Following Monday’s hustings event in Camden, London, addressed by SEP candidate Tom Scripps, the WSWS spoke to a member of the audience, Vilma.

“Overall, he’s so right, the imperialist powers have been destroying the world for so long. They go into countries like in South America, take down governments and put in ones that work for them. And the people have no choice but to get out of there in droves and try to go to the United States, to be treated like slaves basically.”

Vilma said the Conservative government’s plan to deport thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda was “absolutely appalling, what this guy Sunak, who was an immigrant, has tried to do.

“In Gaza, the UK is part of an experiment with the Palestinians, killing them, getting rid of them, so that they can exploit the oil and the gas, that’s just outside, in the sea, just a few miles from them. This is simply appalling, because now it’s greed that has taken over politics to an extreme where human values have no place at all.”

Asked what she thought of Scripps’ assessment of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, Vilma said, “I am part of a Brazilian group in London. We are very thankful to Jeremy because he received the ex-president, and he’s always been supportive of Lula and the Worker’s Party in Brazil. But with regards to [WikiLeaks founder] Julian Assange, he never uttered a word [throughout two general elections]. He is a publisher. We are appalled at that because clearly Assange doesn’t deserve what he’s getting. He has been persecuted for 13-14 years.

“He spent almost 10 years inside the Ecuadoran Embassy, and they waited until the change of government there to get [former President Rafael] Correa who it seems had a lot of corruption behind him, with his name in the Panama papers. So they got rid of him to deliver Assange to the hands of this government. And Keir Starmer was the one of those who did all that. It’s unbelievable…

“I was pleased to hear Tom raising this, I applauded him. He was so correct in mentioning him, because that was one of my questions. How can you trust Starmer, who is responsible for the downfall of Corbyn with the antisemitic allegations, and got rid of every person in the Labour Party who is democratic? He’s making a Zionist party.

“I have Latin American friends and we discussed why Jeremy Corbyn never fought back. I think that he thought that maybe by keeping quiet that things would die down and go away. He was always anti-nuclear and against war, so why did he let people massacre him like that, and basically get rid of him from the party? He obviously was a threat to Starmer, who probably had the support of the Conservatives as well…

“I agree that Corbyn is more loyal to the Labour Party than the working class. I don’t subscribe to any party, although I’m a supporter of the Labour Party in my country, which is Lula…

“I think that Tom’s point is so valid because Corbyn is so supportive of the Labour Party which is no longer the same as it was. It went a long time ago. I don’t think that it represents the working class people… It’s become a two party system like America that represents no one.”

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