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Phil Free

@philfree.bsky.social
1.1K followers 999 following 13K posts

Politics, economics, planet - I live in Essex, UK.

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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 5m
Why Is Sam Altman a Free Man? prospect.org/2026/09/29/a...
prospect.org
Why Is Sam Altman a Free Man? - The American Prospect
OpenAI’s models aren’t “going rogue” from their creators as much as they are mimicking them.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 25m
The New Union Way to Build Progressive Power prospect.org/2026/09/24/n...
prospect.org
The New Union Way to Build Progressive Power - The American Prospect
A deep canvass of union members produces an agenda that can rally working families.
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Reposted by Phil Free
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 4h
The Omar story today and the Talarcio story yesterday are the same story of rat-fucking your opponents before an election. Except now the government does it, out in the open.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 52m
Building Power, One Person at a Time prospect.org/2026/09/10/o...
prospect.org
Building Power, One Person at a Time - The American Prospect
Progressive political candidates in 2026 are doing more than just trying to win an election.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 3h
Robin Hood in Reverse: How the Pentagon Makes Us Poorer - @inequality.org inequality.org/article/robi...
inequality.org
Robin Hood in Reverse: How the Pentagon Makes Us Poorer
While costs rise for everything, SNAP recipients who lost benefits — and the farmers who fed them — are being asked to shell out $1.5 trillion for the Pentagon.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 3h
Why socialists must understand metabolic rifts climateandcapitalism.com/2026/07/06/w...
climateandcapitalism.com
Why socialists must understand metabolic rifts | Climate & Capitalism
Video: Ian Angus speaking at the Canadian launch of Metabolic Rifts: Capitalism’s Assault on the Earth System…
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 3h
The US interference in Brasil, step by step www.opendemocracy.net/brazil-us-lu...
opendemocracy.net
The US interference in Brasil, step by step
As Brazilians prepare to elect a new president, the country’s sovereignty hangs in the balance
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 3h
Without Public Ownership, ‘Public Control’ is an Illusion tribunemag.co.uk/2026/09/with...
tribunemag.co.uk
Without Public Ownership, ‘Public Control’ is an Illusion
The West Midlands has shown that municipal bus companies are possible. So why is it already preparing to hand routes back to the private sector?
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 4h
“When one of their own is in the dock, the rightwing press can be remarkably & uncharacteristically kind.” Michael Gove, Lola Salem, & a sudden silence - @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/michael-go...
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
Michael Gove, Lola Salem, and a sudden silence
Why did a series of newspaper stories vanish and why are right-wing organisations involved in a coordinated campaign to forget about one particular contributor?
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 4h
“Stripped of that bribe, they are now revealing their true face, the same face Marx saw in 1848, one of violence, repression & a willingness to use fascist mobilisations to protect their wealth & the constant sucking upwards of capital from the 99% to the 1%”
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 4h
“This was not charity, it was a considered political strategy of trade offs, & it worked. It created what Engels called the bourgeois proletariat, workers who don’t own the means of production but think like capitalists.” The Wretched of the UK mattabouttown.substack.com/p/the-wretch...
mattabouttown.substack.com
The Wretched of the UK: A Fanon–Marx Synthesis for 2026 Britain (part 1)
The Mirror of 1848 and 1961
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 5h
“Across multiple fronts, this is the most rightwing government since the 1990s. Its agenda is one of massive public sector cuts, corporate subsidies, deregulation & privatisation.” Mark Carney's "sovereign wealth fund" is a mirage - @lukewsavage.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/lukewsav...
open.substack.com
Mark Carney's "sovereign wealth fund" is a mirage
Canada's prime minister might be talking like a Nordic social democrat but he is governing more like a Thatcherite
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 6h
Silvia Federici’s Seizure of Marx’s Critique & Methodology & Her Redefinition of the Exploitation of Human Labor cryn.substack.com/p/through-a-...
cryn.substack.com
Through a Feminist Lens: Silvia Federici's Seizure of Marx's Critique and Methodology and Her Redefinition of the Exploitation of Human Labor
[This is the second essay in a series I’ve written about Silvia Federici’s book, Patriarchy of the Wage: Notes on Marx, Gender, and Feminism.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 6h
“Carbon markets are a failed model of climate finance that prioritises profits over people & delays over action” - @reddmonitor.bsky.social reddmonitor.substack.com/p/carbon-mar...
reddmonitor.substack.com
“Carbon markets are a failed model of climate finance that prioritises profits over people and delays over action”
A new report from Power Shift Africa.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 7h
World roundup: October 10-11 2026 open.substack.com/pub/fx/p/wor...
open.substack.com
World roundup: October 10-11 2026
Stories from Yemen, Sudan, Ukraine, and elsewhere
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 8h
“Undoubtedly, if analysed under a mental microscope, political wickedness is a sadistic disease for increased societal disorder, corruption & violence leading to the destruction of human morality, rational thinking, progress & a sustainable future.” countercurrents.org/2026/09/poli...
countercurrents.org
Politics of Wickedness is Destroying Humanity | Countercurrents
Politics of Wickedness Overshadows Wars and Insanity Political wickedness is not the value of responsible systems of global governance for harmony, peace and globalization. But knows no bound…
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Reposted by Phil Free
All Our Yesterdays @allouryesterdays.bsky.social · 9h
And we're away with the @nebriefing.bsky.social on El Nino www.youtube.com/live/IdwsrLj... Questions in the chat, if you're one of the lucky 500... (I'm not) Will anyone mention "capitalism" or "social movement failures"? We shall see. There will be a Q and A It will be recorded too. 1/n
youtube.com
NEB Live - El Niño webinar hosted by Professor Mike Berners-Lee
YouTube video by The National Emergency Briefing
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 8h
October 12, 2009 - Chu letter on #CCS “widespread affordable deployment in 8 to 10 years” #CarbonCon allouryesterdays.info/2026/10/11/o...
allouryesterdays.info
October 12, 2009 - Chu letter on CCS “widespread affordable deployment in 8 to 10 years” - All Our Yesterdays
Seventeen years ago, on this day, October 12th, 2009, The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 387ppm. As of 2026, when this post was published, it is 430ppm. This matters because the more carbon d...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 8h
The Great Discomfort is coming www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/09...
taxresearch.org.uk
The Great Discomfort is coming
The Great Discomfort is coming. A financial crisis could expose just how fragile  middle class security has become. For decades, millions of people have been encouraged to believe that a professional ...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 9h
The capitalist economy as a monetary production economy: Marx, Keynes, & the Post-Keynesians www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
The capitalist economy as a monetary production economy: Marx, Keynes, and the Post-Keynesians
This paper proposes a critical integration of the contributions of Marx and Keynes, guided by the foundational principles that characterize the capitalist economy as a monetary production economy. ...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 22h
“The Internet was designed to be decentralised—designed so it could survive a nuclear decapitation strike… designed to be like a fungus or a cancer. But centralising capitalist society is its own enemy in this regard.” - @yashalevine.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/yasha/p/...
open.substack.com
Influencerism is the highest form of capitalist realism
A political manifesto from mid political influencer Yasha Levine.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 23h
“Targeting the healthcare system in the West Bank must therefore be seen through the same lens as in Gaza. Both adhere to the same political logic, where destroying healthcare is directly tied to the wider Israeli project of removing Palestinians from the land.” www.972mag.com/west-bank-pa...
972mag.com
What’s behind Israel’s growing assault on West Bank healthcare
Seeking to push Palestinians off their land, Israel is targeting the infrastructure that sustains life — and the institutions long tied to the anti-colonial struggle.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 23h
Israel is secretly surveilling its teachers. No prizes for guessing which ones www.972mag.com/israel-educa...
972mag.com
Israel is secretly surveilling its teachers. No prizes for guessing which ones
The Education Ministry is monitoring teachers online, searching not only for ‘incitement’ but mere criticism of the state — and 3 out of 4 targeted are Arab.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 23h
The Right-Wing Plot to Make It Harder to Sue Corporations newrepublic.com/article/2154...
newrepublic.com
The Right-Wing Plot to Make It Harder to Sue Corporations
Oligarchs and their Republican lackeys are working together to shield corporations from accountability for the widespread harms they do to the American people.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The Legal Wreckage of the Supreme Court’s Ballroom Follies newrepublic.com/article/2150...
newrepublic.com
The Legal Wreckage of the Supreme Court’s Ballroom Follies
The high court’s recent decision on the illegal addition to the White House shines a light on just how willing it is to let Donald Trump break the law.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
#CarbonCredits #CarbonOffsets #CarbonCon Did the Forestry Industry Just Get to Write Its Own Emissions Rules? newrepublic.com/article/2157...
newrepublic.com
Did the Forestry Industry Just Get to Write Its Own Emissions Rules?
Accusations of industry capture, allegedly secret working groups, and the resignations of two researchers—a scandal is rocking the world of carbon emissions accounting.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“In 2023, suicide was the second leading cause of death among individuals between the ages of 10 & 34.” The Dire National Crisis That Washington Won’t Touch newrepublic.com/article/2149...
newrepublic.com
The Dire National Crisis That Washington Won’t Touch
Adolescents and young adults across the country are collapsing under the weight of isolation and pressure to succeed. There’s no easy fix—but it’s past time for Washington to do something.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“The very idea of JD Vance having sincere convictions about anything is risible. The idea that he is nurturing some rich, inner religious life, which might be worth writing or reading, is frankly unbelievable.” Catholic Bloc thebaffler.com/latest/catho...
thebaffler.com
Catholic Bloc | John Semley
Having eagerly accepted the yoke of Catholic guilt, J. D. Vance’s project is to fit the whole of America within those bonds.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
It’s a Boy’s Boy’s Boy’s World thebaffler.com/outbursts/it...
thebaffler.com
It’s a Boy’s Boy’s Boy’s World | Zoë Hu
Can American fiction ever escape the high-low conundrum disparaged by scholar and critic Leslie Fiedler?
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Banking beyond the law aeon.co/essays/the-u...
aeon.co
The underground bankers who reshape the flow of global money | Aeon Essays
A centuries-old network of secret codes and shadowy brokers continues to outpace financial systems controlled by the state
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The Fight Over Affordability dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...
dissentmagazine.org
The Fight Over Affordability - Dissent Magazine
We’re living in a period of excess business pricing power, not overbearing workers.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“& the interesting thing about the game of Monopoly is, no matter how many times you play it & who is playing it, it always ends up in the same result—a plutocrat.” Neoliberal Economics Was a Con From the Start - @currentaffairs.bsky.social www.currentaffairs.org/news/neolibe...
currentaffairs.org
Neoliberal Economics Was a Con From The Start
Nick Hanauer and Eric Beinhocker on how free-market fundamentalism has been empirically discredited, and what can replace it.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The rush for critical minerals is repeating an ongoing history Indigenous communities know well www.resilience.org/stories/2026...
resilience.org
The rush for critical minerals is repeating an ongoing history Indigenous communities know well
All land was Indigenous once. Now, over half of the world’s ‘green’ metal projects are on Indigenous territories, from lithium-driven ecosystem collapse in the Andes to more than 100 proposed lithium ...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
The Economics of Kindness: Guy Dauncey shares why we need to design economy as if life matters www.resilience.org/stories/2026...
resilience.org
The Economics of Kindness: Guy Dauncey shares why we need to design economy as if life matters
In a talk on "community wealth" at the Ecovillage Findhorn, Guy Dauncey shares how kinder, community-based economies can create lasting shared prosperity for people and nature.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“The theodicy of progress—of material growth triumphing over all obstacles unto the end of the Universe (& beyond)—cannot be maintained.” #PostGrowth #Degrowth Climate denial & the defence of modernity - @cusp.ac.uk cusp.ac.uk/themes/m/blo...
cusp.ac.uk
Climate denial and the defence of modernity | Blog by Richard McNeill Douglas
What we are lacking is an inspiring vision of our lives, collective futures, and spiritual reality in a world in which we cannot keep growing forever. As mu ...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Cities Beyond Growth #PostGrowth #Degrowth www.tni.org/en/publicati...
tni.org
Cities Beyond Growth | Transnational Institute
As cities worldwide face deepening social inequality alongside unfolding ecological breakdown, it is time to chart a different course.Cities are where change is most needed and can have the greatest i...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“The revolution has provided the means by which both the productive & consumptive capacities of people could be detached from household & community, & made to serve other people’s purely economic ends.” #PostCapitalism #Degrowth #PostGrowth #Sufficiency poeticoutlaws.substack.com/p/wendell-be...
poeticoutlaws.substack.com
Wendell Berry: On the Cult of "Longevity" and the Hidden Cost of "Technological Progress"
The higher aims of “technological progress” are money and ease.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“We tend to think of #degrowth as something that happens out there, in factories, in shipping lanes, on carbon charts. But there’s another frontier of excess that’s closer to home, or rather, inside it. It’s your mind.” The Ecology of Attention www.sufficiencywellbeing.com/p/the-ecolog...
sufficiencywellbeing.com
The ecology of attention
Degrowth in the infoscape
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“The next day, Rubio was in Greece where, with the Acropolis behind him, he celebrated ‘free debate & public discussion, the contest of mind with mind’.” The Speech That Gets You Banned From America - @kenklippenstein.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/kenklipp...
open.substack.com
The Speech That Gets You Banned From America
Leaked Rubio cable details “far-left” speech that bars people from entering the U.S.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“Eighteen members of Nisreen’s husband’s family were killed, including her husband & children, his sister Sabreen, her mother-in-law, two of her husband’s brothers & their children…” Zionism - barbarism. Widowed twice: A Gaza mother’s story of loss & survival www.aljazeera.com/features/202...
aljazeera.com
Widowed twice: A Gaza mother’s story of loss and survival
A young mother has lost two husbands and two children during Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“Zealotry dressed in a grey suit & speaking in a soothing voice, repeating ad nauseam that ‘there is no alternative’, doesn’t look like zealotry until it starts to fail on an epic scale. It is the same story from Berlin to Paris to London.” www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...
aljazeera.com
Europe’s centrists are finally paying the price of their extremism
The centre’s blind adherence to austerity has devastated European societies.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
A French Connection www.themintmagazine.com/a-french-con...
themintmagazine.com
A French connection – The Mint Magazine
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“Digitalised value chains exemplify & multiply the Jevons paradox, where technologically induced efficiency savings stimulate greater resource use.” #PostCapitalism #Degrowth #PostGrowth #Sufficiency Labor Exploitation & Systemic Ecocide monthlyreview.org/articles/val...
monthlyreview.org
Value Chains in the Digital Age: Labor Exploitation and Systemic Ecocide - Monthly Review
In order to comprehend the environmental crisis that goes hand-in-hand with the “Structural Crisis of Capital,” we must also understand the nature of global value chains and how they contribute... REA...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
“The dominance of production over reproduction leads to the acceleration & reinvestment of surplus, leading to the depletion of ‘resources available for the reproduction of life & for the entire biosphere’.” #PostCapitalism #Degrowth #EcoFeminism #Decolonisation www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Rethinking resource scarcity: towards ecofeminist decolonial degrowth
This article critically examines the concept of resource scarcity within the context of capitalist accumulation and colonial legacies. Employing an ecofeminist approach, it challenges dominant narr...
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
AI is dead labor with a target list mronline.org/2026/09/17/a...
mronline.org
AI is dead labor with a target list - MR Online
Jacob Coxon, the researcher who resigned from Anthropic on Sept. 8, 2026, warns that the machines may take power.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
“It Feels Like A Death Sentence” jewishcurrents.org/it-feels-lik...
jewishcurrents.org
“It Feels Like a Death Sentence”
In the West Bank, settlers are stealing livestock to push Palestinians off their land.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
“Like Chekhov said, ‘If you show a man how he really is, he will change’. Likewise a culture. But the work has to be truthful.” George Saunders: “It’s an Agitating Book for a Lot of People” newrepublic.com/article/2094...
newrepublic.com
George Saunders: “It’s an Agitating Book for a Lot of People”
A lightly spoiler-filled conversation with the author about his new novel, Vigil, climate change, and redemption.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The Next Front in Trump’s War Against Immigrants newrepublic.com/article/2156...
newrepublic.com
The Next Front in Trump’s War Against Immigrants
The administration’s changes to the public charge rule is another effort to make would-be citizens believe that any level of participation in civic life is going to bring the state down on them.
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Reposted by Phil Free
Tikun Olam @richards1052.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
This asshole hates his own sycophants.
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Phil Free @philfree.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
The Most Likely Avenue for Supreme Court Reform newrepublic.com/article/2157...
newrepublic.com
The Most Likely Avenue for Supreme Court Reform
Among the many ideas to change a wayward court, there is one that already has broad support—and is very likely to succeed.
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