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France

"With 29 straight days of walkouts, French rail strikes against government plans to reform France's retirement system marked a new milestone Thursday, surpassing even the lengths of strikes in the 1980s."

US-Iran

The killing of Iran's top military man Mr Raab, the UK Foreign Secretary, told the BBC the US "had a right to exercise self-defence". Self-defence because Qassem Soleimani was in the Atlantic Ocean with a Revolutionary Guard special force, heading towards Miami to attack the US. What Raab said is complicty in crime of an imperialist state, an ally of the US Cheerleading for a war with Iran

US: Welfare State Against Imperialism?

"In this realm domestic and foreign policy cannot be cleanly separated; presenting an economically secure alternative to military service is the key to advancing the cause of justice both at home and abroad." A strong welfare state could be a blow against imperialism

Iran: An Uprising That Matters

"A recent “Letter Against US Imperialism” by leftist intellectuals such as Angela Davis, Vijay Prashad, Robin Kelley, and Hamid Dabashi denounces the latest Iranian mass uprising and continues the old pattern. It attributes the latest protests in Iran to “Iranian native informants and cheerleaders who serve as functionaries of US imperialism.” It argues that the Iranian masses only want “stability” and “reform” but not regime change. The claims in the letter simply do not match the reality on the ground." Shameful, to say the least.  Why the latest uprising in Iran matters

Lebanon

Writings on the column: "We want to burn your palaces" "Lebanon is ours" Heading for a meltdown?

رقصة الفَرَس

The Iraqi oud player Naseer Shamma

Anti-Semitism

Raine "never makes clear his explanation for where modern anti-Semitism originates, what structures give rise to it, and therefore – by extension – where one should focus energy to challenge it. The very movement between anti-Semitism and Jewophobia throughout the piece captures something of this lacuna. At times, Raine seems to describe a cultural phenomenon that he feels always already exists, and is not in fact constructed and imposed. As such he describes it variously as an ‘unconscious phobia of Jews’, ‘a structure of thinking’, a form of ‘anti-political pessimism’, and as a ‘discourse’, never rooting these in anything structurally identifiable.  This leaves the reader with the impression that anti-Semitism can be explained by means of mere ideas, or via culture, rather than requiring a material explanation and history." Recentering the state

India

Note that the word "democracy" is not even put in inverted commas because it is a given. "The rape of India's soul"

مسار - الثلاثي جبران