Skwawkbox is back – and needs your support urgently

Skwawkbox is back. After just over a year as part of the Canary and a hiatus of a few weeks caused by the indefinite pause of that site, new articles will now revert to appearing here on the original skwawkbox.org.

For more than a decade, the UK establishment and Israel lobby, most notably in the covert, now-exposed and notorious ‘Labour Together’, tried to defund and destroy the Canary as one of the main obstacles to the right’s war on the left, the poor and the vulnerable. Now, through repeated ‘de-banking’ – and probably with the collusion of the state – those forces have finally succeeded in killing off a force for good for ordinary people and for resistance to genocide and warmongering. One that had huge reach and impact as a combined effort of so many.

There can be little doubt that they will now turn their attention to other independent left sites.

If we don’t fight we always lose’

But as the late and great Bob Crow said, if we fight we might lose but if we don’t fight, we’ll definitely lose. Skwawkbox has separated from the Canary through force of circumstance, but not in spirit, and the fight continues here.

More will certainly be published, here and elsewhere, on the attacks and sabotage that finally brought the Canary down. Its enemies have smeared it, but it was a place where writers were valued and looked after; one that was run on principles of fairness and justice and with recognition of the toll that fighting injustice can take.

The Canary’s fall is a tragedy for the victims of the push toward fascism, a gross injustice for those who worked there honestly, and a lesson in the absolute need for resistance and solidarity. The UK, and particularly the UK media landscape, is better off for its having existed, and worse off for its closure. I’m thankful for the year spent as part of its fight and wish everyone I worked with there well, except those few who colluded to destroy it.

The last Skwawkbox article on the Canary highlighted, again, Israel’s lies about its genocide and its slaughter of its own people to create the pretext for the murder of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Now, back in its original home, Skwawkbox will pick up where it left off, fighting that injustice and the other evils that the UK and others are committing at home and abroad.

But it needs your help and support to do so, now more than ever.

During the bank-induced hiatuses of recent weeks at the Canary, many people got in touch to express their hope that Skwawkbox would continue independently if the Canary fell. It will, as long as it is able. If you would like to help, there are three options:

To make a regular donation via GoCardless, click here.

To make a regular or one-off donation via PayPal, click here.

Or to make a regular or one-off donation by simple card payment, use the form below: