“The hour of the barbarian is at hand. The modern barbarian. The American hour. Violence, excess, waste, mercantilism, bluff, conformism, stupidity, vulgarity, disorder.” Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism

Important, detailed coverage of commitments made by the OU to UKLFI regarding the use of the term ‘ancient Palestine’ in learning materials. Still lots of ambiguities & no public retraction, defence of the term or internal investigation, but some softening perhaps.🤔 novaramedia.com/2026/03/03/o...

'This is the real crisis of free speech in the west. The target is not just protest, but a people. Israel seeks to erase Palestinians as a society. First they are destroyed in the present. Then they are deleted from the past' Strong from @owenjones.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Academics slam Open University for caving to pro-Israel lobby on 'Ancient Palestine' term www.newarab.com/news/academi...

#AcademicFreedom | We have written to The @openuniversity.bsky.social to express our profound concern about the university’s response to a letter from the UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) regarding the use of the term ‘#ancientPalestine’. Read our letter: bit.ly/4r0j68L 1/3

"Artistic Labour of the Body" Book presentation on Rose-Anne Gush’s monograph, with @rsenne.bsky.social Alexander Stoffel and Jenny Nachtigall. Fri 20 March 2026, 5:30–7:30pm @ucl-ias.bsky.social Common Ground, G11 Ground Floor, South Wing, UCL, Gower Street, WC1E 6BT www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

The term ‘ancient Palestine’, as many ancient historians…have agreed, conveys the true multiculturalism of ancient Palestine. It is the best way to reject the weaponizing of ancient heritage for ethnonationalist and genocidal purposes’ 👏🏼 @luxmea.bsky.social www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260215-isr...

Lee Miller at Tate: from surrealist suave, (via Vogue and Buchenwald), to Hitler’s burning house and the execution of Lászlo Bárdossy.

The British establishment ever ready to prop up the ailing Zionist project. This latest speculative gambit by UKLF* needs to be challenged head on. archive.ph/kBMjS

Today (and all days)

Ystrdy, the OU Palestine Solidarity Group launched a call on our Vice-Chancellor to retract commitments to caveat & proscribe future use of term ‘Ancient Palestine’ in learning materials. We have >200 signatures from colleagues & international scholars. Add yours: docs.google.com/document/u/3...

The OUPSG (#OpenUniversity #Palestine Solidarity Group oupalestinesolidarity.org) has launched an Open Letter to its VC requesting a full retraction of commitments made to an Israeli lobby group (aka foreign pressure on #AcademicFreedom). Please read, sign & share 🇵🇸 docs.google.com/document/u/3...

Lambeth refuse to hear call of 5000 local residents and workers, claiming the council have “no control” over their pension fund. 🧐 www.brixtonbuzz.com/2026/01/who-...

This should be great

At Houston's BAIA Fine Art Print Fair, Black Art in America presents the first public exhibition of an early study by John Biggers, created in the early 1950s and foundational to his iconic mural 'The Contribution of the Negro Woman to American Life.' www.blackartinamerica.com/blogs/news/b...

Loved Kerry James Marshall at the Royal Academy: full of life, incident, wit and visual ingenuity. Renews hope in painting’s capacities.

Our Next Seminar: 📢☢️ Radioactive Marxisms & Atomic Fairytales from the former East Germany, with Sarah James Friday 28th November 2025, 5.30-7.30pm @ucl-ias.bsky.social Common Ground G11, ground floor, South Wing, UCL Gower St, London WC1E 6BT www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

📣Not 1 but 2 South London Your Party events @peckhamlevels tomorrow 💥Kicking off with a Regional Assembly for members from 2pm 🎉And concluding with a rally of local trade unionists and campaigners joined by @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social from 6.30pm Hasta mañana ✊🚩 www.brixtonbuzz.com/2025/11/jere...

The London Underground has, over the past 25 years, hosted works by some of Britain’s leading contemporary artists. Eleanor Pinfield, director of Art on the Underground, talks to Apollo about why preserving public art is becoming an ever more urgent task

Relieved to see the Edward Burra at Tate Britain before it closed. Fascinating show packed full of great paintings, from 1920s Paris to 1970s Cornwall (via Harlem, Rye and 1930s Spain).

⚡️First seminar of new academic year Rethinking Revolutionary Memory: The Production and Afterlives of Yugoslav Socialist Monuments with Sanja Horvatinčić & Beti Žerovc 31st Oct 🎃, 5.30-7.30pm @ucl-ias.bsky.social IAS Common Ground G11, South Wing, UCL,WC1E 6BT www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural! Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations. 👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️

Really looking forward to being part of this panel on Sunday discussing the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural. Part of a wider celebration to mark the mural's 40th Anniversary. Should be great! Free tickets to panel discussion: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...

‘The lack of urgency on all manner of organising questions has been excruciating, and if there doesn’t issue from this a new debate, a new coalition, a new strategy, and a new set of tactics — then we deserve what we get’. Good (/bleak) by @leninology.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/138879...

Really looking forward to being a part of the celebrations for the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural's 40th anniversary. Book your free tickets now 👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...

"Steelworker" (Clifford Wight, 1934) // Coit Tower // Telegraph Hill // San Francisco, Calif. This is the first union job I've had so I needed to share this mural today; it was linked to its neighbor with a banner that read "Workers of the World Unite" until it was painted over by censorious jerks

The Painted Empire: Mural Messages Across Central Mexico open.substack.com/pub/rogueart...

#OtD 16 Aug 1842 during a Chartist general strike for universal male suffrage, troops fired on a march in Stoke-on-Trent, killing 19-year-old shoemaker Josiah Heapy and injuring others. 146 were jailed and 54 transported to Australia stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8756...

Lovely research day with murals old and imminent.

The wonderful Hackney Peace Carnival Mural turns 40 this year. I’m very pleased to be speaking as part of the celebrations on 28th September. You can donate and follow the evolving schedule at: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...

Party On! 🎉🪅🥳🪩 www.yourparty.uk

Remembering Jean Charles de Menezes - executed 20 years ago today with impunity by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable police force let loose by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable political executive. 20 years on, plus ca change: no justice, no peace morningstaronline.co.uk/article/twen...

#OtD 21 Jul 1972 women shoemakers in Fakenham, Norfolk, England, who had been occupying their factory against redundancy, launched a workers' cooperative in a new plant stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9389...

Calling @ucu.org.uk colleagues: 👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox 🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021) ✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...

Chilling if widely predicted application of counter-terror frameworks post-proscription. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

"Eleanor Marx could have been the route through which many further ideas had come; should have been our Zetkin, our Luxemburg..." davidrenton590934.substack.com/p/edward-ave... TW: sexual violence, murder, the Marx family

If ever you doubt the abject, craven self-interest of most parliamentary representatives look no further than last night. In effect all bar 22 MPs (inc tellers/ excl Lib Dems) voted to proscribe as terrorists a non-violent direct action group opposing a live-streamed genocide.

Some highlights from the National Museum of Wales: Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.

To Kill a War Machine - well worth a watch tokillawarmachine.com

‘We…condemn the UK Government’s plans to proscribe Palestine Action…& consider this constitutes a significant threat to freedom of expression & civil liberties…’ Over 750 academics launch open letter condemning moves to ban @palaction.bsky.social Read & sign: ucw4palestine.org/2025/06/27/d...

I will miss passing the overspilling bikes. I never knew about the films - what a fascinating life. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...

Join us for our final seminar of the academic year: Dubravka Sekulić (‪@dubravka.bsky.social‬) 'On Yugoslav Construction Industry, Non-alignment, and Architecture' Friday 20 June, 5:30–7:30 pm ‪@ucl-ias.bsky.social‬ Common Ground, G11, South Wing, UCL, WC1E 6BT www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

Saddened to learn of the death of Ernest Rodker. It was a joy to learn a bit of Rodker's life and politics through his influence on his friend & comrade Brian Barnes and some of their shared endeavours. Here he is clearing a park in front of Brian's first mural and in a quote from EP Thompson

Join us for our first seminar of the Summer: 'Music and Revolution in the Age of Disco', with David Grundy Friday 23 May, 2025, 5.30pm @ucl-ias.bsky.social‬ IAS Forum, G17, ground floor, South Wing, UCL, Gower St, London, WC1E 6BT Free. All welcome. Details: www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

‘Confronting the World’s 21st Century Colonial Genocide' Tomorrow: Wednesday 30 April, 4 pm BST. Online An OU Palestine Solidarity Group webinar, with Les Levidow, Andy Stirling, Cian O’Donovan, Saurabh Arora & Tahrir Hamdi All welcome. Register free: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4f4415...

Can you give a boost to @wiedelphoto.bsky.social 's fantastic project documenting Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp from 1983-4? For a pledge of £30 supporters can pre-order a hard copy of the book and get the project off the ground. Please support and share www.kickstarter.com/projects/fru...

The Kickstarter for 'Life at the Fence' Janine Wiedel's forthcoming photodocumentary book on Greenham Common Peace Camp 1983-4 is now live ⚡️ A brilliant body of work documenting a critical moment of political history. Promises to be a great book. www.kickstarter.com/projects/fru...

Sad the British Museum Print room (consistently the best free exhibition space in London) have put an entrance fee on it - but the Picasso print show is (predictably) full of gems. Here: Salome, a 1911 Braque, ‘Painter and the model knitting’ & woman watching minotaur sleeping…

👇👇This Friday