Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

I would suggest one amendement to the article: no support to the UK regime and no trust in it. The political solution Shlaim is proposing has to come from the Palestinians and all those who oppose the Western regimes involved. In other words, the change has to come from the struggle of the Palestinians and Arabs against the corrupt and complicit Palestinian Authority, the toppling of the Arab regimes and the struggle in the West for regime change. Shlaim's 'support' of the UK to change its position on Hamas means appealing to the same political and imperialist structure for a political solution. The same regime that when tomorrow the genocide comes to an end will continue to support the Istaeli state, but now under ‘a democratic liberal Israeli government'. Let's not forget that previous UK governments did not support the Palestinain struggle. On the contrary, they supported Israel to the hilt and perpetuating and maintaining, along with the US, Israel's its chi...

“Among all world regions, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) holds the worst record for workers’ rights. The index data by the  International Trade Union Confederation “ shows that  every country  in the MENA region has blocked the formation or membership of  independent trade unions . In other words, the legal and administrative systems in these countries are deliberately structured to prevent any form of autonomous labor organization.  95%  of countries in the region violate the right to strike, and  89%  restrict freedom of assembly and speech. Even when rights exist on paper, the actual space to exercise them is closed off. In  84%  of MENA countries, workers have  no effective access to justice —meaning that when their rights are violated, there is no real legal or institutional recourse. “In 2014, Europe had an average score of  1.84 , suggesting relatively strong protections. But by 2024, the average has fallen to...

A very good analysis in an accessible language “This article starts with considering AI as a GPT and argues why we need to focus on power when thinking about the impact of AI. I explain the contribution of  critical political economy (CPE) for analysing AI capitalism. CPE investigates control and ownership of communication systems and its impact on society (Hardy  2014 ). Using CPE as a framework, this article analyses the tendencies of concentration and monopolisation in AI capitalism. The article then considers the commons as an alternative framework for enabling that the benefits of AI can be shared with society at large.” ****** “Economists study the impact of GPT in terms of the emergence of winners and losers. The  winners  are those associated with the emerging GPT, whereas the  losers  are those who cannot benefit from the unfolding GPT. We need to be aware that AI can facilitate a further polarisation of already unequal societies (Crawford  20...

“Since 18 May 2025, truck drivers across Iran have turned off their engines — not out of road fatigue, but out of deep frustration with broken promises, rising costs, and an economy shaped by corruption and neglect. What started in the southern port of Bandar Abbas quickly spread to more than 100 cities, marking one of the largest and most sustained labour actions in recent Iranian memory .“

“How to relate to the Leninist tradition? How to extract its truth? The basis of Lenin’s success was the perfect adaptation of his political strategy to the historical terrain of late Tsarist Russia, with its still quasi-feudal agrarian structure, its absolutist state and its supine bourgeoisie. But the Bolsheviks mistakenly drew from this experience the conclusion that they had discovered a general formula for revolutionary transformation: a cadre party of full-time revolutionaries aimed at the seizure of state power. This generalization was of course a distortion since Lenin was a highly sophisticated political thinker, who understood the importance of linking the socialist project to the democratic movement against the Tsarist autocracy. But after the revolution a certain schematism set in, especially with the establishment of the Communist International and the demand that all affiliated parties adhere to the 21 points. This forced an unhealthy process of splitting which severely w...

Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate. — Edward Saïd