Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Dec 21, 2022 7 tweets 5 min read Read on X
1/. The death of #QueenElizabeth may have dominated this year👇but it was just one of many notable lives lost in 2022 including many activists, some of whom - like Sidney Poitier - you may have heard of.

This thread is dedicated to ones you might not know
2/. Sacheen Littlefeather

In 1973, Marlon Brando refused to accept his Oscar & sent actress, Sacheen, to deliver this message in his place

People booed!

Clint Eastwood mocked her!

Off stage, John Wayne had to be restrained to stop him assaulting her!
3/. Lawyer Urvashi Vaid, fought for LGBTQ & women's rights for decades & is described as “one of the most influential progressive activists of our time”

Sadly, her speech at the March on Washington in 1993 are as as relevant today as they were back then.
4/. Twenty years ago, as the bombs rained down on Iraq, Eric Levy was in a Baghdad power station

He was one of hundreds of Westerners who’d gone to Iraq as “human shields” to try & stop an illegal war & protect Iraqi civilian infrastructure sites

Age didn’t temper his activism.
5/. “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause & reflect” (Twain)

Indefatigable peace activist ,Bruce Kent, died aged 92

He gave up priesthood to campaign against nuclear weapons

His words about Blair👇stayed with me
6/. “Once you remove a person from homeland you so dispossess them they become guest on their own land"

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, campaigner, actor & Arrernte Anmatjere advocate for Indigenous rights, died in 2022, aged 85

She starred in the 1955 film, Jedda
amp.twimg.com/v/003ca8fb-577…
7/ Don Luce died in 2022, aged 88

He was a persistent opponent of the Vietnam War & exposed many of its horrors

The last American ambassador to South Vietnam said of his activism that it was a major force in turning the public & Congress against the war
washingtonpost.com/obituaries/202…

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Jun 25
Wow!

Incredible news to wake up to

Julian Assange is free after a plea deal

He was released on bail from Belmarsh prison & boarded a plane which is currently heading to Australia

His release is a testament to those fought for his freedom #JulianAssange

Julian Assange is scheduled to appear in a federal court in Saipan, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, where he’s expected to plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act & be sentenced to 5yrs

Given he’s already served this time, he should walk free
The public have a right to know what their govts do in their name

Julian #Assange’s prosecution represented a grave threat to press freedom, undermining the key role of journalists & publishers in scrutinizing govts misdeeds & creating a chilling effect

Read 6 tweets
May 15
1/. Four years, ago this tweet👇broke the #CareHomeScandal

The govt had INSTRUCTED hospitals to send people “who may have #COVID19” to care homes WITHOUT TESTING

They KNEW about asymptomatic transmission in Jan 2020

Many thousands died

This revelation led to other questions…
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2/. From the start of the pandemic the govt had given #Palantir, a US spyware company with reported links to #CambridgeAnalytica, access to NHS health data

The NHS = the most trusted brand in the UK

Cambridge Analytica = the least trusted

Disturbing…

3/. Palantir worked on the NHS data store with #FacultyAI - a company with ties to Cummings

In 2020, @amnesty warned that Big Tech firms might use the COVID crisis to hoover up genomic data, obliterating the last frontier of privacy: our biological selves

Read 5 tweets
Mar 9
1/. “It is the greatest mass-killing in recorded history; & it goes on daily, hourly, as regularly as the ticking of your watch”

Arthur Koestler’s 1944 essay expressing frustration at the failure of the world to acknowledge Nazi atrocities resonates today
wethescreamers.com
2/ “There are a few of us…yelling at you in newspapers…Now & then we reach your ear…But it only lasts a minute. You shake yourself like puppies who’ve got their fur wet; then the screen again descends & you walk on, protected by the dream-barrier which stifles all sound”
#Gaza Image
3/ Koestler notes maniacs lose contact with reality so “perhaps it’s we, the screamers, who react in a sound & healthy way to the reality which surrounds us, whereas you are the neurotics who totter about in a screened fantasy world because you lack the faculty to face the facts” Image
Read 8 tweets
Feb 23
“They got me!” Liz Truss tells far-right kingpin, Steve Bannon, before going on to explain that, to have effectively tackled “the deep state” that runs Britain & its institutions, she would have “needed a bigger bazooka”! #LizTruss #BritanniaUnchained
"I was just saying it like it is & that’s what people respect me for"(!)

Liz Truss’ compares her premiership to a one night stand & says she was just “fattening the pig” for slaughter & that she should have gaslit the public like Rishi Sunak is doing (!)
"I faced the most almighty backlash...from the usual suspects in the media” Liz Truss

“Truss's decline is simultaneously tragic & horrifying but the claim that the media conspired against her can't go unchallenged. There are front pages praising her to the rafters” @mrjamesob



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Read 4 tweets
Jan 4
1/. In 2020 I started a thread warning that Trump might launch an attack on Iran before the end of his term

It wasn’t the first time there had been a real danger of a US-led, Israeli backed attack (records show Bush had come close in 2007/8)

The risk appears now to be very high
Image
2/. It’s clear that the bomb blasts in Kerman on the 4th anniversary of #Soleimani's assassination by the US, could lead to a quick ratcheting up of dangerous tensions

After Oct 7, the US sent two aircraft carrier groups to the region

Iran just deployed a warship to the Red Sea
Image
3/. Three US soldiers were killed & two dozen injured in an unmanned aerial drone attack on US forces stationed in northeastern #Jordan near the Syrian border, President @JoeBiden said

This could mark a dangerous escalation
arab.news/y8h8h
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Read 18 tweets
Nov 6, 2023
Despite previous denials, Michelle Mone finally admits her involvement in failed PPE supplier Medpro

There should be a criminal investigation into possible intentional breach of beneficial ownership disclosure rules

The govt VIP Lane needs investigating

Something about the #MichelleMone interview doesn’t pass the smell test

Why are Mone & her husband - currently under criminal investigation in UK & Spain - being given a prime time slot to tell ‘their side of the story’?

5 questions @bbclaurak should ask

@bbclaurak “I don’t honestly think there’s a case to answer. I can’t see what we’ve done wrong” @MichelleMone

Wow! #MichelleMone & #DougBarrowman on @bbclaurak’s programme, this morning

Read 13 tweets

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