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carantes.bsky.social
Carantes
@carantes.bsky.social
98 followers 8 following 47 posts
Celtic AntiRacist ANTifascist Egalitarian Society.
Fighting fascism and fostering inclusivity in Celtic Studies.
Newsletter at caranteswg@proton.me
Logo by Forfeda
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carantes.bsky.social
In solidarity with the Irish Healthcare Union and Teachers' Union, there is a call for a National Walk Out this Thursday, 16 October, across Ireland in support of Gaza. Your school or work may have something organised! Please participate if you are able!
#freepalestine #StandOutforGaza1610 #freegaza
Poster. Stand out for Gaza at Work. End the Apartheid. End the Genocide. End the Complicity. We will stand out for Gaza. #StandoutforGaza1610. Organise a lunchtime solidarity demonstration outside your workplace. Thursday 16 October.
October 14, 2025 at 12:29 PM
carantes.bsky.social
Comrades from across unions and orgs came together this past Saturday for the Feck Fascism Carnival in Dublin. It was great to see so many marching and gathering together to visibly and vocally oppose racism, fascism, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, and all systems of oppression!
A crowd is gathered in front of a stage with performers waiting on the sides while a speaker in the centre talks into a microphone. People in the crowd hold flags and banners, such as the Irish tricolour, the Ukrainian flag, a banner that reads 'United Against Racism', and a sign that reads 'Blame the Government, not Migrants'. Clouds dominate the background behind the Dublin skyline. A crowd is gathered holding signs and flags, including the Palestinian flag, Ukrainian flag, the SIPTU flag, and a sign that reads 'Equality for All, Naturalization for Ukrainians'. A bridge is above the crowd with large rainclouds in the background. The Palestinian and Progress Pride flags are billowing in the air in front of a grey stone building. All that can be seen of the name of the building is 'R theatre'. A red umbrella is seen below the Progress Pride flag, and a redbrick building in the background. A small dog, perhaps a terrier-corgi mix, black body with reddish-brown legs and face, throws his head back. He is standing on road asphalt, humans standing in a crowd behind him, their backs to him. His mouth is open, eyes partially closed, clearly mid-bark. One may describe his appearance as angry.
September 30, 2025 at 1:42 PM
carantes.bsky.social
It's the 3 year anniversary of Carantes! 'But Cassandra', you say, 'you're so smart and so pretty and so funny, but what IS Carantes??' Well, dear reader, firstly, thank you I really needed that, and secondly, allow me to explain:

#celtic #antiracist #antifascist #medieval #academia
Carantes formed in 2022 after a small group of us met at a Celtic Studies summer school. During our time there, we discussed something troubling: far-right appropriation of Celtic material, dubiously used to ‘justify’ their awful views. We were all postgrads or independent scholars, so we felt that our main goal ought to be to inoculate the field against the far-right and fascists. In doing so, we set out both to educate those in Celtic Studies about ways fascists appropriate material, and also to educate the public about Celtic Studies to make it more difficult for fascists to twist facts to suit their narratives. We chose our name from the Proto-Celtic word *karant(e)s, which means ‘friend(s)’; descendants of this word survive in all Celtic languages. It stands for Celtic AntiRacist ANTifascist Egalitarian Society. We wanted to highlight our desire to build a community where we all support one another. Our logo (by the wonderful Forfeda on tumblr) is a hound and raven, inspired by Ultimate La Tène style; the two animals feature in stories told by Celtic peoples, and typically they work together. About a year after we formed, we went public. Since then, we have sponsored talks at conferences; put out (mostly) monthly newsletters with suggested readings; held quarterly public meetings; and hosted an active Discord channel where people can ask questions, discuss topics, and have a sense of community. We are non-hierarchical by nature and encourage others to take on new ventures under our banner, and the community can help where possible. This anniversary post was meant to be a celebration (which it still is), but it is also a plea, a warning, a cry into the ether. Over the last three years the world has grown increasingly fascistic and hostile toward most of us. Organisations like Turning Point USA (ew) create blacklists of lecturers who they suspect of being left-leaning, harassing institutions and encouraging them to fire staff who oppose fascism. The FCC is strong-arming networks to cancel shows that critique the regime. The UK’s Supreme Court bowed to the pressure of TERFs and further institutionalised transphobia, not to mention the censorship of those protesting human-rights violations. And now, the US President is saying he will designate anti-fascism as a terrorist organisation (ignoring the fact that it is an ideology, not an organisation, but what are facts really worth these days?). In leading up to this post, we made a thread discussing Umberto Eco’s piece Ur-Fascism (admittedly, the thread is unwieldy, that’s on me). The points he makes in it, about how to spot fascists, couldn’t be more timely. Read that piece again. Reread it. Call out fascism where you see it. It’s hard, trust me I know, but don’t become complacent. This state of affairs is unacceptable. Support people of colour, trans people, immigrants, women, queer people, persons with disabilities, refugees. Reject billionaires’ generative AI, flex your own creativity: make and think critically for yourself. We are in this together. And if you aren’t anti-fascist, then what are you? Lots of love, your friends at Carantes
September 18, 2025 at 7:31 PM