Guantánamo vigils as Alligator Alcatraz brings Gitmo to the US
The 30th monthly global vigils for Guantánamo’s closure took place as a Gitmo-style facility for “migrants” opened in Florida, along with the “extraordinary rendition” of migrants to South Sudan.
Vigils for Guantánamo’s closure on July 2. Clockwise from top L: Brussels, Washington, D.C., Mexico City and London.
My new article on my website, Photos and Report: Global Vigils for Guantánamo’s Closure on July 2, 2025 and the Growing Threat of the Gitmoization of the US, features photos from, and my report about the 30th coordinated monthly global vigils for the closure of the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay that took place across the US, in Washington, D.C., New York City, Detroit and Phoenix, AZ, and in London, Brussels, Mexico City and Belgrade on July 2, 2025, with another vigil in Cobleskill, NY on July 5.
As we continue to call for justice for the 15 remaining prisoners in the “war on terror” prison, I also point out how our vigils are assuming increasing importance because of the “Gitmoization” of Donald Trump’s vile, racist “war on migrants”, in which new detention facilities are being established on the US mainland that look suspiciously like Guantánamo, or even like concentration camps, with the first notable example having just opened in the Florida Everglades, gleefully dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Republicans, including Trump, Kristi Noem and governor Ron DeSantis, who all attended its opening.
I also point out how the horrors of the “war on terror” that are being replicated in Trump’s USA extend to the “extraordinary rendition” program that is being revived through the deportation of migrants to uncertain fates in third countries, with the most recent alarming example being the deportation of eight migrants from various nationalities to the war-wracked country of South Sudan.
I’ll be writing more soon about the US’s increasingly fascistic descent into a truly chilling police state for migrants, but for now I hope you have time to read my analysis, and to enjoy the photos from the vigils. As always, I’m deeply grateful for the support of our small but determined global family of activists, who tenaciously refuse to accept the general amnesia that engulfs Guantánamo.
The ongoing Israeli takeover of the UK
For those paying attention to the disturbing Israeli takeover of the British government, the proscription of a certain direct action group, which I wrote about here last week, was enacted on Saturday, after last-ditch efforts to persuade the courts to intervene failed.
It is now a crime, punishable by a prison sentence, to be a member of the proscribed group, or to express support for them.
An hour before the prosecution came into effect, I recorded and posted a song I’d just written, “We Are All P*l*st*n**n Act**n”, which I posted here as a note, but whose title I’ve censored to reflect the deranged situation that those of us in the UK currently find ourselves in.
13 hours after the proscription came into effect, a group of around two dozen activists held up signs opposing Israel’s genocide and expressing support for the proscribed group, which I wrote about in a note here, accompanied by a photo of their dangerous and illegal offence.
The protest on Saturday in Parliament Square in London, by the statue of Gandhi.
The police subsequently arrested the protestors, who included an 83-year old priest, an emeritus professor and a number of health professionals. The protest was organized by Defend Our Juries, who, under the last Tory government, engaged in numerous protests in defence of environmental protestors, as some judges sought to prevent defendants from telling juries why they were undertaking environmental direct action.
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said, "We commend the counter-terrorism police for their decisive action in protecting the people of London from some cardboard signs opposing the genocide in Gaza and expressing support for those taking action to prevent it. It’s a relief to know that counter-terrorism police have nothing better to do."
Environmental activist Donnachadh McCarthy also spoke, telling the Guardian, "To proscribe an organisation of peaceful direct action as terrorists is a huge red line for our democracy. It means that all the rest of us, whether we’re climate activists, Greenpeace, women’s suffragettes, disabled activists, it means that the government can now declare any act of property damage to be terrorism, which gives you a sentence of 14 years. This is worse than Putin’s Russia. I don’t say that lightly. It’s 10 years for doing what we’re doing today in Russia; it’s 14 years in the UK, because of Yvette Cooper’s outrageous betrayal of democracy, liberalism, and what is in my view a step towards fascism."
I have no doubt that new direct action groups will arise soon, to continue the work of the group that can no longer be named, but this doesn’t detract from the blunt reality that the Labour government has shown, explicitly, that it is working in the service of the Israeli government and its biggest arms company, and, as a result, is also working directly in support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The shame and the anger is almost too much to bear.
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