Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

We need to remember a decade-long song sung by Western and non-Western media, academics and pundits: “Transitional justice”, “transitional justice”, “transitional justice”, ad nauseam.  As long the ‘revolution’ is not about material equality that threatens class interests at home and the major powers and international institutions interests and domination, is championed and “human rights” and “democracy” are the catch words that must prevail in the same way ‘Arab Spring’ phrase has prevailed. And we can talk about development everyday as long as it is the type of ‘development’ dictated by the same socio-economic system and the same ideology.   A return to the police state?

 Navalny’s return and left strategy

In one of the richest cities on earth. This was already going on a few years before the pandemic. “In recent years, food bank usage in the UK has risen sharply following 10 years of government austerity measures, welfare reforms and a widening gulf between earnings and living costs. With the economic downturn brought on by the pandemic, which has further exacerbated existing inequalities, food banks across the UK are struggling to meet demand.” A day in the life of a London food bank

  The world will pay the price for the Democrats’ failures

 

“You know there is something wrong with your economy when it’s more impoverishing to be in work than out of it.” An advice from an FT columnist to the capitalists 

Poverty is a “political choice” Steven Pinker is “full of shit”

The area of the UK 'worst-affected' by Covid-19

“It will be the survival of the fittest—no, the survival of the richest," Say South African shak dwellers

Labour's economic policy: the challenge ahead

Poverty prize

More propaganda against "our way of life" and "free market values" 1. How are we in the UK, for example, supposed to afford putting food on the table? 2. Aren't our aid organisations, philanthropists and celebrities helping poor people and our students learning how to empower them? 3. Hasn't this been going on for decades (centuries if we include the colonial era)? Why should we care now? Why should we question  capitalist relations nationally and worlwide? Maybe it is just some comapnies that are not "ethical"?   Exploitation and abuse in UK supermarket supply chains, says Oxfam

The same structures persist  A corrupt gang is building palaces while 60 percent of Egyptians, according to the World Bank, are either poor or vulnerable. The national statistics agency found that 33 percent of the population were classified poor last hear. Young people have again taken to the street, calling for the El-Sisi to step dow. The objective of overthrowing military rule is no longer prevalent. "Build your palaces from our sweat and hard work."

An interview with French sociologist Fabien Truong, author of Loyautés Radicales A Clash of Loyalties in the Parisian Suburbs

If you believe that "Communism" had already existed in the Soviet Union, for example, that capitalism goes with our "human nature", and that poverty exists because of laziness and cultural factors, do not read this article. "We Need Fully Automated Luxury Communism" (An opinion in The New York Times)

Summary: An argument for better taxation to reduce inequality. A couple of arguments refuting myths. However, there is no word about exploitation, the real source of inequality, which is also, paradoxically, the source of human advance. The argument that huge inequality is a consequence of bad taxation is a myth that the author reiterates. Inequality already takes place and is reproduced through property ownership and during the relations of production, i.e. before taxation itself. Consent and acquiescence play a role in accepting inequality. Agreed. And that is the power of ideology to legitimate inequality and gloss over exploitation. "The idea that rising inequality is inevitable begins to look like a convenient myth, one that allows us to avoid thinking about another possibility: that through our electoral choices and decisions in daily life we have supported rising inequality, or at least acquiesced in it. Admittedly, that assumes we know about it. Surveys in the UK an

Universal Basic Income doesn't work

" South Africa has a general election tomorrow, 25 years since the end of apartheid and six years since the death of Nelson Mandela. In those 25 years, the aspirations and hopes of most black South Africans (90% of the 58m South Africans) and, for that matter, many white South Africans, have been disappointed. In those 25 years, the majority have not seen any startling improvement in their living standards, education, health and public services." The dashing of a dream

Liberal Ghandi Fetishism and the Problem with Pop Notions of 'Violence'