Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
@benwwk.bsky.social
Lecturer in Art History; Doctor of London's murals & 'the Left', 1975-86; Socialist; Trade unionist; Free Palestine 🇵🇸
https://profiles.open.ac.uk/ben-wiedel-kaufmann
https://profiles.open.ac.uk/ben-wiedel-kaufmann
Pinned
Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
@benwwk.bsky.social
· Mar 14
Delighted the Special Issue of Art & the Public Sphere I’ve co-edited with Warren Carter is out. 100 years since Siqueiros' ‘Manifesto of the syndicate of technical workers, painters & sculptors’ the issue explores the interrelationship between mural painting & leftist politics🧵👇
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
Our Next Seminar: 📢☢️
Radioactive Marxisms & Atomic Fairytales from the former East Germany, with Sarah James
Friday 28th November 2025, 5.30-7.30pm
@ucl-ias.bsky.social Common Ground G11, ground floor, South Wing, UCL Gower St, London WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Radioactive Marxisms & Atomic Fairytales from the former East Germany, with Sarah James
Friday 28th November 2025, 5.30-7.30pm
@ucl-ias.bsky.social Common Ground G11, ground floor, South Wing, UCL Gower St, London WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Radioactive Marxisms & Atomic Fairytales from the former East Germany
An Ultra-Violet Art History of Afterlives. Join this 'Marxism in Culture' seminar with Sara James (Manchester School of Art, MMU)
www.ucl.ac.uk
November 20, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Our Next Seminar: 📢☢️
Radioactive Marxisms & Atomic Fairytales from the former East Germany, with Sarah James
Friday 28th November 2025, 5.30-7.30pm
@ucl-ias.bsky.social Common Ground G11, ground floor, South Wing, UCL Gower St, London WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Radioactive Marxisms & Atomic Fairytales from the former East Germany, with Sarah James
Friday 28th November 2025, 5.30-7.30pm
@ucl-ias.bsky.social Common Ground G11, ground floor, South Wing, UCL Gower St, London WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
📣Not 1 but 2 South London Your Party events @peckhamlevels tomorrow
💥Kicking off with a Regional Assembly for members from 2pm
🎉And concluding with a rally of local trade unionists and campaigners joined by @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social from 6.30pm
Hasta mañana ✊🚩
www.brixtonbuzz.com/2025/11/jere...
💥Kicking off with a Regional Assembly for members from 2pm
🎉And concluding with a rally of local trade unionists and campaigners joined by @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social from 6.30pm
Hasta mañana ✊🚩
www.brixtonbuzz.com/2025/11/jere...
Jeremy Corbyn returns to South London for Your Party rally at Peckham Levels, Sunday 2nd November 2025
Your Party continues its South London expansion with a Regional Assembly and rally in Peckham on Saturday 2 November, headlined by Jeremy Corbyn alongside trade unionists and local campaigners.
www.brixtonbuzz.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:59 PM
📣Not 1 but 2 South London Your Party events @peckhamlevels tomorrow
💥Kicking off with a Regional Assembly for members from 2pm
🎉And concluding with a rally of local trade unionists and campaigners joined by @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social from 6.30pm
Hasta mañana ✊🚩
www.brixtonbuzz.com/2025/11/jere...
💥Kicking off with a Regional Assembly for members from 2pm
🎉And concluding with a rally of local trade unionists and campaigners joined by @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social from 6.30pm
Hasta mañana ✊🚩
www.brixtonbuzz.com/2025/11/jere...
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
The London Underground has, over the past 25 years, hosted works by some of Britain’s leading contemporary artists. Eleanor Pinfield, director of Art on the Underground, talks to Apollo about why preserving public art is becoming an ever more urgent task
How the Tube became London’s biggest art gallery
Eleanor Pinfield, director of Art on the Underground, talks to Apollo about the challenges of commissioning art for a subterranean audience
buff.ly
October 20, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The London Underground has, over the past 25 years, hosted works by some of Britain’s leading contemporary artists. Eleanor Pinfield, director of Art on the Underground, talks to Apollo about why preserving public art is becoming an ever more urgent task
Relieved to see the Edward Burra at Tate Britain before it closed. Fascinating show packed full of great paintings, from 1920s Paris to 1970s Cornwall (via Harlem, Rye and 1930s Spain).
October 19, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Relieved to see the Edward Burra at Tate Britain before it closed. Fascinating show packed full of great paintings, from 1920s Paris to 1970s Cornwall (via Harlem, Rye and 1930s Spain).
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
⚡️First seminar of new academic year
Rethinking Revolutionary Memory: The Production and Afterlives of Yugoslav Socialist Monuments with Sanja Horvatinčić & Beti Žerovc
31st Oct 🎃, 5.30-7.30pm
@ucl-ias.bsky.social
IAS Common Ground
G11, South Wing, UCL,WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Rethinking Revolutionary Memory: The Production and Afterlives of Yugoslav Socialist Monuments with Sanja Horvatinčić & Beti Žerovc
31st Oct 🎃, 5.30-7.30pm
@ucl-ias.bsky.social
IAS Common Ground
G11, South Wing, UCL,WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Rethinking Revolutionary Memory: The Production and Afterlives of Yugoslav Socialist Monuments
Join this 'Marxism in Culture' seminar with Sanja Horvatinčić and Beti Žerovc.
www.ucl.ac.uk
October 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
⚡️First seminar of new academic year
Rethinking Revolutionary Memory: The Production and Afterlives of Yugoslav Socialist Monuments with Sanja Horvatinčić & Beti Žerovc
31st Oct 🎃, 5.30-7.30pm
@ucl-ias.bsky.social
IAS Common Ground
G11, South Wing, UCL,WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Rethinking Revolutionary Memory: The Production and Afterlives of Yugoslav Socialist Monuments with Sanja Horvatinčić & Beti Žerovc
31st Oct 🎃, 5.30-7.30pm
@ucl-ias.bsky.social
IAS Common Ground
G11, South Wing, UCL,WC1E 6BT
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Happy 40th Anniversary to the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural!
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️
September 29, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Happy 40th Anniversary to the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural!
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️
Great to be part of yesterday’s celebrations.
👏🏼🎉🕊️☮️🚩❤️
Really looking forward to being part of this panel on Sunday discussing the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural. Part of a wider celebration to mark the mural's 40th Anniversary. Should be great!
Free tickets to panel discussion:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...
Free tickets to panel discussion:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...
The Hackney Peace Carnival Mural Unwrapped - Panel Discussion & exhibition
Eventbrite - Hackney Archives presents The Hackney Peace Carnival Mural Unwrapped - Panel Discussion & exhibition - Sunday, 28 September 2025 at Hackney Archives, London, England. Find event and ticke...
www.eventbrite.co.uk
September 25, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Really looking forward to being part of this panel on Sunday discussing the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural. Part of a wider celebration to mark the mural's 40th Anniversary. Should be great!
Free tickets to panel discussion:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...
Free tickets to panel discussion:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...
‘The lack of urgency on all manner of organising questions has been excruciating, and if there doesn’t issue from this a new debate, a new coalition, a new strategy, and a new set of tactics — then we deserve what we get’.
Good (/bleak) by @leninology.bsky.social
www.patreon.com/posts/138879...
Good (/bleak) by @leninology.bsky.social
www.patreon.com/posts/138879...
I heard you want your country back | Richard Seymour
Get more from Richard Seymour on Patreon
www.patreon.com
September 15, 2025 at 10:41 PM
‘The lack of urgency on all manner of organising questions has been excruciating, and if there doesn’t issue from this a new debate, a new coalition, a new strategy, and a new set of tactics — then we deserve what we get’.
Good (/bleak) by @leninology.bsky.social
www.patreon.com/posts/138879...
Good (/bleak) by @leninology.bsky.social
www.patreon.com/posts/138879...
Really looking forward to being a part of the celebrations for the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural's 40th anniversary.
Book your free tickets now 👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...
Book your free tickets now 👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...
The Hackney Peace Carnival Mural Unwrapped - Talk and Panel Discussion
Join us for an talk and panel discussion with Dr Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann, Laurie Elks, CND Vice President Kate Hudson and Muralist Paul Butler.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
September 12, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Really looking forward to being a part of the celebrations for the Hackney Peace Carnival Mural's 40th anniversary.
Book your free tickets now 👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...
Book your free tickets now 👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-hackne...
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
"Steelworker" (Clifford Wight, 1934) // Coit Tower // Telegraph Hill // San Francisco, Calif.
This is the first union job I've had so I needed to share this mural today; it was linked to its neighbor with a banner that read "Workers of the World Unite" until it was painted over by censorious jerks
This is the first union job I've had so I needed to share this mural today; it was linked to its neighbor with a banner that read "Workers of the World Unite" until it was painted over by censorious jerks
August 30, 2025 at 1:40 AM
"Steelworker" (Clifford Wight, 1934) // Coit Tower // Telegraph Hill // San Francisco, Calif.
This is the first union job I've had so I needed to share this mural today; it was linked to its neighbor with a banner that read "Workers of the World Unite" until it was painted over by censorious jerks
This is the first union job I've had so I needed to share this mural today; it was linked to its neighbor with a banner that read "Workers of the World Unite" until it was painted over by censorious jerks
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
The Painted Empire: Mural Messages Across Central Mexico
open.substack.com/pub/rogueart...
open.substack.com/pub/rogueart...
The Painted Empire: Mural Messages Across Central Mexico
Mesoamerican Murals Part 2
open.substack.com
August 30, 2025 at 6:12 AM
The Painted Empire: Mural Messages Across Central Mexico
open.substack.com/pub/rogueart...
open.substack.com/pub/rogueart...
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
#OtD 16 Aug 1842 during a Chartist general strike for universal male suffrage, troops fired on a march in Stoke-on-Trent, killing 19-year-old shoemaker Josiah Heapy and injuring others. 146 were jailed and 54 transported to Australia stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8756...
August 16, 2025 at 8:45 AM
#OtD 16 Aug 1842 during a Chartist general strike for universal male suffrage, troops fired on a march in Stoke-on-Trent, killing 19-year-old shoemaker Josiah Heapy and injuring others. 146 were jailed and 54 transported to Australia stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8756...
Lovely research day with murals old and imminent.
August 15, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Lovely research day with murals old and imminent.
The wonderful Hackney Peace Carnival Mural turns 40 this year. I’m very pleased to be speaking as part of the celebrations on 28th September. You can donate and follow the evolving schedule at:
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...
August 4, 2025 at 10:09 AM
The wonderful Hackney Peace Carnival Mural turns 40 this year. I’m very pleased to be speaking as part of the celebrations on 28th September. You can donate and follow the evolving schedule at:
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hackney-pe...
Remembering Jean Charles de Menezes - executed 20 years ago today with impunity by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable police force let loose by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable political executive. 20 years on, plus ca change: no justice, no peace morningstaronline.co.uk/article/twen...
July 22, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Remembering Jean Charles de Menezes - executed 20 years ago today with impunity by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable police force let loose by a racist, dishonest and unaccountable political executive. 20 years on, plus ca change: no justice, no peace morningstaronline.co.uk/article/twen...
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
#OtD 21 Jul 1972 women shoemakers in Fakenham, Norfolk, England, who had been occupying their factory against redundancy, launched a workers' cooperative in a new plant stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9389...
July 21, 2025 at 1:10 PM
#OtD 21 Jul 1972 women shoemakers in Fakenham, Norfolk, England, who had been occupying their factory against redundancy, launched a workers' cooperative in a new plant stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9389...
Calling @ucu.org.uk colleagues:
👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action
More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...
👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action
More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...
July 21, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Calling @ucu.org.uk colleagues:
👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action
More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...
👀Look out for the consultative ballot in your inbox
🚫✂️REJECT the UCEA offer (another real terms pay cut on top of the 20% cut between 2008 and 2021)
✅🪧Vote yes to industrial action
More info: www.ucu.org.uk/heconsultati...
Chilling if widely predicted application of counter-terror frameworks post-proscription.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Armed police threatened to arrest Kent protester for holding Palestinian flag
Officers accused Laura Murton who also had a sign saying ‘Free Gaza’ of supporting a proscribed organisation
www.theguardian.com
July 17, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Chilling if widely predicted application of counter-terror frameworks post-proscription.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Reposted by Ben Wiedel-Kaufmann
"Eleanor Marx could have been the route through which many further ideas had come; should have been our Zetkin, our Luxemburg..."
davidrenton590934.substack.com/p/edward-ave...
TW: sexual violence, murder, the Marx family
davidrenton590934.substack.com/p/edward-ave...
TW: sexual violence, murder, the Marx family
Edward Aveling –
The venom at the heart of the first socialists
davidrenton590934.substack.com
July 4, 2025 at 7:28 AM
"Eleanor Marx could have been the route through which many further ideas had come; should have been our Zetkin, our Luxemburg..."
davidrenton590934.substack.com/p/edward-ave...
TW: sexual violence, murder, the Marx family
davidrenton590934.substack.com/p/edward-ave...
TW: sexual violence, murder, the Marx family
If ever you doubt the abject, craven self-interest of most parliamentary representatives look no further than last night. In effect all bar 22 MPs (inc tellers/ excl Lib Dems) voted to proscribe as terrorists a non-violent direct action group opposing a live-streamed genocide.
July 3, 2025 at 10:02 AM
If ever you doubt the abject, craven self-interest of most parliamentary representatives look no further than last night. In effect all bar 22 MPs (inc tellers/ excl Lib Dems) voted to proscribe as terrorists a non-violent direct action group opposing a live-streamed genocide.
Some highlights from the National Museum of Wales:
Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.
Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.
July 1, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Some highlights from the National Museum of Wales:
Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.
Thurston Hopkins, George Poole and Édouard Manet.
To Kill a War Machine - well worth a watch
tokillawarmachine.com
tokillawarmachine.com
June 28, 2025 at 11:36 PM
To Kill a War Machine - well worth a watch
tokillawarmachine.com
tokillawarmachine.com
‘We…condemn the UK Government’s plans to proscribe Palestine Action…& consider this constitutes a significant threat to freedom of expression & civil liberties…’
Over 750 academics launch open letter condemning moves to ban @palaction.bsky.social
Read & sign:
ucw4palestine.org/2025/06/27/d...
Over 750 academics launch open letter condemning moves to ban @palaction.bsky.social
Read & sign:
ucw4palestine.org/2025/06/27/d...
https://ucw4palestine.org/2025/06/27/defend-the-right-to-protest-no-ban-on-palestine-action-open-letter/
t.co
June 27, 2025 at 8:21 AM
‘We…condemn the UK Government’s plans to proscribe Palestine Action…& consider this constitutes a significant threat to freedom of expression & civil liberties…’
Over 750 academics launch open letter condemning moves to ban @palaction.bsky.social
Read & sign:
ucw4palestine.org/2025/06/27/d...
Over 750 academics launch open letter condemning moves to ban @palaction.bsky.social
Read & sign:
ucw4palestine.org/2025/06/27/d...
I will miss passing the overspilling bikes. I never knew about the films - what a fascinating life. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...
Clovis Salmon, regarded as first black UK documentary film-maker, dies at 98
Known as Sam the Wheels, he filmed aspects of community life in south London, including 1981’s Brixton riot
www.theguardian.com
June 19, 2025 at 5:46 AM
I will miss passing the overspilling bikes. I never knew about the films - what a fascinating life. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ju...