We promised we'd be back... season 3 begins with an episode on the connection between Architecture and Speculative Fiction and features an interview with the fabulous Amy Brookes. You can listen here on Spotify or wherever you get your pods: open.spotify.com/episode/1jPc...

“I can’t believe it’s finally happened and Alaa has made it to London. We thought it was impossible, but here he is. Hundreds of people around the world did so much to help bring this moment about. Alaa is free and we can finally begin to heal as a family.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Courage is contagious. Nonviolent persistence is the key to success. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Arundhati Roy's new memoir "Mother Mary Comes to Me" looks at the acclaimed author's relationship with her mother. https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/26/arundhati_roy_on_new_memoir_mother

BEST NEWS EVER!! 🤍 After years of prison, probation, and travel ban, Egyptian activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah was able to get on a plane today, travel to London, and reunite with his family!!!!

Call for Abstracts🪧🪧🪧 Global Student Movements Against Coloniality: Entangled Praxis of Hope, Resistance & Solidarity This is for an edited book project we’ll propose under the “Decolonial Entanglements” series (Routledge). Deadline: 27 February 2026 🔗 www.southsouthmovement.org/global-stude...

Ungrounding Lissabon mit @olivermarchart.bsky.social, @sergejseitz.bsky.social und co. Good times!

🚨 Strike ballot opens at University of Essex Management plans to close Southend campus and axe 400 jobs. All staff were told they could lose their jobs as they broke up for Christmas. This is academic vandalism and we will not accept it. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1428...

Almost 1.2 million EU citizens have signed onto the My Choice My Choice resolution, which the European Parliament will vote on next week, to help fund abortions in the EU. Croatia alone gathered 65,000 signatures, 780% more than the national threshold set for each country.

‘The creature looks more stylish and romantic than monstrous. Like a jigsaw puzzle, let’s say, rather than our idea of a serial killer or a crime against divinity.’ Michael Wood watches Guillermo del Toro’s 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘪𝘯. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Permanent women’s museum may be developed in Ireland - hooray - its is necessary and a matter of equality and gender justice #speirgorm www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025...

Listen to the full episode here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Edinburgh: 350 jobs at risk, alongside pay freezes and reduced hours. Strathclyde: 70 job cuts announced. These issues were raised during First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament, as university staff face deep uncertainty heading into Christmas.

📢🇧🇷NEW EPISODE📢🇧🇷 @sabrinafernandes.com on the disappointing outcomes of #COP30 and Lula's politics of class conciliation, that seeks to achieve climate and environmental goals whilst placating agri-business and mining interests:

Affordability and "a critique of the state of Israel" were the two main messages that helped Zohran Mamdani get elected mayor of New York, says his father Mahmood Mamdani. Continuing to speak out for Palestinian rights despite backlash convinced voters "that this was a man of principle," he says.

The U.S. is mirroring a pattern that has happened in authoritarian regimes around the world. When a government erects barriers to reproductive care, it doesn’t just cause death and suffering for women and their families. Such policies are often a first step in the gradual decline of democracies.

This was an excellent event - and now reading the book, can highly recommend. Necessary for anyone working on race and international law, not just Palestine. Race and the Palestine Question (Stanford Uni Press, 2025): www.sup.org/books/middle...

6th December 1956 & 1961, the world lost two influential thinkers of emancipation. Dr B R Ambedkar & Dr Frantz Omar Fanon. Let their memory serve as a reminder of their struggles to build an anticasteist & antiracist unconditional humanity. Our mission being to engage their thinking in our presents.

Peepal Tree is a rare story of an independent publisher that has not only survived and thrived, but stayed close to its roots. Literally. It is still based in the same house in Leeds where it was launched in 1985. www.theguardian.com/news/2025/de...

‘The strike is another means of applying urgent pressure on the government, using the only tools available to the prisoners: their rapidly deteriorating bodies.’ E.S. Wight on an ongoing hunger strike in British prisons. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...

On Fri. 12/19 I'll join Andreas Malm and Wim Carton to discuss our new books, the deadly combination of accelerating global warming and stalling political action, and what is to be done from a left perspective. Moderated by @learning2live.bsky.social via @haymarketbooks.org & @versobooks.bsky.social

The more I learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the more I rue the anti-radical, individualist ideology of my US education. I was taught to celebrate individual heroes like King or Parks, instead of learning about all the mutual aid and support necessary for any successful boycott or strike

Justyna Faszcza highlighted the consequences of one of Europe’s most restrictive systems: “We have lost Izabela, Dorota, Justyna and others. Criminalisation forces women to travel abroad, and only those who can afford it are safe. ‘My Voice My Choice’ offers dignity, equality, and real support.”

This round table on "The Question of Internationalism: Between Marxism and Anarchism" is super interesting! Well worth a listen.

The deadline for next year's HM Istanbul has been extended!!! Due to overwhelming demand, we have decided to extend the deadline for submitting paper/panel proposals to 12 December 2025. Make sure to send us your abstracts, comrades! Further details from the HM Istanbul website below.

Our 2025 highlights, including books on the Global South, Palestine, Marxist theory, and more. Through the rest of the year, save up to 50% on these and all titles site-wide.

ICYMI: David Mwambari and Eric Sibomana 'Bodily Scars as Lived Memory in Post-Genocide Rwanda' - argues that bodily scars are potent ‘carriers’ of memories of mass atrocities committed during the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. (Open Access) journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

From riots and fires to ICE crackdowns and political assassinations, we've selected ten books to speak on the year we're finally leaving behind. These books help contextualize 2025 - during the Verso End of Year Sale, they're available at half the price.

Amia Srinivasan's LRB Winter Lecture, ‘The Impossible Patient’ has sold out in person – but livestream tickets are still available. Wednesday 12 December, 7 p.m. £10 to watch online, both live and afterwards www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lrb-winter...

The voices of division in our country are growing louder, we can change things TOGETHER #TOGETHER we reject narratives of division and racism. #TOGETHER we will build solidarity across communities. #TOGETHER we will unite against the far right. UCU is proud to support: togetheralliance.org.uk

‘When the ceasefire was announced on 9 October, I wanted to believe it was over. I don’t think I was alone, but I do know that I was entirely wrong. That period, it has transpired, was merely a transition to another phase of land grabbing.’ @selmadabbagh.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/no...

Today is the 70th anniversary of Rosa Parks' arrest. Six myths: 1) She wasn't old or tired. 42 years old that day, she had a "life history of being rebellious" & had spent two decades helping to turn the Montgomery NAACP into a more activist branch alongside ED Nixon and Johnnie Carr.

ICYMI: Annabel Herzog, 'Dilemmas of Political Agency and Sovereignty: The Omelian Allegory, - a political reading of Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’, which examines agency and resistance in situations of political wrong. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Today the ballot closes. Thank you to everyone who voted and spoke to a colleague. In six weeks we’ve: • Sent 100,000+ texts • Delivered 650,000 emails • Reached 12,000 branch inboxes • Held weekly livestreams Every vote strengthened our fight. We are the university.

📢We are delighted to announce that we have kicked off todays event with our Contemporary Research on International Political Theory Working Group 👉Today we are joined by Lara Monticelli and Mathias Thaler for a discussion of The conjunction of prefiguration and utopia.

REVIEW FOR US: our Book Reviews editor @emmacraddock.bsky.social has 16 new titles up for review in The Sociological Review magazine – on subjects including AI, ageing, the care economy, water, internet culture, ambivalent activism and the feminist art of walking. ➡️ Find out more: buff.ly/JzirQGt

How The Left Can Come Together To Beat Reform | Yanis Varoufakis | Zack Polanski www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjLZ...

LSE Public Lecture "Race and the Question of Palestine" 📍2 Dec, 6PM Speaker: Lana Tatour Discussants: Ralph Wilde, Ayça Cubukcu, Neve Gordon Register here: lselaw.events/event/race-a...

#BBCNews - Italian parliament unanimously votes to make femicide a crime www.bbc.com/news/article...

You have until 5pm to vote safely. Get it in. We can build a better future for HE and only you can decide it.

We often hear about the stories of Egypt's political prisoners, but what about the loved ones who visit them behind bars? Don't miss my @timep.bsky.social colleague Dina's important new analysis bringing us stories on the emotional and financial cost of prison visits.

New as Online First in Body & Society: Jorge Poveda Yánez, Beatriz Herrera Corado and Annelies Van Assche, 'Presence Rewired: The Re-materialisation of Digital Dance from the Sweatshop to the Pixel'. (Open Access) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Where is the kindness when we talk about trans people? Deeply empathetic essay from Kathy Sheridan. The take of the young girl at the centre of transphobic outrage at a match is a horror story, but this where transphobia takes people! #speirgorm www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

‘“We are here, we are alive and we matter,” is the message so many of these images convey. But, much like McQueen’s other explorations of British history, “Resistance” leaves it to us to work out what that legacy means today.’ @trillingual.bsky.social reviews. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Ambivalent Activism: Working with Contradiction, Hesitation and Doubt for Social Change. Join us for the launch of 'Ambivalent Activism', an essential read for anyone engaged in #Activism. 📚Find the book: https://ow.ly/RxAY50XqxHe 📍Dec 10, 3:00 PM: https://ow.ly/BKog50XqxHm

I meant to post this a few weeks ago. Thanks for the great conversation @matthew.flux.community!

Strikes start today at Imperial. 2% below-inflation offer, misrepresented benchmarking, and levelling down parental leave, while billions are spent elsewhere. Stand with staff and show your support. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1426...

Absolutely insane news from Egypt, where award-winning human rights lawyer Mohamed el-Baqer has had his terrorism designation renewed for another five years. Mohamed was pardoned by Sisi in July 2023 after being prosecuted and after serving jail time for his work as a lawyer.

"To work in rubble is not to erase what happened but to stay with it, to treat every fragment as testimony and every scar as instruction." On rubble and the politics of remaining in Gaza www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/t...