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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 6h

The Today programme treated the Green Party like a terrorist group and the CEO of J.P. Morgan like an oracle. Who needs a billionaire media owner with the Today journalists in charge. @bbc

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Reposted by Charlie Masquelier

Barry Eidlin @eidlin.bsky.social · 20h

Today's Marxist Sociology Blog post is a banger from @lwestheuser.bsky.social & Linda Beck based on their Critical Sociology article. It examines how workers think about class & class politics. Against ideas that they are irrelevant or "lost to the right" 1/
marxistsociology.org/2025/10/work...

Workers’ Political Consciousness in Demobilized Class Societies: Redistribution, Recognition and Representation | Section on Marxist Sociology

A sole focus on right-wing ideology captures only a narrow part of working-class consciousness. Most workers—including many right-wing voters—are politically demobilized and distant from all politics,...

marxistsociology.org

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 1d

As the Tory leader prepares herself to defend massive welfare cuts, I thought I'd share this great book, which dispels the myths on which those cuts rest.

The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy share.google/JjMvlVGbGnEL...

Google Search

share.google

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 1d

'The very act of oppressing others has changed us as a people. Our boots may be on their necks, but those same boots also shackle our feet.'

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

When you first heard me speak against this genocide, you heard my words as betrayal. But they were meant as love | Sarah Schwartz

Not speaking would go against everything I was taught to honour: the righteous among the nations – those who refused to be bystanders to injustice

www.theguardian.com

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 1d

With Labour and the Tories doing all the hard work for him, Farage can just sit back and enjoy the ride that will lead him to victory.

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 2d

Wow. Robert Jenrick doubles down by branding a black journalist's questions "ridiculous" and saying that the problem is not his comments, but "journalists like you who pop up and try to knock me down", adding that "this is the reason why terrorist attacks happen". ~AA

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 3d

Labour is cooked, so cooked.

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 4d

Labour MPs who voted against welfare cuts concerned over the govt plans to change the assessment for universal credit disability benefits.

Could trigger another mass rebellion.

Why no focus on corporate welfare - bailouts, £895bn QE, subsidies, tax abuses, no end to profiteering.

Labour faces another mass rebellion over reforms to universal credit

Welfare secretary Pat McFadden plans further reforms to the benefits system, expected to include abolishing the work capability assessment.

www.bigissue.com

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Reposted by Charlie Masquelier

The American Prospect @prospect.org · 3d

A proposed 2% wealth tax in France would affect 1800 people, and bring in $20 billion a year. It’s overwhelmingly popular, but it seems that Macron would rather let the far-right take power than tax the super-rich. From Robert Kuttner: trib.al/Snv1jbR

Taxing the Rich and the Survival of Emmanuel Macron

Today on TAP: A crucial political meeting in Paris today will force a choice between a popular wealth tax and a deepening political crisis.

trib.al

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Reposted by Charlie Masquelier

Zeteo @zeteo.com · Jul 2

This is the film they didn't want you to see, the film that the BBC refused to air.

Watch 'Gaza: Doctors Under Attack' NOW at gazadoctors.film.

Make sure to subscribe to Zeteo to watch this documentary and support our journalism.
zeteo.com/subscribe

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 4d

@economist.com

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 4d

The Economist claims wealth taxes don't work mainly because the rich end up fleeing. I invite the magazine to read rigorous academic research like Cristobal Young's book or Sam Friedman et al.'s work on this issue instead of spilling out ideological nonsense share.google/pV3cOUrhnDMd...

Don’t tax wealth

Even the most sophisticated arguments in favour of doing so make no sense

share.google

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 6d

Absolutely!

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 6d

Trump and his team know what they're doing. Well, they know at least as much as the orthodox macroeconomist. They just choose to play the game differently. There is little that is rational about the financial capitalism game though. They are as 'stupid' as the rest of them.

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 6d

He does. I was hoping Davies would also draw on V's analysis of the purpose of Trump's tariffs. It would be difficult to reconcile it with his argument though.

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 6d

I struggle to see what is useful about this analysis by Davies. Yes, Trump is as thick as granite, but there is a team of not-so-clueless advisers behind the scenes. I'd opt for barbarism over an 'outsourcing of judgement.' Varoufakis makes a more compelling case in my view: youtu.be/f1CdbCsetpw?...

Trump’s tariff chaos explained | Yanis Varoufakis

YouTube video by Times Radio

youtu.be

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 7d

Some Substack thoughts on what Labour should do (well if it's not already too late).

open.substack.com/pub/charlesm...

What Labour must now do

Reclaiming the justice narrative

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Charlie Masquelier

RENEWBiodiversity.bsky.social @renewbiodiversity.bsky.social · 7d

We’re celebrating #NationalPoetryDay by exploring the rhythmic world beneath & above the water.

‘Pond Beats’ worked with school children to create #biodiverse soundscapes intertwined with the potent imagination of this new generation of #eco-poetry makers...

…What happened next... 👇👇👇

A photograph of a pond taken in water with views above and below the waterline.

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 7d

Farage must be delighted to have an opponent so clueless that his every move is to make a Reform victory more certain. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights

People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’

www.theguardian.com

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 7d

Ranking systems are meaningless and are yet massively influential. They must be rejected. theconversation.com/university-r...

University ranking systems are being rejected. African institutions should take note

The ranking industry is targeting universities in Africa, which are seen as offering a new market.

theconversation.com

Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 8d

Starmer: if you think it's enough to defend your record and tell Britons to be proud and wave their flag amid a never-ending cost of living crisis, think again. You had a chance to be bold and finally explain what kind of world this hoped-for economic growth could help build. But you blew it.

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 10d

Reeves' speech is proof she won't change course. She chose to defend a vision-less set of measures that do little more than tinkering at the edges. To succeed Labour needs to accept that there is such a thing as good debt and that existing inequalities are a major barrier to reducing living costs.

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 11d

Yes, universities are important for growth and innovation. But their single-most important (and most relevant) contribution must surely be the fact that they are essential for healthy democratic societies. I rarely hear UK political and university leaders make this case though.

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · 19d

@departmentforedu.bsky.social Please find a way to address the HE crisis? Russel Group unis are decimating the quality of teaching. They're telling their staff (myself included) fees can't pay for the same quality of education as they used to. I can't overstate the urgency of the issue.

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Reposted by Charlie Masquelier

Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte @turnbulldugarte.com · Sep 5

Radical right accommodation really does not work.

New paper out with this exceptionally talented team
@katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk

doi.org/10.31235/osf...

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Reposted by Charlie Masquelier

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · Aug 31

Look at this graph.

The share of national income going to the richest 10 percent was lowest (and share to lower 90 percent highest) when union membership was at its highest. As unions have weakened, inequality has widened.

This is why we must build back union power.

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Charlie Masquelier @charlesmasquelier.bsky.social · Aug 22

Sure sure and social democracy after WWII was a pure product of my imagination.

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