Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Domenico Losurdo’s new book I have read and I recommend Losurdo’s  Liberalism – A Counter-History . A book praised even by the Financial Times Related Losurdo on social-political struggle Interview on opendemocracy

Amit Dave/Reuters via merip.org “ Karim’s experience is the product of an evolving strategic partnership between India and Israel , where an increasingly overt convergence of interests and ideology has led to both states tangibly supporting one another in working towards their respective political and economic ambitions. Through this partnership, state repression in Indian-occupied territories is not an exclusively Indian project. It has become part of a broader network, linking India to the Israeli state and its own colonial project.”

An interview with the editor of the book Samer S. Shehata

The book still speaks about today’s America

"Russia's problem is our system. A system was created here that created such a person [as Putin]. The question of the West's role in creating this system is a very serious one.” — Grigory Yavlinsky

The best a analysis I have read so far. Straining under its own contradictions

‘Arab Spring’

Webinar: a conversation with the authors of the dossier The Arab Uprisings - A Decade of Struggle

A decade of struggles Credit: Transnational Institute

“ I think we need a reconsideration of the whole of the post-1945 period, which is an era in which both authoritarian and semi-democratic governments across the region engaged in massive arms acquisition and then deployed many—in some cases most—of those weapons against their own populations. We usually see this as a process of violent decolonization and then an equally violent postcolonial descent into either authoritarianism or fractured forms of democracy, which is a pattern that of course we can identify elsewhere in the world as well. But actually, when we look through this lens of mass violence, we can see that there are many ways in which this is not a period of decolonization at all. It is a period of  recolonization : a recalibration and a recasting of empire into new shapes, in which superpowers control spaces by combining economic dominance with a deliberate flooding of weaponry in the relevant territory, alongside the careful—and sometimes not so careful—creation of specifi

“What relevance does it have for you or me that a long-dead French thinker believed neoliberalism offered a possible escape hatch from the particular problems of normative power? “Do Not Ask me Who I am”

Reflections on Mass Protests and Uprisings in the “Arab World” A diverse panel. The advantage of a recorded meeting is that you could always select what you want to listen to. Each person spoke for only 10 minutes. Although I listened to all of it, I liked more the approach of the last two speakers: Hanieh and Khalidi.

 Workers and Change

The Syrian Revolution Between the Politics of Life and the Geopolitics of Death

 The Authoritarian Personality

Giroux reminds us of Horkheimer and Adorno’s insights that liberalism and capitalism have inherent fascist potential, that fascism is a terroristic version of capitalism, that fascist potential has not ceased to exist after the end of World War II, and that “whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism” (Horkheimer). For almost 19 years in London, the people I have met have never wanted to talk about capitalism. Most of the students I got across hold a strong belief in it. What is mainly required is for capitalism to be managed properly by the right people and, in countries in Africa, Asia and the MENA region, it is mainly about the state and the institutions and the right implementaion of recipes. People want to hear about the "freedom" they enjoy, how "tolerant" their society is, the cheap flights, iphones, music, a T.V series or a sitcom......and don't want to feel uncomfortable hearing about capitalist violence m

"Hong Kong's Last Battle"

Eleven Theses on Venezuela There should be at least one additional thesis: class configuration, the inablity of carrying out industrialisation and radical changes.

Russia "A lot of the continuities I see are really more focused on the internal evolution of the system. I think that a lot of what people, certainly in the West, criticize Putin for certain kinds of authoritarian behavior, reining in the regions, control of the press, galloping corruption–all of these things were not only present under Yeltsin, but actually the foundations were laid during the Yeltsin years for what then developed under Putin. The clearest example I can think of this is the constitution. That was imposed after this slightly dodgy referendum in 1993. All of Putin’s presidential power derived from that moment where Yeltsin resolved the conflict with the Parliament by force. If you want to undo this contrast between Yeltsin, the democrat, and Putin the authoritarian, all you’ve got to do is look at that moment and then you understand that in that particular moment when a liberal, or someone committed to a liberal free market transformation of Russia, when Yelt

Venezuela