Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

' Cultural Marxism': a uniting theory for rightwingers who love to play the victim

I laughed when I read this: " The good news is that the Pentagon is wiping out Somali insurgents on the ground and from the air. The bad news is that al-Shabab keeps coming back stronger."  — Foreignpolicy.com, March 11

The Middle East: a summary " Military primacy, and the routine use of deadly military force, remains the cornerstone of US foreign policy in the Middle East. The 2015 nuclear non-proliferation accord with Iran represents a rare yet fleeting bright moment for diplomacy in a region where wars—in Libya, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen—and the mass displacement of peoples continue unchecked. The United States has done much to precipitate the violence through its unjustifiable and destructive 2003 invasion of Iraq. Today the Obama administration abets the devastation from the air and by arming, directly or indirectly, its weak and embattled client governments. These include Iraq, the Saudi-backed forces seeking to regain control of a barely functioning Yemeni state, a shifting cast of Islamic militants fighting the Assad regime in Syria, and the Kurdish forces fighting the most infamous of the insurgencies, the Islamic State. A host of other outsiders including Russia, Turkey, Iran, Israel,

Egypt Running on Empty "The 2011 uprising did not create the mess—the decisions of powerful actors did. Pining for the status quo ante, the elites failed to meet the most basic popular demands; now they are trying to contain the lingering tensions while building a new regime amidst intense competition among old regime figures and newer entrants. These struggles, in addition to the structural fiscal weakness of the state and the poor economy, generate fears of a polity coming undone and explain the viciousness of the backlash. Is it a house of cards? Many Egyptian observers say that no amount of aid from the Gulf, US diplomatic cover and police brutality can keep the state running. More than one person openly told me that Sisi might be overthrown, despite the huge investments and grand spectacles that went into putting him on the wobbling throne, and despite his attempts to place his sons high up in intelligence agencies. It is a bold prognostication. Yet one need only read t

Violence and the City in the Modern Middle East

Fusillez Sartre  ou "Parce qu’elle est le partenaire indispensable des indigènes, la gauche est leur adversaire premier."

Syria: the people return to the streets against Assad Danish children’s rights activist stands trial for people trafficking

According to the World Health Organization definition, the UK no longer has a NHS See also Plunder:  Sale of the Century: The Privatisation Scam Social justice: Chief Executives Earn 183 Times More Than Workers London : The City That Ate Itself Private Island (a book): what happened to Britain in the last 20 years

Glenn Greenwald  shows  why Clinton is in no position to be lecturing Sanders: Vehement opposition to Reagan’s covert wars in Central America, as well as to the sadistic and senseless embargo of Cuba, were once  standard liberal positions . As my colleague Jeremy Scahill, observing the reaction of Clinton supporters during the debate, put it in  a series of tweets : “The US sponsored death squads that massacred countless central and Latin Americans, murdered nuns and priests, assassinated an Archbishop. I bet commie Sanders was even against Reagan’s humanitarian mining of Nicaraguan waters & supported subsequent war crimes judgement vs. US. Have any of these Hillarybots heard of the Contra death squads? Or is it just that whatever Hillary says must be defended at all costs? The Hillarybots attacking Sanders over Nicaragua should be ashamed of themselves.” CIA Covert Operations and US Interventions Since WWII (A documentary in 15 parts)

في استخدام "الإسلام" كإيديولوجيا تسلطية

Colombia  Free academic and unionist  Miguel Ángel Beltrán

Organised robbery: "It's our way of life" and "our traditions"

Europe Without the Union "One of the countries most pleased with the new arrangements will be the United Kingdom, assuming it  can hold itself together long enough to enjoy them . Having dedicated much of the last millennium to keeping the Continent divided and playing one side off another, the United Kingdom was forced to join the European Union once the organization's unity was truly unquestionable. With a Continent divided once more, the United Kingdom will be able to return to its preferred long-term strategy, maintaining a balance of power while at the same time attempting to develop a trade network that mixes regional with global."

British imperialism

Liam Fox, here is the UK history our readers want to remind you of Apart from no mention of - the carving of the Middle East, which Britain was a major player in  - the coups in the Middle East and Britain's role in them. - Britain's role in the birth of Saudi Arabia and the long support to this day - Britain's close relations with the Israel, which is a colonial, criminal state - the subjugation of fifth of the world by the Empire and what entailed of plunder, killing, torture, humiliatiom , etc. - Britain has a history celebrated by statues of criminals and imperialists hailed as heroes: Rhodes, Churchill the racist, Havelock ... Churchill advocated the use of poison gas against what he called "recalcitrant Arabs". He treated the Indians with a similar racism. - the so-called neutrality position it took during the Spanish civil war - the support and arming of other dictatorships in the Middle East and North Africa - the support of some Islamist organisations

" The Syrian Revolution Is Not a Holy War " Putin and Assad claim Syria's opposition threatens religious minorities. This besieged city's struggle proves otherwise. "Before the uprising, Daraya was a sleepy middle-class suburb for Damascus residents. By 2011, it had become an epicenter of peaceful protests, as thousands   marched in the streets calling  for Assad to step down from power. As a member of the Syrian Christian community, I was overwhelmed with excitement to join this grassroots people’s movement that called for democracy, freedom and rights for all Syrians, no matter our differences. Syrians were united then. The church bells rang in Daraya in solidarity with the protesters. From their balconies in the narrow streets, Syrian Christians showered protesters below with rice and flowers. They marched hand in hand. A holy war, this was not. By 2012, the Assad regime intensified its armed crackdown against the unarmed protesters in Daraya. A

The 'Taharrush' Connection: Xenophobia, Islamophobia,  and Sexual Violence in Germany and  Beyond

" The Marxism of the 1970s that I encountered as a student seemed dry and abstract to me. There was no life in it, only structures and definitions, and "laws" of which I could not make sense. I had come to social science because I was curious to see what the world out there was like, the world of real people. It was only later, much later, that I discovered Marx the economic historian, the keen observer of the American civil war, the passionate political analyst of French politics. As much life, easily, as in Weber or Barrington Moore! Right now I am becoming more familiar with American Marxists writing in the 1950s and 1960s — and am deeply impressed with the farsightedness of their analysis. Working on my 2009 book taught me that the historical agnosticism of most of academic social science — its refusal to recognize and theorize endogenous evolutionary movement in social formations — was its biggest deficiency, and was the cause of most of it being as boring as

Sex Tourism is Sexualized Imperialism

"Not only will America go to your country and kill all your people, they'll come back 20 years later and make a movie about how killing your people made their soldiers feel sad." — Frankie Boyle Mad Max and the End of the World American Sniper (or Hollywood at War)