Pavlos Roufos

Yesterday, an Italian court suspended the detention of our rescue ship Aurora, which had been blocked in port and deliberately prevented from saving lives for 18 days. The verdict confirmed what should be obvious: [A thread] 👇

🚨Exciting News! 🚨 We just launched our new blog “Fascism and Liberalism - Yesterday and Today” which will be published weekly on Thursdays starting with a great piece by Clara Mattei and Aditya Singh next week!

Learn more here and stay tuned!
www.karlpolanyisociety.com/2025/07/31/f...

"They will use the word 'gray' to describe the section of the city that has no neon advertisments" (Jenny Erpenbeck)

Excerpt from Columbia's agreement/bribe to the Trump Regime: 20. Columbia will uphold its commitment to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by providing safe and fair opportunities for women including single-sex housing for women who request such housing and all-female sports, locker rooms, and showering facilities.

Buried in Columbia's agreement/bribe with the Trump regime (and not reported by the news) is a section which agrees to segregate trans women from women's housing, sports, and bathrooms. Functionally, trans women are no longer welcome at Columbia University.

Trying to kick out Powell before his term is over by accusing him of fraud, only to accidentally reveal that *if there was any fraud*, Trump did it. Can’t make it up.

📣 Postdoc vacancy! I am looking for a qualitative postdoc (3 years, 100%) to join my ERC project #RESTATE (Refugees’ Political Participation and State-(Re)Making in Displacement, 85%) and my project #SYREALITY (Syrian Imaginations of Europe meet Reality, 15%) starting preferably on 1 January 2026.

RIP

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor, yeah
War Pigs

Muskfascist "Tommy Robinson" is trying to mobilise his thugs to Epping on Sunday. With the support of the corporate media & the BBC, Farrago's Reform is urging them on. Stand Up To Racism is organising a counterprotest. Local trade union leader compares the rise of fascist mobs to that of the 1930s.

Όλο αυτό θα μπορούσε άνετα να συμβεί, ισχύει. Θα μπορούσε όμως και να μην. Κεντρώος φορέας δεν έχει καταφέρει να πιάσει πουθενά την τελευταία δεκαετία, άσε που δεν θεωρώ τον Τσίπρα ικανό για κάτι τέτοιο. Μηντιακη στήριξη δεν φτάνει κατά την γνώμη μου

Αν τυχόν πιάσει, που δεν νομίζω, δεν θα είναι λόγω rebranding. Θα ειναι ενα mix die-hard τσιπρικων μαζι με expat τυπακια σαν τον αποπανω που δεν πολυ-καταλαβαίνουν τι είναι όλο αυτό αλλα περνανε ωραία στην εξωτική ελλαδα.. γνωμη μου

🤣🤣🤣

in the revisions of the draft in late 44/early 45 Adorno adds to the ongoing “prehistory” of fascist barbarism by including “South Africa” in a note as a contemporary instance—a sequence of genocides each as incomparably singular in its horror as the last, no analogies needed

Collection: Radical Reconstruction, or Anti-Fascist Pedagogy (ca. 1942-1945). ISR Memos on Chauvinism, Democracy, & an Inter-European Academy.

In “Program for an Inter-European Academy” (44/45) drafted by Horkheimer & revised by Adorno. Abandoned in 45 apparently (probably bc it was too utopian in ambition to really be a pitch to the allied powers for postwar Germany). transcribed here: open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...

Horkheimer (& Adorno) in 1944/45: “Nazi barbarism has a long and uninterrupted prehistory. From Cortes’ rule of conquered Mexico to Leopold II’s administration of the Congo… the advocates of concentration camps… could find some support in institutions such as French Guyana.”

Oh and since it is such a good framing, let's keep reproducing it in every relevant coverage until our readers eyes bleed.

As my friend Quinn pointed out yesterday, the purported certainty of a fallout between Musk and the Trump administration seems to carry as much weight as their online clickbait performative hissy fits.

Then again, if your brand name is being a “depoliticized” mouthpiece of neoliberal restructuring, this is how you properly frame stories. 7/End

None of the actual cuts have anything to do with public holidays nor is the “gentle” urge to work more connected to public finance. But the targeted workers are still lazy and stubbornly holding on to some minimal concessions which make their work relations less hellish than those in the US. 6/

And while we are at it, why not throw in some “picked in random” comparison with the US (read: the failed state that has zero safety nets and non-existent paid leave) to drive the point in - it is after a Western democracy.

Having been drawn in by the title and the seemingly “reasonable” claim that one “needs to work more”, the conclusion is obvious. Any protests will surely reflect the stubborn attachment of spoiled and lazy workers to “generous social safety net and ample paid leave”. 3/

The main framing of the story, and the appropriate title for it, of course, is that the French government is cancelling two public holidays, accompanied by the explanation that “the nation needs to work more”. 3/

Lets leave aside the warning that Greek-level deficit numbers “necessitate” Greek-style austerity and “tightening the belt”. 2/

The story is that the French government is planning a drastic set of measures to cut public spending at all possible levels - ie implement harsh austerity that will affect millions and will (rightly) be protested against. Serious “journalists” however have a better framing than that. 1/

Happy 5:30AM to those who celebrate—transcriptions of four memos on postwar reconstruction and anti-fascist pedagogy cooked up by the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Marcuse, Pollock, Horkheimer, Löwenthal) in the 1940s! open.substack.com/pub/jamescra...

Και σίγουρα δεν είναι αφ'υψηλού το να καταδεικνύει κανείς τις δομικές αιτίες που οδηγούν σε τετοιες τραγωδιες. Όλοι/ες καταλαβαίνουν τι σημαίνει νεοφιλελευθερη πολιτική, λιτότητα, υποχρηματοδότηση κτλ. Ελάχιστοι όμως ήξεραν τι στο διαολο είναι το ξυλόλιο πριν το προβάλλει ο Βελόπουλος.

Αυτό ήθελα να πω: δεν είναι η μια προσέγγιση αφαίρεση κ η άλλη απτή & συγκεκριμένη. Η διαφορά είναι πως η μια είναι κατανοητή από όλους & αποτελεί κομμάτι κοινωνικής κριτικής (απτά και συγκεκριμένα) ενώ η άλλη εξαρτάται από ειδικούς, είναι soft απέναντι στους θεσμούς κ "σκληρή" απεναντι στα άτομα.

αλλα αν η συγκάλυψη ευθύνεται για το ατύχημα (προφανώς και όχι). Με ή χωρίς παράνομο φορτίο, η σύγκρουση θα είχε συμβεί - και θα ξανασυμβεί. Αυτή είναι η μεθοδολογική διαφορά των δυο προσεγγίσεων.

Δεν θα μάθουμε ποτέ αν υπήρχε τελικά 'παρανομο φορτιο', στους πόσους βαθμούς εξατμίζεται το ξυλόλιο κτλ. Αυτό δεν αλλάζει τίποτα ομως σε σχέση με τις πραγματικές αιτίες πισω από το ατύχημα που παραμένουν ίδιες, με ή χωρίς ξυλόλιο. Το ζήτημα δεν είναι λοιπόν αν υπήρχε συγκάλυψη (προφανώς και υπήρχε)

Η πρώτη προοπτική δείχνει την κοινωνία που ζούμε και αναρωτιέται πως θα μπορούσε να αλλάξει, η δεύτερη απαιτεί "τιμωρία" (για 'εσχάτη προδοσία' μάλιστα) όσων συνομώτησαν *υπερασπιζόμενη* την ίδια κοινωνία (κράτος, νόμους, αδέκαστους δικαστές) που παρήγαγε αυτό το προκαθορισμένο έγκλημα.

Την πρώτη πραγματικότητα μπορούν να την καταλάβουν όλοι/ες γιατί τυχαίνει να την έχουν νιώσει στο πετσί τους επανειλλημένως τα τελευταία 15 χρόνια (τουλάχιστον). Το δευτερο σκέλος όμως χρειάζεται τους ειδικούς, τους εμπειρογνώμονες, αυτούς που θα "ριξουν φως" στο "σκοτάδι". >>