Tom Western
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tomwestern.bsky.social
Tom Western
@tomwestern.bsky.social
5.3K followers 1.2K following 510 posts
Writing about circles and circulations and anticolonial futures.
(Lecturer in Cultural Geography at UCL)
https://undercartographies.city/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Tom Western
antizionistjew.bsky.social
Never Again Is Never Again For Everyone
greenparty.org.uk The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · 1d
On Holocaust Memorial Day we remember those murdered during the Holocaust and all genocides.

#HMD2026 #HolocaustMemorialDay
Graphic commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day, with an image of a lit candle of remembrance on a black background. Text in white reads: Bridging Generations: remember, learn, and build a better future Green Party Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE169GQ
January 27, 2026 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
ayoub.bsky.social
The UK version of “Project 2025” by the Reform party includes a British ICE, a concentration camp for 24,000 people, mass surveillance and withdrawing from refugee, anti-torture and anti-trafficking conventions.

It’s on their website. That’s how comfortable fascists are in the UK today.
The Legislation Upon winning a general election, a Reform government under Prime Minister Nigel Farage will: 1) Leave the ECHR 2.) Repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. 3.) Pass The Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill: This Bill will: Create a legal duty to remove illegal migrants for the Home Secretary The Bill opens with a blunt obligation for the Home Secretary: "The Secretary of State shall ensure the removal from the United Kingdom of each person who does not have extant leave to remain and is not an Irish citizen or otherwise protected by regulations made under this Act." The following parts of the legislation are introduced on an emergency basis, with an in-built sunset clause after 5 years: Disapply the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture, the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention (ECAT) Derogation is justified under the Vienna Convention doctrine of state of necessity: Britain faces a national emergency in which uncontrolled illegal migration undermines public order. These treaties will otherwise be used by activist judges to frustrate deportations, even after the repeals of the HRA and ECHR. Create Detention Power Without Hardial Singh Constraints This means illegal migrants can be detained until they are deported. Activist lawyers routinely use Hardial Singh to secure their client's bail, after which the client absconds. If you came to the UK illegally, you are ineligible for asylum. End of story All asylum claims will become inadmissible if made by a person within the Act's scope. If you came to the country illegally, you are ineligible for asylum in the UK. This strips the Home Office, the immigration tribunals and the higher courts of jurisdiction to even consider claims. A claim that cannot be considered cannot suspend removal and therefore, cannot delay a flight. Re-entering after deportation and destroying ID becomes a serious criminal offence Re-entry after deportation will be… The Operational Plan We will create an enforcement unit called UK Deportation Command, including an Illegal Migrant Identification Centre - harnessing cutting edge data fusion A Reform government will create a cutting edge enforcement data centre to relentlessly identify and detain all illegal migrants in the UK. Using powers granted by the new legislation, it will automatically share data between the Home Office, NHS, HMRC, DVLA, banks and the police. It will power bulk warrants, including mandatory biometric capture during any police encounter. Each power addresses a failure mode observed over the past decade - for example, banks and GP surgeries unaware of a customer's status, or overstayers slipping through because a warrant covered only a single property. Secure Immigration Removal Centres (SIRC) will be built rapidly to detain up to 24,000 Detention capacity for up to 24,000 will be created within 18 months. The Home Office will build Secure Immigration Removal Centres. This will be modular accommodation built in remote parts of the country. Conditions are basic but not punitive: prefabricated two-person rooms, canteen catering, on-site medical suites. Robust perimeters and internal movement controls prevent escapes. This enables detention-on-arrest: no more bail. This capacity would allow for up to 24,000 illegal migrants to be deported per month. Initial Voluntary Return Window A six-month Assisted Voluntary Return window precedes large-scale raids. Illegal migrants will be offered a financial incentive to self-deport. An app will be launched to facilitate this. The Deportation Flights The Home Office will scale up charters to 5 flights per day. To guard against last-minute aircraft unserviceability, the RAF will keep one Voyager aircraft on six-hour 'hot-spare' readiness. If a commercial charter breaks down, detainees can still be flown out that night, preserving operational integrity. The legal reset will mean activist lawyers will no longer be able preven…
January 26, 2026 at 1:22 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
burrata.bsky.social
Today's the start of a new semester for a lot of us - if you have job security and live in a reasonably safe state (not everyone, obviously, but if it's you), put the fascism that we're living under on your syllabus. It is hugely important to offer your students this education, no matter your field.
burrata.bsky.social Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 3d
If you have the privilege of teaching young people, time to start teaching history in the present tense regardless of your field. Shocking as it is, a lot of people in this country are not seeing let alone understanding what’s happening right now.
January 26, 2026 at 4:44 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
brismes.bsky.social
#AcademicFreedom | @cnn.com has published its coverage of the #UsamaGhanem case at KCL, including comments from Lewis Turner, BRISMES co-vice president and chair of BRISMES CAF, on academic freedom and #freedomofexpression. Worth a read 👇

edition.cnn.com/2026/01/23/e...

#HigherEducation
A student at a UK university lost his visa after pro-Palestinian activism. Some academics urge a reversal | CNN
Egyptian student Usama Ghanem took part in pro-Palestinian campus protests, prompting disciplinary action which could see him deported from Britain within days.
edition.cnn.com
January 26, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
sarahjeong.bsky.social
part of this is like, conservatives projecting; part of this is conservatives unable to imagine politics without money; and part of this is dudes who are so out of touch with feminized labor that they think children's birthday parties exist as a spontaneous act of parthogenesis
naomikritzer.bsky.social Naomi Kritzer @naomikritzer.bsky.social · 2d
I mostly just stay off Twitter altogether but after double checking that the Walter Hudson post was still up I ran across this and just had to share so the Romancelandians who bought hand warmers could hear about the PROFESSIONAL GRADE LOGISTICS.
@GuntherEagleman on Twitter says, "BREAKING: The "No-Go-Zone" in Minneapolis is getting fully stocked like a pop-up leftist supply depot, free hand warmers, winter gear, coffee, food, milk, you name it. This is PROFESSIONAL-grade logistics. Someone is BANKROLLING this autonomous zone.
January 26, 2026 at 12:14 AM
Reposted by Tom Western
donmoyn.bsky.social
From the NY Post. You know they are really scrambling when they are running "The gun was no angel" stories.
Alex Pretti’s Sig handgun has history of accidentally firing — offering possible clue to why Border agent shot him
January 25, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
mikedrucker.bsky.social
The first Minnesota murder, they refused to let a medical professional help the woman they shot. The second Minnesota murder, they simply shot the medical professional.
January 24, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
anjalienjeti.bsky.social
This is why we needed you to stand unapologetically against genocide.
January 24, 2026 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
kellylynnedang.bsky.social
The world isn't ending. *A* world is ending. And it is imperative it does.
January 24, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
harshawalia.bsky.social
With so many of us watching the tremendous mobilizations in Minneapolis, culminating in the call to action against ICE today, I wanted to share some of what I have gathered from talking to comrades in Minneapolis over the past few weeks. A few things stood out:
January 23, 2026 at 10:24 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
ziibiing.com
this photo. minneapolis. 💜

📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune
photo of march, signs for renee good and against ICe, crowded street.
January 23, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
thenewarab.bsky.social
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Thursday that Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate facing deportation, “is a New Yorker” who should be allowed to remain in the city.
January 23, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
hamiltonnolan.bsky.social
Thousands outside Terminal 1 at the Minneapolis airport now.
January 23, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
nkalamb.bsky.social
The Israeli academy has done it again.

Here we have a 'study' of how 25 *Israeli* athletes used sport to deal with the "stress feelings" they experienced... while their country committed genocide and *athleticide* in Gaza.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Research Article Sport as a coping method for stress and anxiety among athletes during swords of iron war Ofer Muchtar Published online: 25 Nov 2025 Cite this article https://doi.org/10.1080/13537121.2025.2571490 CrossMark LogoCrossMark In this article ABSTRACT Introduction The therapeutic role of sport Methodology Findings Discussion and Conclusion Conclusion Disclosure statement Additional information Footnotes References Full Article Figures & data References Citations Metrics Reprints & Permissions View PDF(open in a new window)View EPUB(open in a new window) ABSTRACT Participation in competitive sports can confer many benefits. The purpose of this study was to explore the association between Engagement in Sport and coping with traumatic events and broad array of mental health difficulties such as stress and anxiety. The study was conducted among professional athletes in the southern regions of Israel. The prolonged unstable security situation in this region in recent years has made the population vulnerable in all aspects of life. Exposure to such stress can evoke feelings of anxiety and anger, fear, helplessness, sadness, tension, and also psychiatric disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The research conducted used qualitative research methods and conducted in-depth interviews with 25 athletes residing in the area who stayed there during the ‘Iron Swords War’. The research finding suggests that participation in sports can assist athletes cope with stress and anxiety and help them achieve post traumatic growth. KEYWORDS: Post-traumatic growthphysical activityanxietysport
January 23, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
propcazhpm.bsky.social
A new edition of Edward Said's "Representations of the Intellectual" is out.

Free link: archive.ph/2026.01.21-0...

In his lectures, Said examines the motivations for thinkers, commentators and teachers… the ways in which they serve knowingly and unknowingly certain national or corporate interests.
January 23, 2026 at 2:12 AM
tomwestern.bsky.social
Cedric Robinson says values, community and mutual identifications are a "sophisticated social organization" – "a primitive organization is one where the courts are filled with defendants bound and gagged or where its citizens must be shot down in the streets and terrorized into fitful conformity"
January 23, 2026 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Tom Western
mhdksafa.bsky.social
They are selling Gaza in Davos!
January 22, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
ansleyerickson.bsky.social
Awful.
Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24, will be rearrested and deported to Algeria, DHS says
Mahmoud Khalil, SIPA ’24, will be rearrested and deported to Algeria, Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, announced Thursday, as the federal gove...
www.columbiaspectator.com
January 22, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
thenewarab.bsky.social
Israel has begun bulldozing the headquarters of UNRWA in occupied East Jerusalem.

The far-right government led by Netanyahu has been clamping down heavily on humanitarian groups that provide desperately needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza:
January 20, 2026 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
chanda.blacksky.app
German Jews were citizens of Germany at the start of 1933. By the end of 1933, the Nazis had
removed citizenship from naturalized citizen Jews.

In 1935, all German Jews were fully stripped of their German citizenship.

Citizenship under dictatorships is contingent for targeted minorities.
January 19, 2026 at 10:22 PM
tomwestern.bsky.social
How to respond to Vichyism and colonial coercion
A photo of a letter (in French) sent from the editors of the journal Tropiques to Lieutenant de Vaisseau Bayle on 12 May 1943. The English translation is as follows: Sir, We have received your indictment of Tropiques. “Racists,” “sectarians,” “revolutionaries,” “ingrates and traitors to the country,” “poisoners of souls,” none of these epithets really repulses us. “Poisoners of Souls,” like Racine, . . . “Ingrates and traitors to our good Country,” like Zola, . . . “Revolutionaries,” like the Hugo of “Chatiments.” “Sectarians,” passionately, like Rimbaud and Lautréamont. Racists, yes. Of the racism of Toussaint-Louverture, of Claude McKay and Langston Hughes against that of Drumont and Hitler. As to the rest of it, don’t expect for us to plead our case, nor vain recriminations, nor discussion. We do not speak the same language
January 18, 2026 at 1:49 PM
tomwestern.bsky.social
Photo of the anthology "Surrealism and Anti-Fascism", published by Lenbachhaus
January 17, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
nisrinelamin.bsky.social
These photos are terrifying (as opposed to stunning). Black women have been killed in these kind of scenarios long before Trump.
mrdanzak.com Mr. Dan Zak @mrdanzak.com · 12d
Stunning photos from Minneapolis, including this one by John Locher for the Associated Press. www.theatlantic.com/photography/...
A family member reacts after a federal immigration officer used a battering ram to break down a door before making an arrest on January 11, 2026, in Minneapolis.
January 15, 2026 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by Tom Western
gordonneve.bsky.social
The slow motion stage. Amidst the destruction and death, Israel has moved the yellow line another three hundred meters west.
January 16, 2026 at 8:32 AM
tomwestern.bsky.social
Good news from Lesbos (and Μητσοτάκη γαμιέσαι)
January 16, 2026 at 9:17 AM