Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann

@benwwk.bsky.social

260 followers 450 following 52 posts

Lecturer in Art History; Doctor of London's murals & 'the Left', 1975-86; Socialist; Trade unionist; Free Palestine 🇵🇸 https://profiles.open.ac.uk/ben-wiedel-kaufmann

profiles.open.ac.uk

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Mar 14

Delighted the Special Issue of Art & the Public Sphere I’ve co-edited with Warren Carter is out. 100 years since Siqueiros' ‘Manifesto of the syndicate of technical workers, painters & sculptors’ the issue explores the interrelationship between mural painting & leftist politics🧵👇

1 2 6

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · 9d

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural!
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · 13d

For details of the wider festivities see:

www.lovehackney.uk/hackney-peac...

Hackney Peace Mural - 40th anniversary event — Love Hackney

Hackney Peace Mural - 40th anniversary event - Sunday 28 September 2025

www.lovehackney.uk

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · 13d

Really looking forward to being part of this panel on Sunday discussing the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural. Part of a wider celebration to mark the mural's 40th Anniversary. Should be great!

Free tickets to panel discussion:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...

The Hackney Peace Carnival Mural Unwrapped - Panel Discussion & exhibition

Eventbrite - Hackney Archives presents The Hackney Peace Carnival Mural Unwrapped - Panel Discussion & exhibition - Sunday, 28 September 2025 at Hackney Archives, London, England. Find event and ticke...

www.eventbrite.co.uk

1 3

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · 23d

‘The lack of urgency on all manner of organising questions has been excruciating, and if there doesn’t issue from this a new debate, a new coalition, a new strategy, and a new set of tactics — then we deserve what we get’.

Good (/bleak) by @leninology.bsky.social

www.patreon.com/posts/138879...

I heard you want your country back | Richard Seymour

www.patreon.com

4 3

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · 27d

Really looking forward to being a part of the celebrations for the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural's 40th anniversary.

Book your free tickets now 👇

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...

The Hackney Peace Carnival Mural Unwrapped - Talk and Panel Discussion

Join us for an talk and panel discussion with Dr Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann, Laurie Elks, CND Vice President Kate Hudson and Muralist Paul Butler.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann

Mike Liu @9mac2.bsky.social · Aug 30

"Steelworker" (Clifford Wight, 1934) // Coit Tower // Telegraph Hill // San Francisco, Calif.

This is the first union job I've had so I needed to share this mural today; it was linked to its neighbor with a banner that read "Workers of the World Unite" until it was painted over by censorious jerks

Clifford Wight painted several murals in Coit Tower; this one, measuring approximately 4 feet by 10, shows a full-length portrait of a steelworker, who is wearing heavy gloves, bib overalls, and a light tan sweater over a collared shirt. On a leather belt slung at a jaunty angle across his waist, there are two large open-ended wrenches. His right hand is grasping a hose or cable, while the left is holding a rivet gun. Under a steel hard hat, the expression is somewhat grim, with deep lines etched connecting nose to chin.

1 3

Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann

Aleianjack @aleianjack.bsky.social · Aug 30

The Painted Empire: Mural Messages Across Central Mexico
open.substack.com/pub/rogueart...

The Painted Empire: Mural Messages Across Central Mexico

Mesoamerican Murals Part 2

open.substack.com

2 4

Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · Aug 16

#OtD 16 Aug 1842 during a Chartist general strike for universal male suffrage, troops fired on a march in Stoke-on-Trent, killing 19-year-old shoemaker Josiah Heapy and injuring others. 146 were jailed and 54 transported to Australia stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8756...

26 65

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Aug 15

Lovely research day with murals old and imminent.

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Aug 4

The wonderful Hackney Peace Carnival Mural turns 40 this year. I’m very pleased to be speaking as part of the celebrations on 28th September. You can donate and follow the evolving schedule at:

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...

1 2

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jul 24

Party On!
🎉🪅🥳🪩

www.yourparty.uk

Your Party

We're building a new kind of political party - one that belongs to you. Sign up here...

www.yourparty.uk

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jul 23

Thanks for sharing - great report. Scary times.

1 1

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jul 22

Remembering Jean Charles de Menezes - executed 20 years ago today with impunity by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable police force let loose by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable political executive. 20 years on, plus ca change: no justice, no peace morningstaronline.co.uk/article/twen...

1 3

Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · Jul 21

#OtD 21 Jul 1972 women shoemakers in Fakenham, Norfolk, England, who had been occupying their factory against redundancy, launched a workers' cooperative in a new plant stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9389...

17 81

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jul 21

Calling @ucu.org.uk colleagues:

👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action

More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jul 17

Chilling if widely predicted application of counter-terror frameworks post-proscription.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Armed police threatened to arrest Kent protester for holding Palestinian flag

Officers accused Laura Murton who also had a sign saying ‘Free Gaza’ of supporting a proscribed organisation

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann

DK Renton @davidkr.bsky.social · Jul 4

"Eleanor Marx could have been the route through which many further ideas had come; should have been our Zetkin, our Luxemburg..."

davidrenton590934.substack.com/p/edward-ave...

TW: sexual violence, murder, the Marx family

Edward Aveling –

The venom at the heart of the first socialists

davidrenton590934.substack.com

1 2

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jul 3

If ever you doubt the abject, craven self-interest of most parliamentary representatives look no further than last night. In effect all bar 22 MPs (inc tellers/ excl Lib Dems) voted to proscribe as terrorists a non-violent direct action group opposing a live-streamed genocide.

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jul 1

Some highlights from the National Museum of Wales:

Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jun 28

To Kill a War Machine - well worth a watch
tokillawarmachine.com

1 1

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jun 27

‘We…condemn the UK Government’s plans to proscribe Palestine Action…& consider this constitutes a significant threat to freedom of expression & civil liberties…’

Over 750 academics launch open letter condemning moves to ban @palaction.bsky.social

Read & sign:
ucw4palestine.org/2025/06/27/d...

https://ucw4palestine.org/2025/06/27/defend-the-right-to-protest-no-ban-on-palestine-action-open-letter/

t.co

2 4

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · Jun 19

I will miss passing the overspilling bikes. I never knew about the films - what a fascinating life. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...

Clovis Salmon, regarded as first black UK documentary film-maker, dies at 98

Known as Sam the Wheels, he filmed aspects of community life in south London, including 1981’s Brixton riot

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann

Marxism in Culture @marxisminculture.bsky.social · Jun 4

Join us for our final seminar of the academic year:

Dubravka Sekulić (‪@dubravka.bsky.social‬)
'On Yugoslav Construction Industry, Non-alignment, and Architecture'

Friday 20 June, 5:30–7:30 pm

‪@ucl-ias.bsky.social‬ Common Ground, G11, South Wing, UCL, WC1E 6BT

www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

On Yugoslav Construction Industry, Non-alignment, and Architecture

We welcome you to this Marxism in Culture seminar with Dubravka Sekulić, who will discuss the Non-aligned Movement in Belgrade, focussing on the Energoprojekt and the central role the architecture dep...

www.ucl.ac.uk

1 2 8

Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann @benwwk.bsky.social · May 20

Saddened to learn of the death of Ernest Rodker. It was a joy to learn a bit of Rodker's life and politics through his influence on his friend & comrade Brian Barnes and some of their shared endeavours. Here he is clearing a park in front of Brian's first mural and in a quote from EP Thompson

1 2

Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann

Marxism in Culture @marxisminculture.bsky.social · May 19

Join us for our first seminar of the Summer:

'Music and Revolution in the Age of Disco', with David Grundy

Friday 23 May, 2025, 5.30pm

@ucl-ias.bsky.social‬ IAS Forum, G17, ground floor, South Wing, UCL, Gower St, London, WC1E 6BT

Free. All welcome. Details: www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...

Music and Revolution in the Age of Disco

We welcome you to this Marxism in Culture seminar with David Grundy, who will show how Amiri Baraka’s music and ideas might be useful for an idea of what popular music is, how it can be used, and how ...

www.ucl.ac.uk

2 4