Alex L

University of Brighton student living in Teeside. Studying a PhD into politics and rewilding. Socialist.

On #Mastodon find me at

[Olly @reality_manager]

Macron apparently furious after a placard from one of the students reading: "fuck your own teacher not ours" was broadcast on tv.

[Nina Turner @ninaturner]

Israel has bombed multiple churches in Gaza over the past two years.

[John Cusack @johncusack]

Don’t become numb to these atrocities - there are not separate kinds of human beings - what is done to one is done to all .

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

I'm excited to announce this new study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, which explores public support for degrowth and ecosocialist transformation. The findings are quite surprising.

We surveyed more than 5,000 people in the UK and US, using demographically representative samples and two separate study designs. Here I'll report results for the UK, but the US is similar.

First, we presented people with a full proposal for degrowth-ecosocialist transformation, but without using any label. This included:

-scaling down damaging and unnecessary production/consumption
-cutting the purchasing power of the rich
-establishing universal public services and a public job guarantee to reorganize production around needs
-democratizing control over finance and the means of production
-ending imperialist appropriation from the global South through unequal exchange

We found that 82% of people supported it.

Next, we presented people with various labels - including "degrowth", "ecosocialism", and "well-being economy" - without any description.

We found that "degrowth" was supported by 20-26%, depending on the study, but also attracted a lot of opposition (16-34%).

"Ecosocialism" had higher support, at 36-58%, and much lower opposition (11-16%).

"Well-being economy" had even higher support (51-81%) and very minimal opposition (more on this later).

Next, we gave people the full proposal but this time together with various different labels. We found that support was high regardless of the label, with very strong majorities.

So what can we make of all this? For me, here are the main takeaways:

First, the transformative vision and policies advanced by advocates of degrowth-ecosocialism are extremely popular and can form the basis of a winning political campaign.

Second, the word "degrowth" is a crucial analytical and scientific term, but - depending on the context - perhaps less useful as a public-facing political slogan, as it is easily misunderstood....

...UNLESS you have the capacity to educate people about what the term means and what such a transformation would entail.

Third, the term ecosocialism is substantially more popular and I think can create broader political support (we didn't test related terms, like socialism or democratic socialism or communism... but this would be interesting!).

What about "well-being economy"? It's popular and very useful in certain contexts, but it is also apolitical and can easily be co-opted by capitalists. To me it's important to be clear about the political antagonism that is at stake: this is a class war. Ecosocialism does this job (but other terms may work just as well or better).

But ultimately, what this study shows is that we don't necessarily need a single term; it's the political substance and the concrete policies that matter.

And we must remember that the struggle does not consist in deciding on the right terminology and framing. It consists in building power. This must remain front and centre.

The paper is open-access, and I'll put a link in the reply.

[Matt Kennard @kennardmatt]

Worth thinking about in context of this secret D-Notice on Gaza sent out 28 October 2023

Declassified has done nearly all the important work on UK military/intel role in Gaza genocide

MSM published close to zero. Because, as noted, they habitually obey state censors. Disgrace

[troovus @troovus]

Labour are all about "taking on unions" and never about "taking on capitalists"

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

This is the "most moral army in the world":
A soldier stealing a child's bicycle and throwing it in the trash

A perfect,small-scale metaphor for an occupation built on stealing childhoods, joy, and futures. Pure, casual cruelty

[Aaron Bastani @AaronBastani]

Faiza Shaheen has a PhD, was a visiting professor at the LSE, has published a book, headed up a think tank and is now the executive director of another one.

But for #bbcqt she’s still an ‘activist’.

See how it works?

[Jamie Driscoll @JamieDriscollNE]

A statement from me, @BethWinterCynon and @andrewfeinstein

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Iain Duncan Smith says when Maccabi played a game in Istanbul there was no trouble at all

@IanByrneMP had to point out UEFA moved the game to Hungary after the Turkish authorities refused to stage it &the Hungarian authorities then played it behind closed doors. Hence no trouble

[Stan Collymore @StanCollymore]

Hi @lisanandy

"unprecedented" means it's never happened before.

So your statement in parliament suggesting MTA supporter ban as "unprecedented" is a lie. A lie that you know you are peddling. Lucky for you that Parliamentary privilege used mendaciously can't be held to account outside of those walls.

You talk about "dubious facts being peddled on social media", yet you're active on social media and a cursory glance at Aston Villa's social media or website would show you clearly and unambiguously that not only is there precedent but a recent precedent and a recent precedent at Villa Park.

Your mealy mouth play on words and those of politicians on all sides are mostly fact and context free, have little or no understanding of many domestic and European bans for clubs with form( you used "reprehensible" for some MTA fans) and show little or no regard for the people who's safety and security you're mandated to protect.

The British public, first and last, regardless of race, colour, creed or religion.

Here is the Aston Villa Football Club statement from the Legia Warsaw game.

Enjoy your tenure because Labour ( a party I proudly supported since teenage) will not see power again for decades.

A party that stands for nothing will be rejected by everybody and so you will be.

[Alex L @AlexEel4]

@PhilipProudfoot .

[Alex L @AlexEel4]

@arisaqz1 .

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Thames Water's collapse is 24 hours away?

Back in July Ofwat announced that, at TW request, they had delayed the company's appeal against this year's price rises. TW want more money. a lot, lot more.

TW was given a deadline of 22nd Oct or else, that's tomorrow.

They're clearly not going to make it. Then what???

[Martin Shaw @martinshawx]

Lessons of the Maccabi fiasco: ‘The quiet part is that when their fans chant “death to the Arabs”, there is a small part of British society that agrees with them’ - and politicians humour them out of expediency. Great piece by Jonathan Liew. https://t.co/EJZP7zSwND

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

Seems no one remembered to tell West Bank settlers to stop hitting old Palestinian women over the head till unconscious. For Apartheid Israel, Peace means that Palestinians do not resist settler violence. Time the world tells Israel that this is NOT our definition.

[James Meadway @meadwaj]

Catching up w @ZackPolanski on BBC this morning. Very pleasing to finally have a political leader point out what ought to be obvious - that the Institute of Fiscal Studies is just one voice amongst many on the economy, and that there is no such thing as “independent” economics.

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

Fascists of the world do unite!

[Alex L @AlexEel4]

@arisaqz1 .