Des Freedman
@lazebnic
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Goldsmiths Media & UCU - lives in the Estuary - likes writing manifestoes - founding member @mediareformuk
Joined July 2009
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Pinned Tweet
Vindicated & reinstated. 115 days later and thanks to amazing solidarity from around the world, Goldsmiths has confirmed that there is "no case to answer" against me &
@gkhiabany
for doing our job & supporting our students. Off to the pub now...
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I spoke at yesterday’s Palestine solidarity match in Southend on Sea. When I introduced myself as Jewish, the crowd immediately cheered loudly. Weird behaviour for an antisemitic hate mob.
"I don't think there is any other way but to call them hate marches."
Home Secretary
@SuellaBraverman
tells Sky's
@AliFortescue
that anyone vandalising the Cenotaph 'must be jailed faster than feet can touch ground.'
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602 and YouTube
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Nigel Farage received 12% of TV/press coverage in the election.
@TheGreenParty
(with 4 seats to Reform’s 5) didn’t even make top 20. Great research from
@lboroCRCC
shows Greens & smaller parties were especially marginalised by a press mesmerised by Farage’s anti-migrant noise
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Can you imagine a mainstream news outlet running this today? RIP John Pilger
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Andrew Neil on working for Murdoch: “he picks as his editors people like me, who are mostly on the same wavelength as he is: we started from a set of common assumptions about politics & society...Then he largely left me to get on with my work.” This is how elite journalism works
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Staggering assertion that audiences are losing faith in mainstream media because of their occasional lapse into investigative journalism
The media’s often ludicrous questioning is going to hurt their credibility for years and years to come. And I’m seeing very little evidence that they realise as much.
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Despite Friday’s announcement from
@GoldsmithsUoL
, I’m not ready to move on just yet. Staff shouldn’t be treated like this. My oldest son said my reinstatement was “the best day of his life” but families shouldn’t have to go through this. Justice hasn’t been fully fully served.
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RIP Greg Philo - the fearless activist academic & researcher whose work for the Glasgow University Media Group on news bias and power influenced so many people. Passionate to the end in support of union rights, refugees, Palestinian sovereignty and social justice.
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Thanks in particular to my own branch
@GoldsmithsUCU
,
@GoldsmithsSU
, dozens of international academics who wrote letters, MPs like
@jeremycorbyn
&
@johnmcdonnellMP
& 5000 people who signed a petition supporting us. Telling the truth to students is not a crime - it's our role
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“Brother, you are very welcome here” says the people’s prime minister to Chris Smalls, President of the Amazon Labour Union & inspirational organiser
@Shut_downAmazon
. International solidarity in front of us
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Quite astonishing just how much coverage
@AJEnglish
’s
#LabourFiles
has had in the UK media: Jewish News and Inside Croydon & five lines in
@politico
. Silence is so revealing about state of investigative journalism & acquiescence in anti-Corbyn narratives
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This is a proper front page about geopolitical strategy and the real motivations behind “humanitarian intervention” (but sadly from 2003)
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“There are no neutrals in this struggle” Mick Lynch
@RMTunion
speaking at
@pplsassembly
demo in a packed Trafalgar Square. He’s right - the stakes are too high & as we know, power doesn’t concede without a struggle
#britainisbroken
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Solidarity and hugs to each & every
@GoldsmithsUoL
staff member who will hear today whether they’ve been unfairly targeted for redundancy as part of a process that has no legitimacy in a jobs cull that should not exist
#NotADoneDeal
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Elite journalism must be one of the few sectors where those with real influence over how mainstream politics is framed & enacted use their command of major platforms to talk about how little influence they have. That’s the beauty of media power - the ability to deny it exists
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Guardian story about Bristol demos based on discredited police sources. This is the “protest paradigm” laid bare - mainstream media celebrate the “right” to dissent but not its actual practice. So congrats to
@BristolCable
for focusing on participants & setting record straight
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A significant section of the UK press is essentially the editorial arm of the backbench Tory Covid Recovery group promoting lockdown liberation no matter how many will die as a result
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Quite incredible that
@BirkbeckUoL
which has a mere £108 million in reserves & last year bought the Student Central building for £35m is so skint it has to lay off 140 staff. This is horrendous academic vandalism - full solidarity with
@BirkbeckUCU
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#LabourManifesto
in numbers: 209 references to 'change', 132 to 'nation/national', 92 to invest/investment, 49 to growth, 29 to crime, 16 to innovation & 1 reference to inequality, social justice, public ownership & racism. 0 mentions of redistribution. The opposite of change.
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A university that spends over £1m on private consultants seeking advice on how to sack staff it says it can't afford really needs to look at itself. Meanwhile amazing to see students & academics standing with
@GoldsmithsUCU
to fight for jobs. It's
#notadonedeal
@GoldsmithsUoL
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If Goldsmiths - with a very strong & active union - can get away with sacking nearly 100 people for spurious financial reasons, then I shudder to think about what's next for other universities. Please send messages of support to
@GoldsmithsUCU
& donate to
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So revealing that the two most hard-hitting recent indictments of corporate corruption,
#PostOfficeScandal
&
#TabloidsOnTrial
, weren’t produced by
@BBC
but
@ITV
& so disgusting that Labour has nixed
#Leveson2
because it’s in thrall to Murdoch’s media power
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When the Board of Deputies refers to opposition to Zionism as content “that would not look out of place on the pages of Der Sturmer” & calls for the sacking of Prof David Miller, then maybe we do have a free speech problem...Anti-Zionism is not the same thing as anti-semitism.
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In order to achieve “due impartiality”, ie a balance of perspectives across a specific period of time, will
@BBCr4today
be inviting a representative of
@declassifiedUK
to guest edit a programme following this morning’s guest editor, Sir Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ?
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“A picket line is an education initself”
@jeremycorbyn
giving solidarity to
#GoldStrike
on the final day of 3 weeks of strike action to defend jobs and programmes
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Overseas students seem to be treated either as “cash cows” by surplus seeking universities or scapegoats by racist politicians. The idea of opening our doors to those who simply want to learn is clearly out of step in 2023
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“Why are we shovelling huge amounts of taxpayer money into student loans that will never be paid back” asks Tory leadership contender Badenoch. Maybe because your government designed this broken system & we should return to free education & scrap the debt
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“Education is a gift from one generation to another” -
@johnmcdonnellMP
speaking live from
@GoldsmithsUCU
picket line & talking about the huge anger felt by “disrespected” suffering constant cuts. We won’t take this any more!
#ucuRISING
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We are striking here
@GoldsmithsUCU
for many reasons but one of them is that an under fire accountancy firm has designed the restructure that is leading to job cuts and administrative chaos
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“This is asymmetrical warfare: one side has the upper hand in terms of guns, bombs, propaganda machines & support in palaces, parliaments & the press while the other has little to defend itself with apart from widespread support on the streets”
#Gaza
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BBC News' headline this morning should have been "Britain prepares for 10,000th death". But it wasn't.
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Friday 7.08pm just before Easter closure, I receive an email from “Recovery” announcing 16 redundancy notices at Goldsmiths despite huge savings & a projected surplus. This isn’t over. Solidarity to all at risk
@GoldsmithsUCU
@unisongold
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Recent
@guardian
headlines on the election of a pro-poor/union activist as President of Peru are just the latest examples of what liberal fear of radical social change looks like. Me &
@jrschlosberg
talked about this on
@Renegade_Inc
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Irony is dead. I’ve deleted the tweet below because it was misunderstood but for the record I do NOT think that pausing
#ucuRISING
strikes without any consultation (especially following members’ recent informal rejection of effectively the same offer) is the way to win.
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Me trying to tackle the “false equivalence” debate - that because
#BBC
was attacked by right & left then it must have doing its job. Wrong. The “errors” repeatedly benefited the Tories even if Boris Johnson now has the gall to further threaten BBC independence.
Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Goldsmiths University, Des Freedman, about media coverage during the election campaign: "many people did no think that the BBC and some other broadcasters were being sufficiently impartial."
@EamonnHolmes
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Government appointee with affiliations to Henry Jackson Society & the Heritage Foundation has the cheek to tell pro-Palestian protestors that they’re the extremist ones. My response as a Jew is to join tomorrow’s March along with 000s of other Jews
#wewillmarch
#CEASEFIRE_NOW
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Fantastic article from
@angelamcrobbie
on the devastating consequences of the proposed mass redundancies at
@GoldsmithsUoL
both for people's livelihoods and prospects for a critical & inclusive higher education system
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It’s not about disruption but about paying our bills, safeguarding our pensions & protecting the future of higher education. Staff AND students face a cost of living crisis in the 6th richest country in the world. Picketing today with my head held high
#ucuRISING
@GoldsmithsUCU
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If your job cuts have made it to the front page of the Sunday Times, I’d suggest
@GoldsmithsUoL
that you need a new strategy. How about opening the books, sitting down properly with the unions, lobbying government to change a failed system & not sacking some of your best assets?
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So the media are calling it a 'sensational' result for Labour but somehow failing to highlight that the party's TOTAL vote has gone down by 6% since 2019 (10.27m down to around 9.7m). With this highly brittle support, there are big battles to come...
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Since 3 June when Nigel Farage announced his candidacy, he's been mentioned TWICE as much as Keir Starmer on both
@bbc5live
&
@BBCRadio4
: 307 & 240 times vs 156 & 127 respectively. The media are obsessed with him & are giving Reform a platform they don't deserve
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These
@BBCNews
reports suggest that the two events were of a similar size when the huge pro-Palestinian one filled both Parliament & Trafalgar Squares while the other was way smaller by any measure. But why bother with minor details when you can hide behind “impartiality”…
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This is my last day as Head of Department of the amazing & thriving
@MediaComGold
. It's been uneventful apart from a pandemic, a KPMG-inspired restructure, 3 years of industrial action, scrapping of dedicated departmental admin and the small matter of my unjustified suspension.
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“Data, metrics, numbers, algorithms. That’s what they have. You can’t calculate love and solidarity. That’s how we defeated Amazon”. Chris Smalls
@Shut_downAmazon
on how to tackle tech power. “I got your back”
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Should make it clear that Farage received 12% of all media coverage of individuals during the campaign - not 12% of everything even though it felt like that at times….
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“The truth is that universities are literally nothing without their staff. It’s not fancy venues & central London campuses that change people’s lives but inspiring teaching & world-class research.” No option but to resist. Solidarity with all
@BirkbeckUCU
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This man used to edit a national “newspaper” that shaped government policies. He’s not a fringe character. Things like poverty and racism are just excuses in his sorry world.
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Proofs have been returned so here's the contents of the forthcoming
@PlutoPress
title, 'Capitalism's Conscience: 200 years of the Guardian' - released just before
@MediaComGold
conference on 23/24 April
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A book on a newspaper just arrived by post. How old school is that? “Capitalism’s Conscience” is out in a few days & huge huge thanks to all the contributors
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So even serious academic critique of mainstream media coverage of anti semitism is deemed to be beyond the pale? Cancellation of launch by
@Waterstones
makes the book by Greg Philo, Mike Berry,
@jrschlosberg
@tonylerman
@Tracking_Power
even more important to read
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Fantastic interrogation of Tom Watson on
#r4today
“Are you surprised that Corbyn is putting up a fight?”
“Of course not but I'm very pleased that Keir is getting to the bottom of anti semitism in the LP... great progress has been made…”
“Tom Watson…thanks for joining us.”
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Out of the dozens of stories on
@BBCNews
home page,
#Linekergate
features prominently but there is not a single story about the issue that led to this scandal: the government’s scandalous Illegal Migration Bill. And perhaps that’s the point.
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Deeply frustrating that when the extreme heat of a global climate crisis affects the UK, it’s still illustrated by lovely summery images of beaches & boating. Now is the time for front pages that call for urgent action on climate (not just free sun cream from the Mail)
#heatwave
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Put that champagne away. As the BBC celebrates its 100th birthday today, here are my thoughts on why we still need a genuinely independent public media to hold power to account (and why the BBC isn't it)
#BBC100
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Wonderful atmosphere of solidarity and determination at packed
@GoldsmithsUCU
@GoldsmithsSU
rally asking what a university is for to build the
#ucuRISING
campaign
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More amazing investigative journalism by my colleagues
@ForensicArchi
on the murder of
#HindRajab
by Israeli forces: "it is not plausible that the shooter could not have seen that the car was occupied by civilians". No UK media outlet has picked it up yet
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UK media grown-up reaction to left's win in France:
@JLMelenchon
is a 'charismatic demagogue' (FT), 'more divisive even than Corbyn' (Channel 4), 'veteran provocateur' (Times), 'veteran firebrand' (Guardian) 'French Corbyn but nastier & even more extreme' (Andrew Neil, Mail).
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Press’ relentless attacks on
@UKLabour
continue - consistently negative towards
@jeremycorbyn
et al - while repeated BBC “errors”, contortions & refusal to call lies out provide absolutely no counterweight. This is a media for the few
#Marr
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So proud to be here at
@uniofeastanglia
for the graduation of my oldest who now knows far more about history than I do
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Does this make me a Saddam apologist if I repost this or god forbid actually dare challenge official narratives of western governments & media? I thought that was a part of my role as a media researcher. Solidarity with
@jrschlosberg
& other smear victims
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Media often focus on isolated acts of violence when covering mass protests. Latest innovation is to blame anti racism protestors for an action they haven’t taken ahead of violence that hasn’t happened
#BlackLivesMatter
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Inventing & sustaining the "timeless", "venerable" and "immutable" institution of the monarchy requires some serious work and some dedicated supporters in the media. Tomorrow will be their, ahem, finest hour
#RoyalFamily
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First thoughts on
#USSstrikes
deal: this is a huge retreat by the employers in the face of
@ucu
action but offers no guarantees that they won't regroup & come back again in 2019. We need guarantees about deadlines & decision making & have to be ready to mobilise
@GoldsmithsUCU
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It shall from now on be known as “Walkout Wednesday” thanks to
@DailyMailUK
subeditors who somehow forgot to mention that 70,000 members of
@ucu
will also be on strike that day over pay, pensions and working conditions
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1st question: what does it tell us that this is the "UK's only Black British History course"? 2nd question: Why wouldn't Goldsmiths desperately want to hold on to her? The reputational damage done, following dozens of articles like this, is beyond belief
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Man worth “in excess of £15 million” tells workers not to campaign for fair pay because they might “jeopardise Britain’s recovery” - loosely translated as “know your place and keep quiet”
#WinterOfDiscontent
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The Guardian has played a crucial role in both articulating AND disempowering radical voices: "The most effective forms of media power are those that provide limited expressions of discontent within a more general embrace of existing social relations"
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Newspapers are so ashamed by the scandal of deep rooted Islamophobia in the Tory Party that they somehow forgot to put the
#SinghReport
on their front pages
#ToryIslamophobia
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Welcome to the upside down world of the Mail where elected union leaders are always “barons” and where a 3% uplift counts as a “pay rise” when inflation is at 9%. Mind you they’re not wrong that the mood is contagious
#SummerOfDiscontent
@RMTunion
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As I head off on leave, it’s images like this that remind me of the amazing achievements of
@MediaComGold
staff & students and of the vital need to protect a Department that does such fantastic creative and critical work
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There's been a 40% decline in students taking A Level Media in the last 10 years. The result of endless attacks by Tory ministers & columnists often made in the very media that they don't want us to study & hold to account. Time for a media studies fightback
#alevelresults2021
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I'm not 100% convinced that our leading journalists are fully committed to holding power to account
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God knows if anyone is going to read this but it isn't a book about how to do political communications more effectively but about how to resist the terms on which political communications currently operates.
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BBC on PM's sacking of Osborne: "May gets on with the job"; BBC on Corbyn's sacking of Winterton: "unity has not yet broken out in the LP"
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Shock reference to
@AJEnglish
’s
#LabourFiles
in the UK media! Yet
@guardian
describes the systematic attempts to purge members, (let alone weaponise anti Semitism & undermine
@jeremycorbyn
) revealed in the investigation as merely “controversial”...
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Some people are talking about the “end” of neoliberalism but the 15 days of
#Goldstrike
reminds us that we still need to challenge the capture of universities by financial logic & institutions
#openthebooks
@GoldsmithsUCU
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Staggered & outraged to learn from my branch
@GoldsmithsUCU
of the College’s plans to cut huge numbers of jobs. This is part of a widespread assault on higher education across the UK as a result of a broken market logic & we’re all going to need maximum solidarity
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So my pension scheme USS exaggerated its deficit and slashed the benefits of
@ucu
members but is “backing” its investment in
@thameswater
, £14bn in debt. Apparently this is to “stave off possible nationalisation of the sector”. Good to know shareholders come first…
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As an academic & parent of uni student, I’m not so worried about Christmas. I’m worried about this coming week and why there’s still pressure for F2F teaching and why mass testing seems to be something available only to a handful of wealthy institutions
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Thoughtful & detailed account by
@zoesqwilliams
on why the proposed job cuts at Goldsmiths speak to a much wider attack on critical and creative education. Important final sentence: “I don’t think it’s a done deal”
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On a day in which far right thugs desecrated Armistice Day & a million people marched peacefully for
#CeasefireForGaza
, our “quality” press wants to pretend there’s some sort of equivalence between these two facts
#March4Palestine
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This cannot be. I'm so sorry Emma and all the others totally undeservedly in your situation. Heartbreaking is exactly what it is. And utterly enraging.
So there you have it, I started the academic year with a promotion and a grant. Ending it with redundancy, along with most of my colleagues in Sociology. SMT are gutting Goldsmiths and it breaks my heart.
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There should only be one story that dominates U.K. headlines: being top of the death charts. This is a story of negligence, delays and confusion but front pages all too often peddling government spin that things are getting better
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Doing a teach out later at
#goldstrike
on the attempted capture of our universities by banks & accountancy firms like KPMG. To them we are the “risk” that has to be neutralised; to us, they should have no place on campuses or influence on curriculum
@GoldsmithsUCU
#UCUstrikes
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Not a single person who actually took part in the many pro-Palestinian marches like the one I went on in London yesterday is quoted in this
@BBCNews
report. Main source is the Met Police as if demonstrating solidarity is some sort of criminal activity
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Amazing that while this story was covered by eg
@Reuters
and
@CNN
, none of the main UK broadcast news outlets have touched it. 'Genocide' is just not a word to be used at this moment - only happens in Rwanda and Ukraine apparently...
#CeasefireNOW
❗️ UN experts say Israel’s grave violations against Palestinians “point to a genocide in the making” and illustrate “evidence of increasing genocidal incitement” and intent to “destroy the Palestinian people under occupation”. 👇
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Southend on Sea joins the international day of solidarity with Palestine
#CeasefireForGazaNOW
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When the BBC posts an article saying that the Israeli military is acting "somewhat cautiously" in Rafah & that its actions "have not resulted in a bloodbath" & when they then quietly remove the offending paragraphs, I think it's worth calling this out
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