Simon Pirani

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141 Posts
Writer, historian, researcher of energy, climate, Ukraine, Russia. Author of Burning Up: a Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption (2018). Honorary professor, university of Durham
Bloghttps://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/
University profilehttps://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/simon-pirani/
Russia's war: stop trying to delegitimise resistance https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/russias-war-stop-trying-to-delegitimise-resistance/ "Were Argentine socialists right to support Malvinas war, & call for it to be “made popular”, in the face of dictatorship? Why should we not demand the racist, anti-working-class, genocide-supporting Starmer govt steps up arms shipments to Ukraine?"
Photo: Ukrainian soldiers in battle of Donetsk airport, October 2014
European socialism, imperial militarism and defence of Ukraine https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/european-socialism-imperial-militarism-and-defence-of-ukraine/ "We support building schools & oppose building airport runways. Why can’t we support provision of air defence systems to Ukraine & oppose sinking billions into Trident & aircraft carriers? & call on govt to refuse to buy Israeli-made weapons systems?"
Photo by Steve Eason
The Turkish miners’ strike of 1990-1991 "was far, far more than just a strike. It brought into action the whole community, in common with all movements that really challenge the established order of things." Pamphlet republished as free-to-download PDF. Photo: Zonguldak, 1991
The Russian government's aim is "to force us to become sheep, marching to the beat of drums made from our own skins". It's an honour for me now to stand side by side with those who refused - Aleksandr Nesterenko in court
https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2026/01/04/your-power-is-based-on-lies-and-violence-three-years-for-sharing-ukrainian-songs/
"These anti-war speeches have much to tell us not only about Russia, but about the increasingly dangerous world we live in, & right-wing, authoritarian turns in USA & European countries. https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/the-courtroom-rebels-standing-up-to-warmonger-putin/ [...] Capital’s need for social control underpins near-fascist methods. From Russia’s dystopian efforts to punish its dissenting citizens as 'terrorists' and 'traitors', patterns are retraced in unhinged witch-hunts in the USA & Europe, against opponents of the Gaza slaughter."
Bosnia: Unite for mineworkers, for land and for water. No to unjust transition https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/09/25/bosnia-unite-for-mineworkers-for-land-and-for-water-no-to-unjust-transition/ Bob Myers reports from the Breza Zbor (assembly) in Bosnia, where trade unionists and environmentalists made common cause against international corporations and their false “green transition”. Photo: Gacko coal mine, Bosnia
Climate Injustice by Friederike Otto reviewed.
https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/08/07/climate-change-is-an-injustice-multiplier-not-an-asteroid/ In mainstream discourse, global heating "is gutted of content, stripped of its origins in economic activity & social hierarchies". The responsibility of powerful humans in corporations & governments is concealed.
"Oleg Dubrovsky concludes that his efforst at socialist propaganda failed almost completely, but his organising around wages, hours and workplace conditions had some success." Review of a book by a lifelong workplace activist in Dnipro, eastern Ukraine.
https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/ukraine-the-ups-and-downs-of-workplace-organising/
Thanks @theecologist.org for using my piece about rooftop solar being "well suited to community, co-operative and municipal forms of ownership that have lengthy precedents associated with the labour movement & with socialist visions of post-capitalist economies" https://theecologist.org/2025/may/07/rooftop-solar-can-be-torn-out-capitals-hands
Rooftop solar can be torn out of capital’s hands

Decentralised solar has the potential to support co-operative, municipal and other forms of community ownership and control.

The Ecologist
Solar power expanding. https://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/2025/04/24/rooftop-solar-glints-of-light-in-the-darkening-climate-crisis/ China leads (40% of global capacity). Most is big solar farms; rooftop solar a close 2nd. Rooftop solar is growing within exploitative, hierarchical economic and social relationships. "Here I ask: could it be developed at least partly free of those relationships? Can it potentially play a part in our collective struggle to supercede capital-dominated society with a socially just society?"
Photo: trainees fabricating a solar converter box
Rooftop solar: glints of light in the darkening climate crisis

Part 1 of 2. / Download both parts of this article as a PDF here By Simon Pirani Solar power is expanding rapidly.[1] In 2023, the total capacity of the world’s solar photovoltaic (PV) panels was f…

People and Nature