Matthew Cole
@mattcole.bsky.social
Assistant Professor of Technology, Work and Employment at the University of Sussex.
Heterodox Marxist - Les dés sont pipés!
mattcole.work
Heterodox Marxist - Les dés sont pipés!
mattcole.work
Pinned
Matthew Cole
@mattcole.bsky.social
· Oct 13
My first book, *Unpaid: the Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft*, will be published by @versobooks.bsky.social in May, 2026!
This book is born from experience. It is written for anyone who is dissatisfied with the capitalist wage system.
UK pre-order: www.waterstones.com/book/unpaid/...
This book is born from experience. It is written for anyone who is dissatisfied with the capitalist wage system.
UK pre-order: www.waterstones.com/book/unpaid/...
Reposted by Matthew Cole
I'm constantly shocked (but not surprised) by how little we discuss the additional financial burden placed on young people by the Clegg-Cameron student loan regime.
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
Rachel Reeves hits young graduates with a double stealth tax
The Chancellor plans to raise as much money from freezing loan repayment thresholds as from the mansion tax
www.newstatesman.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:04 PM
I'm constantly shocked (but not surprised) by how little we discuss the additional financial burden placed on young people by the Clegg-Cameron student loan regime.
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social is one of the few journalists who brings it up continuously - once again in the wake of the budget 👇
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Also the government's line that graduates have benefitted financially from their education, and therefore should pay more in tax, is nuts.
It didn't suddenly get three times more financially beneficial to study at a uni in 2012 versus 2011 – in fact the opposite has happened
It didn't suddenly get three times more financially beneficial to study at a uni in 2012 versus 2011 – in fact the opposite has happened
November 27, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Also the government's line that graduates have benefitted financially from their education, and therefore should pay more in tax, is nuts.
It didn't suddenly get three times more financially beneficial to study at a uni in 2012 versus 2011 – in fact the opposite has happened
It didn't suddenly get three times more financially beneficial to study at a uni in 2012 versus 2011 – in fact the opposite has happened
Reposted by Matthew Cole
My essay “Oil Futures” is out now in @newleftreview.bsky.social's Sidecar!
Following Norway's September elections, ongoing struggles against fossil fuels in Europe’s only petrostate challenge incumbent fossil hegemony and its complicity in the Israeli occupation:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Following Norway's September elections, ongoing struggles against fossil fuels in Europe’s only petrostate challenge incumbent fossil hegemony and its complicity in the Israeli occupation:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Lukas Slothuus, Oil Futures — Sidecar
Norway’s elections.
newleftreview.org
November 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
My essay “Oil Futures” is out now in @newleftreview.bsky.social's Sidecar!
Following Norway's September elections, ongoing struggles against fossil fuels in Europe’s only petrostate challenge incumbent fossil hegemony and its complicity in the Israeli occupation:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Following Norway's September elections, ongoing struggles against fossil fuels in Europe’s only petrostate challenge incumbent fossil hegemony and its complicity in the Israeli occupation:
newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Reposted by Matthew Cole
For the Guardian, @bjoernbremer.bsky.social, @siljahausermann.bsky.social and I write about how building new homes is not enough to tackle the housing crisis. Housing is a redistributive issue and progressive policy solutions need to acknowledge that.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
To halt the far right, Europe’s progressive parties must fix its housing crisis. Our research shows how | Tarik Abou-Chadi, Björn Bremer and Silja Häusermann
The mantra of ‘build, build, build’ misses something crucial: that few can afford these new homes, say Tarik Abou-Chadi, Silja Häusermann and Björn Bremer
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 12:57 PM
For the Guardian, @bjoernbremer.bsky.social, @siljahausermann.bsky.social and I write about how building new homes is not enough to tackle the housing crisis. Housing is a redistributive issue and progressive policy solutions need to acknowledge that.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Inheriting a million pounds? No tax for you
Capital gains? You need that don’t you.
Work for a living and are middle class? Suck it up, you have to pay more.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Capital gains? You need that don’t you.
Work for a living and are middle class? Suck it up, you have to pay more.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Rachel Reeves hands farmers inheritance tax break
Treasury says concession could be worth £30m next year and £70m a year until 2030
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Inheriting a million pounds? No tax for you
Capital gains? You need that don’t you.
Work for a living and are middle class? Suck it up, you have to pay more.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Capital gains? You need that don’t you.
Work for a living and are middle class? Suck it up, you have to pay more.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Apply now — Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis”, deadline 20 December 2025 antipodeonline.org/2025/11/13/a...
Apply now—Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis” - Antipode Online
Toronto, Ontario, Canadathe traditional territory of the Huron Wendat, the Seneca and the Mississaugas of the Credit June 1st – 5th, 2026 The contemporary global landscape is increasingly defined by w...
antipodeonline.org
November 13, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Apply now — Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice, “Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis”, deadline 20 December 2025 antipodeonline.org/2025/11/13/a...
Tucker Carlson is such a moron.
November 27, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Tucker Carlson is such a moron.
Every job I’ve had has been in an industry that’s either low paid and precarious or dying and volatile.
Even getting a full-time, ostensibly permanent academic job feels like it could implode at any moment with all the demands of publishing and the constant financial crises and redundancies.
FFS
Even getting a full-time, ostensibly permanent academic job feels like it could implode at any moment with all the demands of publishing and the constant financial crises and redundancies.
FFS
November 26, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Every job I’ve had has been in an industry that’s either low paid and precarious or dying and volatile.
Even getting a full-time, ostensibly permanent academic job feels like it could implode at any moment with all the demands of publishing and the constant financial crises and redundancies.
FFS
Even getting a full-time, ostensibly permanent academic job feels like it could implode at any moment with all the demands of publishing and the constant financial crises and redundancies.
FFS
Reposted by Matthew Cole
BREAKING: Judiciary refuses to explain last minute removal of judge in Palestine Action legal challenge, leading to accusations of a “stitch-up”
Removal of judge in Palestine Action ban legal challenge ‘deeply concerning’
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Removal of judge in Palestine Action ban legal challenge ‘deeply concerning’
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Removal of judge in Palestine Action ban legal challenge ‘deeply concerning’
Unusual last-minute change means panel of three will now hear case rather than Mr Justice Chamberlain
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:52 PM
BREAKING: Judiciary refuses to explain last minute removal of judge in Palestine Action legal challenge, leading to accusations of a “stitch-up”
Removal of judge in Palestine Action ban legal challenge ‘deeply concerning’
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Removal of judge in Palestine Action ban legal challenge ‘deeply concerning’
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Imagine coming up with a proposal so stupid, so unworkable, so thoughtless, that it makes Robert Jenrick look sane by comparison.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Jury trials could be scrapped except in most serious cases
Only cases of alleged murder, rape or manslaughter will be decided by a jury under new proposals to cut court backlogs.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Imagine coming up with a proposal so stupid, so unworkable, so thoughtless, that it makes Robert Jenrick look sane by comparison.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Sometimes I wish someone else could just deal with the R&Rs. It’s such a pain in the ass. I much prefer to just develop new ideas, rather than pander to a handful of anonymous people each with their own particular axe to grind or cottage industry to defend.
November 25, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Sometimes I wish someone else could just deal with the R&Rs. It’s such a pain in the ass. I much prefer to just develop new ideas, rather than pander to a handful of anonymous people each with their own particular axe to grind or cottage industry to defend.
I like how this government really thinks outside the box.
November 25, 2025 at 12:21 PM
I like how this government really thinks outside the box.
Reposted by Matthew Cole
4pm today UK time
Resisting GenAI and Big Tech in Higher Education - Tuesday 25th Nov, free registration, great panel, big focus on climate justice. Register here: lmula.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
November 25, 2025 at 12:07 PM
4pm today UK time
And yet Labour won’t nationalise the water companies.
Spineless.
Spineless.
One in seven English bathing spots rated as polluted in latest testing
One in seven English bathing spots rated as polluted in latest testing
Scarborough and Bognor Regis among places where water is so polluted it is not recommended for swimming
One in seven (13%) of England’s bathing waters are rated as polluted, and one in 14 so polluted they are not recommended for swimming.
Famous beaches including Bognor Regis, Scarborough’s South Bay and Littlehaven Beach in South Shields were all rated “poor” in the latest classifications from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which means they are not recommended for swimming. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:34 AM
And yet Labour won’t nationalise the water companies.
Spineless.
Spineless.
Reposted by Matthew Cole
🚨Workshop Announcement🚨
THE GROUNDS OF PLANNING:
RATIONALITY, PSEUDORATIONALITY, AND CRITIQUE
Keynotes by John O'Neill and Aaron Benanav
December 4-5, 2025
Grimm-Zentrum Auditorium, Berlin
organised by the Centre for Social Critique, HU Berlin
criticaltheoryinberlin.de/event/the-gr...
THE GROUNDS OF PLANNING:
RATIONALITY, PSEUDORATIONALITY, AND CRITIQUE
Keynotes by John O'Neill and Aaron Benanav
December 4-5, 2025
Grimm-Zentrum Auditorium, Berlin
organised by the Centre for Social Critique, HU Berlin
criticaltheoryinberlin.de/event/the-gr...
October 17, 2025 at 1:15 PM
🚨Workshop Announcement🚨
THE GROUNDS OF PLANNING:
RATIONALITY, PSEUDORATIONALITY, AND CRITIQUE
Keynotes by John O'Neill and Aaron Benanav
December 4-5, 2025
Grimm-Zentrum Auditorium, Berlin
organised by the Centre for Social Critique, HU Berlin
criticaltheoryinberlin.de/event/the-gr...
THE GROUNDS OF PLANNING:
RATIONALITY, PSEUDORATIONALITY, AND CRITIQUE
Keynotes by John O'Neill and Aaron Benanav
December 4-5, 2025
Grimm-Zentrum Auditorium, Berlin
organised by the Centre for Social Critique, HU Berlin
criticaltheoryinberlin.de/event/the-gr...
The tag line reads like AI, the click-bait title is annoying, and the left is more than Gary Stevenson and @zackpolanski.bsky.social, but a wealth tax on its own won’t fix Britain.
We need to be far more ambitious, particularly around “predistribution” through rebuilding worker bargaining power.
We need to be far more ambitious, particularly around “predistribution” through rebuilding worker bargaining power.
What does the left want? A wealth tax. What will that accomplish? Very little | Aditya Chakrabortty
What does the left want? A wealth tax. What will that accomplish? Very little | Aditya Chakrabortty
Imposing a 1% levy on the super-rich isn’t a policy, it’s pantomime. Tackling inequality in Britain will require much more far-reaching changes, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:13 AM
The tag line reads like AI, the click-bait title is annoying, and the left is more than Gary Stevenson and @zackpolanski.bsky.social, but a wealth tax on its own won’t fix Britain.
We need to be far more ambitious, particularly around “predistribution” through rebuilding worker bargaining power.
We need to be far more ambitious, particularly around “predistribution” through rebuilding worker bargaining power.
well this is fucked isn’t it
November 20, 2025 at 9:02 AM
well this is fucked isn’t it
Couldn’t have said it better myself. This is a key argument of my book coming out May 2026 with @versobooks.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Couldn’t have said it better myself. This is a key argument of my book coming out May 2026 with @versobooks.bsky.social
Reposted by Matthew Cole
'Contrainte Muette' is out now from @editionssanssoleil.bsky.social. Thanks to @prada-meinhof.bsky.social and Camilla Brenni for the excellent translation, and to Léa Gallon for the beautiful design 💙
November 19, 2025 at 7:38 PM
'Contrainte Muette' is out now from @editionssanssoleil.bsky.social. Thanks to @prada-meinhof.bsky.social and Camilla Brenni for the excellent translation, and to Léa Gallon for the beautiful design 💙
Reposted by Matthew Cole
Some great charts on #AI from the Wall Street Journal. t.ly/xvvbw "AI products would have to create an additional $650 billion a year, indefinitely, to give investors a reasonable 10% annual return. That’s more than 150% of Apple’s yearly revenue"
November 16, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Some great charts on #AI from the Wall Street Journal. t.ly/xvvbw "AI products would have to create an additional $650 billion a year, indefinitely, to give investors a reasonable 10% annual return. That’s more than 150% of Apple’s yearly revenue"
Just heard a landlord on BBC radio four saying the renters reform bill is like targeting a whole race of people [landlords] who will suffer.
I can’t imagine a more landlord thing to say than that. Astounding.
I can’t imagine a more landlord thing to say than that. Astounding.
November 14, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Just heard a landlord on BBC radio four saying the renters reform bill is like targeting a whole race of people [landlords] who will suffer.
I can’t imagine a more landlord thing to say than that. Astounding.
I can’t imagine a more landlord thing to say than that. Astounding.
Anyone who cares at all about ensuring future generations know how to think on their own, how to reason and develop their cognitive abilities, should be absolutely opposed to allowing generative AI for any kind of writing. It should be banned in all schools.
www.media.mit.edu/publications...
www.media.mit.edu/publications...
November 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Anyone who cares at all about ensuring future generations know how to think on their own, how to reason and develop their cognitive abilities, should be absolutely opposed to allowing generative AI for any kind of writing. It should be banned in all schools.
www.media.mit.edu/publications...
www.media.mit.edu/publications...
Typos are a sign of authenticity in writing against Gen-AI
November 8, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Typos are a sign of authenticity in writing against Gen-AI
Petition for everyone to stop using Gen-AI to write.
Anyone who has played around with it can tell its style, particularly the overuse of these “ —“ and it’s just offensive and embarrassing to see people sharing text like this now.
Anyone who has played around with it can tell its style, particularly the overuse of these “ —“ and it’s just offensive and embarrassing to see people sharing text like this now.
November 6, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Petition for everyone to stop using Gen-AI to write.
Anyone who has played around with it can tell its style, particularly the overuse of these “ —“ and it’s just offensive and embarrassing to see people sharing text like this now.
Anyone who has played around with it can tell its style, particularly the overuse of these “ —“ and it’s just offensive and embarrassing to see people sharing text like this now.
Reposted by Matthew Cole
I’m in this week’s @newstatesman1913.bsky.social with a review of Holly Smith’s brilliant history of house rise council housing in Britain, Up in the Air
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
Repopulating the high-rises
A new history of Britain’s tower blocks reveals the ways architecture and ideology have combined to ensure residents are always forgotten
www.newstatesman.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:07 AM
I’m in this week’s @newstatesman1913.bsky.social with a review of Holly Smith’s brilliant history of house rise council housing in Britain, Up in the Air
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...