Simon Pirani
@simonpirani.bsky.social
Historian, researcher of energy systems, Ukraine, Russia, & more. Blog: https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/. Author of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption (2018) & Dissident Communists in Early Soviet Russia (2023).
Reposted by Simon Pirani
Alexander Nesterenko, an associate philosophy professor at the Moscow State Technical University, has been sentenced to three years in prison for Ukrainian songs saved on his social media. Here is his closing statement in court:
en.zona.media/article/2026...
en.zona.media/article/2026...
January 20, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Alexander Nesterenko, an associate philosophy professor at the Moscow State Technical University, has been sentenced to three years in prison for Ukrainian songs saved on his social media. Here is his closing statement in court:
en.zona.media/article/2026...
en.zona.media/article/2026...
I wrote this pamphlet 35 years ago and I think it stood the test of time. Now a free-to-download PDF.
The Turkish miners’ strike of 1990-1991 "was far, far more than just a strike. It brought into action the whole community, in common with all movements that really challenge the established order of things." Pamphlet republished as free-to-download PDF
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/b...
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/16/b...
‘Bread, peace, democracy.’ The Turkish miners’ strike of 1991
Thirty-five years ago, Turkey was shaken by strikes. An eight-week stoppage by mineworkers, between November 1990 and January 1991, won support from other workers, and took up political demands. It…
peopleandnature.wordpress.com
January 16, 2026 at 9:22 AM
I wrote this pamphlet 35 years ago and I think it stood the test of time. Now a free-to-download PDF.
Reposted by Simon Pirani
Free public transport has been in the news a lot this Autumn, with extensions or possible expansions confirmed in three areas: the Balearic islands, Iowa City, and Brazil. Read more here: admin.farefreelondon...
December 15, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Free public transport has been in the news a lot this Autumn, with extensions or possible expansions confirmed in three areas: the Balearic islands, Iowa City, and Brazil. Read more here: admin.farefreelondon...
Reposted by Simon Pirani
In October this year, one of our organising group had the chance to experience free public transport in Belgrade, Serbia. This article explains what it was like.
Reflections on using free public transport in Belgrade, Serbia
In October this year, one of our organising group had the chance to experience free public transport in Belgrade, Serbia. This article explains what it was like. Thanks to our hosts, Ulice Za Bicikliste (Streets for Cyclists), for being gracious hosts at their conference. First, a bit of background. Public transport in Belgrade has been […]
www.farefreelondon.org
December 21, 2025 at 11:00 AM
In October this year, one of our organising group had the chance to experience free public transport in Belgrade, Serbia. This article explains what it was like.
Reposted by Simon Pirani
New round-up: free fares in the UK (mainly in Scotland)
News round-up: Free Fares in the UK
There is good news for rural communities, as the MP for Shetland suggests a pilot scheme of free bus travel. Less dense towns and the rural areas that surround them have for decades been the main victims of the profitability logic that rules our transport system. But the best news is from Glasgow, where the […]
www.farefreelondon.org
January 11, 2026 at 8:00 AM
New round-up: free fares in the UK (mainly in Scotland)
Reposted by Simon Pirani
If the Palestine Action hunger strikers die - which they could do at any moment, as they are now very close to the end - it will be the government that killed them. Today’s column explains why. Please share, and write urgently to your MP.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Let’s be clear: if the Palestine Action hunger strikers die, the government will bear moral responsibility | George Monbiot
The three remaining hunger strikers have been convicted of nothing. Yet with astonishing cruelty, ministers refuse to listen to their reasonable demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:07 AM
If the Palestine Action hunger strikers die - which they could do at any moment, as they are now very close to the end - it will be the government that killed them. Today’s column explains why. Please share, and write urgently to your MP.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Simon Pirani
Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago
January 4, 2026 at 6:49 PM
Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago
Reposted by Simon Pirani
Kremlin aims "to force us to become sheep, marching to the beat of drums made from our own skins". It's an honour to stand side by side with those who refuse - Aleksandr Nesterenko
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/04/y... @ensu-resu.bsky.social @ukrainesol.bsky.social @labour-hub.bsky.social
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/04/y... @ensu-resu.bsky.social @ukrainesol.bsky.social @labour-hub.bsky.social
‘Your power is based on lies and violence’: three years for sharing Ukrainian songs
A Moscow court has sentenced university teacher Aleksandr Nesterenko to three years’ imprisonment, for sharing Ukrainian songs on a social media account. Here is a translation of Nesterenko’s final…
peopleandnature.wordpress.com
January 4, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Kremlin aims "to force us to become sheep, marching to the beat of drums made from our own skins". It's an honour to stand side by side with those who refuse - Aleksandr Nesterenko
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/04/y... @ensu-resu.bsky.social @ukrainesol.bsky.social @labour-hub.bsky.social
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/04/y... @ensu-resu.bsky.social @ukrainesol.bsky.social @labour-hub.bsky.social
Reposted by Simon Pirani
How electricity networks are decentralising, how renewables can be integrated, and why it matters to socialists. A response to @matthuber.bsky.social
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/c...
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/c...
Caution: high-voltage networks. Polemical cheap shots may cause damage
By Simon Pirani Electricity networks matter. Humans depend on economic and technological systems through which they run. We will depend on electricity networks still more heavily if – despite, and …
peopleandnature.wordpress.com
January 3, 2026 at 7:59 AM
How electricity networks are decentralising, how renewables can be integrated, and why it matters to socialists. A response to @matthuber.bsky.social
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/c...
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/c...
"Even more places are treating buses and mobility as a public good and not a paid privilege." Let's make 2026 the year when this idea gets rolling in the UK! You can start by connecting with @farefreelondon.bsky.social reasonstobecheerful.world/city-where-f...
The City Where Free Buses Changed Everything
New York's new mayor Zohran Mamdani has said he’ll make every bus free to ride. This French city did just that — and is reaping the rewards.
reasonstobecheerful.world
January 2, 2026 at 9:16 AM
"Even more places are treating buses and mobility as a public good and not a paid privilege." Let's make 2026 the year when this idea gets rolling in the UK! You can start by connecting with @farefreelondon.bsky.social reasonstobecheerful.world/city-where-f...
Well said. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s tweets were wrong, but he is no ‘anti-white Islamist’. Why does the British right want you to believe he is? | Naomi Klein
I have no interest in defending his social media posts, but calls to strip the newly freed activist of British citizenship pile torment on top of torture, says Naomi Klein, Guardian US columnist and c...
www.theguardian.com
December 31, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Well said. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Season's greetings to all, and a special shout out to Greta Thunberg www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Greta Thunberg arrested in London over ‘Palestine Action prisoners’ placard
Two other people held on suspicion of criminal damage after protest at insurance company’s offices
www.theguardian.com
December 24, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Season's greetings to all, and a special shout out to Greta Thunberg www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Simon Pirani
Love and solidarity to Palestine Action hunger strikers their friends and families.
December 22, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Love and solidarity to Palestine Action hunger strikers their friends and families.
Reposted by Simon Pirani
"Nigerian artists, both before & after independence from the British empire in 1960, fused artistic traditions of the Fulani-Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba & other Nigerian peoples with European art forms that the colonial power brought. The results are dazzling"
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/b...
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/b...
Beauty and power in Nigerian modernism
Paintings and sculptures of breathtaking beauty and power, reflecting the explosive social transformations of Africa’s most populous nation, are on show in the Nigerian Modernism exhibition at the …
peopleandnature.wordpress.com
December 22, 2025 at 8:40 AM
"Nigerian artists, both before & after independence from the British empire in 1960, fused artistic traditions of the Fulani-Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba & other Nigerian peoples with European art forms that the colonial power brought. The results are dazzling"
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/b...
peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/12/22/b...
Reposted by Simon Pirani
Something very dark is happening here.
The UK media’s silence on the Palestine Action activists’ hunger strikes is a deliberate editorial choice - Media@LSE
LSE's Professor Bart Cammaerts discusses the lack of coverage of the hunger strikes of imprisoned Palestine Action activists in the UK media.
blogs.lse.ac.uk
December 22, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Something very dark is happening here.
Reposted by Simon Pirani
“Try me for treason. I betrayed your deranged state”, the anti-war protester Andrei Trofimov said in court. He is now behind bars for 13 years. Russia's political prisoners need our support peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/t...
Try Me For Treason
“Try me for treason. I betrayed your deranged state”, the Russian anti-war protester Andrei Trofimov told the Second Western District Military Court in May. In 2023, Trofimov was sentenced to ten y…
peopleandnature.wordpress.com
December 21, 2025 at 9:42 AM
“Try me for treason. I betrayed your deranged state”, the anti-war protester Andrei Trofimov said in court. He is now behind bars for 13 years. Russia's political prisoners need our support peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/t...
Reposted by Simon Pirani
Our bulletin #175: Fighting for least unjust peace/ Ukraine’s fortress belt/ Hackers hit Russian draft database/ "Stop the War" Ukraine betrayal/ Trade sanctions/ Seizure of Ukrainian assets/ Torture of POWs/ "Make Russia pay" protests/ & more
ukraine-solidarity.org/wp-content/u...
ukraine-solidarity.org/wp-content/u...
ukraine-solidarity.org
December 15, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Our bulletin #175: Fighting for least unjust peace/ Ukraine’s fortress belt/ Hackers hit Russian draft database/ "Stop the War" Ukraine betrayal/ Trade sanctions/ Seizure of Ukrainian assets/ Torture of POWs/ "Make Russia pay" protests/ & more
ukraine-solidarity.org/wp-content/u...
ukraine-solidarity.org/wp-content/u...
We need Mamdani-style thinking in London, not these fare rises that hit low-income households hardest, says @farefreelondon.bsky.social
It's time that the London Mayor took a leaf out of the New York Mayor's book, and re-thought the funding model to support and expand public transport, whatever national government does. metro.co.uk/2025/12/11/t...
Tube prices will go up in the new year with some fares rising 10%
Londoners will have to dish out more money on travel next year.
metro.co.uk
December 13, 2025 at 5:41 PM
We need Mamdani-style thinking in London, not these fare rises that hit low-income households hardest, says @farefreelondon.bsky.social
It's worth listening to what Ukrainian socialists are saying. This is a very good summary. www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/5...
Fighting for the Least Unjust Peace - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung
Ukrainian leftists hope for an end to the war, but remain sceptical of the “peace deal” on offer
www.rosalux.de
December 10, 2025 at 12:47 PM
It's worth listening to what Ukrainian socialists are saying. This is a very good summary. www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/5...
Reposted by Simon Pirani
I couldn’t read a piece about the British Library strike published yesterday in the Daily Telegraph, because of paywall and, well, Daily Telegraph. But someone told me about Telegraph reader comments which included disparaging chastisement that library workers are ‘privileged’: Telegraph readers!😄😂
“Outside [the British Library] a railway worker stopped by the picket line and offered the strikers a ten-pound note. ‘That’s terrible,’ he said when he was told what was going on. ‘Hope you win.’” 🥹
Meanwhile the interim CEO says we “don’t live in a real world”?! 🙄
www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/de...
Meanwhile the interim CEO says we “don’t live in a real world”?! 🙄
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 8:14 PM
I couldn’t read a piece about the British Library strike published yesterday in the Daily Telegraph, because of paywall and, well, Daily Telegraph. But someone told me about Telegraph reader comments which included disparaging chastisement that library workers are ‘privileged’: Telegraph readers!😄😂
As a regular reader, I am out on the picket line again today, supporting staff at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social who are JUST asking for decent pay
December 8, 2025 at 10:08 AM
As a regular reader, I am out on the picket line again today, supporting staff at the @britishlibrary.bsky.social who are JUST asking for decent pay
The excerpts from these speeches in court, read out in English, are powerful stuff.
A film of Try Me For Treason: readings from anti-war protesters’ speeches in Russian courts, is on Youtube. Please share! www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZdq... Readings filmed at the book launch event for Voices Against Putin’s War: Protesters’ Defiant Speeches in Russian Courts, in London, 20 November.
Try Me For Treason (readings from anti-war protesters' speeches in Russian courts)
YouTube video by Ukraine Information Group
www.youtube.com
December 7, 2025 at 6:10 PM
The excerpts from these speeches in court, read out in English, are powerful stuff.
It's British Library management's fault that their wonderful staff feel compelled to strike, AGAIN, in order to be treated with the minimum of respect. As a long-time regular reader, I support this action 100%.
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/.... @pcsunion.bsky.social
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/.... @pcsunion.bsky.social
British Library staff announce further strikes
The members will take another 5 days of strike action in addition to the two weeks already taken
www.pcs.org.uk
December 3, 2025 at 9:04 AM
It's British Library management's fault that their wonderful staff feel compelled to strike, AGAIN, in order to be treated with the minimum of respect. As a long-time regular reader, I support this action 100%.
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/.... @pcsunion.bsky.social
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/.... @pcsunion.bsky.social
Reposted by Simon Pirani
They were 8 and 11 years old
December 2, 2025 at 6:50 AM
They were 8 and 11 years old