Charmaine Chua
charmainechua.bsky.social
Charmaine Chua
@charmainechua.bsky.social
Writing a book on the history of the "logistics counterrevolution.” Geography, political economy, labor studies. UCSB. www.charmainechua.com
We won. Every union representing workers at the University of California sued the Trump administration in September. Today, judge Rita Lin issued a preliminary injunction barring Trump’s attempts to extort political leverage from public higher education. democracyforward.org/updates/cour...
Court Blocks Trump’s Attempt to Gain Leverage and Political Control Over University of California System - Democracy Forward
democracyforward.org
November 15, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
Debt Trap Nation -- a very powerful book.

Come and see @kbrickell.bsky.social and Mel Nowicki discuss the book on the 22nd of October (4-6pm)

Dept of Geography, Cambridge
“A chilling and eye-opening exposé... gives voice to those living at the sharpest edge of austerity and makes an irrefutable case for change.”

@graceblakeley.substack.com on 'Debt Trap Nation' by
@kbrickell.bsky.social & Mel Nowicki (out next week).

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/debt...

#housing #debt
October 3, 2025 at 9:36 AM
The Berkeley Faculty Association is currently running an event featuring about the UC’s release of 160 names of faculty, staff and students to the Trump administration’s OCR. Three lawyers - Catherine E. Lhamon, Brian Soucek, and Asli Bali will speak. I’ll be live-tweeting key moments.
October 9, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
To inflict the worst pain imaginable on thousands of people, and then to tell us that we are wrong to feel outraged—it’s a murderous nihilism that shakes the moral foundation of the entire world. It’s unbearable.
May 20, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
66,000 tons of food are rotting away in USAID warehouses thanks to Trump and DOGE.

That's enough food to feed more than a million people in the world's poorest countries for three months — including over 480,000 kids.

In what world is starving children "efficient"?
Trump Cuts to Foreign Aid Leave Food Destined for Desperate Millions Rotting in Storage | Common Dreams
Millions of lives hang in the balance as $98 million worth of food aid sits unused in warehouses, set to expire. Childre
www.commondreams.org
May 19, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
say it again:

4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities

ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x

demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
There is a false dichotomy drawn between "the ivory tower" and "the real world," and I'm here to report that in a post-industrial society, your real-world economy absolutely hinges on the university.

University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.
May 18, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
Toast a crumpet in his honour, on the fires of a riot
We are devastated to say that our comrade, teacher and friend Joshua Clover passed away last night. He is irreplaceable; We will miss him forever.
April 28, 2025 at 9:50 AM
There was one night where he was feeling sad & thinking about all the notes left on Marx's grave that said "Dear Karl, I'm sorry that we have not yet lived up to what you wanted for us, we'll keep trying, I promise."

I keep saying that to him now. We'll keep trying, I promise.
April 28, 2025 at 11:42 PM
I talked to Joshua almost every day. I don’t know how to think about never being able to talk to him again. What now? Love you so much, friend.
We are devastated to say that our comrade, teacher and friend Joshua Clover passed away last night. He is irreplaceable; We will miss him forever.
April 28, 2025 at 8:57 PM
This is one of the best times I've ever had at an academic conference - highly recommend submitting something to the Danish Society for Marxist Studies conference this fall.
🔔‼️ REMEMBER TO SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACTS

Deadline is 1 May and there will be NO deadline extensions - Don’t hold off until the last minute, submit now!!!!
✨CALL FOR ABSTRACTS✨

We are excited to publish the Call for Abstracts for our 10th annual conference: ABOLITION.

The conference will take place at Aarhus University, Denmark, on 10-11 October 2025.

As usual, we also accept papers outside this year's theme!

marxistiskestudier.com/2025/03/06/c...
April 26, 2025 at 1:55 AM
After 6 years at UCSB, on July 1 I will be starting as acting Associate Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, where I'll also anchor a cluster hire in AAPI studies. I feel so lucky, excited & intimidated to move to the bay are and to join such a storied center of radical intellectual inquiry.
April 25, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Unreal
🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.
February 4, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
The way that university officials have begun to treat “peaceful” and “disruptive” as antonyms, when they in fact are not antonyms, is the kind of violence to language that one expects of authoritarians
December 21, 2024 at 1:36 AM
Can you recommend me writing that deftly combines reflections on organizing with theory? More like Alyssa Battistoni’s "Spadework" nplusonemag.com/issue-34/pol...? I
have major writers block and need to get unstuck.
December 21, 2024 at 2:14 AM
Amazon Teamsters begin peak-season strikes around the country today. But make no mistake that what made this possible has been years of hard-fought class struggle organizing by incredible labor organizers who’ve been building rank and file militancy on their shopfloors long before they affiliated.
Amazon Teamsters Launch Peak Season Strike
Amazon Teamsters Launch Peak Season Strike
bit.ly
December 19, 2024 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
After almost a decade of thinking, researching and writing... this came in the post today. 🤓 🥂
December 17, 2024 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
Astonishing footage and conversations in this 16-min Jocelyne Saab documentary. Filmed aboard the Atlantis, the Greek ship that took the PLO leadership out of Beirut in 1982, into exile in Tunis. Currently free to stream.

mediacityfilmfestival.com/program/le-b...
Le Bateau de l’exil, Jocelyne Saab, 1982 - Media City Film Festival
mediacityfilmfestival.com
December 15, 2024 at 8:40 PM
Reposted by Charmaine Chua
We closed out the conference with a phenomenal keynote from @charmainechua.bsky.social on the logistics counter-revolution as a response to intertwining Third World national liberation and labor struggles in the 1960s. Read some of Charmaine's work here: www.charmainechua.com/publications
December 14, 2024 at 7:46 PM