Spencer Beswick
@spencerbeswick.bsky.social
3.8K followers 580 following 940 posts
Historian of anarchism, labor, and the left in the Americas / Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University's Humanities Scholars Program
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spencerbeswick.bsky.social
I updated my website emptyhandshistory.com after letting it lie fallow for over a year. It's easiest way to find links to all of my publications, including the two peer reviewed journal articles and a book chapter that I published in 2024. As always, DM me for PDFs of anything!
Empty Hands History – Spencer Beswick
emptyhandshistory.com
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
Not a peep about the Politico expose in r/conservative, by the way. Like JD Vance, they really don't care at all that the GOP is infested with outright racists and Hitlerites. In fact, that's why they're there!
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
I don't know what more to say when it's just so clear that the GOP is full of the worst, most idiotic, and evil people and half the country cheers that on and makes fart sounds with their mouths and calls for death to antifa as the Young Republicans "joke" about being Hitler.
politico.com
EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
I don't know what more to say when it's just so clear that the GOP is full of the worst, most idiotic, and evil people and half the country cheers that on and makes fart sounds with their mouths and calls for death to antifa as the Young Republicans "joke" about being Hitler.
politico.com
EXCLUSIVE: Thousands of leaked messages show leaders of Young Republican groups joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape in a private Telegram chat.

Inside rising GOP leaders’ racist chats — obtained by POLITICO and spanning more than 7 months👇
‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat
Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.
www.politico.com
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
due to the fact that they are part of the ideological superstructure of U.S. and world capitalism. They would hope to do better after the social revolution and beg their readers’ indulgence until that time." 2/2
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
From the anarchist newspaper Fifth Estate's "Corrections" section in 1988: "The New York Times regrets that since the purchase of the paper in 1896 by Adolph S. Ochs its editors have presented a distorted view of American and world history 1/2
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
Trump is using the government shutdown to carry out a purge of liberal-leaning federal workers. Expect to see him replace them with MAGA loyalists once the shutdown ends. It's a slow-moving coup.
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
Academic freedom in Florida is dead, killed in the name of academic freedom. Florida and Texas are the vanguard, but this is coming soon to all red states.
From a colleague and comrade at Florida International University—a glimpse at the infuriating stupidity of descending rapidly into authoritarianism

A view from South Florida:

1. Last week, the administration removed all of the international flags hanging in the dining area of the student commons, replacing them with a single American flag. At a university called Florida International University.

2. International graduate students in my department have reported being turned away from the student health center. Student IDs, which have always sufficed, no longer do. Now they're requiring passports.

3. Our campus police are in the process of training to serve as ICE agents. Some of our international graduate students are now avoiding campus.

4. Faculty Senates on all public university campuses have been instructed to pass a resolution for free speech and academic freedom in the name of Charlie Kirk. There's no mention of the multiple tenured faculty currently suspended for extramural political speech at Florida Atlantic University.

5. Despite this rhetoric, the provost's office has been going into faculty's Canvas shells and changing language on syllabi without informing faculty. A colleague in my department had an academic freedom statement, adopted directly from our collective bargaining agreement, deleted from her syllabus by the provost's office. 6. FIU's president, formerly DeSantis' Lt Gov, chaired a campus memorial service for Charlie Kirk a couple of weeks ago, declaring that Jesus is our sovereign. And she gave a speech this week declaring that FIU stands with Israel, with Israeli state officials present on campus.

7. There's talk of state-mandated textbooks being forced on our Intro to Soc classes, though nothing is concrete yet.

8. Another colleague in my department was told he wouldn't be reimbursed for giving a talk at a conference in Colombia because, upon reviewing the full program, someone else gave a paper on trauma and collective memory in wartime Ukraine. The administrator reviewing the program deemed use of the words "trauma" and "Ukraine" to be illegal use of state funds for DEI. The decision was reversed when he contested it, but the very *fact* that we are dealing with this crap...

9. Campus police are harassing undergraduates flyering for a sanctuary campus campaign, taking down their names and ID numbers and claiming that it violates the code of conduct to flyer more than 20 feet from their official table. The regulation was changed from 50 feet to 20 feet this year, student organizers told me.

10. The state legislature has proposed a bill requiring all public universities in the state to name a campus road after Charlie Kirk or else lose state funding. We'll see if it passes.
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
Good for MIT. Let's see more universities rejecting Trump's outrageous "compact" of demands.
bostonglobe.com
MIT became the first university to reject the Trump administration’s compact of demands, after its president Sally Kornbluth said the school already “meet or exceed many standards outlined” by the federal government.
MIT becomes first school to reject proposed ‘compact’ with Trump administration - The Boston Globe
MIT president Sally Kornbluth said the university’s practices already “meet or exceed” the federal government’s list of demands.
trib.al
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
Mark Bray and his family made it safely to Spain.
mark-bray.bsky.social
Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
mark-bray.bsky.social
Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.

It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.

Thank you for your consideration.
"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder
Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!
www.freefunder.com
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
wired.com
NEW: A professor at Rutgers University who wrote a book about “antifa” almost a decade ago is trying—and struggling—to flee the US for Europe after a weeks-long online campaign against him by far-right influencers was followed by death threats. www.wired.com/story/mark-b...
He Wrote a Book About Antifa. Death Threats Are Driving Him Out of the US
Rutgers historian Mark Bray is trying to flee to Spain after after an online campaign from far-right influencers was followed by death threats. He was turned back at the airport on his first attempt.
www.wired.com
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
crimethinc.com
Jack Posobiec explicitly says that "Antifa" dates back to the Weimar Republic, explicitly acknowledging that this administration is opposed to those who resisted the arrival of Adolf Hitler in Power.
A screenshot of C-Span showing Jack Posobiec speaking during a panel on "Antifa."
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
crimethinc.com
No Kings, No Masters

A Call for Anti-Authoritarian Blocs at the October 18 “No Kings” Demonstrations

crimethinc.com/NoKings2025

This is a call for you—yes, you specifically—to organize an anti-authoritarian bloc in your community for the “No Kings” demonstrations on October 18.
No Kings, No Masters
A call for anti-authoritarian blocs at the October 18 "No Kings" demonstrations.
crimethinc.com
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
ruaaup-aft.bsky.social
This week, our colleague Dr. Mark Bray came under attack by Turning Point USA’s Rutgers chapter for his public scholarship. Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union condemn this campaign and stand in solidarity with our colleagues. Read our full statement here: https://loom.ly/BDXasRY
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
I also want to say: I get frustrated when people say that folks who leave the country should "stay and fight." People have always fled authoritarian regimes--from Tsarist Russia to Francoist Spain and beyond--and continued to fight from outside. This is part of the struggle.
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
The fact that scholars of fascism and anti-fascism have been leaving the country -- now including Mark Bray fleeing death threats -- should be a huge wake up call to the American public. They more than anyone know the warning signs and the direction we seem to be headed.
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
smachlis.bsky.social
This is a professor at Rutgers who teaches a class on the history of anti-fascism. He also teaches about human rights. He has received multiple death threats and been doxed. He is relocating to Europe for his safety. This is where we are in the US now. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
mark-bray.bsky.social
Spoke with cnn while sitting on the floor of my hotel room hallway bc my family were asleep in the other room.
6a E Mark.mp4 - 6a E Mark - Frame.io
next.frame.io
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
The fact that scholars of fascism and anti-fascism have been leaving the country -- now including Mark Bray fleeing death threats -- should be a huge wake up call to the American public. They more than anyone know the warning signs and the direction we seem to be headed.
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
Trump has crossed so many lines, but I think it will be truly crossing the Rubicon if he jails Illinois Governor Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Johnson and replaces them with his cronies. At that point, which now seems all too possible, liberal democracy as we know it will be gone.
Screenshot of a Guardian article with the headline "Trump calls for jailing of Chicago mayor and Illinois governor as national guard arrives in city. President accused Brandon Jonson and JB Pritzker of failing to protect Ice officers as troops deploy to Chicago"
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
batallonbakunin.bsky.social
This is where we are.

This man is a professor. Who has written a book. About antifascism. He’s just one of many in this situation; and his situation is just one amongst a sea of varied horrors that MAGA fascism is unleashing on society.

But this is where we are. Don’t look away.
mark-bray.bsky.social
I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.
Reposted by Spencer Beswick
mark-bray.bsky.social
I’ve received multiple death threats + doxing (including my home address) directly following harassment from Turning Point USA, Jack Posobiec, Andy NGO, + Fox News which called me an antifa ‘financier.’

I have been forced to move my classes online.

If journalists want to talk, DM me or reply here.
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
"The point is to put forward a prototype for a new type of American government, for a post-Trump country, that carries forward part of the existing institutional framework that is worth preserving, alongside radical change in response to Trump."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Blue states should come together to declare an emergency. Here’s how | Thomas Geoghegan
States opposed to Trump can create a compact – a new prototype for American government – even if it’s perceived as political theater
www.theguardian.com
spencerbeswick.bsky.social
Under Trump 1.0, higher ed leadership was full-throatedly part of "the resistance," proclaiming they would stand up to Trump, protect immigrant students, and fight for academic freedom. Now, they race to capitulate, fire lefty profs, and deport student activists. Shameful.