Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

London: Life support system of the super-rich Alpha City:  How London Was Captured by the Super-rich How the super-wealthy took over London

On 'For Sama' and mainstream filmmaking

This falls in the underconsumption theory. It very insighful though, but it would be interesting to see a critique of it, especially that it apparently excludes the relationship between investment and the rate of profit. "Michael Pettis and Matthew Klein's new book  Trade Wars Are Class Wars  begins  with an epigraph from John A. Hobson: "The struggle for markets, the greater eagerness of producers to sell than of consumers to buy, is the crowning proof of a false economy of distribution. Imperialism is the fruit of this false economy." Pettis and Klein update the Hobsonian thesis for the twenty-first century, arguing that, while trade wars are often thought to be the result of atavistic leadership or the contrasting economic priorities of discrete nation states, they are best understood as the malign symptoms of domestic inequalities that harm workers the world over." Trade Wars Are Class Wars

The Oil for Security Myth and Middle East Insecurity Related McJihad: Empire and Islam Between the US and Saudi Arabia Why the Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain [and the U.S.]

Via Michael Roberts The pandemic lockdowns will reduce incomes of low-paid workers in Europe by anything between 10% to 22% on average, depending on how long lockdowns last, according to a new study. Enforced social distancing and lockdown measures to contain COVID-19 restrict economic activity, especially among workers in non-essential jobs who cannot ‘telework’. These have implications for inequality and poverty. This column analyses  the capacity of individuals in 29 European countries to work under lockdown and the potential impact of a two-month lockdown on wages and inequality levels. There will be substantial and uneven wage losses across the board and poverty will rise. Inequality within countries will worsen, as it will between countries although to a lesser extent. "In sum, our analysis reveals that the lockdown and de-escalation periods will potentially increase poverty and inequality sizeably in all European countries, even without accounting for second-roun...

When the New York Times brings its support for US militarism home

"The 20-year evolution of modern independent Middle Eastern cinema has been exciting, unpredictable, and in some cases, awe-inspiring. A few masterpieces have been made, such as Ala Eddine Slim’s  Tlamess ; Shahram Mokri's  Fish & Cat ; and Annemarie Jacir’s  Wajib . Documentary filmmaking has experienced a major leap in form (see for example the likes of Suhaib Gasmelbari's  Talking About Trees ; and Raed Andoni's  Ghost-hunting ). And film-makers have gained the confidence and experience that previous generations lacked. But foreign money and international exposure have come at a price: the subject matter of films has become repetitive; simplistic liberal politics have become mandatory; and formal experimentation has become a gimmick rather than genuine artistic expression. People tell stories partially to redress historical silences, but if the stories and the resulting images are so ubiquitous, then what’s the point? And if the message and sentim...

A liberal take. And when liberals mention class it is because they fear the radicalisation of the oppressed classes and class conflict. Black Lives Matter is about both race and class

In a European country where the average monthly salary is £300 Women who give birth for money

There a sloppy about Obama in this article. Unsurprisingly, no mention of class at all as if race and class are not interrelated. The rights/plight of the African Iraqis

Another 'Europeanisation'

Here is a good analysis "[W]e can no longer assume that shared identity means a shared commitment to the strategies necessary to improve the lives of a vast majority of black people. Class tensions among African-Americans have produced new fault lines that the romance of racial solidarity simply cannot overcome." The End of Black Politics

Some "liberals" are really scared and don't want to see a radicalisation of a movement. After decades of silence and complicity, they are changing tack. Understandably, one is not expecting a Foreign Journal's article to include the capitalist and imperialist settings as a wider context of class and race oppression, the economic policies imposed, the international institution involved, debt enslaving, etc. That would question the "liberal democractic way of life,", the American concept of "freedom", the "cold war" and what it was about, "the definition of terrorism" and discovering American imperialist history. The defenders of the system will do whatever it takes, including concessions and what it sounds leftish discourse, to mollify anger, co-opt resistance, mobilise their troops of intellectuals and celebrities in order to establish a new status quo. If a stronger movement that goes beyond race and racism doesn't chall...

Albert Memmi I have noticed that there is no mention at all whether he took a position the Israeli state.

The slavers and abolitionists on Liverpool's streets

"All the politicians attacking the Bristol iconoclasts for removing the slave-owner Colston's statue---Johnson, Patel, Steer Calmer, Labour's Shadow Home (can't remember his name] and others, share one thing in common. Not a single one of them has called for the reinstatement of the statue. Wonder why? Calmer agrees it shouldn't be there, but numerous governments, Labour and Tory never removed it. Calmer and Johnson would rather it was done 'legally'. (Laughter). Worth remembering that Colston too was a believer in legality. Nothing he did was illegal! Slavery was the law of the land, free trade, etc." —Tariq Ali, 09 June 2020

"It is not just that this statue [of Robert Clive ] stands as a daily challenge to every British person whose grandparents came from the former colonies. Perhaps more damagingly still, its presence outside the Foreign Office encourages dangerous neo-imperial fantasies among the descendants of the colonisers. In Britain, study of the empire is still largely absent from the history curriculum. This still tends to go from the Tudors to the Nazis, Henry to Hitler, with a brief visit to William Wilberforce and Florence Nightingale along the way. We are thus given the impression that the British were always on the side of the angels. We remain almost entirely ignorant about the long history of atrocities and exploitation that accompanied the building of our colonial system. Now, more than ever, we badly need to understand what is common knowledge elsewhere: that for much of history we were an aggressively  racist and  expansionist force  responsible for ...

About 6 years ago a Belgian student told me that they were not taught about the Belgian genocide in Congo. Statue of Leopold II, Belgian King Who Britalised Congo, is removed "Brutalised" is used to describe the killing of millions of people! Historians' and anthropologists' estimates range between 5 and 13 million. Related Atrocities in the Congo Free State

Paris 1871

Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes Related Many Brits know of the Russian gulag and Sozhenirsyn, but very little is taught about English atrocities. That ignorance shapes one's outlook at what is happening in the rest of the world and strengthens the belief that Britain is a good force in the world (philanthropy, aid ornganisations, charities, missionary celebrities , etc). Similar outlook can be found in France, Belgium and other countries. Excerpts from   Britain's Gulag – The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya   by Caroline Elkins

Do statues serve history? The English historian Simon Schama is not a leftist. Here is what he has to say in a non-leftist paper: "Statues are not history; rather, its opposite. History is argument; statues brook none. The whole honour of history lies in its contrarian irrepressibility; its brief to puncture the pieties of power, should they belie the truth. Those horrified by the de-pedestalisations of recent days — the Black Lives Matter protests have led to the felling of statues from the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol to the brutal colonialist  Leopold II  in Belgian cities — claim that such acts “erase” history. But the contrary is true. It is more usually statues, lording it over civic space, which shut off debate through their invitation to reverence." History is better served by putting Men in Stone in museums Related Churchill's statue may have to be put in a museum . I hope so!