@profalexp
Prof of International Political Theory at the University of Exeter. Author of Anarchism. A Very Short Introduction (new ed), and lots more on anarchy, anarchism, and IR theory. Exeter UCU branch co-chair, UCU Commons, and #lfc.
Every Liverpool supporter should read this magnificent piece by Paul Tomkins. Many (myself included) should reflect on how we've reacted to how things have gone this season. Some of the vitriol aimed at Arne and the lads has been utterly unacceptable #LFC
tomkinstimes.substack.com/p/the-shameful…
'A people’s assembly for constitutional renewal could begin a broader conversation about how power is exercised.' Clive Lewis (@labourlewis.bsky.social) on the need for a constitutional remake. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
One might even call it “predatory.” Well, I would: www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
Someone is going to write a feature piece in, like, the New Yorker or something titled "Inside an American Concentration Camp" and everyone will get shocked *then* at what's happening *now*
"The quest for precision is not limited by its cost, but by the very nature of matter. It is not true that uncertainty decreases as accuracy goes up: it goes up as well."
Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition
Book Review: In China With Green Day
Reviews, Mar 8th
Cometbus is arguably the most important self-published document of the end of the millennium American punk rock landscape
~ Soral X ~
freedomnews.org.uk/2026/03/08/b...
A newspaper headline from over a century ago, reading: WOMEN ANARCHISTS HAVE BECOME THE TERROR OF WORLDS POLICE Their Daring Crimes Are Said to Have Out- stripped the Deeds of Brothers of the Red Search for the Woman is Becoming a Safe Rule in Crimes Proceeding From Anarchistic Violence—The Guardians of the World Nearly Always Finda Woman Implicated When a Ruler is Stricken Down—Emotional Women Lose Sense of Fear.
Happy International Women's Day. 🏴
“Woman: we all have to become that, whether we are male or female." (Deleuze annd Guattari, 1987: 470)
#internationalWomensDay
This is timely, because I'm bringing a paper to #ucu HEC next Friday to kick off some specialised work on teaching-only and teaching-focused terms & conditions.
ucucommons.org/hec-discussi...
What was work? And how can I get that job?
Lucky f*%er!
Just look at that lineup…
So pleased for you and the Union. This is the best news!
Text reads: I am humbled and excited to be elected the next UCU Vice-President for Higher Education. Now is a devastatingly difficult and challenging time for our sectors and so many workers in post-16 education, but as a union we cannot succumb to despair. We have the skills, knowledge and capacity to help chart a way out of this mess and restore higher and further education. That you have put your trust in me to help do that is a huge honour and responsibility. I do not take this lightly. Thank you to the many thousands of members who voted for me and also to those who did not – we need to build better engagement in our union and part of that is voting, no matter who you voted for. I promised in my election materials to work hard to bring our union together and that is what I will do.
Text reads: Thank you to the other HE candidates Sean and Steve, both committed trade unionists. I know they will continue to fight for members and the future of Higher Education and I look forward to doing that alongside them. Congratulations to those elected to the National Executive Committee and commiserations to those who missed out this time. Your willingness to put yourself forward for election is hugely valued and I know you all will continue to contribute in other ways. So what next? Until the end of May, I’ll be tying up some loose ends and taking some time off to visit family and friends back in Australia. I will take up my role after UCU’s annual Congress at the end of May, this year in Harrogate.
Text reads: For the following three years, I will be lead negotiator for pay and conditions and for USS pensions across UK Higher Education, working with our team of elected negotiators and officials. I will also chair UCU’s Higher Education Committee and HE sector conferences, serve on other national committees and represent you in various forums. In 2029-30 I will become UCU’s President after the excellent Suzi Toole, who has also been elected as Vice-President for Further Education and will spend two years leading on further education matters before becoming President. She will take over from Dyfrig Jones, who succeeds early to the Presidential role for a two-year term this May, due to the casual vacancy that arose last year, replacing Maria Chondrogianni. Maria stays on as immediate past president, rounding out the presidential team. I want to again acknowledge David Hunter who stepped down as President-Elect last year for health reasons and continue to wish him and his family all the best.
A picture of two smiling people (Suzi Toole and Mark Pendleton) wearing UCU beanies. Text reads: That’s a lot of work, and a lot of moving parts, but at the heart of it will be my commitment to build a better union, alongside members and branches, and through that transform our sectors. I am ready and I know from the responses to this election that many of you are too. I’m looking forward to getting to work, together with you all.
UCU’s elections concluded this week and I am honoured to have been elected as the next Vice-President for Higher Education, to become President in 2029-30.
Thank you for all the support.
A short statement about the election and what’s to come after I take up the role in May.
Excited and honoured to have been elected to the #UCU NEC. Many thanks to everyone who voted for me (and indeed, everyone who voted at all).
I'm looking forward to representing our members to the best of my ability.
I dropped out of high school, gained a huge amount of often difficult life experience, then went to community college, and now I'm a professor in a prestigious university. There HAS TO BE A PLACE for non-traditional students. www.theguardian.com/education/20...
me about to set off to London for the HEC meeting on 6 March 2026, with my tuxedo cat skulking grumpily on my backpack
I'm really happy to have been re-elected to the #UCU NEC, although my cat has mixed feelings about my continuing to travel to London! I'm also really happy that @markpendleton.bsky.social and @suzitoole.bsky.social were elected as VPs, and @drgillhistory.bsky.social @profalexp.bsky.social to the NEC
In the age of LLMs, deciding to write more strongly in my own voice feels both liberating and like an act of resistance. I've decided I don't care if Reviewer 2 inevitably hates the style, I'm going to write for me.
An Iranian drone exploded within shockwave distance of my godson in Erbil, who is four years old, and he cannot stop breaking down crying randomly now and isn't really eating.
Just in case you'd bought into the "poor plucky Iran" bullshit. Fuck Trump's war, and fuck the IRGC.
So this was even worse than it looked. bsky.app/profile/ryan...
Centrism is going to kill us all
😂
What a load of bollocks
GenAI outputs, like fascist art, are the antithesis of culture understood as the conscious expression of freedom in all its diversity.
Seriously tho, ‘tis an interesting read. To riff on Rawls’s reading, if culture/Geist is what we live and die for, because it is the fulfilment of freedom as such, GenAI outputs are its antithesis: it is Geist denuded of the human and so antithetical to it. GenAI is as valuable as a washing machine
Thanks, Angela!
Perhaps of interest to anyone want to work with the Anarchism Research Group @anarchismresgroup.bsky.social IRPH is also the home of the journal Anarchist Studies. @anarchiststudies.bsky.social
Today, I have mostly been reading Rawls’s lectures on Hegel.
Self-consciousness of the concept of freedom in society is living the concept of freedom in society, apparently
💪🏻✊🏻🖖🏻
First Morning Star piece I’ve read in a long time, but this is good! Anarchists moving into local and regional/devolved government is not unprecedented, but is this move to the Greens a sign of a deeper and wider change of anarchist praxis?