Second Republic, beginning the social revolution.🪨 Yesterday as today we continue to face injustice and the ruling classes that destroy communities and crush social rights and life on the planet. All for the benefit of an economic system that gobbles up natural resources to convert them into private accumulation of wealth.Organized, we are capable of anything!
Long live the Confederation✊/https://t.me/thefreeonline/6223 / https://t.me/thefreeonline/6222
“Hace unos años conocí a un héroe de la Revolución Social llamado Diego Camacho (seudónimo: Abel Paz), que escribió la biografía clásica «Durruti: El pueblo armado», además de una docena más de libros y películas geniales en castellano (español).
Un anciano ágil y sonriente, con un Ducados en la boca, se quejaba en broma de que nunca le habían dado ni un céntimo por la versión inglesa del libro sobre Durruti (¡editado en 14 idiomas!). Yo le dije que intentaría traducirle algo de sus extensos libros, pero nunca pude hacerlo.
Diego sobrevivió a su exilio, a sus torturadores y a sus carceleros (pasó más de 10 años en prisiones fascistas) y volvió al final a vivir a Barcelona, donde de niño había asistido a la Escuela Libre «Natura», de Ferrer.
Se pasaba el tiempo contando lo que había visto, inspirando sin descanso a nuevas generaciones de jóvenes, e incluso haciendo giras para promocionar la película «Tierra y libertad».
¿Qué pudo ser tan impactante como para que todas las partes colaboraran en el asesinato de decenas de miles de personas y en amordazar a la gente hasta ahora, con la intención de borrar de la faz de la tierra todo recuerdo de aquellos acontecimientos?.
«Las tropas tomaron posiciones, al mando de un teniente que no tenía mucha paciencia y ordenó a sus subordinados que atacaran la barricada sin protección. Justo cuando empezó a gritar las órdenes de ataque, un capitán le apuntó con su arma… y lo mató de un disparo.
Los soldados dejaron de disparar y empezaron a acercarse a nosotros, gritando con entusiasmo “Viva la República”… Todos empezamos a fraternizar como locos; se quitaban los uniformes y todos explicaban cómo les habían engañado sus superiores…»
pagina 439
«Barcelona se había convertido en un laberinto de barricadas, muchas de ellas estratégicamente inútiles, pero significativas, construidas por todos los vecinos, que con cada adoquín apilado ponían su anhelo de cambio social y político»…
(Mi nota: Era una gran ciudad moderna y un hervidero de actividad social y política. Otra toma del poder por parte del ejército, esta vez controlado por los fascistas, fue la gota que colmó el vaso. Cuando los activistas de la CNT hicieron sonar las sirenas de las fábricas como aviso, todo el mundo dijo por fin «No pasarán» y construyó las barricadas.)
«Para mí, el tiempo que pasé en nuestra barricada del barrio del Clot… El bar Fornos convirtió su salón en un abrir y cerrar de ojos en un restaurante popular gratuito. Los trabajadores de la cervecería Damm habían dejado cientos de botellas, los de las tiendas apilaron jamones y salchichas, pan recién hecho…»
«Barcelona se estaba transformando, y también las relaciones sociales. Por ejemplo… en la barricada conocí a Lola, una amiga de la familia cuya pareja, Antonio, causaba problemas constantes por sus celos obsesivos. Ella iba de un lado a otro, echando una mano, rodeada de hombres.Más tarde Antonio llegó con un camión lleno de activistas.
No vi ni rastro de sus habituales celos; estaba encantado de verla allí, solo preocupado por su hija de cinco años. El camión pasó en medio de vítores desenfrenados a favor de la CNT y la FAI. ¿Cuánta gente más vivió cambios similares?»
foto colorizada, Barcelona 1936
«El 27 de julio, la federación local del sindicato CNT publicó un manifiesto en el que pedía el fin de la huelga general y animaba a la gente a volver al trabajo. Las expropiaciones generalizadas (tomas de empresas) fueron una respuesta al abandono que nos encontramos al llegar.
La mayoría de los propietarios se habían ido, tanto los grandes como los pequeños, por miedo a las represalias de los trabajadores (maltratados). Convocaron asambleas abiertas y colectivizaron la industria… En menos de 36 horas, la base económica pasó (sorprendentemente) de ser propiedad privada a colectiva. «-…
Diego estuvo allí, vivió esa revolución que aterrorizó a todos los opresores. Ahora ya no está, pero a nosotros también nos inspiró, y le habría encantado que lo citaran en estas nuevas ediciones de The Free.
El libro es ante todo una novela, pero los escenarios y el trasfondo exploran versiones creativas de «La Idea», en el contexto del colapso de los recursos y del clima.
El truco está en vivirlo en directo, en asomarte más allá de las anteojeras cotidianas.
Otros mundos y sistemas sociales no solo son posibles, sino que están al caer, pronto, te guste o no.
ISBN-10: 1501006894 de la 5.ª edición impresa
Nota: La traducción al castellano de «The Free» tiene el título provisional «De Acracia a Anarres» y cuenta con tres capítulos nuevos. Todavía hay que hacer algunas correcciones lingüísticas. Tenemos pensado enviar copias en PDF por adelantado a algunos amigos para que nos den su opinión. ¡Deja un mensaje en los comentarios si te interesa! https://wp.me/pIJl9-I6F
original de The Free
“Some years ago I met a man called Diego Camacho (pen name Abel Paz) who wrote the classic biography ‘Durruti: The People Armed’, and a dozen more great books and films in Spanish.
An agile grinning old fellow, with a Ducados in his mouth, he complained jokingly that he never got a cent back from the English version of the Durruti book (now in 14 languages!). I said I would try and translate something for him, but I was never able.
Diego outlived his exile, torturers and jailors (he spent more than 10 years in fascist prisons) and came back again to live in Barcelona, where he had attended the ‘Ferrer’ Free School, Natura, as a child. He spent his time explaining what he’d seen, tirelessly inspiring new generations of youth, even touring to promote the film ‘Land and Liberty’.
“‘I wandered from group to group. All talk was of the rapid victory over the army (takeover attempt) in less than 12 hours of street fighting with the troops… one incident… In the blink of an eye the multitude had raised a colossal barricade across the Paralelo.’ (a main street).
‘The troops took up positions, commanded by a lieutenant, who showed little patience, and ordered his subordinates to attack the barricade without protection. Just when he began yelling the orders to attack a captain turned his weapon… and shot him dead. The soldiers stopped firing and began to approach us, shouting enthusiastically ‘Viva La República’… We all started fraternizing like crazy; they were stripping off uniforms and all explaining how they’d been misled by their superiors…’
Barcelona had been converted into a labyrinth of barricades, many strategically useless, yet meaningful, built by all the neighbours, who placed with every piled up paving stone, their longing for social and political change.’…
(My note: This was a big modern city and a beehive of social and political activity. Another takeover by the army, this time fascist controlled, was the last straw. When the CNT activists set off the factory sirens in warning, everyone finally said ‘They Shall Not Pass’, and built barricades.)
‘For me the time spent at our local barricade in the Clot neighborhBar Fornos had its bhall converted in a twinkling into a free Popular Restaurant. The Damm beer workers had left 100’s of bottles, store workers piled up hams and sausage, hot bread…’- ‘Barcelona was being transformed, and so were social relations.
For example… at the barricade I met Lola, a family friend who’s partner Antonio caused constant problems due to his obsessive jealousy. She was running about, being useful, surrounded by men. Later Antonio arrived with a lorry-load of activists. I saw no hint of his usual jealousy he was delighted to see her there, only worried about their 5 year old daughter.
The lorry went through amid wild cheering for the CNT and FAI. How many more people experienced similar changes?’
” ‘On the 27th July the local federation of the CNT union published a manifesto calling for the end of the General Strike, and asking people to go back to work. The generalized expropriations (workplace takeovers) were a response to the abandonment, which we found when we got there.
Most of the owners had gone, both big and small, for fear of reprisals by the workers. They called open Assemblies and collectivized industry… In less than 36 hours the economic base passed from private to collective property. ‘-…
That’s what happened. Instead of installing the National Catholic dictatorship the military fascists accidentally provoked a leap into future, allowing a unique, short-lived Social Revolution, light years ahead of State Communism or predator Capitalism.
Diego was there, he lived that revolution that terrified all oppressors. He’s dead now, but he inspired us too, and he’d have enjoyed being quoted in these new editions of The Free.
The book is a novel first, but the settings and background explore creative updates of ‘The Idea’, in the context of resource and climate collapse. The trick is to play it live, to peep around our daily blinkers.
Other worlds and social systems are not only possible, but are coming, pronto, like it or not. .
ISBN-10: 1501006894 5th Print Edition page 439
Jul 01, 2026 via thefreeonline at wp.me/pIJl9-I56 telegram https://t.me/thefreeonline/6167 and https://substack.com/home/post/p-205370872
At the center of it’s black, decrepit heart, fascism is about division. Fascists buy into the idea that they and people who are similar to them in some arbitrary way are somehow uniquely different from other people; that this difference must be protected at all costs; and that people not arbitrarily similar to them are defacto threats to them who must be dominated, exploited, and ultimately exterminated. Even a cursory look at what fascists say and do abundantly demonstrates this.
Meanwhile and on the side of humanity, anti-fascists tend to seek affinities and common ground to establish alliances and comradery, particularly with those who might appear superficially different. Anti-fascism finds similarities in goals, values, and struggle with people around the world, going well past superficial differences. This is a major reason why anti-fascism is a global movement. Our own collective, Antifa International, is one example of this, with a membership spanning ten countries and three continents.
It is in this anti-fascist tradition that we’ve been lately thinking about two concepts often bandied about on the left side of the political spectrum:
Allyship: which we take to mean using your own power, privileges, and resources to fight for the rights and well-being of other people who don’t have access to those same power, privileges, and resources – even when doing so won’t necessarily benefit you personally and may put you at risk of some kind.
Solidarity: which we define as supporting the struggle of others to assert their rights, protect themselves, and improve their lives, even when their success won’t necessarily have a direct impact on yourself.
You’ll note that the two concepts as we’ve defined them share a common characteristic of fighting selflessly, in support of others who need your support, even when, as my grandfather would say, “you don’t have a dog in that fight.” This contrasts distinctly from fascism insofar as fascists only rise up when the believe they are fighting for personal benefit (which they are typically very mistaken about, as the their own lines of solidarity are based on random, meaningless factors like skin color).
So this month we are calling on anti-fascists all over the world to act in allyship and solidarity with people targeted by fascists or resisting fascism. And we have a few examples, starting with the photo above, which is pretty self-explanatory (and yes, we’ve had football on our minds lately for some reason!). Some other examples:
BY MARGARET KILLJOY https://margaretkilljoy.substack.com/p/thoughts-and-notes-and-barbarian
The Prairieland defendants were sentenced yesterday, and all of their sentences are cartoonishly long. Seriously, it’s impossible to read sentences of 70 years in this case without imagining the judge twirling a mustache while he makes his proclamations.
Prairieland was a noise demonstration outside of an ICE facility that went horribly wrong when an officer showed up and drew a gun on an unarmed, fleeing protestor. One of the defendants, Champagne, was armed and shot and injured the officer, presumably saving the fleeing person’s life. It seems likely to me that if Champagne had not been present and not thinking fast, someone would have died at that protest. Instead, nobody did.
Now everyone who was at the small noise demonstration is being told they will be locked up, most of them for the rest of their natural lives. To quote the support committee:
Continue reading “July 2026: Antifa Action of the Month”
By ~ Gabriel Fonten ~ Freedom. News, t.me/FreedomNews1886/1221 Jun 27th 2026. Via the freeonline at t.me/thefreeonline/6158and wp.me/pIJl9-I50 and substack.com/home/post/p-205403271
The Prosfygika squatted community in Athens has declared victory in its struggle against redevelopment, publishing a statement on titled “The Struggle Has Won, The Struggle Continues!“.
In the past months, the community has been under threat by a redevelopment plan pushed by regional governor N. Chardalias.
However, under sustained local and international pressure, the Municipality of Athens on 24 June issued a resolution rebuking the plan, effectively cancelling the government’s push for gentrification.
The resolution not only denied planning permission for the project, but also recognised the autonomy of the community and the right of residents to remain in their homes.
At the forefront of the struggle were the hunger strikes of Aristotelis Chantzis and Suzon Doppagne.
After the decision to engage in hunger strikes was taken collectively, Chantzis went on hunger strike for 138 days before being admitted to hospital in critical condition.
Une Liégeoise en grève de la faim à Athènes pour défendre le quartier Prosfygika menacé d’expulsion …SHE WON THE HUNGER STRIKE..
Now, both he and Doppagne (who begun her hunger strike on 1 May 2026) have finally called off their “hunger strikes till death”.
The community, which houses over 400 residents and has stood since the 1930s, represents a great success in horizontal organisation in spite of constant state threats.
Though plans for redevelopment have now been cancelled, Prosfygika’s community has called on “the solidarity movement to remain vigilant”, both for any further plans by the government and the critical condition of the hunger strikers.
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Palestine Action took action against COSCO Shipping in Hamburg, accusing the company of participating in the transport of weapons destined for Israel from one of the world’s main logistics hubs.
One of the activists explained:
“I’m tired of meaningless discussions and protests that lead nowhere. I decided not to get used to this cruelty and to face reality with all the anger, pain, and sadness it provokes. I wanted to get to the root of the problem: the war machine that produces death and destruction day after day.”
[08/06/26] Palestine Action actuó contra COSCO Shipping en Hamburgo, acusando a la empresa de participar en el transporte de armamento con destino a Israel desde uno de los principales centros logísticos del mundo.
Una de las activistas explicó:
«Estoy cansada de discusiones sin sentido y de protestas que no llevan a ninguna parte. Decidí no acostumbrarme a esta crueldad y enfrentar la realidad con toda la ira, el dolor y la tristeza que provoca. Quería ir a la raíz del problema: la maquinaria de guerra que produce muerte y destrucción día tras día».
The Free 