Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

  The Popular Revolutionary Alternative

  Marx’s debt to people of African descent Related The Africana paradigm in Capital

“ From the outside, it must seem strange to watch the richest and most powerful nation in the history of the world choose its path by means of moral scolding and sanctimonious posturing, both positions washed in on millions of litres of high-octane American tears. This must be particularly annoying when you are also aware that whatever this country chooses to do will have enormous consequences for your nation and your life, and that your tears will count for nothing in our majestic deliberations. I feel your pain. Really, I do. I weep.” Make them cry

  Free State of Jones

You should be able to access this article when you type  “Universities challenged FT” on google search rather than through the FT website. Universities Challenged

A story that reminds me how I was brave under a police state, how I confronted it, got tortured, etc and became a coward in “liberal democracy.” “My mother taught me we are far from the rational creatures we think we are, and that a loaf of bread will bring two people closer than all the world's philosophies combined. She taught that community is not an intellectual construct, but a performative one. The refusal to condemn is not simply to refuse the ‘good Muslim’ label - it is a resistance of our yearning to be seen by Power. To refuse to condemn, then, is to face the fear of mobilising on our own terms. There is no bravery without cowardice, no strength without vulnerability, no wisdom without ignorance. Insofar as the two drives of the world stand at their strongest - that is, capitalism and nationalism - our intentions will always waver between our desire to please God and Power. Why I no longer play ‘the good Muslim’

This was written in 1909: We must  know how  to combat religion, and in order to do so we must explain the source of faith and religion among the masses  in a materialist way . The combating of religion cannot be confined to abstract ideological preaching, and it must not be reduced to such preaching. It must be linked up with the concrete practice of the class movement, which aims at eliminating the social roots of religion. Why does religion retain its hold on the backward sections of the town proletariat, on broad sections of the semi-proletariat, and on the mass of the peasantry? Because of the ignorance of the people, replies the bourgeois progressist, the radical or the bourgeois materialist. And so: “Down with religion and long live atheism; the dissemination of atheist views is our chief task!” The Marxist says that this is not true, that it is a superficial view, the view of narrow bourgeois uplifters. It does not explain the roots of religion profoundly enough; ...

 Washington’s Bullets: A History of the CIA, Coups and Assassinations

 Dispossession and imperialism repackaged as ‘feeding the world’

  Key prosecution witness is part of academic cluster which has received millions of pounds from UK and US militaries

A few years ago I was told not to talk politics in class. I left my job. In my current job I am very cautious. I had lived under a police state, and in a “free market democracy” you don’t fear the state, but you fear loosing your job. You may be even hated by others for expressing your non-conformist views. “Social activism could cost you valuable career currency”

 End the denial

 The Syrian Chambers of Commerce in 2020: The Rise of a New Business Elite

 “Selective justice”

  Americans have decided on who is the most influential Arab Someone who reflects “Western values and culture” and created in the bourgeois image.

I strongly appeal to the “International law” and “the international community” to do something about this. I always believed in your “values” and “the upholding of the peace.” I always agreed with the Western states definition of terrorism. When we and our allies do it is either an ‘accident’ or ‘fighting for freedom’. When they do it, it’s ‘terrorism’.   Top Iranian scientist assassinated  Related Five scientists in 10 years

A long tradition of complicity in crime This article is available in four languages An indispensable’ partner in the  EU ’s strategy in the Middle East and the Mediterranean 

 Some laughter.

“This is the people’s vaccine,”  said corporate critic Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program.  “Federal scientists helped invent it and taxpayers are funding its development. … It should belong to humanity .” Calling the shots

  Why the ‘Arab Spring’ failed