This is how a lot of Western media constantly normalises Russian imperial violence toward Europe’s East: and for that, the media bears co-responsibility

Jewish Currents is looking for a new editor in chief. I learned so much from Arielle and thankfully, she's not leaving. But whoever takes on the role of editor in chief will be leading the magazine in a very exciting time of expansion. Apply here: jewishcurrents.org/careers?toke...

I deplore how the German and western political classes have abused Holocaust memory to the point that publics have lost faith in its lessons.

Or it shows that any braindead political trend that Americans set gets eventually followed in Europe too. Let's all talk to Putin and bully Ukraine hoping to resume business as usual with Russia over Ukrainian dead bodies asap.

'Are authoritarian regimes appropriating decolonial discourse? What is BRICS-Postcolonialism? Have you ever asked yourself these questions?'

I am glad I knew Chomsky was an amoral hack when I read his forward for his updated reprint of Manufacturing Consent when I was a teenager in which he defends Serbian Dictator and chief Architect of the Bosnian Genocide Slobodan Milošević.

"Given the most recent genocidal escalation of Russian aggression, the direct and intergenerational knowledge and expertise of the many societies that have been directly affected by the ongoing, distinct and remarkably repetitive patterns of Russian violence warrant to be heard, +

Friendly reminder that if you advocate for policies that actively risk more people living under Russian occupation, you are *not* actually anti-militarist. Why is this so difficult to understand for some?

I'm reminded of Nick Estes' big public claim that Russia couldn't be a settler colony because there are no Indigenous people in Siberia, or (he added) if there were any, their land wouldn't be with stealing anyway, probably the most irrational take I've seen be taken seriously by Western leftists

A testimony for all the feminists who have advised to not militarise in response to a russian military occupation so that there could be ‘peace’

"Imagine how surprised Russia’s indigenous peoples must be to read that the Global South has decided to show solidarity with Vladimir Putin’s Russia rather than with them"

A surprising bit of self-awareness in a sea of complicity

A great dissection of the common anti-imperial leftist tropes like 'imperialism is only when sea' and 'if Russia does colonialism, then those people deserved it'.

How is this not the Onion?

“Now let us consider the responsibility of academia in all these debates. Just imagine: From 1970 to 1980, US universities produced 900 books (roughly 90 per year) in the so-called field of Soviet and Slavic studies (colonial name, of course), and only 3% of them focused on non-Russians.”

An important text by Marina Solntseva on what anticoloniality and solidarity is not, and the mattering of indigenous lives in each and every context. Glad to see a link to our text with Selbi Durdiyeva that critically analyses selective anti-imperialism on the left berlinergazette.de/why-russias-...

This so much 👇

So glad to see our text republished - and on a page concerned with the renewal of the left, to help it grow away from oppressive and authoritarian politics. The left truly needs a reboot. Especially now, when its campism undermines a more collective countering of imperial and far right synergies

Should anyone wonder how it’s going on the hellsite on the ‘left’ and the right

People from Eastern Europe often experience discrimination in job centres in Germany. "According to a study (by @aleksandralewicki.bsky.social and colleagues), Ukrainian refugees are accused of social tourism in job centres. As a result, they are prematurely pushed into low-wage jobs."

Thank you, glad the text is being read. In Germany it received a lot of silence, given how inconvenient is what we’re saying and the standpoints we’re saying it from, that are still treated as [intellectually] inferior, thus, rather underscoring what we’re saying about inter-imperiality and racism…

Daniel has translated this really useful article arguing for institutional racism to be used as a framework for researching antisocial, moving us beyond attitudes and incidents as sole indicators of antisemitism:

Much appreciation for this text by @emhilton.bsky.social, who grew up in Bondi. Her analysis walks one through the community implications of the recent terror attack as well as its instrumentalization for various political - often racist and (far) right-wing - agendas www.972mag.com/bondi-massac...

while i am not an academic i did see this coming and post about it on bluesky, which is why i am quoted in this article

Last talk for the year… thanks to Melanie Altanian for organising and also for her book The Epistemic Injustice of Genocide Denialism and related work on epistemic reparations: major and urgent sources that I and colleagues build on in our ongoing research on justice in health and knowledge-making

So these eastsplainers of westsplaining have finally met! @jansmolenski.bsky.social and I shared some very mutually understanding remarks and wavelengths in Warsaw and @jandutkiewicz.bsky.social might want to photoshop himself in

Yesterday was the day honoring the liquidators of Chornobyl disaster. One of them is Oleh Veklenko. He was a young conscript in the Soviet army sent to Chornobyl in 1986. His sketches started an exhibition and then a festival of eco poster. I deeply admire Oleh’s activism.

worth reading in translation: "Soviet repression and Western colonial violence are more similar than many would like to admit. Both the Nazi Generalplan Ost and the Soviet deportations were colonial projects in nature"

This

Suffering of people in Gaza manufactured by Israeli restriction of aid, not weather, Oxfam says.

It took two years from the time of the alleged salute to the charge being made. Two years. Still can't get over how unserious this is. And five years from now they will be panicking saying "how did it come to this". By which time most of the people who warned them will be long gone.

While a linguist turned US left messiah Noam Chomsky is in the news again, I want to just remind that Chomsky has never displayed a single drop of empathy for the victims of war crimes, be it in Bosnia, Syria, or Ukraine. And that’s how he should be remembered.

Chomsky: Manufacturing (the age of) Consent

“Humans for Rights Network has published a new report “You can’t stay but you can’t go” – State violence at the UK-France border, evidencing the levels of violence perpetrated on people who are attempting to cross the border”

This is one reason that FGEN is more important than ever, Both of our co chairs @natacha.bsky.social and @parkesland.bsky.social were interviewed for this article. We've been quiet publically for the last few months, but we have been busy in the background more news in the new year.

Вічна пам'ять, memory eternal May their memory be a blessing

It was hard to see the footage from Bondi, a place I know too well… so much appreciation and respect to Ahmed al Ahmed and his incredible courage. May he recover well and heal from this. I know whose shop lots of friends will be getting their fruit this season. Gratitude! www.bbc.com/news/article...

This is devastating. Bondi isn’t a random beach, it is the neighbourhood where many families of Shoah survivors live in Sydney… it is a home of a large Jewish community that gathered on the first day of Hanukkah. There is no justice great enough…

An important analysis co-authored by Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian ex political prisoner of a Russian torture camp, critically investigating the implications of the utilising of prisoners as political commodities as part of the ongoing Russian occupation of Ukraine and its wider geopolitical context

On the pitfalls of rewarding authoritarian and imperial regimes for oppression

Crucial concerns regarding the incentivising of the exchange of political prisoners for the lifting of sanctions and the rewards such schemes provide to authoritarian regimes that then become motivated to take more political prisoners because it pays off… difficult dilemmas here

A talk by Charles Heller from @borderforensics.bsky.social on border forensics and documenting border violence at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw. Sitting here with the core team of Researchers on the Border, urgently important discussions! Follow their work @badaczkinagranicy.bsky.social

Boo 👻 Who’s afraid of gender 👀 👀 👀

New work from our members: political philosopher Tereza Hendl and transitional justice scholar Selbi Durdiyeva, critically exploring concerns of selective anti-imperialism and decoloniality on the left

On this International Human Rights Defenders Day I’d like to remind the world about this👇🏼 “Did Georgian police use a chemical weapon against protesters?”

About new Russian Studies „Our goal is to study Russia from different angles — its economy, its society, its elites, its foreign policy — in order to take a critical look at what Russia has done to us and the world,” said Prof Maksym Yakovlyev, co-founder of the program at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

On the way! Very glad to be part of a widely transregional lineup of really interesting and urgently timely talks and analytic perspectives. Can’t wait to hear the contributions in this program, meet many familiar knowers and discuss crucial concerns with core experienced social justice advocates

“You cannot make authoritarian leaders the center of your narrative,” said Ortiz. “You have to make the people the center of your narrative, and you have to be passionate about it.”

It’s almost fascinating how this political “strategy” gets employed in one context after another and in all of them it just mainstreams the far right. Enough.

Since claims that Europe is in danger of “civilisational erasure” are in the news, recommend checking out this book on great replacement ideologies. Covers their long history and how they are currently being mainstreamed onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....