Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Rana May be right. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a key economic turning point that will have many lasting consequences. Among them will be a quickening of the shift to a bipolar global financial system — one based on the dollar, the other on the renminbi. “China is our strategic cushion,” Sergei Karaganov, a political scientist at the Moscow-based Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, told Nikkei Asia recently. “We know that in any difficult situation, we can lean on it for military, political and economic support.” That does not mean China would break US or European sanctions to support Russia, but it could certainly allow Russian banks and companies more access to its own financial markets and institutions. Indeed, just a few weeks ago, the two countries announced a “friendship without limits”, one that will certainly include closer financial ties as Russia is shut out of western markets. This follows a 2019 agreement between Russia and China to settle all trade in their respectiv...

A provisional statement Related

“ Shares of Germany’s listed defence contractors soared on Monday after Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared the country would pour more than €100bn into modernising its depleted armed forces.  Stock of Rheinmetall, which makes tanks and armoured vehicles for Nato countries, rose more than 30 per cent in early trading in Frankfurt, while shares in Munich-based Hensoldt, which makes electronic sensors and is part-owned by US private equity group KKR, leapt by 45 per cent.  BAE Systems shares also rose 14 per cent, hitting record highs. The British group has a joint venture with Rheinmetall.” Financial Times

and the far-right are on the march

“Drawing on newly published macroeconomic statistics, this paper estimates the amount of household wealth owned by each country in offshore tax havens. The equivalent of 10% of world GDP is held in tax havens globally, but this average masks a great deal of heterogeneity—from a few percent of GDP in Scandinavia, to about 15% in Continental Europe, and 60% in Gulf countries and some Latin American economies. We use these estimates to construct revised series of top wealth shares in ten countries, which account for close to half of world GDP. Because offshore wealth is very concentrated at the top, accounting for it increases the top 0.01% wealth share substantially in Europe, even in countries that do not use tax havens extensively. It has considerable effects in Russia, where the vast majority of wealth at the top is held offshore. These results highlight the importance of looking beyond tax and survey data to study wealth accumulation among the very rich in a globalized world.” Macro ...

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

“Here’s an irony of history: at the 1945 Yalta Conference (in Crimea, of all places) Russia argued that Ukraine was an independent country and worthy of its own vote at the United Nations, while the United States and Britain argued that it was a region within Russia. I guess history isn’t what it used it be.” –Matthew Stevenson, Counterpunch.org, 23 February 2022 After 40 years of allowing Russian oligarchs to hide their money and and wealth in Western banks and assets, granting them citizenship status and letting them finance political parties in the West, the EU leader Von der Leyen announced after the beginning of the Russian invasion that “ we will work to prohibit Russian oligarchs from using their financial assets on our markets.”

“ We should stand in absolute opposition to Western and Russian imperialism , we should support Russian and Ukrainian workers against their own rotten ruling elites and, in the West, stand in complete opposition to our own warmongering governments that having left a trail of destruction in the Middle East, provoked a crisis in Europe that we, not they, will pay the price for.”

After their victory against the Taliban in 2001, with the support of the Americans, local warlords such as Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Muhammad Noor, and other militia commanders responsible for the murderous anarchy of the civil war, were to play a significant role in the new democratic Afghanistan. They were given immunity from prosecution for their alleged human rights abuses and war crimes, and the opportunity to enrich themselves from the immense inrush of foreign aid. Torture and mistreatment of prisoners in American jails helped turn these sites into fertile recruiting centres for future jihadis. “The memories of Bagram are hard on everyone, especially me,” Jawhar said. “We were three to five in each cell, we had no mattresses and we slept on the concrete floor. I became the imam of my cell, and the soldiers were always harder on the imams. Many times they called me to the door and then sprayed my face with pepper spray. Some [guards] tortured us for no reason, while others wou...

Whatever your stance on the Chinese regime, the words of the Foreign Ministry spokesperson should to be taken into account in a world rife of hypocrisy, power struggle and instability. “Certain countries should ask themselves: When the US drove five waves of NATO expansion eastward all the way to Russia’s doorstep and deployed advanced offensive strategic weapons in breach of its assurances to Russia, did it ever think about the consequences of pushing a big country to the wall?“ “I  noted that many people believe that there should not be double standards on the issue of respecting other country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Some people in the US attempt to distort China’s position and even sling mud on China. Such moves with ill intentions are unacceptable. Many people are asking the US: Did the US respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia when US-led NATO bombed Belgrade? Did the US respect the sovereignty and territorial ...

An article from last year ‘Techno-capitalism’ is taking over, argues Varoufakis.

There will be no limit to the number of Ukrainian refugees who can live with UK host families under a new visa scheme. The UK Health Secretary: "I'm pleased that we're doing this because as a country we have a very proud record of offering sanctuary to people from wars and from conflicts, When the bus driver dropped Vishnu and his friends off, they joined a throng of hundreds of people trying to pass through a gate at the border. Vishnu says only Ukrainians were being allowed through - and each time he got close to the crossing, guards would "drag" him to the back again. Suddenly UK homes are open to host refugees, a certain type of refugees An openly racist Europe defeats most of what we claim is at stake UK Home Secretary Priti Patel: “I have developed the Ukraine family scheme following discussions with the Ukrainian government and neighbouring countries and I am proud to have launched it within a matter of days,  enabling Ukrainians with family in the Unite...

We are now seeing major protests in Russia, with many being arrested. What is your sense of the sentiment of the Russian people to the invasion?  Ilya Budraitskis : “ Unlike in 2014, there is no patriotic enthusiasm in Russia today. Part of society is obviously outright opposed to the war with Ukraine, while the majority simply believes that it will soon be over and Russia will restore peace. There are very few actual revanchists who welcome the war and are prepared to make any sacrifice for the sake of Russia's geopolitical triumph. On the other hand, during the long years of Putin's rule, the vast majority of Russians have adopted the attitude that they have no ability to influence anything, and that everything will be decided without their participation anyway. This background of depoliticization and demoralization may provide passive support for the war for some period of time. However, if the war drags on and its economic and social consequences are felt by the majority of...

Hypocrisy then, more hypocrisy now

An invasion that has little to offer to Ukrainians, Russians and the world

Another example of the limits of political science . A fragmented approach that does not help in unpacking power struggles, political economic interests and the class dynamic inside countries. Related Whether a change in Russia’s political order is a possible outcome is to be seen, but an analysis should always go beyond politics. An invasion of Ukraine could destabilise Russia’s political order

A process of seizing assesses from Afghanistan to set up ‘humanitarian assistance’ Related The  ‘CIA’s army’

“ Même si je conserve une orientation décoloniale dans la mesure où je pense qu’il faut poursuivre les luttes contre le colonialisme par tous les moyens possibles, et donc aussi par l’art et la théorie critique, je trouve que la pensée décoloniale telle qu’elle existe aujourd’hui manque souvent de radicalité. À force de ne parler que de la race ou de la colonialité, on sépare la critique du colonialisme de la critique plus générale de l’État et du capital. Et, très souvent, ces objets sont laissés aux théoriciens marxistes blancs qui ne sont pas vraiment dérangés par la pensée décoloniale dans sa forme existante. Il faut avoir une théorie du capitalisme autonome si l’on veut cesser de dépendre de la théorie européenne. L’idée selon laquelle on ne devrait parler que de nous-mêmes ou de notre condition est faussement radicale.” Entretien avec Mohamad Amer Meziane

According to Michael Roberts and Guglielmo Carchedi,  imperialism is “a persistent and long-term net appropriation of surplus value by the high-technology imperialist countries from the low-technology dominated countries.” there are “four channels through which surplus value flows to the imperialist countries: currency seigniorage; income flows from capital investments; unequal exchange through trade; and changes in exchange rates.” “modern imperialism does not deny the persistent existence of colonialism. Colonialism and modern imperialism do not exclude each other… Colonialism contains in itself the germs of modern imperialism.” “the trade of the commodities with high technological content produced in the imperialist countries for the capitalistically produced raw materials or industrial goods produced with lower technological content in the dominated countries” results in “unequal exchange.” “under modern imperialism, technology has become the new battlefield.” “military and ide...

As Russia has turned Shi’ite by supporting Al-Assad regime and its cooperation with Iran, Israel is turning more and more Sunni by its cooperation with UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Shared-air defences

Five women to learn about 

on wikipedia

 “ The cases constitute the most widespread miscarriage of justice in British legal history. ” –the BBC

  The Colombian state confirms that 145 social movement leaders were murdered in 2021 alone .

 An apartheid state

Fuelling political violence across the continent

Court overturns criminalising ‘imitation of opposite sex’

On BBC Radio 4

“ Since 2014 the Russian authorities have significantly increased their economy’s ability to withstand a severe shock, especially the banking and financial sectors. The country’s central bank has drastically reduced its US dollar holdings and 87% of Russians now hold a Mir card that uses a national payment system. If the US carries out its threat to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT international payments system, as it did to Iran in 2012 and 2018, financial transactions between Russian banks and businesses can now be made via a homegrown financial messaging system. So Russia feels better equipped to face severe sanctions if it comes to a conflict. On the other hand, the last mobilisation of the Russian army on the Ukrainian border, in spring 2021, prompted the revival of the Russian-US dialogue on strategic and cybersecurity issues. And this time, too, the Kremlin has clearly reckoned that upping the tension was the only way to get the West’s attention, and that the new US administrati...

I was surprised to see this on Aljazeera Arabic. I had read the story of Adam and Even in 1990/1991 in a book published in Syria.  مفاجأة بالنسبة لي أن أعثر على هذا على موقع الجزيرة Translation from Arabic:  “The story of Adam and Eve is a purely human invention. Its origins are Sumerian – one of the oldest civilizations known to man. It is a story like all distorted stories, but its peculiarity is that it is a story that changed the course of the entire world, established the principle of male superiority and legitimized the inequality between human beings and the injustice that women are subjected to today.” Aljazeera Arabic, 2016

“ The Western imperialist powers employ hypocritical language about Ukrainian sovereignty in the face of Russian arrogance — but have no intention of straitjacketing that sovereignty any less. Both the West and Putin view Ukraine only as a pawn in their international competition. As for Putin’s regime, there is nothing anti-imperialist about it: it only defends the interests of Russian capitalism, even if that means subjugating other peoples.”  Neither bluff nor ultimatum

It is not just about stigma towards suicide, it is about stigma towards veterans," he said. "Ukraine is killing her veterans. We have the ministry, where millions are spent on showing off on sports competitions, while in small villages and towns veterans are dying because they don't even have a basic social worker to come to them and ask them how they are." The hidden tall of the war

Karl Marx and Capitalism at the  Deutsches Historisches Museum

 The old is hard to kill and the new cannot be born. A wave of left-wing victories in the region doesn’t guarantee sweeping social progress

A dangerous fantasy

The making of a coronavirus-criminal presidency John Nichols on pandemic profiteers

Pass the bill to the workers

 While Shell announced a "momentous year" after making $20bn in profits…

Introduction by Joel Beinin Political economy addresses the mutual and historical constitution of states, markets, and classes… In this perspective, causes are simultaneously effects; all events are situated in a relational matrix; all social hierarchies are subject to contestation. The historical development of social formations dominated by capital is inextricably intertwined with genocides, slavery and other forms of unfree labor, racialization, patriarchy, national oppression, and empire. Capital accumulation by individuals, partnerships, and even contemporary corporations can occur through exploiting many different forms of labor as well as cheap nature. The ambit of political economy also includes the legal, political, and cul- tural forms of the regulation of regimes of capital accumulation; relations among local, national, and global forms of capital, class, and culture; the so- cial structure of reproduction; the construction of forms of knowledge and hegemony; technopolitics;...

How French politics has ended up being a politics of culture. Excerpts from Daniel Zamora’s article on Catalyst The shift is due to the long-term decline, beginning in the early 1980s, of class politics and alternatives to capitalism. In a post-ideological France, class struggle has been displaced onto the terrain of identity. Politicians, media commentators, and scholars from both left and right all seem to agree that the French political debate has been contaminated… What they’ve been labeling ‘Americanization’ is a certain kind of identity politics they believe is threatening French republicanism.  Despite Macron’s professed disdain for identity politics, his alternative can scarcely be construed as anti-identitarian. To understand this state of affairs, we need to look at the recent history of identity in France, a history that begins not with woke concepts colonizing French universities but rather with the long-term decline, beginning in the early 1980s, of class politics and ...