John Munro
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johnmunro.bsky.social
John Munro
@johnmunro.bsky.social
Pedestrian Historian.
Imperialism Syllabus: http://tinyurl.com/ev4psh98
The Anticolonial Front: http://tinyurl.com/33d3exca.
Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/ykp7r5a9.
Pinned
In 2017 I started taking photos of books I've been reading: to keep a kind of record for myself and to celebrate books, authors, ideas, and pedestrian interaction with one's surroundings.
Reposted by John Munro
Garbage truck slows down important man forcing him to drive over the bike lane and onto sidewalk to get around. Some suggest removing garbage service.
January 19, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by John Munro
A brilliant analysis of how sanctions have transformed the Iranian government into a Chicago School regime of austerity that benefits those attached to the regime, creates precarious labour, and rolls back all the redistributive and social measures of the past:

www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
January 19, 2026 at 11:21 AM
Can only guess how many covered car parks there must be in this area, in which a floor or two could be converted into a positive use such as this one.
Gateshead Council dragging its feet in replacing the lost Five Bridges skatepark, under the doomed flyover. It’s the only local skatepark that’s covered, especially important in the winter, and unique “in terms of the layout, the features, the size and the accessibility”.
Gateshead flyover skateboarders 'let down' by council over park move
Locals say not enough has been done following the closure of the site beneath the Gateshead flyover.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 19, 2026 at 10:55 AM
A perfect read for #MLKDay2026
On bicycles and civil rights. Something I wrote a few years back.

Re-thinking Black (Im)mobility - AAIHS share.google/P5JmJUkqkEOd...
January 19, 2026 at 8:07 AM
Everyone should read this.
When Trump says "one way or another we're going to have Greenland" - we should sit up and listen.

Time for British leaders to stop burying their heads in the sand.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
Trump's threat to Greenland must be a wake up call for Britain
For too long our politicians have toadied to a dangerous president
www.newstatesman.com
January 19, 2026 at 7:57 AM
But then again, we can't say they didn't warn us....
January 19, 2026 at 7:26 AM
I have passed through the area outside of Dunkirk where asylum seekers sleep, and seen how vulnerable they are.

No surprise it has become a target for the Faragist fascists.
When “Operation Raise the Colours” started attaching flags to lampposts, you couldn’t analyse it in the media without the reply, “it’s just people innocently expressing national pride”. Now the same people are travelling to France to intimidate refugees.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
‘They’re emboldened’: British far-right activists step up harassment of asylum seekers in northern France
Aid groups say rise of far-right rhetoric in politics has fed into intimidation, vandalism and hate graffiti around migrant camps
www.theguardian.com
January 19, 2026 at 7:13 AM
Reposted by John Munro
Yes, and that's true for public spaces all the way from great remote parks to small city streets.
bsky.app/profile/john...
January 19, 2026 at 5:01 AM
The Lower Thames Crossing for Car Owners, and what it will cost, is a useful context in which to think about Labour's taxpayer-funded vandalism of the Queensbury Tunnel.
Protest held against decision to fill in Queensbury Tunnel
About 150 people gathered at Queensbury Tunnel near Bradford to protest a decision to fill it in.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 19, 2026 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by John Munro
There is no ceasefire, just less bombing than before
Israeli attacks wound civilians across Gaza in latest ceasefire violations https://aje.news/hyccgh
January 18, 2026 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by John Munro
What a relief it must be for communities under these flags to have their local representatives stand up to the Faragist fascists.
Good - time for other councils to do this too
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
January 18, 2026 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by John Munro
No one better suited to serve on this board than Sir Tony Blair.
Blair and Rubio among names on Gaza 'Board of Peace'
The former UK prime minister and US secretary of state will sit on the
www.bbc.co.uk
January 17, 2026 at 7:39 AM
Reposted by John Munro
@historians.org leadership’s refusal to let its own membership vote on a resolution on academic freedom is an anti-democratic act of moral and political cowardice. The organization can’t credibly oppose Trump’s assaults on academic freedom while repressing the freedom of its own members.
Leaders of Historians’ Group Veto Resolutions Critical of Israel
www.nytimes.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by John Munro
You know, many of us said the post 9/11 War on Terror measures were Orwellian bullshit at the time, from DHS to ICE. The Patriot Act was chilling as well.

Some of us objected vociferously. Perhaps we didn't have the mics or the power, but we remember 2001-2005 as a terrible time in this country.
January 18, 2026 at 5:31 PM
What a relief it must be for communities under these flags to have their local representatives stand up to the Faragist fascists.
January 18, 2026 at 6:11 PM
Property / Democracy
Before / After
January 18, 2026 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by John Munro
Corey Booker announcing his legislation to make ICE wear body cameras a week after the entire Republican Party excused an ICE officer murdering somebody by showing the video the officer took with his own cell phone of him murdering them is a testament to how stupid Democrats think all of us are.
January 18, 2026 at 5:04 AM
Reposted by John Munro
Just finished this right after having read @hofrench.bsky.social's Second Emancipation, and it convinced me that the African & African diaspora anti-colonial thinkers of the 1940-1975 period constituted one of the great intellectual movements in the history of humankind.

Second Enlightenment level.
We think of the postwar world order as having been built by the US. But as Getachew makes clear, that world order was completed by the intellectual giants of the African, pan-African and African diaspora liberation movements.

It is no coincidence Trump & Miller are targeting its fundamental tenet.
January 18, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by John Munro
As a resident of Birmingham, I would like to thank @rachelshabi.bsky.social for writing this balanced and clarifying piece about Birmingham's Macabi Tel Aviv fiasco.
Maccabi Tel Aviv - again
In which our politicians sided with football hooligans and against police chiefs
rachelshabi.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 7:19 AM
Reposted by John Munro
If we remove the public storage of private vehicles we could have cycle lanes on every road
January 18, 2026 at 7:51 AM
Time with the Big Ride for Palestine is always time well spent.
January 17, 2026 at 8:11 PM
Useful to compare this to Labour's flagshop transport proposal - the Lower Thames Crossing - while asking yourself: Who will benefit, in what parts of the country, and at what environmental cost?
Free bus travel for under 22s is just one step to help support those areas devastated by years of austerity.

KMPG analysis shows that for every £1 invested in bus services, we get an economic benefit ranging from £4.55 to £5.

news.sky.com/story/green-...
Green Party calls for free bus travel in England for under-22s
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said young people had been shut out of work and training because of the cost of living, promising that Green councillors would push for the change if elected in May.
news.sky.com
January 17, 2026 at 7:54 PM
Watch but do listen.

Smart commentary about London, but relevant far beyond….
Crossed Hammersmith bridge on my bike earlier & honestly only sociopaths who live nowhere near here would think it’s a good idea to bring 25k cars back over this bridge every day

Sound on for a rant about the Putney politicians demanding exactly this based on convenient lies & political cowardice
January 17, 2026 at 7:22 PM
No one better suited to serve on this board than Sir Tony Blair.
Blair and Rubio among names on Gaza 'Board of Peace'
The former UK prime minister and US secretary of state will sit on the
www.bbc.co.uk
January 17, 2026 at 7:39 AM
Takes literally 2 seconds. Do this.
You have to block them immediately. The full nuclear. They are only here to make folks angry, and that can’t happen if we lock them out.
January 17, 2026 at 7:23 AM