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Austin Kelmore

@austinkelmore.com
5.1K followers 186 following 6.5K posts

Unionizing the games industry one person at a time. Cofounder of @gameworkers.co.uk, @gameworkersolidarity.com, and @nogamesforgenocide.com. Game worker, rock climber, cat hugger based in Glasgow, Scotland. www.austinkelmore.com

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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 3h
Hell ya, congrats!
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 28/09/2026
I thought the book overall was pretty good and the suggestions are very helpful. Some of the suggestions are for folks who are drowning WAY more than me. The mind shift about chores being morally neutral and more about functional is really interesting and useful.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 28/09/2026
16th book read of 2026. How to Keep House While Drowning - KC Davis
The cover of the book How to Keep House While Drowning: A gentle approach to cleaning and organising by KC Davis.

Light blue/green background with small images of cleaning tools, and suds with bubbles.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 28/09/2026
It's 100% about consent, and the folks who make and use AI do not factor it into their actions with that technology (or likely other areas of their lives).
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 15/09/2026
Gonna try to take a break from social media for a month to reset a bit. Be well. Make good choices.
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🐁 Luka The Mouse - SQUEAKROSS 🧩 @lukathemouse.gay · 15/09/2026
stuff we did as a company: - sent back the dev kits we had and cancelled whatever contracts we had to sign with MS - moved our games repositories out of Azure dev - deleted our MS accounts
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🐁 Luka The Mouse - SQUEAKROSS 🧩 @lukathemouse.gay · 15/09/2026
I personally signed this pledge with @alexstrook.bsky.social We don't want to support microsoft products as individuals but also as a game dev company!! I'm inviting you to do the same, visit their website to see how you can also take action and sign the pledge: nogamesforgenocide.com#take-action
nogamesforgenocide.com
No Games For Genocide
The games industry is complicit in genocide. It’s time to divest.
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Una Mullally @unamullally.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The Irish musician Aaron Rowe has said he is withdrawing as a support act on Ed Sheeran’s tour.
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No Games For Genocide @nogamesforgenocide.com · 15/09/2026
We're at 3,159 individual signatures on our pledge to boycott Xbox in solidarity with Palestine. Do you think you can help us get to 5,000 pledges by the end of the year? Message your friends, family, Discord community, online gamer friends - everyone you can think of! ❤️🖤🤍💚
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 15/09/2026
I can relate. Building a union and organizing is such time intensive work that it doesn't really leave much space for side projects. I yearn for cool tech things to work on that I can show off.
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JS Tan @js-tan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
We're in @wired.com this morning with an excerpt from our book AGAINST TECH OLIGARCHY. Check it out- this excerpts goes into how tech worker activism and class struggle within the sector was one of the key factors in pushing tech elites to Trump and the MAGA right.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 15/09/2026
Today is book launch day for Against Tech Oligarchy! My friends Clarissa Redwine and JS Tan spent several years writing it and it looks incredible. They're tech organizers with a ton of experience and knowledge, so I can't wait to get the book in my hands and read it.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 15/09/2026
It's also run by Microsoft and they're on the BDS list, so even more reason to not use it.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 15/09/2026
"The research centre estimates that, through the different charges and renewals, someone on the skilled worker visa will pay upwards of £24,000 before they can become a British citizen. A family with one child could pay over £40,000."
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 15/09/2026
Visa costs are a massive additional cost to immigrants and they don't need to exist at all! The people in power could raise taxes on the wealthiest to cover the costs, but they choose to extort the immigrants instead.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
lol, what.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
static.klipy.com
MacGruber: I'm In
Alt: MacGruber busting through a door: I'm In
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
There is always more room for people willing to take a stand and I love each and every person that chooses to do so.
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.
But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other
stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in …What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed.
Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب
"La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty.
That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
I would be curious to hear more about why you feel this way.
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Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
It's difficult to convey to people who haven't been paying attention that every single thing they are reading about the immigrant concentration camps has been happening in U.S. jails and prisons since their origin. People were being waterboarded at Auburn prison in the 1850s.
usprisonculture.com
Prison Culture » Torture & Corporal Punishment in Early 20th Century American Penitentiaries…
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
I do wish he'd included my answers to these two questions, they're really important, especially the last one!
What's the biggest barrier that remains and how can we overcome it?
The largest barrier we face is not unique to the games industry, it's baked into capitalism. The incredible power imbalance between capitalists and workers means they can make decisions that impact us in ways that are incredibly difficult and time consuming to respond to. Rockstar executives can decide to fire 34 union organizers in a moment, and it takes months if not years to fight. Companies can do redundancy after redundancy and there is little the workers can do to stop that from happening in those moments until we build up enough collective power to apply enough pressure against company owners and executives.

There's no single answer as to how we overcome the power imbalance. We try and experiment with many different things to solve and address issues. We build relationships and trust and work together to take action. We improve things bit by bit and slowly, ever so slowly we build our power together. Overcoming capitalism is a generational project and one that may not complete in our lifetime, but it's worth working towards now so those who see it come to fruition will reap the benefits. Unions are an integral part in building up the knowledge, skill, and confidence to change the world on a local to worldwide scale.

Anything you'd like to add? Anything people are NOT talking about enough?
The amount of care work that people in unions do is absolutely astounding. Imagine someone who has just been severely mistreated or laid off and has their world turned upside down. The thing they need most is someone to be there for them, listen to them, and help them figure out what their options are. When mistreatment happens on the scale of an entire industry, it takes an overwhelming amount of care work to respond to each incident. We need to build up our individual and collective caring abilities so that we can get through it instead of being constantly dysregulated and overwhelmed.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
I answered some union related questions for @gibiz.bsky.social and they did a good write-up of it!
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
Fucking hell, I'm so sorry to hear that. 💙
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
I do wish he'd included my answers to these two questions, they're really important, especially the last one!
What's the biggest barrier that remains and how can we overcome it?
The largest barrier we face is not unique to the games industry, it's baked into capitalism. The incredible power imbalance between capitalists and workers means they can make decisions that impact us in ways that are incredibly difficult and time consuming to respond to. Rockstar executives can decide to fire 34 union organizers in a moment, and it takes months if not years to fight. Companies can do redundancy after redundancy and there is little the workers can do to stop that from happening in those moments until we build up enough collective power to apply enough pressure against company owners and executives.

There's no single answer as to how we overcome the power imbalance. We try and experiment with many different things to solve and address issues. We build relationships and trust and work together to take action. We improve things bit by bit and slowly, ever so slowly we build our power together. Overcoming capitalism is a generational project and one that may not complete in our lifetime, but it's worth working towards now so those who see it come to fruition will reap the benefits. Unions are an integral part in building up the knowledge, skill, and confidence to change the world on a local to worldwide scale.

Anything you'd like to add? Anything people are NOT talking about enough?
The amount of care work that people in unions do is absolutely astounding. Imagine someone who has just been severely mistreated or laid off and has their world turned upside down. The thing they need most is someone to be there for them, listen to them, and help them figure out what their options are. When mistreatment happens on the scale of an entire industry, it takes an overwhelming amount of care work to respond to each incident. We need to build up our individual and collective caring abilities so that we can get through it instead of being constantly dysregulated and overwhelmed.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
I tried going in person and was turned away at the security checkpoint and told to attend online instead. I am not sure if that's an always thing or because of that particular day or what. I'm inquiring to understand if I can attend in-person in the future.
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Chris Kerr @kerrblimey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Press friends: Is anybody else trying—and failing—to access the Rockstar employment tribunal virtually? I haven't been able to attend for three days straight due to connection issues. Glasgow Tribunals Centre staff are unbothered. They insist this is simply how it is with high-profile cases. Wild.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
Hell ya, congrats!
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
I answered some union related questions for @gibiz.bsky.social and they did a good write-up of it!
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
I went to a memorial many years ago with a wall that people wrote on and it has stuck with me ever since.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
I'm really happy for you all. :)
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
Reminder that Starbucks workers are calling for a boycott.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
Congrats! What an achievement.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 14/09/2026
Mmmmm fresh tomatillo salsa is the best.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
Hope you have a good time!
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
Ah haha, of course. That fits with the rest of it. Just doing what they want and hopefully others find it useful. Love that stuff.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
I love this, that sounds incredible.
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All Will Rise by Speculative Agency @allwillrise.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
There is no place for genocide in the games industry, and we are committed to pushing against this complicity. We are proud to be signatories of No Games For Genocide, and hope for the day the movement will no longer be necessary. To our fellow video games developers, join us: nogamesforgenocide.com
nogamesforgenocide.com
No Games For Genocide
The games industry is complicit in genocide. It’s time to divest.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
Ooh, thank you! I love it.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
Anyone know what this flower is? Saw it on my run and it's gorgeous.
A brilliant pink and orange spiky flower.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
People do not understand the basics of consent.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
It's really, really good.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
Exactly.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
I want games to end. Endless is actually a negative selling point!
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
They appreciate you just like they appreciate good food.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 13/09/2026
It sucks that it's necessary to put that at all, but it's also appreciated for sending a statement and a signal.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 12/09/2026
I use this company for a lot of web hosting. I think I'm gonna have to move stuff off. I swear all these tech companies are run by assholes.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 12/09/2026
Yikes. www.404media.co/ceo-attempte...
404media.co
CEO Attempted to Navigate Anti-LGBT Hate Incident By Telling Employees His Mentor Was a KKK Member
Recordings show that while he was the CEO of Digital Ocean, Yancey Spruill told staff that they should bend their values because "we love the company."
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 12/09/2026
I played so much StarCraft when I was younger and watched so many professional matches. I'm excited to see what they come up with next.
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Austin Kelmore @austinkelmore.com · 12/09/2026
Holy that's a good trailer.
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