Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

British supermarkets have been making contingency plans to cope with bouts of panic buying and potential disruption to food supplies caused by the coronavirus pandemic.  One country that the UK depends on more than any other for fresh fruit and veg is Spain, where around a quarter of fresh produce sold in UK supermarkets comes from in the summer.  But there are questions over how some Spanish companies are treating their migrant workers, who mainly come from Africa. "If you want to work like a slave, then there is a lot of work," one labourer, who did not want to be named, told the BBC. "But if you ask for your rights, then you can't work." The conditions are miserable. Some are paid below the minimum wage, live in shanty towns and work without breaks in greenhouses that are 50C inside. Source: watch a BBC report here Related Authorities in the town of Buñol, in Spain's Valencia province, have postponed a festival where thousands gather to t

"Snapshot data from varying official sources shows that in Italy, Spain, France,  Ireland  and Belgium between 42% and 57% of deaths from the virus have been happening in homes, according to the report by academics based at the London School of Economics (LSE)." Half of coronavirus deaths happen in care homes

One of the things that Corona has exposed The grim crisis in Europe's care homes

"Spain has a magnificent primary care system, but its hospitals have been hit by a decade of austerity since the financial crisis. It has  only a third of the hospital beds per capita  that are provided by Austria or Germany. Yet that is still more than the UK, New Zealand or the US." How did Spain get its response so wrong?

Abortion As Alabama, US, is passing a bill to ban abortion , it it useful to compare the US with other countries, especially "Muslim" countries. Bahrain, Tunisia and Turkey vs.  Latin American countries (except Mexico and Cuba), Poland and even the United Kingdom.

"The case would help shatter the nation’s two-party system, transform how the public viewed the people running the country and, eventually, bring down a government." Spain's Watergate

  Spain's turn "In every [European] country about ten per cent of the population are secretly fascist bastards." — Paul Mason The (neo)liberals (the free marketeers, the war criminals, the So-called Socialists, the technocrats, the "Democrats", etc, have  created some shit and now someone has to clear it away. 

Abortion Bahrain vs. Ireland Bahrain vs. Poland Bahrain and Tunisia vs. Spain Turkey // Sweden, Greece, Italy Turkey vs. Argentina Egypt // Ireland

Spain The new government have little room to maneuver economically as they have agreed to carry over the existing PP budget for the next year as well as to respect the European Union’s fiscal rules. It is also highly unlikely they can repeal the PP’s labor reforms as this would require the support of right-wing regional nationalists. And so in terms of improving the material conditions of the working class, it will be complicated to pass any substantive measures. In reality Sánchez is a social liberal, a descendant of Tony Blair and Gerhard Schoeder’s  Third Way . He did win back the PSOE leadership [after a palace coup against him eighteen months ago] by appealing to the desire of his party’s members for a more left-wing line, but he never really believed in it himself. He should not be underestimated politically. He is extremely ambitious and determined but is more like a Macron or Albert Rivera — an empty vessel onto which you can project various ideological elements. At

This is funny, but it also refletcs how deep the level of political degeneration has reached.

Gulf Cooperation Council arms race

Spain and beyond The BBC reporting on "the feminist strike in Spain": The 8 March Commission is behind the strike. Its manifesto calls for "a society free of sexist oppression, exploitation and violence" and says: "We do not accept worse working conditions, nor being paid less than men for the same work. Yes, this opens possibilities, but  1. The socialist origins of Women's Day (Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin) have be rediscovered. 2. The neoliberal capitalism has coopted and contained the emanciptaory movement. 3. Even adjectives like "radical" and "revolutionary" have been emptied of their meanings. 4. There should be no illusion that the Beyonces , the Jolies, the Obamas , the Clintons, the Mays, and the marketing of Malala, or the colouring of the elite, could be part of a real change to "end sexist oppression, exploitation and violence". They have been perpetuating the commodification of women. 5. The fundamental

"Who can doubt—after massive demonstrations on two successive Sundays in Barcelona (followed later by a general strike in Sabadell and a building workers’ strike in the capital)—that Catalonia is closer to the ruptura than any other region at present. If pushed to it—by an ‘accident’ or by mass popular pressure or both—the bourgeois opposition parties would certainly be willing to lead it, if only in the end to try to control it. But without such pressure? Of if they fear that such pressure may escape their control?" — Ronald Fraser, 1976

Spain: how much of state violence will be used? "To move forward we need to understand: why are regions, states and peoples beginning to re-pose the question of national self-determination now? For Spain and Italy it is clear: the mixture of austerity, corruption and political sclerosis at the centre has limited the reality of regional democracy. It has pushed autonomous regions such as  Catalonia  towards independence and places such as Lombardy and Veneto towards seeking fiscal autonomy from an essentially dysfunctional central state." The big picture Catalonia, Lombardy, Scotland ... Why they fight for self-determination now?

"Spain is flirting with another civil war"

A new book Spain's Moriscos

160,000 march in Barcelona, Spanish demanding the government takes more refugees I am surprised! According to a poll by a Qatari institute and published by Aljazeera , 41% of the Spanish polled oppose Muslim refugees entering Europe.

" Spain’s first Twitter hate-crime arrest was that of a 19-year-old student in Valencia who greeted Carrasco’s death with the tweet: “That’s the way! Kill them all.” The applause that greeted the murder in certain quarters owed much to the mindset of Spaniards who were fed up with politicians lining their pockets while they themselves scrabbled for jobs, had homes repossessed or coped with dramatic falls in income, according to Ángela Domínguez. Carrasco’s tyrannical reputation – and the corruption rumours – had helped make her a target. “Part of society saw it as an almost necessary ritual,” she said. “There is a shared responsibility.” Although people in León complained privately about Carrasco, few had dared to confront her. Perhaps they feared that, without a pistol in their hand, they were always bound to lose. Rosa Seijas, who sued over the fixed exam system, sees a cowed society that has accepted cronyism as inevitable. “Everyone complains, but nobody does anything,” sh

Life's Longing for Itself: The Art of Adnan Yahya,  An essay by Will Cloughley, MFA (Jan 2016)

Spain: Further Stalmate