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Saudi Arabia

"The logic of cultural reductionism goes as follows:  Muslim  women are  uniquely  oppressed women.   Their oppression is caused by their society’s uniquely anti-women culture, i.e.  Muslim  culture. This culture is the polar opposite of Western civilization, which, obviously,  allowed  Western women to progress and advance to the point of parity with men. Western women’s oppression (if it exists), is either negligible or is caused by a few, degenerated uncivilized  sub men individuals. In other words, it is not systemic, but interpersonal and racial; resulting from the animalistic predatory Black men and genetically degenerated poor whites. In order to prevent these interpersonal transgressions from these degenerated/uncivilized  sub men individuals, there should be a more robust patriarchal involvement in the national community to protect Western/white women." The Feminist Movement in Saudi Arabia

Egypt

The Franco-Egyptian Initiative for Rights and Freedoms published a letter to France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, calling on his government to “seriously consider its responsibilities concerning the use of French weapons against peaceful protesters ”. My comment: Why should Macron consider that? Like his predecessors, he is elected democratically to carry out a democratic mandate by millions who believe in capitalist democracy... His predecessors too supported Mubarak's regime in different ways.  Voting democratically for men and women who prop up dictators is part of the democratic tradition. When I go to the ballot box I have a shopping list why I am choosing this or that candidate. Complicity in repression, debt enslaving, and underdevelopment of others perpetuated by the governments who I voted for in the past are not in my shopping list. So, I continue exercising my democratic right. In fact, I am denying the others to have the possibility to gain democractic rights.

Yemen: Homegrown War

"Many international commentators continue to present the war in Yemen through the lens of Saudi Arabian intervention or sectarian conflict, [or both]. In essence, Yemeni internal stability has been undermined by widespread political disenfranchisement and socio-economic marginalisation. The Houthis exploited this alienation, which was not merely sectarian – many Zaydi Shiites rejected their message as anachronistic and anti-democratic, while many Sunnis shared their non-sectarian resentments." So far so good. But, like in Syria, it is convenient to give predominance to "sectarianism." It is good for both imperialism and "Western" public consumption. Note: Al-Arabiya is an arm of the Saudi propaganda machine. For that obvious reason there is no mention of the Saudi, and the Emirati, crimes in Yemen. That does not invalidate the analysis that the conflict is originally 'a homegrown affair."  The war in Yemen is a homegrown affair Relate

Migration

"Since the late 1980s, US migration controls have worked to discipline low-wage migrant labor, ensuring the availability of a population of vulnerable, deportable workers for exploitation by US capital. After the 2008 financial crisis, however, the deportation machine kicked into high gear, earning Obama the title of 'Deporter in Chief.' Under Trump, the expansion of the war on migrants has reached dystopic dimensions." Migrants on the Front Lines of Global Class War But if you are "an Iraqi who helped the US military" or from persecuted religious minorities [Rohignyan? I doubt it], you are in .

Alternatives

I have just finished reading this great book ( available here ). It is a very good discussion of what capitalism is and the real and possible alternatives. The focus is on the developed capitalist countries. And I agree with Ben Tarnoff when he wrote, reviewing Erik Olin  Wright's last book, that "Wright writes with an unusual combination of clarity, depth and warmth. He engages generously with opposing arguments. He acknowledges difficulty and complexity. He exudes a democratic respect for his reader. Democracy, in fact, is the essence of his socialism. For him, a just society would enact democracy in its deepest sense. He wants a world where everyone has access to the 'material and social means necessary to live a flourishing life” and the opportunity “to participate meaningfully in decisions about things that affect their lives'."

Britain

From the British Labour Party special conference "The report also makes it clear that there should be no return to old models of nationalisation that were adopted after second world war.  They were state industries designed mainly to modernise the economy and provide basic industries to subsidise the capitalist sector.  There was no democracy and no input from workers or even government in the state enterprises and certainly no integration into any wider plan for investment or social need.  This was so-called ‘Morrisonian model’ named after right-wing Labour leader Herbert Morrison, who oversaw the post-war UK nationalisations." Models of public ownership