Rob Hawkes
@robbhawkes.bsky.social
2.6K followers 3.5K following 250 posts
Money happens; @moneyontheleft.bsky.social editorial collective; Past Chair @modernistudies.bsky.social; credit @wherecreditsdue.bsky.social; researching literature, money, and trust; he/him; https://linktr.ee/robhawkesMotL
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robbhawkes.bsky.social
“Unless we are open to new approaches to university finance, we will remain trapped by the austere logics that are destroying our cherished institutions.

Unless we are willing to act imaginatively and fearlessly to save our universities now, we will soon find that there is nothing left to save.”
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
hagenilda.bsky.social
Join your union. Make a stand. Get involved.
robbhawkes.bsky.social
As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
ninamarkl.bsky.social
keep thinking about the downstream damage of vandalising this sector. there are so many jobs directly and tangentially tied to making a university (town) run
robbhawkes.bsky.social
As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
wherecreditsdue.bsky.social
It’s just 10 days to go until our launch event on Saturday 18 October at Teesside University and there are still a few places available - don’t miss out!

Visit our website for more information and please share widely: wherecreditsdueboro.wordpress.com/events/
Poster for the Where Credit’s Due project - a rainbow border surrounding the text:

“Where Credit's Due

Making Money for Ecosocial Justice

Reimagining Public Credit and Building
Intersectional Solidarity in Boro

• 18.10.25, 1.30pm: Finding the Money Film Screening and Q&A. Teesside Uni.

• 23.10.25, 7pm: A Curious Night at the Museum. The Dorman Museum.

• 22.11.25, 10.30am: Workshop 1: Where
Credit's Due. The Dorman Museum.

• 17.1.26, 10.30am: Workshop 2: The Other Saltburn. The Dorman Museum.

• 7.3.26, 10.30am: Workshop 3: Everyone's
Included! The Dorman Museum.

Join us to tell new stories about money”

Beneath the text are logs for Where Credit’s Due and TU Proud, the words BOOK HERE and a pointing hand emoji next to a QR code for the Where Credit’s Due website.
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
moneyontheleft.bsky.social
"Austerity can’t get us out of a collapsing economy. It is precisely when the private sector withers that the state must step in, providing the income that people need to do the purchasing that makes the private sector possible."
Blue Bonds
State debt is generative.
doctorow.medium.com
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
moneyontheleft.bsky.social
Our cohosts speculate about the meaning of One Battle's rich aesthetic choices, including the mobile telephoto lenses that transform a conventional car chase into a dizzying allegory of an American culture unclear about its driving motivations and aims.
One Battle After Another
In this episode of the Superstructure podcast, Scott Ferguson is joined by independent film scholar Jonathan Haynes to discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed new film, One Battle After Another. T…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
moneyontheleft.bsky.social
✨New!!!✨

@videotroph.bsky.social is joined by Jonathan Haynes to discuss PTA’s acclaimed new film, One Battle After Another. The conversation centers on the film’s contribution to popular political cinema under the authoritarian violence of the second Trump administration.

Don't miss it! 🙌
One Battle After Another
In this episode of the Superstructure podcast, Scott Ferguson is joined by independent film scholar Jonathan Haynes to discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed new film, One Battle After Another. T…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
videotroph.bsky.social
Check out the latest episode of Superstructure during which I wax rhapsodic about One Battle's allegorical use of mobile telephoto lenses.
moneyontheleft.bsky.social
✨New!!!✨

@videotroph.bsky.social is joined by Jonathan Haynes to discuss PTA’s acclaimed new film, One Battle After Another. The conversation centers on the film’s contribution to popular political cinema under the authoritarian violence of the second Trump administration.

Don't miss it! 🙌
One Battle After Another
In this episode of the Superstructure podcast, Scott Ferguson is joined by independent film scholar Jonathan Haynes to discuss Paul Thomas Anderson’s acclaimed new film, One Battle After Another. T…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
timwatson.bsky.social
A frequently repeated line from a colleague who retired a few years ago after a long career at my university: "Remember, when they say they don't have the money to fund something, what they mean is they don't have the money *for you*."
robbhawkes.bsky.social
“‘Anything we can actually do, we can afford.’ Taxation controls the distribution of wealth. At bottom, however, state spending never rests on private profit. This means that an impoverished public good such as the present higher-education system reflects an impoverished public imagination.”
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
moneyontheleft.bsky.social
🔥🔥🔥
annieoranne.bsky.social
What the hell, emailed this (and the original full piece referenced) to @governorwalz.mn.gov Maybe he'll read it

Tl;dr if states repeal their balanced budget rules, they can issue blue bonds to cover funds (illegally) clawed back by Trump & thus save their states

pluralistic.net/2025/10/04/f...
Pluralistic: Blue Bonds (04 Oct 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
annieoranne.bsky.social
What the hell, emailed this (and the original full piece referenced) to @governorwalz.mn.gov Maybe he'll read it

Tl;dr if states repeal their balanced budget rules, they can issue blue bonds to cover funds (illegally) clawed back by Trump & thus save their states

pluralistic.net/2025/10/04/f...
Pluralistic: Blue Bonds (04 Oct 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
pluralistic.net
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
robbhawkes.bsky.social
“‘Anything we can actually do, we can afford.’ Taxation controls the distribution of wealth. At bottom, however, state spending never rests on private profit. This means that an impoverished public good such as the present higher-education system reflects an impoverished public imagination.”
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
newcastleucu.bsky.social
You have our full SOLIDARITY colleagues at Teesside University UCU! We need to collectively fight to stop redundacies everywhere! We can stop them!
robbhawkes.bsky.social
As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
wilbenjamin.bsky.social
Want to see what blue bonds or other sub national credit creation might look like… issue credit and experiment with a tax circuit and mobilize real resources.
moneyontheleft.bsky.social
Adapted from a prompt by Professor Benjamin Wilson (SUNY Cortland, Spring 2025), this assignment encourages students to perceive money and the labor it mobilizes as social forms that we can collectively remake.
Assignment Prompt: A Classroom Currency Experiment
Adapted from a prompt by Professor Benjamin Wilson (SUNY Cortland, Spring 2025), this assignment encourages students to perceive money and the labor it mobilizes as social forms that we can collect…
moneyontheleft.org
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
moneyontheleft.bsky.social
"Austerity can't get us out of a collapsing economy. It is precisely when the private sector withers that the state must step in, providing the income that people need to do the purchasing that makes the private sector possible."

-Cory Doctorow
Blue Bonds
State debt is generative.
doctorow.medium.com
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
karakpatterson.bsky.social
“A university, in other words, does not exclusively benefit students. It is a locus of civic uplift and transformation. That we ever came to understand the gifts of higher education as unaffordable liabilities is absurd.”
nathankhensley.bsky.social
yet another way that the war on academic knowledge is a war on the past & a violent thinning out of historical experience — you’re taking years & often decades of slow-building expertise (& the investments that made it possible) and just tossing it in the bin
robbhawkes.bsky.social
As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
uculincolnbranch.bsky.social
Your next read
robbhawkes.bsky.social
As more of my valued colleagues face the threat of redundancy, here’s a quick reminder that it takes years and years of public investment to train an academic. Cutting someone with this wealth of experience loose isn’t “saving” anything. It is a massive waste of our collective resources.
UK Universities in Crisis? Time to Transform Higher Ed Finance
by Rob Hawkes and Scott Ferguson Universities in the UK are in crisis. Job cuts in the sector are reaching ‘cataclysmic’ levels, with an estimated 10,000 already lost and many more at risk. Just da…
moneyontheleft.org
robbhawkes.bsky.social
‘Public debt issuance isn't "borrowing" in the sense that you or I might borrow.’

‘Governments don't need to "borrow" to create money any more than Starbucks needs to "borrow" to create gift cards redeemable for future mochalattafrappacheenaspressae.’

‘State debt is generative.’

👏👏 Cory Doctorow
Blue Bonds
State debt is generative.
doctorow.medium.com
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
videotroph.bsky.social
Doctorow publicly endorses @moneyontheleft.bsky.social's Blue Bonds strategy, a bond drive to save democracy from authoritarian austerity, impoundment & extortion.
robbhawkes.bsky.social
robbhawkes.bsky.social
I said this on t’other site a while ago:

When I offer you an account of something that’s happened, you know that you’ll be getting an interpretation, a perspective, a version of events. Accounting with money is no different. Money isn’t just a ‘measure of value’; it is a medium of expression. 🧵 1/8
robbhawkes.bsky.social
Hmm, this seems like a wise and sensible take on UK university finance until and unless you’re willing to question the austere and impoverished neoliberal logics underpinning its core premises. 🧵 1/7
Reposted by Rob Hawkes
greenbackbetter.bsky.social
We can expand money and accounting as a public franchise, keeping its institutional (rather than natural) form clear and above board. We can account for everyone as an asset first and work against social bottlenecks and exclusions. Calling people costs, jailing them etc disrupts social provisioning.