"While Serbian protestors are not marching or holding vigils for anyone other than themselves, their example should inspire people around the world who are trying to figure out how to mount resistance to authoritarian regimes in our high-tech era." @cbertsch.bsky.social

“We're on autopilot. We're all very close personally as well as professionally...I literally just have to check in with the team every week and see what they are planning on doing.” #TheBattleground @jschalit.bsky.social Check out the full video on YouTube 👉 www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSa8...

"Lowe built his reputation hyping Muslim rape gangs and promoting the mass deportation of migrants." In this episode of Left To Burn, @jtwhitenoise.bsky.social dissects the split. The crisis could determine the future of the UK right. thebattleground.eu/podcast/cult...

"Too few analyses affirm that Le Pen had to bow to the law, which she clearly and massively broke, whereas Donald Trump did not. Progressives need to do more to promote and legitimise the rule of law." thebattleground.eu/2025/04/04/m...

"Although the past may inspire us in our struggle to move forward, as the example of Bob Dylan clearly does for Jesse Welles, making real progress requires that we stop believing in the magic of repetition." @cbertsch.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/2025/04/02/a...

“I eventually developed an aesthetic out of that for my own work which is the guiding aesthetic for the photos that we publish” #Photography #StreetPolitics #TheBattleground Watch the full video here 📸 www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSa8... @jschalit.bsky.social

"Labour is set to unleash a new level of hellish welfare cuts. And the most vulnerable people in the country are up against it." "This system degrades more than it raises anyone up, but Labour wants to make it even worse." @jtwhitenoise.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/2025/03/31/w...

"It’s hard to know which is more alarming: the explicit assumption that the collective father figure is always going to be pale, male, and stale, or the fixation on corporal abuse of children by the people who profess to be the defenders par excellence of children and childhood."

"Anti-imperialism used to be a good political name. If it has not become yet another victim of the post-truth era, the truth of post-democracy seems likely to follow." thebattleground.eu/2025/03/21/t...

It’s about solidarity. The message of Jeanne Carstensen’s Greek Tragedy is that when governance falters, rescue will depend on holding on to what we have in common. Gary Isaac Wolf, on the best new book about the refugee crisis. thebattleground.eu/2025/03/20/w...

The more people speak out, the more likely they’ll become targets. Charlie Bertsch, on Giorgia Meloni’s lawsuit against Placebo’s Brian Molko, and mounting pressures on freedom of speech in Italy. @cbertsch.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/2025/03/19/s...

The post-liberal era that Trump has ushered in isn’t simply the final deterioration of democratic government. According to Ari Paul, it’s a rejection of the democratic ideal as a whole. thebattleground.eu/2025/03/18/a...

Germany’s decision to dispense with its debt brake is a sobering reminder of the costs that militarisation brings and, according to Josh Foster, why its political effects must be reigned in. thebattleground.eu/2025/03/14/b...

"Like Jack Torrance, Iman is a man possessed. And like Jack Torrance, his possession eventually turns him against his family." "It’s a deeply upsetting tale, with disturbing implications for a world in which freedom is under attack around the world." thebattleground.eu/2025/02/12/f...

Massive Attack didn’t just change music — they exposed Britain’s blind spots. "Listening to Massive Attack today is a great way to remember that translational labour." Maybe if we’d been paying attention, we wouldn’t be where we are now. thebattleground.eu/2025/02/19/p...

Angela Davis in The Black Power Mixtape on violence: “That was a different time,” but was it? Her words remind us that the state has always crushed resistance, from Black Panthers to today’s Gaza protests. thebattleground.eu/2025/03/12/l...

“America is in a fraught condition.” John Foster argues that Trumpism is a form of fascism, but not in the traditional sense. Unlike Mussolini and Hitler, Trump’s crisis is manufactured. But can we afford to downplay the rise of such fear-based politics? thebattleground.eu/2025/02/21/i...

Nazism should have killed eugenics. Instead, it’s quietly returning - this time named natalism. Behind talk of saving civilisation is the same obsession with controlling who gets to be born. The far right is back in the business of "fixing" humanity. #FarRight thebattleground.eu/2025/03/07/p...

5Pillars claims to represent British Muslims, but when you platform far-right extremists like Griffin and Collett, the lines blur. Is this a defence of free speech or something darker? #5Pillars #FarRight #FreeSpeech thebattleground.eu/2025/02/24/n...

The US may be a declining hegemon, but the old days of Great Power politics are back. Josh White, on Keir Starmer’s attempt to lead on Ukraine, and remilitarise the UK. thebattleground.eu/2025/03/10/s...

"Print the legend." Tony Wilson's words in 24 Hour Party People make us question: how far should we trust the stories we hear, especially when they’re told so well? Do we crave the myth more than the truth? #24HourPartyPeople #Film #ManchesterScene #FactVsFiction thebattleground.eu/2025/02/26/d...

At a time when surveillance has never been more exhaustive, producing records like Natalie Berdizes’ Street Life may turn out to be the best way of doing politics. Charlie Bertsch, on the art of disguising protestors, not protests. @cbertsch.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/2025/02/05/p...

Technocracy has failed. Without something new, the parties that pursued it will soon follow. John Foster on the German election, and why the new government will usher in the far right. thebattleground.eu/2025/02/28/n...

The far right wants to destroy every institution “infected” by the left. Charlie Bertsch, on Antonio Gramsci, and his influence on the Reactionary International. @cbertsch.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/2025/03/05/t...

Europe borders the Middle East, and its politics reflect that. Joel Schalit, on projecting the Arab-Israeli conflict abroad, and why journalists get it wrong. @jschalit.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/2025/03/03/o...

"Michael Winterbottom’s film does such a great job of illustrating the power of storytelling that mixes fact with fiction and staged scenes with documentary footage that it demands to be seen again now."

"You can’t fully understand 5Pillars without grasping the context of the War on Terror and the waves of Islamophobia it unleashed in the United Kingdom. It’s been very tough to be a British Muslim, especially since 9/11."

A new kind of fascism is coalescing, and it’s what comes after Mussolini and Hitler. What we need to figure out, writes John Foster, is whether their origins are the same. thebattleground.eu/2025/02/21/i...

Donald Trump is a liar. Whether it’s about Haitian migrants eating dogs, or the economic benefits of tariffs, he never quits. The question is why. John Foster, on Trump’s troubled relationship with the truth, and its impact on populist politics.

"In the second of a four-part series about Wieland Hoban's brand new Battleground book, German Apartheid Politics:" 1/3

"Like Jack Torrance, Iman is a man possessed. And like Jack Torrance, his possession eventually turns him against his family." "It’s a deeply upsetting tale, with disturbing implications for a world in which freedom is under attack around the world." @cbertsch.bsky.social

Propaganda only works when everyone says the same thing. @jschalit.bsky.social, on how centrists lift from the populist playbook and why visuals are more convincing than ideology. thebattleground.eu/2025/02/11/d...

Britain is more broken than ever. Josh White, on the rise of Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK party and how a negligent, neoliberal Labour government opened the door for them. @jtwhitenoise.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/podcast/nati...

"Although Beridze explains that the raw material for the record derives from protests that followed the populist and Vladimir Putin-friendly Georgian Dream party’ disputed electoral triumph last October, it’s hard for listeners to discern anything concrete." @cbertsch.bsky.social

"The privatisation of political power is the underlying project. Privatisation is at the nexus between neoliberalism and neofeudalism." @magadh.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/2025/02/07/t...

Think of it as a Financial Times for the poor, putting cash in readers’ pockets. @jtwhitenoise.bsky.social, on UK street newspaper DOPE and its creative mix of progressive journalism and antipoverty advocacy. thebattleground.eu/2025/02/04/a...

Sound carries history. From the noise of Holocaust trains to the persistent hum of drones over Gaza, war leaves an aural imprint on memory. thebattleground.eu/2025/01/27/f... @jschalit.bsky.social

A train station in Italy. A locomotive’s roar. And suddenly, the past is deafening. Holocaust Remembrance Day is about memory—but what about sound? From Auschwitz to Gaza, war has a sonic imprint. What does history sound like to you? thebattleground.eu/2025/01/27/f... @jschalit.bsky.social

"There’s so much to mourn these days." On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, memory is tangled with sound—from the rumble of Auschwitz trains to the ever-present drone of war today. What does history sound like? And are we really listening? thebattleground.eu/2025/01/27/f... @jschalit.bsky.social

When understanding the present means hearing the past. Battleground editor-in-chief Joel Schalit reimagines Holocaust remembrance using field recordings of Italian trains.

Animals do it better. @cbertsch.bsky.social, on Latvian Oscar breakthrough Flow, and why household pets lead the way in responding to tragedies @battlegroundeu.bsky.social

North Atlantic liberalism died the moment it started pandering to elites. From the collapse of Keynesian economics to the rise of technocratic centrism, the left abandoned its principles—and voters noticed. Is this the end of the road for postwar progressivism? 🌍 thebattleground.eu/2025/01/24/t...

‘They love us too much.’ Wieland Hoban and Joel Schalit challenge Germany’s relationship with Holocaust memory, arguing that philosemitism has become a tool for political agendas. @jschalit.bsky.social @jsnahost.bsky.social thebattleground.eu/podcast/germ...

@battlegroundeu.bsky.social @jsnahost.bsky.social

The first @battlegroundeu.bsky.social playlist of the new year, curated by yours truly, features healthy doses of hardcore, rock, hip-hop, and drill in four different languages.

We're launching “Hearing Aid”, a column dedicated to political soundscapes. It’s street photography for your ears, a documentary approach to the crises shaping our world. Why has audio been confined to podcasts and talk shows? Let’s listen with new intent. 👂🎙️ thebattleground.eu/author/heari...

i have a new piece up at @battlegroundeu.bsky.social about POC Trump voters. Despite claims this is merely b/c recent economic issues or a 'desire for whiteness,' all POC groups have shifted further right in the last three elections. thebattleground.eu/2024/12/12/t...

I have a new piece up at @battlegroundeu.bsky.social on Robyn Hitchcock's wonderful project 1967, which pairs a memoir of his experiences at a storied public school for boys in the mid-1960s with an album covering songs he loved during that period. The audiobook, read by the author, is tremendous.

Agnes Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7: a film about two hours, yet spanning lifetimes. It’s personal and political, light and heavy. 'The colonial power is doomed.' But so is Cléo—and that’s where transformation begins. Discuss. thebattleground.eu/2024/12/04/a...

France: Macron outplays his opponents, but at what cost? The left stands firm against austerity, yet its coalition shows cracks. If discontent with Macron grows, can the fragile left seize the opportunity? #FrenchPolitics #Macron thebattleground.eu/2024/12/06/m...