Alex Heffron
LightNews LightNews
banner
alexheffron.bsky.social
Alex Heffron
@alexheffron.bsky.social
1.3K followers 440 following 720 posts
Father. Farmer's husband. Full time PhD researching the political economy of farming and farmland. ND. he/him. Writing: https://linktr.ee/AlexHeffron
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
alexheffron.bsky.social
Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · Oct 14
Sophia and I wrote this for the new Seeding Reparations booklet – considering anti-fascist food sovereignty by challenging white theories and histories of fascism. Click through to read the second half of the article:

seeding.org.uk/wp-content/u...
HAT DOES AN ANTIFASCIST FARMING MOVEMENT LOOK LIKE? BY SOPHIA DOYLE & ALEX HEFFRON, ROOT AND BRANCH COLLECTIVE The threat of fascism is growing in the UK and food and farming are becoming battlegrounds. What can we do? British land is seen as the natural abode of the white male farmer. 99% of land is owned (or managed) by white people1 and around 85% by men2. It is no surprise that Jeremy Clarkson is able to step in as one of the de-facto leaders of the farmers’ protests. Worryingly, he uses his newspaper columns to show sympathy for the “legitimate concerns” of the racist rioters we’ve seen across Britain in the last 12 months3. He also propagates racist conspiracies about farmers being “ethnically cleansed” and “carpet bombed” by immigrants and wind farms4. Unfortunately, these ideas are catching on. Welsh protestors in Llandudno have yellow and black signs talking about a “government genocide” of farmers and Facebook is awash with racist lies about Muslims stealing sheep. That government policy is undermining farming and that sheep rustling is a growing problem (though often by other white farmers, not Muslims) provides a hook for these racialised conspiracies but does not explain them. To understand them requires a deeper insight into the workings of race and coloniality. Groups like Land In Our Names (LION) have put the coloniality of British land on the table in recent years5. In Britain, we are taught to think about fascism in a particular way. Most schools teach it as something that mostly happened “over there” in Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, or Franco’s Spain. Perhaps we learn a tiny bit about the British Union of Fascists. We might learn that fascism was defeated and superseded by liberal democracy. A black and white story. So is the ascendancy of the far–right today merely an ugly remnant of the past returning, like the swing of a pendulum, to haunt us once again? Other perspectives on fascism provide a different picture.
alexheffron.bsky.social
New post where I push a little bit further on my previous writing on agroecology being a project of class suicide and why this means small privately-owned farms are not the vehicle of change for agroecology as too often supposed

thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/towards-an...
Towards an agroecological theory of change
Small, privately-owned farms and localised markets can never achieve agroecology, therefore the movement needs a new strategy.
thestruggleforland.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:53 AM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
devcomms.bsky.social
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
By @alexheffron.bsky.social and @tom-cb.bsky.social
buff.ly/eine9eg
November 21, 2025 at 4:05 PM
alexheffron.bsky.social
We really need to defeat these fascist pigs - cos they're coming for us
juliet-turner.bsky.social Juliet Turner @juliet-turner.bsky.social · 9d
POV: you are a young woman celebrating a recent academic success
November 18, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
alexheffron.bsky.social
Looking at the way Reform and the far right are trying to leverage rural resentments against solar farms. Given that most farmers are concerned by climate change – does this actually make Reform anti-farmer?

Enjoyed writing this with @tom-cb.bsky.social

theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
theconversation.com
November 1, 2025 at 7:42 AM
alexheffron.bsky.social
Looking at the way Reform and the far right are trying to leverage rural resentments against solar farms. Given that most farmers are concerned by climate change – does this actually make Reform anti-farmer?

Enjoyed writing this with @tom-cb.bsky.social

theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
theconversation.com
November 1, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
philfree.bsky.social
“Effective green policy must ensure that green transitions benefit those doing the work or opposition will grow.”

‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war - @alexheffron.bsky.social
theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became the latest battlefront in Britain’s culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
theconversation.com
October 31, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
tom-cb.bsky.social
My latest article, with the fantastic @alexheffron.bsky.social has just been published. Looking how Reform UK are trying to turn placement of Solar Panels on farmland in a rural culture war and wedge issue.

theconversation.com/you-cant-eat...
‘You can’t eat electricity’: how rural solar farms became Britain’s latest culture war
Reform UK is exploiting opposition to solar panels – but most farmers are more worried about climate change.
theconversation.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
mothinali.bsky.social
A memorable night ruined by a racist thug.

I was invited to speak at the EuroAsia Curry Awards on Monday night, it should have been an exciting opportunity. But on my way there, outside Earl’s Court station, I was subjected to an Islamophobic hate crime. I have now reported it to the police
October 29, 2025 at 6:51 PM
alexheffron.bsky.social
Very weak. What I hear from this is that Polanski backs European imperialism and isn't actually anti-imperialist at all. Sorry but this is basically the most important point for British anti-imperialists – at a time when the UK and Europe are engaged in genocide and constructing Fortress Europe.
implausibleblog.bsky.social Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · Oct 19
Victoria Derbyshire, "Do you want the UK to withdraw from NATO?"

Zack Polanski, "Not immediately. The world is in turmoil and we need to make sure our country is defended"

"However, we've got Donald Trump in the White House. I would say America has been a problem with imperialism"
October 20, 2025 at 7:54 PM
alexheffron.bsky.social
Just one of the many genocides the British empire conducted
workingclasshistory.com Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · Oct 20
#OtD 20 Oct 1877 this drawing was published in London depicting famine in Bangalore, India. Famine began in 1876, and while around 5.5m Indians starved to death 100,000s of tonnes of food were exported to England with almost no relief. stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9318...
October 20, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
jasonhickel.bsky.social
What we must all remember from the Gaza genocide is that the international system is rotten to its core and needs to be completely replaced.

We cannot accept a system where Western governments and leaders can commit genocide and war crimes with total impunity.
October 17, 2025 at 7:45 AM
alexheffron.bsky.social
Football fans that are actually fascist ultras who chant things like "kill all Arabs" and intimidate local Muslims and people of colour. Good chance of violent war criminals. It's not about their religion.
lilbazza.bsky.social LiLBaz @lilbazza.bsky.social · Oct 17
Those who've supported the genocide with their full chest have dug themselves into a hole & have no choice now but to keep digging. Otherwise, they'd be facing some very awkward questions that would not reflect well on them at all
John Rentou @rentouljohn.bsky.social A football ban for Jewish fans is a disgrace that shames Britain. Me for @the-independent.com www.independent.co.uk/voices/ macca... A football ban for Jewish fans is a disgrace that shames Britain Keir Starmer has to tread fine line between teling West Midlands Police how to do their job and exp... www.independent.co.uk
October 17, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
unraveledpress.com
If anyone's wondering how this is possible, the answer is these strike teams are moving terrifyingly fast. Grab first, ask questions later. We were about 8-15 minutes behind them today for several hours. They're jumping out of vans, chasing people across lawns, taking them from bus stops, etc
maureenf.bsky.social maureen @maureenf.bsky.social · Oct 17
30 people disappeared in this shaded area today.
October 17, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
premnsikka.bsky.social
UK energy standing charge plan could backfire.

Exorbitant standing charges hurt low users.

Regulator plans a new tariff - low standing charge & higher cost of each unit.

That won't do. Energy companies made £514bn operating profit since 2020.

Better to end profiteering, nationalize energy.
Energy standing charge plans could backfire, MPs told
Bosses of the UK's biggest energy suppliers were quizzed by MPs about support for their customers as prices rise.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 16, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
zackpolanski.bsky.social
British.
October 16, 2025 at 5:03 PM
alexheffron.bsky.social
Very good article this. Need to reflect on it more but there are def some interesting parallels to the Reform strategy of using anti-solar panel sentiment as a wedge issue amongst farmers to push back on renewables. (as @tom-cb.bsky.social and I have just pitched as an article to The Conversation!)
lslothuus.bsky.social Lukas Slothuus @lslothuus.bsky.social · Oct 16
My article in @the-breakdown.bsky.social is now free to read online!

While far-right parties have traditionally ignored climate, I explore how the Sweden Democrats embrace it as a wedge issue, creating redistributive conflicts around class & urban-rural divides:

www.break-down.org/petrol-for-t...
Petrol For the People
Sweden’s far right defines its vision of climate action.
www.break-down.org
October 16, 2025 at 2:10 PM
alexheffron.bsky.social
If you're attending #POLLEN26 then check out our panel below
alexheffron.bsky.social Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · Oct 15
Call for papers for POLLEN26: Returning to the Agrarian Question in the North

Any questions get in touch!
P090 Propose Returning to The Agrarian Question in the North Convenors: Donatella Gasparro (Scuola Normale Superiore) Alex Heffron (Lancaster University) Format: Panel Returning to The Agrarian Question in the North. Panel P090 at conference Pollen2026: Diverse Origins, Multiple Futures: The Stories of Political Ecology. https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/pollen2026/p/17527 show panel on own page Open an email with this panel link Share this panel Format/structure Open panel. 10-15 minutes presentations plus ample time for discussion among panelists and with the audience. Description The agrarian question, in its plural articulations and reinterpretations, has been central to both critical agrarian studies and political ecology; yet, its contemporary understandings, analytics, and geographies tend to treat it as an almost Global South-exclusive problematique. As Global North scholars, activists and farmers, working on land, peasantries, agrarian economies and rural futures, we aim to contribute to the conversation that seeks to ‘reopen’ the agrarian question in the North, with a focus on European countrysides, but in radical alliance with majority world Indigenous, peasant and land struggles. The intent is twofold: on the one hand, bringing back into the conversation European ruralities and agrarian economies, their crises, their politics and their potential for socio-ecological transformation; on the other, rethinking agricultural (re)production, dependencies, (agro)ecologies, and labour in the North in radical alliance with delinking, liberation, self- We are interested in proposals that explore the agrarian question in Europe, starting from (yet not limited to) themes such as: - Northern agrarian metabolisms and their colonial patterns: migrant labour, core-periphery relations (also with internal peripheries); dependencies in the agri-food system; global value, labour and care chains; - Reclaiming rural Europe from the Right: reactionary politics versus ecosocialist potentials; - Why are people “still” farming? Desire, affect, and the “peasant principle”; - (Migrant) worker solidarity in the agri-food system; - Property and its transformations; - The “agrarian question of climate change” (as termed by Paprocki & McCarthy); green transitions and their impacts on agrarian communities; - Political agroecology, socio-ecological reproduction and food sovereignty for the North, beyond localisms.
October 16, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
thesinankose.bsky.social
Say it with me everyone: "Why won't Labour get out of the race!? They're enabling Reform!"
a-b-evans.bsky.social Dr Adam Evans @a-b-evans.bsky.social · Oct 16
A… remarkable @survation.bsky.social poll out today of voting intentions in Caerphilly ahead of next week’s Senedd by-election

Reform 42%
Plaid 38%
Labour 12%
Conservatives 4%
Greens 3%
LibDem 1%
#senedd #devolution
October 16, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
drjennings.bsky.social
It's important to remember that despite Reform leading in the polls that Nigel Farage is not popular - and this hasn't changed since the general election.
yougov.co.uk YouGov @yougov.co.uk · Oct 16
Nigel Farage favourability rating (13-14 October 2025)

Favourable: 30% (no change from 10-11 Sept)
Unfavourable: 63% (+2)
Net: -33 (-2)

yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
October 16, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
doctorvive.bsky.social
The thing about solar geoengineering is that once you start you cannot stop *ever* unless somehow you have already removed all the multi-billions of tons of carbon emitted since the day you started.

If you stop at the higher CO2 concentration you get virtually instantaneous catastrophic heating.
thierryaaron.bsky.social Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · Oct 15
"If geoengineering works well initially & you see this temperature drop, the tempempation to keep going & extracting fossil fuels will be greater than ever, because it will seem that you have a technologically that can cut off the link between temperature rises & fossil fuel combustion."
Overshoot & Climate Breakdown - Wim Carton & Andreas Malm | #39
YouTube video by Jesse Damiani
youtu.be
October 15, 2025 at 11:30 AM
alexheffron.bsky.social
Polanski was excellent here I thought. Angry bigots like Malone want to make out they're the majority – they're not. They're a (often very wealthy) minority.
implausibleblog.bsky.social Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · Oct 15
Carole Malone, "Youu can't say what women's rights are because you're not a woman"

Zack Polanski, "You're not trans are you. We can all say you're not that thing so you can't have an opinion" 🔥

"You can still have an opinion from listening to people"
October 15, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
reacpolrn.bsky.social
📣New Interview📣

'Neoliberal ideology builds the structure, the structure rewards domination, and from that, both misogyny and microfascism take root.'

@imrobwalker.bsky.social and Kay Sidebottom discuss neoliberalism, microfascism, and misogyny in classroom settings.

reacpol.net/misogyny-fas...
Interview: If you tolerate mis(ogyny), then fascisms will be next (Rob Walker) - Reactionary Politics Research Network
This interview is based on Rob Walker and Kay Sidebottom's article 'If you tolerate mis(ogyny), then fascisms will be next: rewriting the classroom script through affirmative ethics' (2025)
reacpol.net
October 15, 2025 at 1:51 PM
alexheffron.bsky.social
Call for papers for POLLEN26: Returning to the Agrarian Question in the North

Any questions get in touch!
P090 Propose Returning to The Agrarian Question in the North Convenors: Donatella Gasparro (Scuola Normale Superiore) Alex Heffron (Lancaster University) Format: Panel Returning to The Agrarian Question in the North. Panel P090 at conference Pollen2026: Diverse Origins, Multiple Futures: The Stories of Political Ecology. https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/pollen2026/p/17527 show panel on own page Open an email with this panel link Share this panel Format/structure Open panel. 10-15 minutes presentations plus ample time for discussion among panelists and with the audience. Description The agrarian question, in its plural articulations and reinterpretations, has been central to both critical agrarian studies and political ecology; yet, its contemporary understandings, analytics, and geographies tend to treat it as an almost Global South-exclusive problematique. As Global North scholars, activists and farmers, working on land, peasantries, agrarian economies and rural futures, we aim to contribute to the conversation that seeks to ‘reopen’ the agrarian question in the North, with a focus on European countrysides, but in radical alliance with majority world Indigenous, peasant and land struggles. The intent is twofold: on the one hand, bringing back into the conversation European ruralities and agrarian economies, their crises, their politics and their potential for socio-ecological transformation; on the other, rethinking agricultural (re)production, dependencies, (agro)ecologies, and labour in the North in radical alliance with delinking, liberation, self- We are interested in proposals that explore the agrarian question in Europe, starting from (yet not limited to) themes such as: - Northern agrarian metabolisms and their colonial patterns: migrant labour, core-periphery relations (also with internal peripheries); dependencies in the agri-food system; global value, labour and care chains; - Reclaiming rural Europe from the Right: reactionary politics versus ecosocialist potentials; - Why are people “still” farming? Desire, affect, and the “peasant principle”; - (Migrant) worker solidarity in the agri-food system; - Property and its transformations; - The “agrarian question of climate change” (as termed by Paprocki & McCarthy); green transitions and their impacts on agrarian communities; - Political agroecology, socio-ecological reproduction and food sovereignty for the North, beyond localisms.
October 15, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
ckweatherill.bsky.social
Submissions invited for #POLLEN2026 for the panel: Colonial histories and climate futures: critical perspectives on vulnerability.

We are particularly interested in papers that draw together themes of climate-induced im/mobilities & vulnerabilisation.

nomadit.co.uk/conference/p...
Description This panel brings together theoretical approaches and case studies at the intersection of climate change, human (im)mobility and vulnerability. We aim to critically discuss how colonial and neocolonial systems contribute to geographic, economic, and social inequalities in the context of increasing climate change impacts, thereby making a contribution to both climate justice and political ecology debates. We invite papers which critically examine dominant discourses that ascribe vulnerability to so-called “at-risk” populations and explore alternative epistemologies of survival, resistance and political agency. We are particularly interested in papers that draw together two themes: Climate-induced (im)mobilities, and vulnerabilisation.
October 15, 2025 at 7:17 AM
Reposted by Alex Heffron
babystar.bsky.social
When I think of A.I. I think of asbestos. To begin with everyone thought Asbestos was amazing, folk used it in everything. Then they started learning it was dangerous, research was done, they stopped using it, thou for some the damage was already done. Stop using A.I and limit the damage it's doing.
October 14, 2025 at 9:49 AM