The neighbourhood watch. 🔭

🌏 21 February marked International Mother Language Day. Australia is a linguistically diverse country, with over 400 languages spoken. Over 20% of Australians use a language other than English at home. “Languages are living things that connect people to Country, culture, and ancestors.”—AIATSIS

✒️ My belated response to the conservative political action committee Great British PAC (GBPAC), who published a two-page letter maligning the campaign to repatriate the Parthenon Marbles to Athens. dominicwexler.substack.com/p/to-great-b... @bcrpm.bsky.social

✍️ Latest essay on the #ParthenonMarbles fully written! I dismantle the Great British PAC’s 2025 letter in defence of “the integrity of Our National Collections”. Now just to type up and do a final edit! @bcrpm.bsky.social

Well, very glad to see further incompetence from the British Museum. Terrible curators. Just bolsters the argument against their retention of the Parthenon Marbles. Put AI in the trash, put the Marbles in the Acropolis Museum. news.artnet.com/art-world/br... @bcrpm.bsky.social #parthenonmarbles

✍️ Essay on Fabian socialism! Not like my usual pieces, less critical and more descriptive. 👉 dominicwexler.substack.com/p/essays-in-... #socialism #politics #capitalism #writers #substack

📖 Although I’m for the free market (in a Keynesian / modern Fabian sense) this is a great book. I might review it in future. Highly recommend it to anybody interested in political economy. It is readable and honest with not a hint of screed. 👍 #writer #economics #politics #philosophy

Thank you to everybody who submitted! Once again another fantastic issue. ✊

#australia 🇦🇺 🚨 PEN Melbourne, PEN Sydney and PEN Perth express our deep concern regarding the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill that was passed by parliament this week. 📋 Read our joint letter: pen.org.au/hate-speech-... #auspol

#australia 🇦🇺 ✍️ The Adelaide Writers’ Week has been cancelled after roughly 100 writers decided to boycott the event over the disinvitation of Australian-Palestinian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah. PEN Sydney considers the disinvitation an infringement on freedom of speech in Australia.

✍️ Latest essay is out on the certainty of 21st century sceptics. ‘Scepticism’ has become indistinguishable from certainty. Not interested in truth and doubt, sceptics are ideologues. #covid #writing #joerogan #rogan #rfk dominicwexler.substack.com/p/the-certai...

📖 With intervention in Venezuela and rising ICE abuses, Gore Vidal’s Narratives of Empire has never been more relevant. #politics #america #trump #ICE #venezuela

🗞️ PEN Sydney’s November magazine is now available and free to read online!

 In this November edition, PEN Sydney shines a light on translation with poetry and essays, as well as the transcript of Shankari Chandran’s PEN Lecture from the Sydney Writers’ Festival. 👉 pen.org.au/wp-content/u...

Bonkers.

🎉 2025 was a busy year for PEN Sydney.

✒️ Not all books are political. As soon as you start playing that game you cede ground to MAGA censors like Moms for Liberty, TPUSA, and PragerU. dominicwexler.substack.com/p/are-all-bo... #writers #writing #politics #bookbans #books

Get to it!

📢 #DayoftheImprisonedWriter: Stand with #MziaAmaglobeli! She’s jailed for doing her job. ✍️ Speak out now — write send a message of solidarity to show her she is not alone and support her fight for justice! www.pen-international.org/mzia-amaglob...

News | Law change enabling restitution on moral grounds comes into force this month But national museums to be excluded from new rules that simplify ‘ex-gratia’ payments

Let’s gooooooooo!

#Australia #Thailand #Malaysia: We join PEN Centres in condemning Malaysia’s attempt to silence writer Murray Hunter through transnational criminal defamation, and urge Foreign Minister Penny Wong to intervene. Read our joint letter ⬇️ www.pen-international.org/news/austral...

Black Friday may give you 50% off, but Give Back Friday lets you give 100% hope. Skip the extra gadget and help protect writers. Donate to PEN International — because free expression shouldn’t be a luxury item 👉 www.justgiving.com/charity/pen-...

📢 #DayoftheImprisonedWriter is here! From 15 Nov to 10 Dec, we’ll spotlight four writers jailed for their words and call for their release. Join us in defending freedom of expression everywhere. #RoryBranker #YalqunRozi #MohamedTadjadit #MziaAmaglobeli

✍️ Algerian poet #MohamedTadjadit — the voice of the Hirak movement — is in prison just for speaking truth to power. Join PEN International in demanding his immediate and unconditional release. 📋 TAKE ACTION: www.pen-international.org/mohamed-tadj... #DayoftheImprisonedWriter

✍️ Journalist #MziaAmaglobeli is imprisoned in Georgia on politically motivated grounds. We call for her immediate release, a fair trial, and full accountability for police abuse. 📋 Take action with us. Click the link in our bio. #DayoftheImprisonedWriter

" Add your voice. Speak up. Let us rewrite the story of the future together." Join British actor and activist Khalid Abdalla in showing solidarity with imprisoned writers and standing up for freedom of expression: www.pen-international.org/our-campaign...

✍️ SIGN OUR PETITION: www.pen-international.org/yalqun-rozi-... Uyghur writer #YalqunRozi has spent 9 years behind bars in China for expressing his cultural identity. Sentenced to 15 years, his only “crime” was helping preserve the Uyghur language. You can set him free. #DayoftheImprisonedWriter

✍️ SIGN OUR PETITION: He told the truth. They silenced him. Rory Branker has been disappeared and detained in Venezuela for doing his job as a journalist. 📋 Add your name to set him free — journalism is not a crime: www.pen-international.org/rory-branker... #RoryBranker #DayoftheImprisonedWriter

✒️ For all of you writers out there, PEN International's Day of the Imprisoned Writer began Nov 15. Support writers in need. 🔗: www.pen-international.org/our-campaign... @peninternational.bsky.social #DayoftheImprisonedWriter #RoryBranker #YalqunRozi #MohamedTadjadit #MziaAmaglobeli

Reputation Lost: The Duveen Cleaning Scandal. Against reunification, retentionists appeal to the British Museum's storied commitment to preserving the Parthenon Marbles. In reality, it's a fiction. Their record is disqualifying. @dominicwexler.bsky.social dominicwexler.substack.com/p/a-reputati...

✒️ Latest essay on the Parthenon Marbles is out! 🏛️ I discuss the Duveen Cleaning Scandal and why the argument that the British Museum is a competent preserver of Parthenon Marbles is a fiction. #reunitetheparthenonmarbles dominicwexler.substack.com/p/a-reputati...

📢 November 15 marks the annual Day of the Imprisoned Writer. 🗓️ PEN Sydney is hosting an event to mark the day on November 23rd at Gleebooks. 🎟️ For tickets: gleebooks.com.au/product/chen... @peninternational.bsky.social #auspol #writers #sydney #australia

#Sydney 🎟️ gleebooks.com.au/product/chen... #freespeech #auspol

Mamdani as mayor of 🗽🇺🇸. Let the experiment begin. I am skeptical, but at least it isn’t Cuomo. The Party does need recalibration. Although I don’t like democratic socialists, they’re a necessary eel in the barrel of reform. #nyc #mamdani

#Iran 🇮🇷 ✒️ Read Leila Sadeghi's personal story of detention in Iran on our website. Free. 🔗: pen.org.au/detention-of... #freespeech #literature #writers

✒️ In August I asked my friend and @aothenmagazine.bsky.social colleague @kaitlinwrites.bsky.social some questions about her life in the academy and the role of academics in American society. dominicwexler.substack.com/p/interview-... #university #academics #phd #gradschool #writing #politics

New spotlight on Tomorrow Club is live, amplifying young voices across Asia until the new year. Over 30 bright young names from 20 countries joined up with inspiring stories, in truth and fiction, opening personal windows into a diverse range of contexts and experiences around the region ⬇️

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet and playwright who made significant contributions to aesthetic and cinematic theory. From a young age, he was critical of war. 🖋️ #writer #writing #writerquotes #writerscommunity 📸: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-W0409-300 / Kolbe, Jörg / CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

✒️ Although a monarchist, Bagehot's 1867 The English Constitution is a necessary text for all republicans, exposing monarchy's degrading effect on society. 👑❌ dominicwexler.substack.com/p/a-monarchi... #monarchy #kingcharles #republic #politics #auspol

✒️ Friedrich Nietzsche is everyone’s favourite aphorist. But read as a whole, the German writer lauds a sinister ideal: the Übermensch. dominicwexler.substack.com/p/say-no-to-... #philosophy #philosophers #nietzsche

📢 On Sunday the 23rd of November at 3pm, PEN Sydney in collaboration with @gleebooks.bsky.social will host an event marking the Day of the Imprisoned Writer. 🔗 BOOK TICKETS: gleebooks.com.au/.../cheng-le... #sydney #australia #books #writers

📌Responding to a post by a user on Substack that criticised non-academic philosophers on the platform for being 'impervious to correction'. I detected a tone of anti-intellectualism and decided to address it. dominicwexler.substack.com/p/the-right-... #freespeech #philosophy #academia #university

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza 🌍 Mahmoud Darwish was a writer regarded as Palestine’s national poet. Darwish was active in the Middle East peace process. While critical of Israeli and Palestinian leadership, he still believed peace was possible. He wrote Palestine's 1988 Declaration of Independence. 🕊️

#Australia 🇦🇺 📢 Join PEN Sydney and support the freedom to write and the freedom to read in Australia and around the world. pen.org.au/join-us/ #australia #auspol #freespeech #freedomofspeech

#Egypt 🇪🇬 ⛓️‍💥 Alaa Abd El-Fattah is free! After nearly 12 years of imprisonment, the Egyptian-British democracy activist Alaa has been released following a pardon by Egyptian president Sisi. www.pen-international.org/news/egypt-a... @peninternational.bsky.social #freealaa

🌏 Free Jimmy Lai. #FreeJimmyLai #China #HongKong #freespeech