Great report from Grant. Technocrats on the right of the union/leadership once again undermining democracy and transparency.

Join a union, and be an active member

Join NATO so that like Denmark you too can have one member publicly threatening to invade and annexe your sovereign territory, while another refuses to even state that doing so is wrong.

I am genuinely tempted to add something like "This email was written by me, for you to read. I do not and will not use LLM AI in any of my work." to my office signature.

I've uploaded two new albums to bandcamp. Recordings of performance art and noise, exchanging roles of lead voice and atmosphere/environment. nicolnicolnicol.bandcamp.com (I like them!)

LMAO Noam Chomsky doesn’t surprise me one bit. Integrity isn’t exactly a trait for someone who picks and chooses his genocides and genocide denialisms.

Cafe Oto | Sun 7 December 2025 Playing new music for guitar by Thanos Chrysakis, Tim Hodgkinson, and David Ryan . . . and old music by Feldman, Takemitsu, and Wolff . . . alongside Jason Alder and Atsuko Kamura. Tickets: bit.ly/49A4lVa

This is fascism.

Fact-Checking Claims About Zohran Mamdani https://theonion.com/fact-checking-claims-about-zohran-mamdani/

AI is not sentient. It doesn't have a survival instinct. What's happened is that corporations have decided that we'll all obey capital if it can pretend to talk.

🧵 The last month or so in UCU world has left me feeling very concerned. I’m not a member or fan of any faction, but the recent NEC elections have given the hard-right of the union a majority on our highest council. Meanwhile, our senior leadership appear to be half heartedly launching our (cont…)

This treatment of staff by a trade union employer (or any!) is despicable. Jo Grady must resign (in shame). She is not fit to have her name associated with the trade union movement.

@drjogrady.bsky.social, you need to demonstrate the change you want to see. You cannot go after our Vice Chancellors while you’re yourself employing some of their worst practices. Remember what you said, “a fairer future for all”. FOR ALL.

Jo is intentionally omitting key details here. General Secretary, be transparent with your members for once, the ballot is on 3 issues: 1. Pay uplift = at least RPI+3.5% or £2,500, on all pay points 2. Protection of national agreements on T&C's 3. A national agreement to protect jobs & subjects

There is no trade-off between pay and jobs. Don't let the employers fool you otherwise. This dispute is on three things: 1.Pay uplift = at least RPI+3.5% or £2,500, on all pay points 2.Protection of national agreements on T&C's 3.A national agreement to protect jobs & subjects #WeAreTheUniversity

Looking forward to speaking at ‘Thinking Through Sound’ @ Sheffield Uni tomorrow! Can a ‘muddy’ episteme resist capitalist and colonialist conceptions of clarity, convenience, and knowledge production, and can new ways of thinking with/through sound mess up, or ‘muddy‘ the waters, of the academy?

UCU policy: “To work with the TUC and other TUs to campaign for a change to the law to prevent such deductions, including lobbying government and opposition parties” Maybe while @drjogrady.bsky.social is at @tuc.org.uk in Brighton she can work on thi… oh! policy.web.ucu.org.uk/motion-infor...

Jo Grady finds new ways to undermine UCU every week. TUC attendees should let her know their views. Oh, and where is the outcome from HEC @drjogrady.bsky.social?

uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/09/04/u... UCU senior leadership once again channeling the worst of our sector’s Vice Chancellors in how they treat their own staff. These people are not trade unionists, they are self-serving cowards and a stain upon our movement. Solidarity with @uniteucu.bsky.social

Me, in my natural environment.

"But they came here illegally" 1. No, they didn't. Seeking asylum is a human right protected under Article 14 of UDHR. 2. Even if they did, who even gives a fuck?! We would ALL break the law in a desperate situation. Less chat of legality more chat of justice & morality pls They're not the same.

Everyday I become more and more disgusted by and ashamed of UCU senior leadership, and those pockets of the membership that continue to support them and/or bury their heads in the sand. UCU supposedly stands for a “fairer future for all”. That has to mean ALL. Not just the SMT’s sycophants.

👋 Excited to announced that @ceciliawee.bsky.social and I will be Associate Artists for GroundWork Gallery’s fifth annual artist residency! This year’s residency is titled Fluid Earth, and is part of their ongoing residencies themed around extractivism. [📷 : Sea Wall Postcard by Sophie Marritt]

Spain’s MEP Irene Montero: “Israel is starving to death those it hasn’t already killed with bombs in Gaza.” “90% of the population is in phase 5 famine, and soon 400 people a day will die of hunger.” “This is extermination.” “And Europe is on its knees before Israel.” 🇪🇸 🇵🇸

Everyone bar the Greens here are fucking cowards

Amazing win, well done everyone. Yet another victory for militant industrial action, and a rejection of the nicey-nicey approach to SMT. ✊

But what does “Never again” mean when they stay silent now? When they ignore Gaza? When they honour the victims of one genocide while enabling another?

The liberation of #Palestine & the sovereignty of #Iran are connected struggles❗ Print off our poster. Colour and black & white versions available (copy & paste link): tinyurl.com/4fmjyeka Stop Israel-US Imperialism❗ End Genocide in GAZA ❗ Stop War in IRAN ❗

Deeply ashamed of my union behaving like the bosses we fight. Imposition, victimisation and union-busting needs to stop right now @ucu.org.uk. Solidarity with UCU Unite staff ✊

Much adored and admired musicy-soundy darling, Louise, needs our help ❤️ please give if you are able. www.justgiving.com/page/louise-...

I’ll be speaking at IR/RELEVANT, King’s College London’s English Department PGR Conference, tomorrow. My paper, ‘muddy listening: making a mess in the academy’, will detail recent doctoral research, and speak in defence of unclean and messy ears! Amazing line up of speakers and fellow UAL folks!

✊

Incredible speech. ✊

UK is woefully unserious re arts & humanities research, let alone research/education in general. The UKRI “has chosen to allocate a higher proportion of its awards to themes likely to excite politicians and taxpayers”. www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/will-f... [non paywall in comments]

Solidarity, @ducu.bsky.social. Leadership’s expressions of solidarity are insulting and hypocritical while the @uniteucu.bsky.social dispute remains unresolved. UCU members and staff deserve more than a leadership model built on tweets and photo opportunities.

Super grateful to and proud of our NEC members for taking this difficult but necessary action. It’s also good to see publicly who of our elected members truly understand and care about trade unionism, and are willing to stick up it. Solidarity with @uniteucu.bsky.social ✊

STATEMENT RE UCU NEC 2 MAY reclaimucu.wordpress... I am proud but saddened to be a signatory to this: I will not cross a picket line and I am in full solidarity with @uniteucu.bsky.social, on strike again this week. So I will not attend #UCU NEC on Friday this week. We all urgently need resolution.

Still Out-of-Office We are not currently at work due to taking part in strike action called by Unite, the trade union for UCU staff, over our Campaign for a Safe & Professional Workplace Culture. Our strikes this week run for 3 days from 23 to 25 April. #UniteVoices

‘Our Muddy Inheritance: sounding from the ground-up’ [workshop] (CWxWC) (Cecilia Wee and William Crosby) will be facilitating a workshop at the @livingmapsnetwork Conference: More-Than-Human Mappings this Friday (25 April 2025) @ 3.30pm at Senate House, University of London.

We need every UCU member to read this (& the myth busting page linked within) + urge their general secretary to talk to us, stop the unionbusting, put back the out-of-office advice for UCU members, & take steps to resolve the dispute for staff & members' sake. uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/04/14/p...

Love and solidarity with my trans friends, comrades, colleagues, and students on this regressive and scary day. 🏳️‍⚧️ ❤️

Off to offer my solidarity to @uniteucu.bsky.social members in Glasgow this morning. It’s time the dispute with @ucu.org.uk was settled. Workers deserve so much better than this uniteucu.wordpress.com/dispute-over... #SettleTheDispute

Full solidarity with @uniteucu.bsky.social. If this was happening at any other workplace our leadership would rightly be publicly condemning it. Shame on UCU SMT. Their behaviour and attitudes are not representative of our membership.

Out-of-office We are not currently at work due to taking part in escalating strike action called by Unite, the trade union for UCU staff, over our Campaign for a Safe & Professional Workplace Culture. Our strikes this week run for 4 days from 7 to 10 April. uniteucu.wordpress.com/2025/04/07/u...