Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

"If we don't understand class struggle, we don't understand anything"

Aerial photographs 

Foreign Powers and the Syrian Calculus

"When Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999, there was hope. He was a man who championed the poor in what has always been a deeply divided society. He was a vibrant and controversial figure who wanted to lead a socialist revolution in Venezuela.  But Chavez was helped by strong commodity prices that funded his ambitious social programmes. With a fall in oil prices, President Maduro has had no such luck - and little of the charisma his predecessor had. During his leadership, the country has fallen into economic decline." ( The BBC ) Yes, strong commodities benefited Venezuela and other countries for a while, but a new socio-economic project cannot be built on a temporary boom or in one country or some "islands". That is impossible in a global capitalist system. The experience of Venezurla has proved that any faltering in the boom affects not only state revenues but also any deepening of popular democracy. And if the new leadership, whatever ideas and ideals it

The rising tide

Business first ... and austerity  I witness this everyday in London: a "civilisation" that cannot provide toiltes/access to toiltes. In many cases, one has to pay for a drink/food just to use a toilet. Greater London has a population of more than 8 million, visitors not included. Big chaines like Pret a manger do not even have toilets. Some Wasabi restaurants do not have toilets. It seems there is no legal obligation that these busineeses must have such vital facility. Next time when you are in London make sure you empty your bowels very well before you go on the street. There is  no particular right to access a toilet in public  and local authorities do not have a duty to provide them Businesses that provide toilets for their customers have no legal duty to do so for non-customers Public toilets in London "Why is San Francisco covered in human feces?"

This is unprecedented. I'm very shocked and surprised! And these academics have always been using their most effective tools at their disposal: letters and petitions. "UK puts money before human rights in Egypt"

الرجل الذي لم يُوَقَّع

Trailing ... The Mujahidin, Taliban and the CIA  (wikipedia) Sleeping with the devil (the Washington Post) The CIA and Islamic fundamentalism   (Weekly Worker) How the Taliban got their way in Afghanistan (the New York Times, a review of Ahmed Rashid's Taliban ) Political Islam in the service of imperialism (Samir Amin)

"Lady Rothschild wanted to persuade company chiefs that capitalism must go  “beyond financial performance only, in an effort to enhance the value of environmental, human, ethical and social capital”.   The idea was backed by luminaries like Bill Clinton; Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England; Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England; and, to cap it all, Prince Charles of the British monarchy! These eminences were out to tell the world that capitalism is a great and good thing and can be made even better if we can reduce inequality and poverty, end global warming and wars, and operate in a ‘moral’ way.  Like Warren, Lady Rothschild argued that  “the imbalance of capital and labour”  must be acted upon." "Accountable, inclusive or responsible capitalism?" I disagree with stating that "capitalism won't and can't deliver". I think it is more complicated than that. The system in fact has been delivering and not del

UK Facts about previous MPs before voting in the last general election You get the idea about their education, wealth, "representation", and what interests/system they are expected to defend

We willingly buy the screens that are used against us "willingly"? 

Syrian security forces did not reach the targeted villages for several hours.  "The regime forces could have stepped in to prevent the attack or at least mitigate it once it happened," Dr Yahya said. "It's very easy for people to see this as a payback for them having not sided with the regime or for their attempt to take a neutral position in the conflict." Druze village massacre 

Four types of slavery throughout the world

"There can be no question that violence and racism were essential traits of fascism. But for most Italians, Germans and other European fascists, the appeal was based not on racism, much less ethnic cleansing, but on the fascists’ ability to respond effectively to crises of capitalism when other political actors were not. Fascists insisted that states could and should control capitalism, that the state should and could promote social welfare, and that national communities needed to be cultivated. The fascist solution ultimately was, of course, worse than the problem." It was not just hate, racism and violence. Fascism offered robust social welfare Two young nation states in the biggest economic crisis of capitalism. Offering solutions to a system in crisis appeals to the conservatism in the majority and makes them complacent and even complicit in racism and violence. A threat is created and some-people-"are-better-than-others" find an echo in the shell of the na

Arsène Tchakarian (1916-2018)

The lives of African fruit pickers in Italy

England "Free market" fundamentalism The prison will be returned to G4S when "sufficient progress" has been made. This is despite the criminal record of G4S. Other examples are mildly called "controversies" by wikipedia . See also An undercover findings in an immigration detention centre " The UK is the only country in the European Union that doesn’t put a specific time limit on immigration detention."

"The U.S debt to Syria"

"[Y]ou may observe the niceties of Holocaust Memorial Day, but still not have learned the lessons of history. You may be remembering to forget, practicing a spurious innocence, externalising evil, forgetting that, as Adorno argued, as long as we live in the conditions that could produce Auschwitz, we are all guilty . The only thing that could conceivably alleviate that guilt is to act against those conditions. Hence, Stone's preference for many and varied forms of memory, at different levels, detached from the rituals of the great and good. What are those conditions? The Trust identifies "racism and hate" in a general way, presumably intending to be as uncontroversial and therefore inclusive as possible. However, histories of Germany and fascism in recent decades, by Mark Mazower, Enzo Traverso, Jurgen Zimmerer, Isabel Hull, Sven Lindquist, Casper Erichsen, David Olusoga and Shelley Baranowski, to name just a few, have in common that they have foregrounded an emp

"Orteguista ,  rather than Sandinista ,  [is]  a linguistic distinction that has become a common indicator of Ortega’s divorce from the FSLN’s founding values. Where the Sandinista Front was established as socialist, the Ortega government has  privatized  Nicaraguan industries and made welfare services contingent upon party allegiance." Activists speak out about Nicaragua's crackdowns

Classical Syrian cinema The film was released in 1972 and based on a story by Haydar Haydar, a prominent Syrian writer and Arab nationalist. The events of the film/story take place in the aftermath of the formal independence of Syria. The film is subtitled in English.

"The label 'terrorist' works to identify a little enclave of evil, a sub-population of evil-doers, from whom the rest of humanity distinct. It works to hypocritically stratify global violence, so that we know who is entitled to its use, and whose rustiest weapon is an outrage." When the ANC were "terrorists"

"English" literature Looking forward to reading this book "This analysis is often supported by a discussion of the worldviews, or ideologies, of the writers concerned, whether it is the conservative Jane Austen acting as a watchdog for the morality of the landed gentry at a time of social upheaval but in the process exposing their many moral failures, or the liberal intellectual George Eliot meticulously recording the stifling society of parochial England and ultimately finding it too claustrophobic and oppressive, a world to escape from in order to breathe freely. Eagleton refreshingly demystifies the cult of the 'great writer'. A fine example of this is with the chapter on DH Lawrence, where he broaches the thorny subject of the relationship of politics to literature. It is, I think, a definitive summary, and one that explains how it is possible to reject a writer's reactionary views but at the same time appreciate what is best in their art. Lawren