@vsdawson
Freelance historian and interdisciplinary researcher for hire. Working class. Radical feminist. Socialist. Anti-fascist. Northern powerhouse. Learning German. PhD: Women and Rugby League: Gender, Class and Community 1880-1970.
Now that #callthemidwife has finished, I'll have to update my old articles about it. I only called it the best drama series of the decade - selling it a bit short there. www.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk/?p=6553
Congrats! It was never in doubt!
"Trump is not the architect of the Iran war, only its vehicle."
On who's really in charge:
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/the-no-wor...
"Women's freedom is the sign of social freedom."
"The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening."
- Rosa Luxemburg
Happy International Women's Day 2026.
The No World Order
Sarah Kendzior's latest, with fascinating research on Meir Kahane & Jewish Defense League, how it helped sway Israeli - American politics, and in which she helps us understand the whole messianic complex in today's war.
"If it were only history, I would not be so frightened."
Reaction & analysis from the #spycops public inquiry at the end of 4 days grilling officer Carlo Soracchi who infiltrated socialist groups 2000-06 & deceived 3 women into relationships. Incredible scenes this week, he's been caught out lying over & over.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_Vr...
www.goodreads.com/book/show/56...
#spycops public inquiry at the end of 4 days grilling officer Carlo Soracchi who infiltrated socialist groups 2000-06 & deceived 3 women into relationships. Incredible scenes this week, he's been caught out lying over & over.
Misdemeanour?! It wasn't an accident!
War and mass casualties are never a "distraction". They are an abomination. But saying the war on Iran is a distraction from Epstein is especially ridiculous:
You only need to do it if you are going to use direct messages. Turn off direct messages in your settings so no one can send you messages you cannot read.
The issue here is not simply how mocking disabled people has become normalised in the name of antiracism, but the seeming failure to understand that black people also suffer from Tourette’s and that this only makes the situation worse for them… 1/
Black and white image of women workers.
Join us this #WomensHistoryMonth in amplifying women’s voices past and present.
Our website is a wonderful place to start learning more. Spread the word!
womenshistorynetwork.org
#WHM2026 #WomensHistory #GenderHist
Image: Pit girl brow workers, Wigan, 1900. COPY 1/445, The National Archives.
Women's lives were infiltrated by a police unit, they were deceived and raped by the state for years, and you flippantly suggest that it's their fault? Go and listen to the women's evidence to the inquiry then come back and apologise for victim blaming.
Quick point on some of the framing of the Gorton and Denton result and sectarianism. It’s commonly posed as Gorton (or strictly, the wards in Manchester part of the constituency) being the Muslim part and Denton (or, the part of the constituency in Tameside)… 1/
This will come as no surprise to anyone following the #Spycops inquiry, and is exactly why the inquiry should have covered the whole UK.
Listen to @donnamclean.bsky.social sum up her powerful evidence today with these crucial points about #consent and women's bodily autonomy. #spycops
New: this app warns you if someone is wearing smart glasses nearby.
Meta plans to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. A 404 Media reader made this app after we showed men filming people w/o their consent, and DHS officials were wearing the glasses www.404media.co/this-app-war...
That sounds like a great booklet to be in possession of! There you go, @workingclasshistory.com, the country's leading expert is on it!
Perhaps @railwayhistorian.bsky.social can point you in the right direction?
Instant summary from the morning break at the #spycops inquiry on its day questioning officer HN3 'Jason Bishop'. He was deployed 1998-2005 infiltrating eco, anti-war & anarcho groups.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s0B...
Yet another rugby union club claiming a history that isn't theirs! Berry wouldn't have been allowed to play for them when they were formed in 1911!
With the news that Carling Black Label is returning, read our blog on the origins of Carling beer which goes back to the Carling family of Etton, 12 miles from Hull tinyurl.com/yc5mhum6
@hulllibraries.bsky.social
@uniofhull library
📢NEW article by 'Alison' in @telegraph.co.uk
"My priority is not to mine the psyches of Machiavellian, state-sponsored, narcissistic conmen but rather to prevent this from happening to other women.” #spycops
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/91245e4...
We no longer watch the news: the news watches us. Stories written by robots are posted on websites that suck personal information from our phones and hand it to data miners controlled by oligarchs. “Journalists” brag that they rely on AI to map the child rape networks that they once denied existed; the networks that include the very oligarchs breeding the AI. They dig humanity’s grave and stagger back out of it. “Fake news” used to mean propaganda or inconvenient truths that Trump deemed lies. Now fake news is news written by non-human entities hallucinating a counterfeit reality. It is fake without motive, fake for the sake of being fake and making you lose confidence that anything can be real. It is zombie news for zombie consumption. Click link for full piece
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/shipwreck-...
Proportion of non-pensioner below-middle income families in different tenure types: GB/UK
We’ve seen a *massive* swing away from homeownership into expensive private renting.
Mortgaged families dropped from 30% to 17% of Unsung Britain, while private renters nearly doubled. Almost as many people live with parents (15%) as own with a mortgage (17%).
Gender pay gap won't close for another 30 years.
Myth of equality used to hike women's state pension age.
Women hold 69% of low-paid & insecure jobs.
Women hit first by benefit cuts, wage freezes, two-child benefit cap. More likely to be unpaid carers.
Why are govt policies loaded against women?
Fucking Thatcher.
A graph showing the Gini co-efficient for Great Britain (1961 - 2020) showing inequality before and after housing costs and showing a huge rise in inequality in the 1980s which has never been reversed since. It is now entrenched.
📢 INEQUALITY GRAPHIC OF THE WEEK (No.3) 🔽
The surge in inequality in the 1980s ripped the UK apart. No govt since has reversed it (or even tried). It is entrenched.
Source: Prof. Danny Dorling
Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of a Failing State
www.dannydorling.org/books/shatte...
