“The big people behind capitalism are quite aware that they are planning the end of the world as we know it”, Sabrina Fernandes, a political economist and ecosocialist activist from Brazil, told the Ecosocialism 2026 conference in Magan-djin/Brisbane, September 11-13.

“They don’t have a problem with the world ending as we know it — as long as they can keep making profits,” Fernandes said.

“They do have a problem with a society that they might not be able to control when things get really hard, as we are coming to this stage of ecocide and global catastrophe. They are fighting over the spoils of war and climate change.”

Places that would not normally be considered part of the grab are becoming so, Fernandes said. The oceans “are a new terra nullius for them” — for ocean floor mining.

There should be an international agreement for this, but US President Donald Trump does not care and has begun issuing his own licences, she added.

Helen Yaffe, author, activist and Professor of Latin American Political Economy, University of Glasgow, told the conference that socialist Cuba, one of the key targets of Trump’s new colonialism, is facing multiple and mounting challenges as the US blockade intensifies.

The response that she has witnessed, in a recent visit to Cuba, was: “We........

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