Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Is there room for critical thinking in Islam? That's in addition to the history of atheism in Islam , the Qarmatians , the feminist movement (esp. in early 20th century). Those who don't see the role of colonialism, the Victorian morality that accompanied it, dictatorship and dependency, the failure of the nationalist-led modernization project (including 'secularism' from above) and the subsequent rise of Islamic fundamentalism, the stalinization of most the official left and repression, impeiralist domination, etc. do not see the diversity and history of Islam from Dakar to Bali.

"The British establishment is trying to destroy Labour," writes Paul Mason. "[We must] build a vibrant political culture where anti-Semitism is combated, where any illusions about Vladimir Putin’s Russia are punctured and the truth is told about the crimes of Stalinism; a culture where people are educated in the values of the Labour movement and its diverse traditions – social democracy, syndicalism and democratic Marxism – not just given a manifesto, a rulebook and a list of doors to knock. "We need a movement that helps people develop a belief in their own agency - not the agency of states, religions, autocrats or, for that matter, iconic Labour leaders. That part is up to us." Actually, it is not in the interest of the "British establishment" to destroy Labour. What the "establishment" wants is a resurrection of New Labour, a shift in the balance of forces within Labour so that the right-wing takes over. Ultimately, what is ai...

The Managerial Class A book launch

Shooting and stabbing violence in London. " We've seen a normalisation in attitudes toward violence globally - and also we take offence about pretty much everything. If we look at people now - things escalate on social media now about absolutely nothing. People now, when placed in conflict situations, react in a much more expressive manner. And if people who are running countries react in that manner, it's a signal for everyone to react that way."  —   Martin Griffiths   is a consultant surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust in London. I would add the structural violence of the state: austerity and cuts, marginalisation and exclusion  (remember 2011 riots?), and commodification of everything, This rise in violence in London is merely a symptom. There are other symptoms, too. To identify the disease the diagnosis has to be general . 

"Even a whole society, a nation, or even all simultaneously existing societies together, are not the owners of the globe. They are only its possessors, its usufructuaries, and like boni patres familias [good fathers of families] they must hand it down to succeeding generations in an improved condition... The rational cultivation of the soil as eternal communal property", is "an inalienable condition of the existence and reproduction of a chain of successive generations of the human race." — Marx, Capital , vol. 3 "It seems to me axiomatic that the expansionary, competitive and exploitative logic of capitalist accumulation in the context of the nation-state system must, in the longer or shorter term, be destabilizing, and that capitalism . . . is and will for the foreseeable future remain the greatest threat to world peace." Capitalism "may be able to accommodate some degree of ecological care, especially when the technology of environmental prote...

Trump, trade, and the tech war

How not to evaluate the relevance of Marx's Capital

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Black holes

The accident of birth is the greatest source of inequality in the US,” wrote economist James Heckman. It’s equally true in the UK today, where the strongest predictor of academic achievement is how much your parents earn. Though two-thirds of our kids attain a C or above in English and maths GCSEs each year, that number falls to just over a third of kids on free school meals. Heckman has also shown that the best way to tackle this inequality is to invest in children’s development as early as possible in their lives. It isn’t enough to transform schools – we have to start much earlier than that. How babies learn - and why robots can't compet e

The class system

Gender gap in Britain If the figures provided by the companies are genuine ... 1. 'Free market': Leading robbers in this are banks and budget airlines such as easyjet and ryanair.  2. Transparency: For how long has this been going on? Who has been complicit in hiding this?  3. Justice: Will the women affected get back what they have been robbed of?  4. Certainly many women, and men, knew about the gap for years, but accepted it and kept silent. Aren't they also complicit? 4. Exploitation: Like what is happening between the rich and poor countries through multinational companies, debt, etc, when you get something "cheap", or if you feel that your standard of living is OK, someone else /other people, another class must be paying for it.

Crucial. A debate between Michael Roberts and David Harvey

The Iranian philosopher Dariush Shayegan An obituary

Last month the National Crime Agency reported a  35% annual rise  in the number of suspected slavery victims found in the UK, with more than 5,000 people referred to the government mechanism that supports them in 2017. Labour exploitation, rather than sexual exploitation, was the most common type of modern slavery cited. How did we let modern slavery become part of our everyday lives?

Caricatures by Gerhard Haderer 31 illustrations d’une franchise brutale par Gerhard Haderer qui montrent ce qui cloche avec la société moderne

A short story Yes, we have no bananas By Stephen Langfur

Satire A teenager's trip to Israel

From identity politics to academic masturbation

Turkey Inside the Islamic Cult Whose Leader is Embraced by Israeli Figures

From the Financial Times Brexit reinforces Britain's imperial amnesia

The Peculiar Modalities of Capitalism in the Arab Region

One of the tools of the oppressor, the terrorist state, is to portray itself as a victim.  And the rest of humanity enjoys the spectacle, as usual. Muslims and non-Muslims have watched the Syrians massacred, the Yemenis slaughtered, refugees drowning, Rohingyas "genocided" ...  The more I hear and read about this, the more I feel ashamed of myself and my position in this world. I had years of struggles and protests against both: first against a police state and then against imperialist one. I came to realise the futility of such struggle. I despaired. The more I read about the last two centuries, the more I know about the huge scientific progress as well as about barbarism and our collective complicity in it. And, sadly, our complacency and complicity will continue in the coming atrocities. My only solace is to continue reading in order to keep a sharp mind; to survive in a swamp. "Area of terror"

Where are those £10 billion deals with our Saudi Friends? Will there be any trickle down? Child poverty in England

The Israeli "Left" "The Zionist left has an almost genetic structural problem — the awful contradiction between the left and Zionism, certainly in the reality of the Zionist apartheid of 2018 and the deliberate blurring of the term Zionism. The Zionist left is trying as hard as it can to hide the contradiction, cover it up, blur it, repress and deny it – but it doesn’t have a chance. As long as it sticks to its Zionism and as long as that Zionism is by definition a non-egalitarian ideology, which deprives, dispossesses, evicts and occupies, grants privileges to only one part of the country’s residents and not the other – that left cannot be a left. It’s merely a softer, more moderate right, a more restrained and liberally-styled version of the nationalist right." — Gideon Levy on Haaretz

It is mot about stating the obvious; it is about how you state it beautifully and succinctly. Do we get paid what we "deserve"?

The killing of Palestinians is accepted in Israel more lightly than the killing of mosquitoes. There’s nothing cheaper in Israel than Palestinian blood. If there were a hundred or even a thousand deaths Israel would still “salute” the IDF. The Israel Massacre Forces. Again.