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Foundation 3.04 "The Stress of Her Regard" Alexander Siddig as Ebling Mis

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-Mary Ruefle

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“Ugh this prominent women in the Lesbian movement turned out to be a bisexual” “ugh this famous lesbian transitioned into a man” “ugh this queer romance writer turns out to be ace” “ugh this cis feminist author ended up being nonbinary” “ugh this writer on masculinity transitioned into a woman”

Oh no! We might have to recognize liberation as an interconnected intersectional struggle! Ahhh!!! >.<

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Alexander Siddig as Yousef in The Big Battalions, Episode 1 (1992)

A 26 (maybe 25 at time of filming) year old Alexander Siddig’s (credited here as Sid El Fadil) first major TV role and second major role of any kind (his only previous credits being as an unnamed party guest in an obscure film and as Prince Feisal in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia), The Big Battalions aired on UK TV in 1992 and disappeared, never getting any kind of home video or streaming release and essentially becoming lost media. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of members of the Sid City Social Club and with the help of series writer Hugh Stoddart, The Big Battalions is now available to stream, for free, to UK residents (and, wink nudge, UK IP addresses generally) here on All4. This is the first time the series, and Sid’s performance in it, have been seen in 20+ years.

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i want to see a fight between an ipad child and a cellphone old person some day

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if you have a moment, please consider giving some attention to my friend Nader ( @nader202-3 )'s campaign. besides himself, he is providing for his wife, Sally ( @sally2033 ), and their three young children, Laila, Nour, and Ahmed, as well as his parents and siblings. Nader's father was injured in the airstrike that destroyed the family's home; due to the lack of available medical care, he continues to struggle with long-term complications. this bombing also killed several of the Gibril family's relatives, including Nader's aunt, uncle, and cousin with his whole family.

now, their situation has gotten even more dire. earlier this month, Nader attempted to get food for the family at one of the israeli/US-run GHF aid distribution sites. as you've likely heard, these facilities have been used as cover to deliberately kill and injure people who come seeking desperately needed food. over 240 humanitarian organizations have called for the GHF to cease operations, and according to the UN, over 1,000 people have been killed while seeking aid. thankfully, Nader was not among them—but he was shot in the back and is now recovering from this serious injury without the benefits of easily accessible medicines, nutritious food, or even a safe and quiet place to rest.

Nader and Sally's children are all under ten years old. they are acutely vulnerable to starvation and the long-term consequences of malnutrition. if the Gibril family's campaign doesn't raise sufficient funds to buy food (which can be over $200 USD per day), Sally or one of the other adults in the family will have to risk their life seeking aid from the GHF. this is not tenable. they should not have to choose between being shot and watching their beloved children fade away from starvation.

your donations and engagement with Nader and Sally's campaign mean that Nader can recover without having to worry for his family, that Sally won't have to risk death or injury to feed their children, and that Laila, Nour, and Ahmed can survive and stay healthy. even just sharing their posts, following one or both of their blogs, or dropping a kind word is a reminder that they are not facing this terrible situation alone. whatever you can do to help is valuable.

(The Gibril family's campaign has been verified by @/90-ghost and is facilitated by @/pocketsizedquasar-3)

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UNDERSIDE PLAYTEST

after 2+ years of work, underside—my dark superhero ttrpg—is finally in a playtest-ready state and available on my patreon. it's been an exhausting journey, and it's only been the first step so far, but i think it's going somewhere really cool. if you're one of my patreons you can get access to the playtest and a link to the playtest's lfg and feedback server right now:

i'm beyond excited to get this show on the road and these years of development out there in people's hands to play it. i hope it's been worth the wait :)

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Israeli forces are specifically brutalising Chris Smalls, the only Black member of the last Freedom Flotilla. And most union leaders and media outlets aren’t speaking about it.

“When he reached the Israeli prison, U.S. human rights defender Chris Smalls was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals,” the coalition said on X.

Chris Smalls is an American labor organizer from New Jersey who founded and led the Amazon Labor Union (ALU).

“They choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back,” the statement said.

The FFC highlighted that “when his lawyer met with him, Chris was surrounded by six members of Israel’s special police unit. This level of force was not used against other abducted activists.”

It decried the attack, saying: “We condemn this violence against Chris and demand accountability for the assault and discriminatory treatment he faced.”

On Monday, details emerged that not only was Smalls detained, but he was physically beaten by the IDF. He was the only Black member of the Freedom Flotilla on the Handala.

“The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that upon arrival in Israeli custody, U.S. human rights defender, Christian Small, was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals,” wrote the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Instagram. “They choked him and kicked him, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back”.

Still, despite Smalls having been profiled by every major media outlet in the U.S. when he successfully led the union drive at Amazon, not a single major media outlet has covered his violent detention by the IDF three days ago.

In 2022, The New York Times even ran a Style section profile on his fashion choices among more than a dozen pieces that they ran on his organizing efforts, but the paper has not said anything about the detention and beating of a high-profile labor activist at the hands of the IDF. Only three smaller left-leaning outlets, Zeteo, The Grio, and Jezebel covered it.

“This totally makes sense,” wrote University of New Brunswick Professor Nathan Kalman-Lamb on Bluesky. “A notable public figure in the US (Amazon labor organizer Christian Smalls) is illegally arrested by Israel and subjected to severe physical violence while on a hunger strike… and not one US media outlet of any type has decided that is news.”

Some union leaders have already begun to speak out about his detention.

"As a union, we are demanding the immediate release of Chris Smalls and all captured activists," said the 29,000-member California Faculty Association in a statement late Monday. "We further call for an immediate end to the engineered famine and deliberate starving of the people in Gaza, labor complicity with genocide, and all US military aid to Israel".

Other unions are expected to denounce the beating & detention of Smalls by the IDF.

However, his international union leader, Teamsters union President Sean O'Brien, has stayed silent on the detention of Smalls, who founded the Amazon Labor Union, which is now an affiliate of the Teamsters.

Instead, the Teamsters President Sean O'Brien took to social media to advertise his upcoming interview with fascist commentator Vivek Ramaswamy and his 3 million right-wing followers.

— Mike Elk, 29 July 2025

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The Shadow of the West, (1986, documentary, TV series, 53min), (still, vimeo), Directed by Geoff Dunlop, Written and Narrated by Edward W. Said [The Eqbal Ahmad Project. Palestine Film Index]

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Jaffa the forgotten Palestinian city

Did you know before 1948, Palestine's city of Jaffa exported fruits to Europe?

Lost Cities of Palestine shows rarely seen archival footage of forgotten Palestinian cities before the creation of Israel. Watch the full documentary here.

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Reva do you have any recommendations on dalit feminist history/ dalit feminist movement? Any book? Any documentary etc..

coming out as dalit (yashica dutt) and the trauma of caste (thenmozhi soundararajan) are both memoirs by dalit feminists (the latter helped organise dalit history month and founded equality labs; she especially focuses on casteism in the indian diaspora) . I also recommend karukku by bama, who is a dalit christian

there's also dalit feminist theory (edited by sunaina arya and aakash singh rathore) but I haven't read that yet

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I Am Not Your Negro is Raoul Peck's brilliant documentary on James Baldwin. Today would have been Baldwin's 100th birthday, so it is a great day to (re)watch this amazing film!

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could you rec Good political indian movies i'm sick of seeing rw slop everywhere i look 😬

so I mostly have documentaries for this because I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for

a night of knowing nothing (dir. payal kapadia) is about a couple being separated by their parents because they're of different castes

prisoner no. 626710 (dir. lalit vachani) is about the arrest of umar khalid, who's been kept imprisoned without trial and has consistently been denied bail

dr. babasaheb ambedkar (dir. jabbar patel) is a biopic on ambedkar

any of anand patwardhan's documentaries are a good start but I highly recommend jai bhim comrade, ram ke naam and father son and holy war. all three address the demolition of babri masjid and the hindutva mobilisation post 1980s

sairat (dir. nagraj manjule) is a fictional story about the violence of caste endogamy

mango dreams (dir. john upchurch) is about a partition survivor who wants to see his childhood home in present day pakistan before the onset of dementia

manto (dir. nandita das) is a biopic on saadat hasan manto who moved to pakistan during the partition

red ant dream (dir. sanjay kak) is a documentary covering the naxalites (sanjay kak's documentaries other documentaries are good too)

haider (dir. vishal bhardwaj) is a modern day adaptation of shakespeare's hamlet about a student who returns to his home in kashmir in 1995 to dig deeper into his father's disappearance. forget bollywood, I wholeheartedly believe this is the only indian movie about the brawl over kashmir that is actually good and sensitive to the conditions under which kashmiris take up arms

pariyerum perumal (dir. mari selvaraj) is about the friendship between an oppressed caste man and an oppressor caste woman, whose family disapproves

and because I can, I will end it with hit bollywood movie rang de basanti (dir. rakeysh omprakash mehra). if this movie was released today aamir khan would've been shot dead I'm so serious the opening scene is of bhagat singh reading lenin 💀 defined an entire generation tbh

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KASHMIR MASTERLIST

Background

History of Kashmir from 250 BC to 1947 [to understand Kashmir's multi religious history and how we got to 1947]

Broad timeline of events from 1947 to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in 2019 (BBC) [yes, BBC. hang on just this once]

Human Rights Watch report based on a visit to Indian controlled Kashmir in 1998 [has a summary, background, human rights abuses and recommendations]

Another concise summary of the issue

Sites to check out

Kashmir Action - news and readings

The Kashmiriyat - independent news site about ongoings in Kashmir

FreePressKashmir - same thing as previous

Kashmir Law and Justice Project - analysis of international law as it applies to Kashmir

Stand with Kashmir - awareness, run by diaspora Kashmiris [both Pandit and Muslim]

These two for more readings and resources on Kashmir: note that the petitions and donation links are from 2019 and also have explainers on the background (x) (x)

To read

Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora? - about women in the Kashmiri resistance movement and the 1991 mass rape of Kashmiri women in the twin villages of Kunan and Poshpora by Indian armed forces

Until My Freedom Has Come: The New Intifada in Kashmir - a compliation of writings about the lives of Kashmiris under Indian domination [available on libgen]

Colonizing Kashmir: State Building under Indian Occupation - how Kashmir was made "integral" to the Indian state and examines state-building policies [excerpt]

Resisting Occupation in Kashmir - about the social and legal dimensions of India's occupation [available on libgen]

Of Occupation and Resistance - another collation of stories of Kashmiris living under state repression

On India's scapegoating of Kashmiri Pandits, both by Kashmiri Pandits (x) (x)

Of Gardens and Graves - translations of Kashmiri poems

Social media

kashiirkoor

museumofkashmir

kashmirpopart

posh_baahar

readingkashmir

standwithkashmir and their backup account standwithkashmir2 [their main account is banned in India. I wonder why!]

kashmirlawjustice

kashmirawareness

kashmirarchive

jammugenocide [awareness about the 1947 genocide abetted by Maharaja Hari Singh and the RSS]

To watch

Jashn-e-Azadi: How We Celebrate Freedom parts 1 and 2 - a documentary about the Kashmiri freedom struggle [filmed by a Kashmiri Pandit]

Paradise Lost - BBC documentary about how India and Pakistan's dispute over the valley has affected the people

Kashmir - Valley of Tears - the exhaustion with the conflict in the post nineties

In the Shade of Fallen Chinar - art as a form of Kashmiri resistance

Human rights violations (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Land theft and dispossession (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

A note: The list of readings is not exhaustive. It is only an introduction to the history of the occupation. I know annoying "Desis" are going to see this and bitch and moan about how Kashmir is actually integral to their country out of a sense of colonial entitlement. Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris, the natives, no matter what religion they belong to. Neither Pakistan nor India get to decide the matter of Kashmiri sovereignty. The reasons given by both parties as to why Kashmir should be a part of either nation are bullshit. The United Nations itself recognises Kashmir as a disputed region, so I will entertain neither dumbfuckery nor whataboutism. I highly encourage fellow Indians especially to take the time to go through and properly understand the violence the state enacts on Kashmiris. I've also included links to learn more about Kashmiri culture because really, what do the rest of us know about it? Culturally & linguistically Kashmir differs so much from the rest of India and Pakistan (also the way Kashmiri women are fetishised... yikes). It's not just a bilateral issue between the two nations over land, it actually affects the people of Kashmir