The US military’s war on nature
Review – Earth’s Greatest Enemy (2026)
This March I attended the British premier of activist and journalist Abby Martin’s new documentary Earth’s Greatest Enemy – a feature-length report of the US military’s immeasurable environmental impact globally. It shows how far its grubby hands reach, from military bases in Hawaii and Okinawa, via pretend concern and business-friendly patter in panel ‘discussions’ at COP26, to the destruction of marine life by the US Navy, all driven by the all-encompassing greed for oil to sustain empire. Martin’s storytelling is self-indulgent at times, too often centring her own children and her husband (and co-director) Mike Prysner. However, Martin did a great job humiliating influential politicians and military officers, who were left stumped by her confrontational questioning. They travelled in the US and abroad, working with local activists, but also participating in events organised by the military itself to be able to challenge them directly.
Here and there the film has liberal tones, such as a scene of activists ‘taking a big breath together’ or dancing at protests. Imperialism was often mentioned, but only one contributor described it as an inevitability of the capitalist system. However, Earth’s Greatest Enemy is a passionate call to action, and ultimately that is what we need.
Martin herself attended the screening and there was a short Q&A. Most contributions were praise for the film (perhaps deserved, but not illuminating). Also present was Jeremy Corbyn MP, who managed to take up a quarter of the question time. In fairness, he was asked to speak by Abby Martin herself – and the crowd ate it up.
I said to my partner that it seems Earth’s Greatest Enemy will be best for baby activists, who are new to imperialism. I thought of that as a negative, but he rightly said: that’s what a documentary is – a first step. And it helps viewers become ready for the next one: to get organised.
BERTIE MARTENS
West London
Anti-trans bill in India
The passing of the reactionary Transgender Persons Amendment Bill (2026) in India is a deeply undemocratic and regressive attack on trans people. Forced through by voice vote, it lays bare the Brahmanical-Hindutva state’s active role in organising and enforcing repression. Three crucial points must be noted.
First, the bill abolishes self-identification, transferring the power to define trans identity from individuals to the state. This is a violent act of dispossession, in which the state claims the authority to decide who is recognised and who is erased.
Second, the bill narrows the definition of transgender to exclude trans men, non-binary, and gender-fluid people, while privileging only certain state-recognised communities such as hijra/kinner groups. In India, trans existence is already mediated through caste. Many trans people who face brutal caste oppression, flee familial/community violence, or are denied access to welfare and gender-affirming healthcare will be driven further into deepening precarity.
Third, the bill medicalises identity by mandating medical certification, which violates privacy and bodily autonomy, and makes recognition contingent on access to exclusionary, caste- and class-bound healthcare systems. At the same time, violence against trans people is trivialised, with punishments of up to two years imprisonment, which exposes the state’s contempt for trans lives. We must therefore unequivocally denounce this bill for what it is – an unjust weapon of state control, wielded by a ruling class determined to police, fragment, and dispose of the already marginalised. We must join with those who are protesting this bill!
CHARAN KAUR
Birmingham
Royal College of Art cleaners oppose bullying and sexual harassment
Since September 2022, cleaners at the Royal College of Arts (RCA) have been organising with the IWGB union to improve their working conditions. Beginning as a dispute against the unfair treatment they receive as outsourced workers, the campaign has gone on to uncover a culture of exploitation, sexual harassment and psychological harm. This has been repeatedly covered up by both the outsourcing company People for Places (PFP) and the College itself.
In the last three years, at least 16 women cleaners have disclosed experiencing sexual harassment and bullying at the hands of their supervisors. At every instance of disclosure, the outsourcing company has refused to carry out adequate investigations and prioritise the safety and protection of their workers. As a result, many of the cleaners have had to continue working with the perpetrators. The psychological impacts have left many unwell, stressed and anxious, whilst still having to come to work and face the exact same conditions.
On 24 February, the cleaners held a protest outside the university and attempted to hand in a grievance to the university. This was met with hostility from other university staff who tried to victimize and silence those choosing to speak out. Within a week of the protest, cleaning staff were threatened with ‘gross misconduct’, alongside staff who had joined the protest on the day.
Both the RCA and PFP have made it explicitly clear that, for them, it is more important to protect abusers than it is to protect people’s rights.
Outsourcing is a racist system of exploitation that creates a two-tier system for workers. This applies not only to their pay and conditions, but to who gets believed when coming forward about psychological abuse and sexual harassment. The cleaners, staff, students and IWGB are calling on PFP and RCA to end this culture of sexual harassment and ensure workers are protected in their place of work. We call on all supporters to write to the RCA and demand respect and equal treatment for cleaners and join their next protest on 14 April at RCA Battersea.
More info: https://linktr.ee/iwgbuol
AMMAARAH FELIX and ABEL HARVIE-CLARK
London
Eviction resistance for housing justice
Labour-run Hackney Council is determined to evict a family with a seven-year-old autistic, non-verbal boy with learning disabilities.
A 2026 report by King’s College London found that temporary accommodation was not just damaging for any child but had a particularly severe impact on neurodivergent children and those with special educational needs and disabilities.
The boy’s ability to cope and the progress he is making are due to the immense protective capacity of his mother and siblings, their neighbours and family members close-by, his school within walking distance and the support of the wider community. He needs predictability and routine. He can’t manage public transport or sitting in a car. When he gets upset and dysregulated this can have challenging repercussions for days to come.
Instead of granting tenancy to this family that had lived in and paid rent for their flat for 20 years, Hackney Council issued the family temporary accommodation in a neighbouring borough. Despite massive community support and the story being in the public domain, Hackney Council pressed on calling on the bailiffs twice this year. In February neighbours, friends and fabulous community organising by Hackney London Renters Union physically stopped the eviction. Again in March more community resistance mobilised to stop the bailiffs, leading to the family winning a stay of eviction for two months.
This family’s case illustrates how capitalism cares not at all for the welfare of human beings, but is a system dictated by the madness of the market, with investment and financial targets being more important than people thriving in their community.
The pressure on this family is not over but the power of campaigning and collective action yet again is shown to be key. If this family wins, it will be a victory for all families fighting for stability and a permanent home, as well as those who have children with special educational needs and disabilities who suffer disproportionately at the hands of councils’ ruthless housing departments.
HANNAH CALLER
London
Everybody to Kenmure Street
Directed by Chilean-Belgian director Felipe Bustos Sierra, this documentary shows the day (13 May 2021) an immigration raid in Glasgow’s Pollokshields was defeated. Local FRFI supporters were there, joining hundreds in a largely spontaneous resistance and mobilisation.
Collated phone footage from the protest makes clear that Police Scotland are defenders and enforcers of a state racism.
The film explores the colonial roots of Glasgow. Kenmure street was given its name by the Stirling Maxwell family who profited from chattel slavery in the Caribbean. This history is balanced with local examples of working-class resistance and internationalism.
That the Kenmure Street protest emerged independent of the big trade unions, or even in opposition to them, like the PCS union which organises immigration officers, is apparently lost on the film makers. This is a convenient presentation for petty bourgeois ‘socialists’ peddling the myth about the leading role of the trade unions today.
The film misses an opportunity to challenge audiences to consider the state machinery which lay behind the raid at Kenmure Street and to get organised; hardly any mention is made of the thousands of people who are detained and deported every year in Britain. The unresolved status of the two Indian migrant workers Sumit Sehdev and Lakhvir Singh, who were detained and released on the day, is but a brief afternote.
At the heart of the Kenmure Street protest were defiant militant youth, in particular local Muslim youth who face racist policing every day. It was their angry determination to see justice done, no matter what, which forced the police to capitulate. The film captures part of this truth. Let the fight go on!
DOMINIC MULGREW
Glasgow
‘Hannah the plumber’ – class warrior?
Green Party candidate Hannah Spencer won the Gorton and Denton by-election on 26 February. On top of the Greens’ usual liberal policy points, she had a consistent campaign message about being someone that comes from a ‘white working class’ background and therefore understands the struggles of ordinary people.
In her victory speech Spencer apologised to ‘my many customers’ because ‘I think I might have to cancel the work that you had booked in, because I’m heading to Parliament! And when I get there, I will make space for everyone doing jobs like mine, we will finally get a seat at the table.’ She said ‘I don’t think it’s extreme or radical to think working hard should get you a nice life’, listing owning a house and going on holidays as part of a ‘nice life’.
If Spencer is a worker, whom does she work for? Spencer’s liberty to cancel all her jobs (and run for election) indicates she is not employed by a firm but runs her own business. This would make her a member of the petit bourgeoisie (small capitalists), not the working class.
The petit bourgeoisie is a precarious and unequal class which technically includes everyone from lorry drivers to landlords to employers of hundreds of workers. Yet plumbers are hardly at the struggling end of the scale: a self-employed plumber earned an average £55,000 per year in 2022 (according to Heating, Ventilating and Plumbing Magazine). With ‘many customers’ and an additional plastering qualification, as Spencer often boasts she is training for, presumably the earnings go up. This is decidedly less than the £93,000 plus expenses that Spencer will earn as an MP, but still enough for a ‘nice life’.
WILL JONES
West London
