Daniel Jones

Last year Lenny Zeskind, this year so far Gerry Gable and now Chip Berlet. It feels like we are losing a generation of activists whose lessons we seem not to have yet fully absorbed.

Can safely say that I can't imagine a situation I'd allow it for my archive while there is breath in my body.

As for what? Well. Opposition through democratic power still held. Don't be afraid of the insurrection act being invoked - Trump relies on the threat of extreme act to force compliance with only unacceptable acts. If the courts and congress allow it, then the system is already broken.

An American friend commented that they were worried that the prospect of a civil war seemed possible. I wonder if it is not scarier to imagine a world where we continue to see this unfortunate slide without some kind of opposition? Most of the time in history nothing happens. Now? Something has to.

So why do I say all this? Am I just being a boring academic who studies fascism/antifascism? Well. I stick to my view that Trump isn't a fascist (not that I think it will help me get a US visa anytime soon!). However, I increasingly struggle to imagine what would be different if he was.

In this way the democratic inertia is overcome, and the state succumbs. Much of the established power tends to refuse to be the one that crosses the line of the old rules-based system, allowing fascism to flourish. Of course, we only have a few examples of fascism doing this through history.

First, it will seek to install leadership of state bodies based on ideology not capability. It must then subvert the mission of the state organisations that it can, and destroy those it cannot. It will also establish parallel para-state bodies that will, like a parasite, slowly engulf the host.

Fascism is a revolutionary political faith, but it is one that can come to power through democratic means. When it emerges into a state already formed, it has a state with its powerful institutions intact - but also the democratic inertia built up over decades and centuries of rule of law.

Another day, another defection, another tapping of the sign.

The most successful democratic party in the west hollowed itself out and seems to be at risk of sinking over the past decade - are there enough moderate mainstream Conservatives left to right the ship when the loons fly off to a new lake?

'The technology must be used because otherwise the boom [or bubble] fails' is such a bad argument. Why does it need wider adoption? It has specific use cases where the cost is worth it. Beyond that? Get back to developing actual artificial intelligence. And for God's sake, employ ethicists.

If the US treats its allies as hostile powers, it may find that those allies no longer think it is safe to have signals and air bases of the US on their land. The US is a huge power, but its ability to project that power has long relied on bases across the world.

I mean. Forever true I guess.

Former Tory Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi defects to Reform UK Zahawi, who was chancellor for two months when Boris Johnson was prime minister, is the latest former Tory MP to join Nigel Farage's party.

The hollowing out of talent in the Tories post-Cameron and the promotion of people of dubious quality has left them exposed to these 'former minister' defects stories. They had many ministers who aren't serious people - and now they go where unserious people go. Reform. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If only anyone had known that local government faced funding issues. How could anyone know?! It's been such a closely guarded secret.

Gerry Gable, long-time editor of Searchlight, sadly died last weekend. The work of Gerry and his comrades forms our Searchlight Collection, the heart of the Searchlight Archive, and we are honoured to continue his legacy in some small way. Rest well, Gerry. www.northampton.ac.uk/news/remembe...

One of the great activists and instrumental in bringing @searchlightarchive.bsky.social to @uninorthampton.bsky.social

Gerry Gable (1937-2026) | Searchlight Gerry Gable It is with the greatest sadness that we have to announce that Searchlight's founder, Gerry Gable, has died at the age of 88. He had been in ...

Very sad news - Gerry was a great of antifascism, a tenacious fighter against the darker angels of humanity's existence, and I was lucky enough to call him a friend. His legacy is a large one, and one that will continue. Rest well Gerry, you did good.
searchlightmagazine.com/2026/01/gerr...

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey: “Keir Starmer should condemn Trump’s illegal action in Venezuela. Maduro is a brutal and illegitimate dictator, but unlawful attacks like this make us all less safe.

“Trump is giving a green light to the likes of Putin and Xi to attack other countries with impunity.”

It depends a bit on the type of paper etc. And I'm certainly not a preservation expert (just a bumbling archivist). For documents, we use products like this (again not an endorsement): www.preservationequipment.com/document-rep... which is transparent, unlike book repair tape, so it doesn't obscure.

Alas, there are items in my archive where the tape was on for so long it is the only structure left. Thankfully I prioritised those items for digitisation. Though, people could use archival paper repair tape! Non acidic, transparent...

It seriously grinds me that we gave up all the wins the Union negotiated on non-pay items so that some HEC members could engage in this 1970s nostalgia theatre. I'm lucky, but many of my cohort of ECRs are not, and those wins could have helped them hold on.

It just seems utterly bizzare to me. Given that we all agree there are insufficient resources in the system to sustain it, fighting internally over who gets to starve first just feels like precious energy that could be spent trying to alter the circumstances instead. Though maybe just as futile.

The HEC members who voted for it on the back of an already poorly engaged and fairly ambivalent consultative ballot should be asked to pay back the cost of this one. Utter waste of money and any political capital the union had.

Almost like those HEC members showing they didn't care to understand what members were saying in the consultative ballot meant that even more members decided they wouldn't care what they said in a strike ballot....funny how consequences follow actions.

Manging to defect to Reform just as they are slumping in the polls is pure peak SeaGullis.

Did you see the Commons photo celebrating the 75th anniversary of the post war refit? Poor MP Jennie was right next to Farage. He looked like he was reaching for her adorable head!

From our winter newsletter

Our chair still uses them!

Also looks like they took out the colonnade - which was originally built under Thomas Jefferson (along with its counterpart on the west side).