Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Egyptian Novelist Salwa Bakr dares to say it aloud on revolution's successes and failures

Le défi tunisien

Russian cinema of change

"If you don't attack the economic power of the elite, soon or later it will attack you." That's what the Arab uprisings, for instance, were unable/failed to do. K for Karl – Revolution (episode 3)

Burning Country Syrians in Revolution and War

There are a number of issues that organizations such as the UGTT must contend with, namely the role of government in post-January 14 Tunisia and the allocation of roles between the state, elected officials, political parties, and civil society, ensuring new social and political dynamics achieve the recognition they deserve, and resistance to the neoliberal agenda imposed by the international aid donors. The traditional organizations of Tunisian civil society will have to make progress on all these fronts if they wish to recover their ability to emancipate the people and neutralize financial backers’ attempts to sweep aside the social and economic demands of those who initiated the Revolution of Dignity (and not the “Jasmine Revolution,” as the Nobel Committee put it). The actors leading these new social dynamics have not yet had their last word. Trade Unions and Arab Revolutions: The Tunisian Case of UGTT

"European countries claim to be at Tunisia's side, yet for years have failed to deliver on that promise. Instead, they prioritise their own  national interests, securing access to Tunisia's lucrative market and  workforce without reciprocating in kind." What a discovery!  January 1978 a general strike was drowned in blood. In December-January 1983-4 the "Bread Riots" also brutally suppressed with more than 80 deaths. December 2010-January 2014 an uprising was met with the police more than 80 people.  Now we are in January 2018 and protests have erupted. The local bourgeoisie with International capital and financial institutions (imperialism's "peaceful" tools) keep countries like Tunisia under their heel. You're on your own

The Russian Revolution 100 years on Uneven and Combined Development (Part 1) The full analysis   (91 pages) My reading for this week-end 

" La force et le consentement sont les deux fondements de la conduite des Etats modernes, les deux piliers d’une hégémonie. Quand le consentement vient à manquer — comme ce fut par exemple le cas en 2011 dans le monde arabe —, les conditions sont réunies pour le renversement du pouvoir en place." Gramsci, une pensée devenue monde

Religion Fights Back From Fields of Blood — Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong

I cannot disclose who said the following, but the arguments about the US and British armies today sound very interesting. "The peasants [of the Russian army prior 1917] in uniform weren't mercenaries, but conscripts. The US and British soldiers [today] aren't conscripts, not the historical equivalent of the Russian imperial army, but the historical equivalent of Hessians or the Swiss guard. There's a huge difference between those two. Only a conscript is a worker in uniform - all the others are bourgeois cops with bigger or smaller guns. Edit: I can't find any historical example where a revolution was won with the aid of professional soldiers - it was always won by defeating them, be they Hessians, the Swiss Guard or Cossacks...and some US soldiers are OK and have resisted imperialism - still doesn't change the US military's role as a whole... I never said a soldier "can't act in favour of the masses because he wasn't conscr

Looks very interesting The Great Leveler

"IS might find itself being pushed back militarily, but its logics are not only still firmly intact, they are being bolstered by the very forces that allegedly seek to destroy them. And it's the logics, beyond videos on internet sites or radical preachers, that are visible for almost everyone in the world to see - to Muslims, they are even more striking. IS is a product of counter-revolution - an active symptom of savage destruction of hope. If the Arab revolutions represented progressive antagonism towards a regional order determined by the brutal denial of basic liberties, IS are fed by the brutal backlash against this." Inetresting to read, but the healine is not

"Egypt is no longer the heart of the Arab world"

The mediocrity of Chomsky's replies are shocking! A correspondence with Noam Chomsky

"How the Syrian civil war has transformed Hezbollah"

Keynes, civilisation, and the long run

This is about one among the hundreds of thousands of victims of that "secular leader, the lesser evil" who has not been included in the Western regime change, and supported by a few liberals and leftists worldwide.

The recent attacks in Damascus are only the start Now compare that with this Syria's 'peace process' is Russia's new weapon

"Disaster Islamism"