Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Labour movements and popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt Joel Beinin explains what happened. He begins with the dire situation in Egypt today.

Celebrating empire: that woman on the ten-pound note. Jane Austen

W.E.B DuBois on Robert E. Lee

"Unfortunately, the revolution in the West did not materialise.  While the planned economy succeeded in transforming the lives of millions, Russia was isolated, surrounded and very quickly the regime itself degenerated into a totalitarian dictatorship and finally into a corrupt capitalist autocracy far from the aims of the revolution of 1917." The Russian Revolution — some economic notes and The Russian Revolution of October 1917 Should we regret the Russian Revolution?

When the celebrated Saudi-Jordanian novelist Abdel-Rahman Munif was asked why he named his literary masterpiece on the rise of the petro-modernist cities of the Gulf  Cities of Salt , he replied: By Cities of Salt, I meant cities that grew suddenly in an unnatural and extraordinary way, not as a result of a long historical accumulation that led to their expansion, but more as a kind of explosion due to sudden wealth. This wealth (oil) has led to inflated cities that have become like balloons that can explode and end once they touch something sharp. The same applies to salt. Although it is necessary for life, humans, and all creatures, any increase in its quantity  . . . life becomes unsustainable. This is what is expected of the cities of salt.  . . . When floods come to them, when electricity is cut off, or when you experience real difficulties of one kind or another, we will discover that these cities are fragile places ill fit to be modern cradles for human life and betterment.

" Les classes moyennes sont donc structurellement destinées à vivre entre espérance et déception, entre enthousiasme et désenchantement, dans un système qui par nature ne peut qu’engendrer et exacerber des revendications qu’il ne peut satisfaire totalement. La logique objective de leur condition conduit les petits-bourgeois à développer deux sortes d’attentes. Les unes, proportionnées aux capitaux dont ils disposent réellement, les aspirations orthodoxes si l’on peut dire, ont toute chance de recevoir satisfaction, ce qui a pour effet de renforcer l’adhésion et d’alimenter le consensus. Les autres, les aspirations hérétiques, exorbitantes par rapport aux capitaux réels, ont toute probabilité d’être rejetées comme d’irrecevables prétentions, ce qui a pour effet d’attiser la frustration et d’alimenter la contestation." Le double jeu des classes moyennes

Iraqi feminists mobilize against sectarian laws

Revolution, Counter-revolution, and Imperialism in Syria

Refugees are a pain , aren't they? They come to our country illegally and they want comfort and be treated as humans! Australians have learnt something: they have not forgotten what happened to German girls when Germany accepted refugees. Plus, look how small and poor Australia is. The country cannot accept more people.

"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

Sex, France, and Arab Men

Paradises on Earth The title “Paradises of the Earth” is inspired by the great Amazigh historian Ibn Khaldoun who once described thecoastal oasis of Gabes as a "paradise on earth.” But Gabes isn’t the only place that used to be a paradise. Many more paradises have been victim of colonial and neo-colonial violence, just like their inhabitants: “the Wretched of theEarth.” Thus, the title "Paradises of the Earth" is a reference to both Ibn Khaldoun and the revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon. You can read more here on  Paradises of The Earth Website

Marxisme, processus révolutionnaire et fondamentalisme islamique