Brazilians against Bolsonaro

Brazilians gathered last night in London, in front of their country’s embassy, to remember the musician Mestre Moa do Katendê, who was murdered this month.

The event was also a protest against authoritarianism and violence, and against attacks on democratic rights. “It’s a very worrying moment in Brazil”, one of the organisers told the crowd of about 200 people, during a break in the music.

Mestre Moa was reportedly killed on the night of the presidential election first round, after saying he would vote for the Workers Party. The killer, who has been arrested, was a supporter of Jair Bolsonaro – who is the front runner in the second round of the poll, being held today.

There were drums aplenty, and singing and dancing, at yesterday’s event. Leaflets were

The climate fire raging under the international political system

Review of Climate Leviathan: a political theory of our planetary future, by Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright (London: Verso, 2018)

What are the real political prospects, as the world hurtles towards global warming? Not our hopes or desires, but really possible changes – good, bad and horrible – starting from where we are now?

Geoff Mann and Joel Wainwright, researchers of political theory who have been actively

Photo: Mikael Miettinen, creative commons

engaged in the “climate justice” movement for many years, address these questions in this thought-provoking book.

There are two fundamental ways to divide the options, they argue (pp. 28-29). First, whether the future economic order will be capitalist or not. Second, “whether a coherent planetary sovereign will emerge, that is, whether sovereignty will be reconstituted for the purposes of planetary management.” By “planetary sovereign” they