Josh Alston
@joshalston.bsky.social
450 followers 240 following 48 posts
Historian of Jews in South Africa. Penguin enthusiast. Unenthusiastic about neoliberalism. Green Party England and Wales.
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joshalston.bsky.social
I wrote this initially about a week before conference. At that time Green Party membership was 72,000. I am now hearing that it's 92000.
joshalston.bsky.social
Delighted to give @radixuk.bsky.social a preview of some of the big issues that we're going to be thinking about at Green Party conference today.
radixuk.bsky.social
🌱 The Green Party has new leaders, 12,000 new members, and a strategy of eco-populism. As they kick off their conference, @joshalston.bsky.social explores the question - can the Green Party turn momentum into seats?

Read more 👇
www.radixbigtent.org.uk//news-commen...
Reposted by Josh Alston
nellh.bsky.social
This is my neck of the woods. There’s now a gofundme to raise money for the mosque in Peacehaven

I just chucked a fiver their way. Maybe others can do the same? gofund.me/4a015baea
joshalston.bsky.social
This @zackpolanski.bsky.social guy sounds terrible. I've heard people want to hear what he's got to say
Screenshot of a telegraph article with the headline 'courageous political leadership means telling people what they don't want to hear' and a picture of Zack.
joshalston.bsky.social
Delighted to give @radixuk.bsky.social a preview of some of the big issues that we're going to be thinking about at Green Party conference today.
radixuk.bsky.social
🌱 The Green Party has new leaders, 12,000 new members, and a strategy of eco-populism. As they kick off their conference, @joshalston.bsky.social explores the question - can the Green Party turn momentum into seats?

Read more 👇
www.radixbigtent.org.uk//news-commen...
From fringe to force?
www.radixbigtent.org.uk
Reposted by Josh Alston
earlymodernjohn.bsky.social
Great news about Dr Atkinson's excellent thesis — now available to read open access!
julietatkinson.bsky.social
Happy to say that my recently completed PhD thesis 'Identification Documents and the Governance of Mobilities in,through and beyond Seventeenth-Century London' is now available to download online open-access if anyone ever fancies having a read etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/37...
The abstract of my thesis
Reposted by Josh Alston
naamoduk.bsky.social
Our government must place real material pressure on Israel:
joshalston.bsky.social
Delighted to see that @martinabrams.bsky.social has joined the Greens. We're clearly now the natural political home of the Jewish left!
joshalston.bsky.social
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/univers...

I am someone who teaches colonial history and the history of race and have an explicitly left wing perspective on this. Even if I wanted to be - I am not indoctrinating my students. They are already leftists because of society outside of the classroom
Universities ‘poisoning student minds’, says Farage
Populist leader takes aim at higher education in speech on first day of the Reform UK conference in Birmingham
www.timeshighereducation.com
Reposted by Josh Alston
rosierawle.bsky.social
Huge thanks to everyone who voted for me in the @greenparty.org.uk Executive elections!

Thrilled to carry out another term in the role of Local Party Support Coordinator. It's time to build a movement to stop Farage! ✊
Text reads thank you. Image is screen grab of rosie as winner on party website
joshalston.bsky.social
Also commiserations to the children of pushy Jewish parents, the real losers of the leadership election. We see you. You ARE enough. You DON'T need to became leader of the Green Party like that nice Polanski boy, whatever your parents say. Focus on becoming a doctor/lawyer/rabbi instead.
joshalston.bsky.social
Proud to have been elected to the Green Party's policy development committee. We need to keep progressive, radical policies which meet the challenges of modern Britain! Can't wait to get started!
joshalston.bsky.social
Voting in the Green Party leadership election closes at midday tomorrow. Make sure you vote all the way down the ballot - its not just the big glamourous positions like leader, deputy leader and policy development committee that matter!
Reposted by Josh Alston
ianhunt.bsky.social
So there's under 24 hours left in the GPEW elections and I am in almost giddy mood as I get to my last vote, for the five Policy Development Committee positions, for which there are ten candidates -- dominated by men, alas. I will be voting for Fer'ha Syed & Josh Alston & not sure who else. #GPEW
joshalston.bsky.social
I wrote about Green Party policy - and how it could be better bright-green.org/2025/08/15/f...
Reposted by Josh Alston
timkiely1.bsky.social
🗳️ right, back to voting in @greenparty.org.uk internal elections, and we’re on the Policy Development Committee!

With 5 vacancies, my top votes go to:
✅ Fer’ha Syed;
@joshalston.bsky.social;
✅ Francesco Piscitelli;
✅ Matthew Spoors; and
@rayharding.bsky.social

👍 keep voting folks!
Reposted by Josh Alston
jewishcurrents.bsky.social
A new wave of liberal Zionist criticism of the Israeli government rings hollow without accountability for the genocide,
@simonerzim.bsky.social writes. In this piece, she explores what real teshuva would look like within the Jewish world.
Rhetoric Without Reckoning
A new wave of liberal Zionist criticism of the Israeli government rings hollow without accountability for the genocide.
jewishcurrents.org
Reposted by Josh Alston
sundersays.bsky.social
Five of Reform's Kent Councillors took a group photograph at a Maidstone protest including this man who attended draped in the flag of the neo-fascist British Movement
www.kentcurrent.news/p/kent-refor...
joshalston.bsky.social
This is what makes the Green Party's approach different - the question isn't adoption vs. opposition - but thinking about what resources the party might need to make good decisions on the subject.
Reposted by Josh Alston
ruthibrandt.bsky.social
Updated figures - 400,000 were on Tel Aviv this evening and I hear that the police estimates that across the country 2.5 million Israelis protested throughout the day.

That's a lot (Israel has just over 10 million citizens. So a quarter of the citizenry was demonstrating today??)
ruthibrandt.bsky.social
Tens of thousands are currently marching in Tel-Aviv demanding that the gov prioritises the return of the hostages (ie - end the war). This is after a day* of protests all across the country as well as many places of business staying shut (seems to be mostly leisure - restaurants and cultural inst)
joshalston.bsky.social
Even if Adrian and Ellie didn't know beforehand: Who cares?
joshalston.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Really confused about the 'no-one knew he was planning this' line. Everybody kind of did? You don't actually have to be nostradamus to work out that the incredibly popular deputy leader of a political party might stand for leader.
Zack Polanski pulling away in race to be party leader, senior Greens believe
Exclusive: Growing sense that ‘eco-populist’ could win after mounting what one opponent called a ‘hostile takeover’
www.theguardian.com
joshalston.bsky.social
I fully agree and frankly it shocks me that the other candidates are being transparent about this vital political issue
Reposted by Josh Alston
ruthibrandt.bsky.social
This is a really good piece about writing good policy in the Green Party. And Josh states clearly how he would help people do that if he were on the Policy Development Committee.

Happily, he's standing for one of the places on the PDC, so make sure you vote for him!
joshalston.bsky.social
I wrote about Green Party policy - and how it could be better bright-green.org/2025/08/15/f...