Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Erdogan is not Chavez, but one should remember how a few of the Guardian columnists vilified Chavez using the same jargon of populism and authoritarianism .

It has been entertaining to see the liberals reactions to Trump . The  liberals preach capitalist democracy, but they would oppose it if people elected the wrong person. 

London housing: the collusion between councils and capital Aysen  Dennis loves her flat. Two bedrooms, a neat kitchen-diner, a cosy living room, lots of light, a separate toilet and bathroom, and a much broader hallway than in the poky million-pound Victorian houses that surround her in south London – all for £110 a week, plus £30 heating and service charge. Her flat is warm, and no one can see into it. “I feel free in my home,” she told me recently. “I can take off my clothes without worrying about curtains.” She still has the original 1960s kitchen cupboards, miracles of space-saving and clever joinery. South  London  hipsters would love them. Dennis is not a hipster. She is 57, single, and has been unemployed for four years. She used to work in a women’s refuge.  Before that, three decades ago, she came to London from Turkey: a leftwing activist fleeing the aftermath of a military coup, during which she had been shot at and imprisoned, and some of her friends had been killed.

Paradoxical Modernity

"Typically, however, neither the US nor the EU condemned the coup before it became clear which side was going to win... as long as the military bases remain open, the fight against ISIS is not undermined and the flow of refugees stemmed." — Umut Ozkirmili If the coup had succeeded, would the US have played along? " A look back at the United States’ relationship with Turkey over the last half-century makes it clear that democracy is most definitely not a requirement for NATO membership. Whatever Obama said Friday night, history suggests that, come Saturday morning,  Washington would have found a way to work with whoever emerged the winner in Ankara.  With a vengeful Erdogan now once again at the helm, a stormy period in U.S.-Turkish relations is almost certain. But history gives Turkey’s president little reason to fear that Washington will take a firm stand on democracy so long as U.S. interests in the region remain dependent on his country’s cooperation." — fo

Pourquoi la ''bisexualité'' du tueur de Nice est primordiale

A Brief History of Fortress Europe

The Life and Resistance of a Chinese Worker

Turkey coup Background and context: Liberalized Islam, Post-Sufis, and the Military in Turkey   Coup Aftermath Between Neo-Fascism and Bonapartism

"Influence, n.: In politics, a visionary  quo  given in exchange for a substantial  quid ."  —  Ambrose Bierce

The Long Depression: How It Happened, Why It Happened, And What Happens Next

Former CIA Officials Give Turkish Coup Plotters Advice On CNN

"One of the most important questions regarding political parties is their “opportuneness” or right-ness for the times”; that is to say, the question of how they react against “habitude” and the tendency to become mummified and anachronistic. In practical terms, political parti es come into existence [as organisations] in the wake of historical events that are important for the social groups they represent, but they do not always know how to adapt to new epochs or historical phases, or they are unable to develop in accordance with the ensemble of the relations of forces [and therefore with congruousm forces] in their particular country or in the international sphere. In this analysis, one must make distinctions: the social group; the mass of the party; the bureaucracy of general staff of the party. The latter is the most dangerous in terms of habitude: if it organises itself as a separate body, compact and independent, the party will end up being anachronistic. This is what bring

Why does France keep being attacked? The Rotten Heart of Europe And a forecast by Stratfor (October 2015) In Europe, the process of integrating foreigners will remain problematic, especially because migrant workers tend to have fewer job opportunities than their native peers. Right-wing parties and groups will continue to resist arriving foreigners, attack migrant shelters and protest immigration policies. Although immigration can somewhat mitigate the effects of a  shrinking and aging  population, it cannot reverse it, nor will all EU members attract foreigners to join their workforces .

Turkey Context of a failed coup "This analytical framework is then used to examine the outcomes in four countries where modernizing, nationalist projects took shape under the direction of secular elites: Turkey, Iran, Egypt and Tunisia. By the closing decades of the twentieth century, all four had reached an impasse. The Egyptian and Tunisian regimes had largely discarded their nationalist trappings and become Western client states, in thrall to the Washington Consensus—especially Tunisia, which was, in Tuğal’s words, ‘the most orthodox neoliberal regime in the Arab world’ and something of a poster-child for the  IMF ." See book review here Note: It is likely that the failed coup in Turkey going to strengthen the AKP project: Islamism, 'neoliberalism' and more authoritarian rule. Reactions: " Portraying Erdoğan and the fascist AKP dictatorship as if they were democratic after this coup attempt is an approach even more dangerous than the coup atte

لنفترض أن العملية البشعة التي وقعت في فرنسا حدثت في اسرائيل.....لا شك أن الفيسبوك كان سيشتعل بالتهليل، وكان منفذ العملية سيسمى "استشهاديا"، والضحايا كانوا سيسمون "قطعان اليهود الصهاينة"، والعملية نفسها ستسمى "عملية فدائية"....وما الى ذلك.... هذا علما وأن مثل هذه العمليات التي تستهدف أناسا أبرياء سيكون من ضمنهم لا شك أغلبية من المسحوقين والفقراء، أي ضحايا النظام المستهدف، لا تؤدي إلا لتعزيز هذا النظام وتفتح له الباب لمزيد العسكرة والقمع والاحتماء بأكثر القوانين زجرية وكتم الأن فاس، وتعزز ما يسمى "بالوحدة الوطنية"، أي التوحد في حضن النظام، وتأجيج النزعات العنصرية والشوفينية سواء حدثت هذه العمليات في فرنسا أو اسرائيل أو في دولة على كوكب المريخ.... في فرنسا أو في اسرائيل، في أمريكا أو في تونس، المجموعات الارهابية لا يمكن أن تمثل عنصر تحرر، ولا تحمل في برامجها أي بديل تحرري للبشر من الاستغلال والطبقية، لذلك فعملياتها، أينما كانت، تصب حتما في خانة النظام السائد فتشد أزره بقدر ما تحطم معنويات الشغيلة وعموم الكادحين، وتفرض صراعا جانبيا يهمش مح

The Long Depression: Marxism and the Long Crisis of Capitalism by Michael Roberts (Haymarket Books, 19 July 2016)

Britain Peter Taaffe: "It would be better if the Right resigned and formed their own full capitalist party, but failing that it would be much more preferable to have a Labour party which goes back to its socialist roots." ( an article published by the Express , a supporter of the Ukip and owned by the 48th richest person in Britain)

سيظل الفقراء والمسحوقين وقودا للحروب البورجوازية طالما أنهم لا يصارعون لحساب تحررهم الخاص والحركة القومية العربية بيسارها ويمينها هي الوجه الآخر للحركة القومية الصهيونية كلاهما يضع الشغيلة وعموم الكادحين رهينة نزاعاتهم التي هي ليست سوى نزاعات المنافسة الرأسمالية.....لنتذكر كيف أن دولة اسرائيل والبورجوازية الفلسطينية قد سارعا الى عقد اتفاقات بينهما للحيلولة دون تطور الانتفاضة الأولى والثانية (اتفاقات  أوسلو) ولقطع الطريق أمام أي تضامن بين الشغيلة الفلسطينيين واخوانهم في اسرائيل الذين بدأت تظهر احتجاجاتهم وتنامت في صفوفهم موجة رفض الانخراط في الجيش ورفض القتال، وذلك بتغذية النزعات الأكثر شوفينية وعنصرية، علما وأن دولة اسرائيل هي من درب أولى دفعات الحرس الخاص بدولة فلسطين، وهي من يدفع لها شهريا جزء من ميزانيتها. الحرب الحالية هي من جهة اسرائيل تأتي كرد على تنامي الحركة الاجتماعية من اضرابات واسعة وحتى مظاهرات ضد آثار الأزمة الاقتصادية التي تضرب بقوة منذ 2011، وهذا يهدف خلق حالة "وحدة وطنية" تسمح لآلة القمع بكتم كل نفس احتجاجي باسم الدفاع عن "الدولة المهددة بالعصابات

"nine truths about terrorism that nobody wants to hear" Note: this does not include state terrorism .