Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · 7d

A real treat to write about Jurassic Park as anticapitalist inspiration for the new @leftcultures.bsky.social (with brilliant illustration as ever)

A great project celebrating radical politics in unexpected places

Red Pepper @redpeppermag.bsky.social · 12d

Issue 4 of Left Cultures out now featuring a piece by Red Pepper co-editor @siobhan.bsky.social

In Issue there's over 50 stories discussing a dazzling array of past and present cultural moments to create a Lexicon of the Left, fully illustrated throughout.

leftcultures.com/collections/...

Issue 04

In Left Cultures 4 there's over 50 stories discussing a dazzling array of past and present cultural moments to create a Lexicon of the Left, fully illustrated throughout.B5 in size128 pagesConcession…

leftcultures.com

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Reposted by Siobhán McGuirk

Amnesty International UK @amnestyuk.bsky.social · Jun 20

🚨BREAKING: We’re deeply concerned at the use of counter terrorism powers to target protest groups.

This is the latest in a succession of measures taken by the UK government to clamp down on protest in the UK.

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Jun 2

It has always been genocide

Israeli politicians state clear intent
Palestinians livestream atrocity
Millions protest, face arrest & smears
Experts present data & facts

Arms sales-handshakes-passive voice-excuses-denials continue

‘New’ headlines echo a truth foretold
It has always been genocide

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · May 31

Feeling energised and inspired to action by the sharp insights, provocations, debates and ideas suggested in our rapid-fire workshop

Right wing influence/ dominance in the media *can* be opposed, through alliance & action beyond media spheres…

“Off the doom scroll into communities!” Great advice

Red Pepper @redpeppermag.bsky.social · May 27

Join Red Pepper at the Media and Democracy Festival on 31 May in London!

We will be hosting a session on fight far-right media dominance.

Register here⤵️
www.mediareform.org.uk/media-democr...

Media Reform Coalition

Media Reform coordinates the work of advocacy groups campaigning to protect the public interest in light of the Leveson Inquiry and Communications Review.

www.mediareform.org.uk

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · May 28

Do not give up hope, do not look away, do not stop doing what you can do (and you can do a lot) to end genocide and occupation 👇

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · May 28

I’m tired of seeing people give up on Gaza by accepting the Israeli government’s declarations as inevitable facts. Just because they want to ethnically cleanse Gaza and implement concentration camps as part of their genocide does not mean they f-ing get to do it. 🧵

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Reposted by Siobhán McGuirk

Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · May 8

Article embracing the challenges of collaboration in research and curation — and celebrating queer sensibilities in action. (Hat tip to Halberstam!)

🚨 for academics exploring applications of queer theory, creative methods, participation

intellectdiscover.com/content/jour... 🌈🎓

The uses of failure: Transnational collaborative curation through a queer lens | Intellect

This article examines some of the challenges, possibilities and rewards of transnational collaborative curation through a queer lens by reflecting critically on my work within the UKRI-funded GlobalGR...

intellectdiscover.com

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · May 16

The @pef-online.bsky.social Conference showed in every moment that different, fair, data-driven economic (& related social) policies are on the table… but ignored by politicians locked into neoliberalism. An inspiring but painful event, as Labour sinks itself & squanders opportunity for change

Ann Pettifor @annpettifor.bsky.social · May 15

John McDonnell addresses the PEF conference.. He choked up when talking about the right wing lurch of Labour's leadership... and the announcement re: 'asylum hubs'

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Reposted by Siobhán McGuirk

Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · May 14

I have frequently been racially harassed by police and civilians. I have been detained and cross examined by racist border guards just because I have a Muslim first name. No newspaper has ever said people like me have “legitimate concerns” about racism in Europe. We don’t get that privilege.

Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · May 14

It’s been going on our entire lives. Getting stop-searched at bus stops while simply waiting for a bus. Getting stopped at traffic lights after a Sunday League game by officers who just want to ruin your day. This is the reality. That is the open and honest conversation we need first.

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · May 13

If you’ve somehow not left Labour yet, as a member or a voter, go now.

Tell your MP why on the way out…

Racist rhetoric, cruel cuts, promoting transphobia, punishing disability, illegally selling weaponry, supporting genocide, protecting private industry, refusing to tax millionaires… 🥀🥀🥀

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · May 9

WEER at @sohotheatre.bsky.social is astoundingly good.

One of the best physical theatre/ clowning performances I’ve ever seen, complemented by archly queer pop-culture skewering from Natalie Palamides

(Seeing a packed house (700+…?) for alt. theatre with affordable tickets is also magic 🪄)

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · May 8

Article embracing the challenges of collaboration in research and curation — and celebrating queer sensibilities in action. (Hat tip to Halberstam!)

🚨 for academics exploring applications of queer theory, creative methods, participation

intellectdiscover.com/content/jour... 🌈🎓

The uses of failure: Transnational collaborative curation through a queer lens | Intellect

This article examines some of the challenges, possibilities and rewards of transnational collaborative curation through a queer lens by reflecting critically on my work within the UKRI-funded GlobalGR...

intellectdiscover.com

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Reposted by Siobhán McGuirk

Josh Jowitt @drjoshdoeslaw.bsky.social · May 8

A coalition of legal academics have drafted a letter supporting trans rights & sharing concerns about the FWS v Scottish Ministers ruling.

If you work in the legal profession in the UK (eg, academics, practitioners, anyone else 'doing law') please consider signing:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

A Law Letter on FWS v Scottish Ministers

A coalition of legal academics have drafted a letter setting out our support for trans rights and our concerns about the FWS v Scottish Ministers UKSC ruling. We are opening it up for signature to ev...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Siobhán McGuirk

Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · Apr 18

Our social relationships are never unphysical. Our physical relationships are never unsocial. Our bodies are ourselves and they are situated in a social environment at the same time. The projections onto our varied bodies and minds based on this are expansive and unavoidable everywhere.

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Reposted by Siobhán McGuirk

Red Pepper @redpeppermag.bsky.social · Apr 3

Red Pepper is entering a new era.

Help shape our future at our first community forum on 5 April at 12 pm BST online.

Readers from all corners of the globe are invited. 🌶️

www.redpepper.org.uk/community-co...

Community Forum Registration – Online - Red Pepper

Join a small group of Red Pepper readers to review and debate the future forms Red Pepper might take. Spaces are limited so book now to avoid disappointment! Can’t make this Forum? See our Community C...

www.redpepper.org.uk

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Apr 1

Left media is facing tough challenges as production costs rise & digital platforms push paid, clickbait & fact-free content

@redpeppermag.bsky.social wants to hear from YOU: what’s needed now?

Share your insights in our survey & community forums. First up: online, 5 April, 12-1.15pm

Details ⤵️

Red Pepper @redpeppermag.bsky.social · Mar 24

Our community consultation has begun🌶️

Red Pepper invites you to join us in shaping our future by taking our survey and joining us for our virtual or in-person community events.

Find more details here:

www.redpepper.org.uk/what-next-fo...

Community Consultation 2025 - Red Pepper

After 31 years, Red Pepper is ceasing print production. Now, we're asking YOU – our readers and supporters – to shape what comes next

www.redpepper.org.uk

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Mar 10

A hard decision—but this is not the end

Independent, accessible & trustworthy journalism needs investment. If we want better than “free” platforms run by millionaires fuelled by algorithms, ads & dishonesty we must build it

Join our upcoming Community Consultation to forge a stronger left media

Red Pepper @redpeppermag.bsky.social · Mar 7

After 31 years, Red Pepper is ceasing print production. Editors Hilary Wainwright and Siobhán McGuirk explain why – and invite readers to shape what comes next 🌶️

www.redpepper.org.uk/culture-medi...

Transition time for Red Pepper - Red Pepper

After 31 years, Red Pepper is ceasing print production. Editors Hilary Wainwright Siobhan Mcguirk explain why – and what comes next

www.redpepper.org.uk

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Feb 15

Will be thinking long on #TheYears, so thoughtfully staged & layered. Both tribute to feminist movements & indictment of how the bourgeois can benefit while removed; mistaking knowledge of global liberation struggle for engagement. Complex complexities. Incredible cast.

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Feb 15

Local independent news co-operatives like Bristol Cable doing essential work. Institutional racist police forces are not going to hold themselves to account — only communities can do that

Netpol @netpol.org · Feb 15

A Bristol Cable investigation into Avon & Somerset police's huge sec 60 operation after a fatal stabbing found police had only stopped people of colour, had stopped children as young as 13, and found.... no knives

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Jan 16

Only a few filmmakers make art, fewer still can make serious work that captures & revels in the utter bizarreness of human emotion & everyday life. A rare gift

Anyway. Here are my parents enjoying David Lynch’s invitation to loose their heads in his work

(Manchester International Festival 2019)

A man in a white hat pokes his head through an artwork that says: My Head is Disconnected

A person with grey hair looks at a series of framed micro paintings

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Reposted by Siobhán McGuirk

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · Jan 10

It's been obvious for some time that the scale of Israel's mass slaughter of civilians in Gaza has been grossly underreported.

This won't stop the denialists here and elsewhere, of course.

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Jan 9

“Zuckerberg [believes] that he knows better than the rest of us and that his company’s services are good for us. He is not acting as a mercenary capitalist. He is acting as a megalomaniacal ideologue”

Informed, historical analysis of #Meta (ignore the headline)

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Mark Zuckerberg has gone full Maga | Siva Vaidhyanathan

It’s a mistake to describe the Meta CEO’s move as a retreat from ‘fact-checking’: it’s a retreat from limiting harm to users

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Siobhán McGuirk

elia ayoub 🌱 @ayoub.bsky.social · Jan 8

The same headline must have been repeated over a dozen times already - America ‘trying’ to get a ceasefire in Gaza while its ally Israel, the one America arms and funds, commits another massacre

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Jan 7

Major issue is that followers don’t see them as “racist”

As wild as that sounds, Labour MPs won’t name it & can’t cite others’ Islamophobia / xenophobia while *also* pursuing anti-migrant/ “🇬🇧 values” policy+rhetoric

They’ve chosen to try to court racists rather than tackle racism. So here we are

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Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Jan 7

Dangerous & notable that so many journalists & Labour MPs are dodging talking about the explicit racism in Reform/ Musk/ Jenrick etc “calls” for new rape gang inquiry

It’s a shift from response to Braverman/Sunak (April ‘23). As with ‘24 riots, they will not name Islamophobia

Only fuels the fire

Siobhán McGuirk @siobhan.bsky.social · Jan 5

📽️ Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat traces how colonial & capitalist subterfuge pulled jazz icons into battles over Congolese independence, Cold War geopolitics & UN power

Its compelling beats skip across time & place, drumming into life a complex mosaic of archive clips with reverberations for today. 5⭐️

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