Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

"With the adoption of these labor reforms, France is passing through the first chapters of a familiar story across the west. Changes sold to the public as a means of reducing unemployment have, in fact, resulted in a wave of layoffs." Macron's attack on workers

It is sad but true to say, as Marx Wartofsky has, that "communist politics, as well as anticommunist politics, left the tradition of Marxist scholarship enfeebled."  This is a good piece. Marxism and the Philosophy of Science

Tunisia Excluded from the national consensus that has brought together Islamist party Ennahda and the secular Nidaa Tounes, marginalized social categories (such as unemployed youth or inhabitants of the country’s least economically advanced regions) have protested at the lack of a credible development plan after decades of underinvestment and neglect by the central authorities. Inevitably, they have been recalcitrant to acknowledge the increasingly dangerous economic situation and the price to pay for the increasingly painful adjustment. Unable to manage their expectations, post-uprising governments have chosen to try and meet these groups’ demands now, rather than present a convincing long-term plan for sustainable development, thus avoiding any confrontation. As Tunisia has become too important to fail, the international community’s implicit insurance against any risk of sociopolitical disaster has made this bargain possible. Rentierism, patronage and moral hazard

Social struggle in London "The death of the HDV is a victory for local people over multinational business, for democracy over machine politics. Most of all, it is an inflection point in one of the  great battles of our times: Big Finance versus the rest of us." Haringey

Charles Baudelaire, Jane Jacobs, Hannah Arendt, Edward Said, Karl Marx

Turkey's People's Democratic Party (HDP)

A book review My Lai: Vietnam 1968, and the Descent into Darkness

Higher Education A critique by David Harvey (an interview)

The youthquake that wasn't

A big setback for the "free world" and its long-time endeavour "to liberate and civilize" Afghanistan by bringing "human rights" and "prosperity" to its people. However, at least "we saved" a young girl and she is now an undergraduate at Oxford University.  Taliban threatens 70% of Aghanistan, the BBC finds