Matthew Cole
@mattcole.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Technology, Work and Employment at the University of Sussex.
Heterodox Marxist - Les dés sont pipés!
mattcole.work
Heterodox Marxist - Les dés sont pipés!
mattcole.work
Pinned
Matthew Cole
@mattcole.bsky.social
· Oct 13
My first book, *Unpaid: the Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft*, will be published by @versobooks.bsky.social in May, 2026!
This book is born from experience. It is written for anyone who is dissatisfied with the capitalist wage system.
UK pre-order: www.waterstones.com/book/unpaid/...
This book is born from experience. It is written for anyone who is dissatisfied with the capitalist wage system.
UK pre-order: www.waterstones.com/book/unpaid/...
We need more than just a tax on high wages.
We need a maximum wage to compliment a minimum wage.
A maximum wage imposes a necessity of reinvestment and “pre”distribution to workers. Making it statutory levels the playing field for firms.
The idea is as old as Aristotle!
We need a maximum wage to compliment a minimum wage.
A maximum wage imposes a necessity of reinvestment and “pre”distribution to workers. Making it statutory levels the playing field for firms.
The idea is as old as Aristotle!
The highest paid FTSE 100 CEO in 2025 took just over two hours to earn the same as the typical UK worker will all year.
This level of inequality is both morally unacceptable and damaging to society.
Can we really justify a top boss earning 1509 times the typical worker?
This level of inequality is both morally unacceptable and damaging to society.
Can we really justify a top boss earning 1509 times the typical worker?
January 6, 2026 at 12:55 PM
We need more than just a tax on high wages.
We need a maximum wage to compliment a minimum wage.
A maximum wage imposes a necessity of reinvestment and “pre”distribution to workers. Making it statutory levels the playing field for firms.
The idea is as old as Aristotle!
We need a maximum wage to compliment a minimum wage.
A maximum wage imposes a necessity of reinvestment and “pre”distribution to workers. Making it statutory levels the playing field for firms.
The idea is as old as Aristotle!
Reposted by Matthew Cole
A reminder - before Trump, MAGA, Musk and Fox rewrote history - that this is what the entire country agreed had happened five years ago today:
January 6, 2026 at 12:40 PM
A reminder - before Trump, MAGA, Musk and Fox rewrote history - that this is what the entire country agreed had happened five years ago today:
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Our third issue of the new and improved Historical Materialism newsletter, keeping you updated with a suite of publications, calls for papers, videos, upcoming events, and and and.
If you haven't already signed up, be sure to do so at the bottom of our website here: www.historicalmaterialism.org.
If you haven't already signed up, be sure to do so at the bottom of our website here: www.historicalmaterialism.org.
January 6, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Our third issue of the new and improved Historical Materialism newsletter, keeping you updated with a suite of publications, calls for papers, videos, upcoming events, and and and.
If you haven't already signed up, be sure to do so at the bottom of our website here: www.historicalmaterialism.org.
If you haven't already signed up, be sure to do so at the bottom of our website here: www.historicalmaterialism.org.
Reposted by Matthew Cole
If this year was about getting off US tech, 2026 is the year to reassess the digital revolution — what works, what doesn’t; what to keep, and what to reject.
I’ve only just started to consider what needs to change about how I use digital technology, but I’m excited to learn more next year.
I’ve only just started to consider what needs to change about how I use digital technology, but I’m excited to learn more next year.
We need to reassess our relationship to digital tech
Getting off US tech led me to a wider questioning of digital convenience
disconnect.blog
December 31, 2025 at 8:42 PM
If this year was about getting off US tech, 2026 is the year to reassess the digital revolution — what works, what doesn’t; what to keep, and what to reject.
I’ve only just started to consider what needs to change about how I use digital technology, but I’m excited to learn more next year.
I’ve only just started to consider what needs to change about how I use digital technology, but I’m excited to learn more next year.
Reposted by Matthew Cole
IMPORTANT NOTICE 📣
If you are an Equity member who was recently engaged as a performer or stage management on Squid Game: The Experience by Luna Cinema/Luna Entertainment, please contact Equity with a copy of your contract at pmpp@equity.org.uk
If you are an Equity member who was recently engaged as a performer or stage management on Squid Game: The Experience by Luna Cinema/Luna Entertainment, please contact Equity with a copy of your contract at pmpp@equity.org.uk
January 5, 2026 at 12:38 PM
IMPORTANT NOTICE 📣
If you are an Equity member who was recently engaged as a performer or stage management on Squid Game: The Experience by Luna Cinema/Luna Entertainment, please contact Equity with a copy of your contract at pmpp@equity.org.uk
If you are an Equity member who was recently engaged as a performer or stage management on Squid Game: The Experience by Luna Cinema/Luna Entertainment, please contact Equity with a copy of your contract at pmpp@equity.org.uk
Primitive accumulation, plunder, slavery, colonial extraction and exploitation are all part of the same capitalist mechanisms that built Britain.
The state-backed companies that led this are the same that continue to steal workers’ share of the products of their labour today.
The state-backed companies that led this are the same that continue to steal workers’ share of the products of their labour today.
Julia Hartley-Brewer: Why is colonialism bad?
Me: “When Britain arrived in 1700s, India had 27% of global GDP. After 200 years of theft and millions starved to death, by 1947 India had 3% of global GDP, 90% living below the poverty line, a literacy rate of 17% and life expectancy of 27”
Me: “When Britain arrived in 1700s, India had 27% of global GDP. After 200 years of theft and millions starved to death, by 1947 India had 3% of global GDP, 90% living below the poverty line, a literacy rate of 17% and life expectancy of 27”
January 5, 2026 at 10:40 AM
Primitive accumulation, plunder, slavery, colonial extraction and exploitation are all part of the same capitalist mechanisms that built Britain.
The state-backed companies that led this are the same that continue to steal workers’ share of the products of their labour today.
The state-backed companies that led this are the same that continue to steal workers’ share of the products of their labour today.
The Shadow Home Secretary is Chris Philp is on BBC radio 4 calling for people to have citizenship revoked and be deported (even without committing a crime) if they express anti-white views.
And he’s barely challenged on this extremist view.
And he’s barely challenged on this extremist view.
December 29, 2025 at 7:43 AM
The Shadow Home Secretary is Chris Philp is on BBC radio 4 calling for people to have citizenship revoked and be deported (even without committing a crime) if they express anti-white views.
And he’s barely challenged on this extremist view.
And he’s barely challenged on this extremist view.
Anyone know how I get in touch with Crass for permission to use one of their lines for an epigraph?
December 22, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Anyone know how I get in touch with Crass for permission to use one of their lines for an epigraph?
Reposted by Matthew Cole
did a podcast back in october on marxism and AI marxisthumanistinitiative.org/episode-145-...
Episode 145: Artificial Intelligence and Marx’s View of Automation (interview with Gavin Mueller) - Marxist-Humanist Initiative
Episode 145: Artificial Intelligence and Marx’s View of Automation (interview with Gavin Mueller Co-hosts Andrew Kliman and Gabriel Donnelly speak with guest Gavin Mueller, an assistant professor of N...
marxisthumanistinitiative.org
December 16, 2025 at 10:19 AM
did a podcast back in october on marxism and AI marxisthumanistinitiative.org/episode-145-...
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Check out the latest news in #CollectiveBargaining 🤝
🔺 Greece: Tripartite agreement to restore collective bargaining rights
🔺 Spain: Historic agreement for civil servants
🔺 Italy: New agreement for metal industry
Find out more & subscribe to our newsletter 🔗 etui.org/4kR
🔺 Greece: Tripartite agreement to restore collective bargaining rights
🔺 Spain: Historic agreement for civil servants
🔺 Italy: New agreement for metal industry
Find out more & subscribe to our newsletter 🔗 etui.org/4kR
December 16, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Check out the latest news in #CollectiveBargaining 🤝
🔺 Greece: Tripartite agreement to restore collective bargaining rights
🔺 Spain: Historic agreement for civil servants
🔺 Italy: New agreement for metal industry
Find out more & subscribe to our newsletter 🔗 etui.org/4kR
🔺 Greece: Tripartite agreement to restore collective bargaining rights
🔺 Spain: Historic agreement for civil servants
🔺 Italy: New agreement for metal industry
Find out more & subscribe to our newsletter 🔗 etui.org/4kR
Reposted by Matthew Cole
‘“I can’t pay my rent with prestige,” one sign said. Another was a mock-up of the cover of Great Expectations, with “Great” crossed out and replaced by “Reasonable”.’
Anna Aslanyan on the strike at the British Library, new on the blog:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Anna Aslanyan on the strike at the British Library, new on the blog:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Anna Aslanyan | On the Picket Line
On Monday morning, more than a hundred people formed a picket line outside one of the entrances to the British Library...
www.lrb.co.uk
December 9, 2025 at 7:19 PM
‘“I can’t pay my rent with prestige,” one sign said. Another was a mock-up of the cover of Great Expectations, with “Great” crossed out and replaced by “Reasonable”.’
Anna Aslanyan on the strike at the British Library, new on the blog:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Anna Aslanyan on the strike at the British Library, new on the blog:
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
How is it that we’re already just about halfway through the decade of 2020s?
Fucking hell…
Fucking hell…
December 9, 2025 at 8:24 PM
How is it that we’re already just about halfway through the decade of 2020s?
Fucking hell…
Fucking hell…
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...
December 9, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Welcome to Britain, a country so short of dentists that an MP's 87-year-old mum pulled her teeth out with pliers. Also a country with thousands of foreign-qualified dentists who can’t work until they pass an exam so oversubscribed it’s like trying to book Glasto tickets. www.ft.com/content/f4e5...
Pretty rough to find out that Sussex will go bankrupt over the next 3-4 years without saving 28 million, meaning mass redundancies. 450 full time staff cuts needed, or roughly 16% of people.
@ucu.org.uk @sussexucu.bsky.social
@ucu.org.uk @sussexucu.bsky.social
December 9, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Pretty rough to find out that Sussex will go bankrupt over the next 3-4 years without saving 28 million, meaning mass redundancies. 450 full time staff cuts needed, or roughly 16% of people.
@ucu.org.uk @sussexucu.bsky.social
@ucu.org.uk @sussexucu.bsky.social
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Complete agreement with Jo here.
This stuff really is snake oil. Would be a great shame if @zackpolanski.bsky.social fell for it. Politically it’s a one way ticket to nowhere. Important under current circumstances to have an articulate and credible voice on the left. Zack needs to steer clear.
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...
www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/11...
MMT matters because it reveals power – and gives us back the right to choose
I think modern monetary theory (MMT) matters. That is not because it is perfect, because no theory is. Instead, it is because it explains something that almost no one in mainstream economics has ever ...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
December 5, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Complete agreement with Jo here.
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Newly published evidence, alongside archived testimonies, documents a pattern of systemic abuse inflicted on Iraqi civilians by British soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in 2003. Available in EN, ES, PT-BR, DE, FR, IT and AR.
Forgotten Photos Expose UK Army Abuses In Iraq
Photos and evidence document systemic abuse of Iraqi detainees by British soldiers in 2003, revealing a pattern of hooding, stress positions, and violence.
buff.ly
December 4, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Newly published evidence, alongside archived testimonies, documents a pattern of systemic abuse inflicted on Iraqi civilians by British soldiers from the Queen's Lancashire Regiment in 2003. Available in EN, ES, PT-BR, DE, FR, IT and AR.
Reposted by Matthew Cole
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 1:50 AM
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
Reposted by Matthew Cole
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Matthew Cole
I'm constantly shocked (but not surprised) by how little we discuss the additional financial burden placed on young people by the Clegg-Cameron student loan regime.
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
Rachel Reeves hits young graduates with a double stealth tax
The Chancellor plans to raise as much money from freezing loan repayment thresholds as from the mansion tax
www.newstatesman.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:04 PM
I'm constantly shocked (but not surprised) by how little we discuss the additional financial burden placed on young people by the Clegg-Cameron student loan regime.
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Also the government's line that graduates have benefitted financially from their education, and therefore should pay more in tax, is nuts.
It didn't suddenly get three times more financially beneficial to study at a uni in 2012 versus 2011 – in fact the opposite has happened
It didn't suddenly get three times more financially beneficial to study at a uni in 2012 versus 2011 – in fact the opposite has happened
November 27, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Also the government's line that graduates have benefitted financially from their education, and therefore should pay more in tax, is nuts.
It didn't suddenly get three times more financially beneficial to study at a uni in 2012 versus 2011 – in fact the opposite has happened
It didn't suddenly get three times more financially beneficial to study at a uni in 2012 versus 2011 – in fact the opposite has happened
Reposted by Matthew Cole
My essay “Oil Futures” is out now in @newleftreview.bsky.social's Sidecar!
Following Norway's September elections, ongoing struggles against fossil fuels in Europe’s only petrostate challenge incumbent fossil hegemony and its complicity in the Israeli occupation:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Following Norway's September elections, ongoing struggles against fossil fuels in Europe’s only petrostate challenge incumbent fossil hegemony and its complicity in the Israeli occupation:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Lukas Slothuus, Oil Futures — Sidecar
Norway’s elections.
newleftreview.org
November 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
My essay “Oil Futures” is out now in @newleftreview.bsky.social's Sidecar!
Following Norway's September elections, ongoing struggles against fossil fuels in Europe’s only petrostate challenge incumbent fossil hegemony and its complicity in the Israeli occupation:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Following Norway's September elections, ongoing struggles against fossil fuels in Europe’s only petrostate challenge incumbent fossil hegemony and its complicity in the Israeli occupation:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Reposted by Matthew Cole
For the Guardian, @bjoernbremer.bsky.social, @siljahausermann.bsky.social and I write about how building new homes is not enough to tackle the housing crisis. Housing is a redistributive issue and progressive policy solutions need to acknowledge that.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
To halt the far right, Europe’s progressive parties must fix its housing crisis. Our research shows how | Tarik Abou-Chadi, Björn Bremer and Silja Häusermann
The mantra of ‘build, build, build’ misses something crucial: that few can afford these new homes, say Tarik Abou-Chadi, Silja Häusermann and Björn Bremer
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 12:57 PM
For the Guardian, @bjoernbremer.bsky.social, @siljahausermann.bsky.social and I write about how building new homes is not enough to tackle the housing crisis. Housing is a redistributive issue and progressive policy solutions need to acknowledge that.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Inheriting a million pounds? No tax for you
Capital gains? You need that don’t you.
Work for a living and are middle class? Suck it up, you have to pay more.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Capital gains? You need that don’t you.
Work for a living and are middle class? Suck it up, you have to pay more.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Rachel Reeves hands farmers inheritance tax break
Treasury says concession could be worth £30m next year and £70m a year until 2030
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Inheriting a million pounds? No tax for you
Capital gains? You need that don’t you.
Work for a living and are middle class? Suck it up, you have to pay more.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Capital gains? You need that don’t you.
Work for a living and are middle class? Suck it up, you have to pay more.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Apply now — Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis”, deadline 20 December 2025 antipodeonline.org/2025/11/13/a...
Apply now—Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis” - Antipode Online
Toronto, Ontario, Canadathe traditional territory of the Huron Wendat, the Seneca and the Mississaugas of the Credit June 1st – 5th, 2026 The contemporary global landscape is increasingly defined by w...
antipodeonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Apply now — Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis”, deadline 20 December 2025 antipodeonline.org/2025/11/13/a...