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Egypt's Working Class and the Question of Organization
![[Public transport workers on strike. Image by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]](/content_images/3/sm_5446308928_688e5671fb_b.jpg "[Public transport workers on strike. Image by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]")
“Who is the labor candidate in this presidential election?” This is a question I have been asked frequently in the past few days. My answer is “no one.” Despite the presence of left wing candidates in the race, including labor lawyer Khaled Ali, who by all accounts is the most experienced in labor organizing among his counterparts (even when he repeatedly denies the accusation of being a “socialist,” and advocates a “strong private sector” working hand in hand with a state-run public sector), neither Ali nor any other candidates can claim to speak for Egypt’s working class, simply because the working class does not have yet formal entities, organizations, parties, ...
Keep Reading »New Perspectives for the Anti-War Movement (New York City, 16 May 2012)
![[Logo of Havaar: Iranian Initiative Against War, Sanctions, and State Repression]](/content_images/3/sm_havaar.jpg "[Logo of Havaar: Iranian Initiative Against War, Sanctions, and State Repression]")
New Perspectives for the Anti-War Movement A Discussion with Havaar: Iranian Initiative Against War, Sanctions, and State Repression When: Wednesday, May 16 at 7 pm – 9 pm Where: The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Segal Theater, First Floor. Co-sponsored by the Center for Place, Culture and Politics Havaar (which means “cry of emergency”) is a coalition of Iranians, Iranian-Americans, and allies formed in response to the US government’s escalating attacks on Iran and to the Iranian government’s ongoing repression of grassroots movements. At a time when crippling sanctions and threats of war bear ...
Keep Reading »Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (May 8)
![[Saudi tank at a weapons exhibit at Janadriyya Festival, Riyadh, 2012. Photo by Rosie Bsheer]](/content_images/3/sm_childintank.jpg "[Saudi tank at a weapons exhibit at Janadriyya Festival, Riyadh, 2012. Photo by Rosie Bsheer]")
[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on the Arabian Peninsula and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Arabian Peninsula Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to ap@jadaliyya.com by Monday night of every week.] "Bahrain protest leaders appear in court for retrial," a Reuters article on the trial of thirteen Bahraini protest leaders that was adjourned because two defendants were too ill to attend. "Kuwait finance minister under fire, faces grilling," Kuwaiti opposition MPs filed two requests to investigate Finance ...
Keep Reading »الشيوعي العتيق إسحاق الشيخ يعقوب
الطريق إلى الشيوعية عبر النفط... أصدر الكاتب إسحاق الشيخ يعقوب (مواليد 1927) من أدب السجون كتاب"المساءلة"(دار الفارابي، 2011) بعد أن أصدر سيرته الذاتية في عمل موسع بمجلدين "إني أشم رائحة مريم"(2002/2010).هذه المقالة تقدم بورتريه مناضل سعودي. إن مسيرة أي عربي شيوعي لا تبتعد عن أمور ثلاثة، أولها انخراطه في الحركة العمالية، وتعرضه للسجن والتعذيب، واضطراره للهروب واختيار المنفى. كذلك هي حياة المناضل والكاتب إسحاق الشيخ يعقوب. لكن أن تبقى تهمة الشيوعية تلاحقه حتى بعد انهيار المعسكر الاشتراكي لهو أمر مدهش. الماضي يلاحق صاحبه. في هذا الكتاب الجديد" المساءلة"(2011) يرفع الإهداء إلى الرفيق الشاب خالد النزهة (قضى عام 1982 في السجن)، ويقدمه ...
Keep Reading »"There Are Marxists in India?" Prabhat Patnaik on the Global Crisis
![[Prabhat Patnaik speaking at the CESP farwell party in JNU, New Delhi, 2006. Image by SubinDennis, via Wikimedia Commons.]](/content_images/3/sm_pp.jpg "[Prabhat Patnaik speaking at the CESP farwell party in JNU, New Delhi, 2006. Image by SubinDennis, via Wikimedia Commons.]")
After an engaging half-hour interview with India’s pre-eminent Marxist economist during a conference at New York University, I told a friend about my one-on-one time with Prabhat Patnaik. “There are Marxists in India?” came the bemused response. “I thought India was the heart of the new capitalism.” Indeed, we hear about India mostly as a rising economic power that is challenging the United States. While there certainly are no shortages of capitalists, there are still lots of Marxists in India, as well as communist parties that have won state elections. Patnaik represents the best thinking and practice of those left traditions—both the academic Marxism that provides a ...
Keep Reading »How the Media Failed Abdulhadi
![[Image by BH-ONE, via Flickr.]](/content_images/3/sm_abdulhadi.jpg "[Image by BH-ONE, via Flickr.]")
Since the start of the Arab Spring, which has led to many new seasons of protest in turn, the media has often gravitated to individual activists who have become leading figures in mobilizing the public during these revolutions. Tawakul Karman in Yemen, Ahmed Maher in Egypt and Moncef Marzouki in Tunisia—these are just three names that have resonated in the media over the course of protests. Their specific stories of perseverance in the face of brute force have galvanized people around the world. While many of these advocates have been recognized by the media and rightfully protected for braving arrests, detention, and beatings, one man in Bahrain has been holding a ...
Keep Reading »مأساة نبيّة؛ أو، تفاصيل فشل عودة البنت الضائعة
![[الفنانة الفلسطينية أنيسة أشقر خلال عرض في حيفا. تصوير دان مدورسكي]](/content_images/3/sm_1.AnisaAshqar.jpg "[الفنانة الفلسطينية أنيسة أشقر خلال عرض في حيفا. تصوير دان مدورسكي]")
إنّ تتبّع مسارات الأعمال الفنّـيّة ومواقع عرضها في فضاء اجتماعيّ ما، قد يدلّنا الكثير عمّا يجري في عمليّة انتاج تداول واستهلاك هذه الأعمال في هذا الفضاء. بهذا لا يمكننا أن نفهم الحركة الحداثيّة المتأخّرة التي تحتّم، أحيانًا، انتقال جزء من أعمال الفنّ من حائط المتحف، إلى أنواع فضاء اجتماعيّة أخرى جديدة، دون أن نبحث في ما يحصل في المجتمع العينيّ. وعندما نستطيع أن نحدّد الفضاء الجديد بأنّه الفضاء المعيشيّ العامّ، مثل الشارع أو المقهى أو الدوّار وما شابهها، فإنّ العلاقة الأساسيّة بين المؤسّسة الرسميّة المكعبة البيضاء النظيفة، والحياة اليوميّة المُعاشة تصبح هي لبّ المقولة في هذه الأعمال الفنّـيّة الأدائيّة. من نافل القول أنّ الفنّ يحمل الاجتماعيّ فنّـيًّا، ويقاس بما هو كذلك ...
Keep Reading »Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and Bahrain's Political Prisoners
![[Protesters re-take Pearl Square on 19 February 2011. Photo from Al Jazeera English]](/content_images/3/sm_ProtestersatPearlRoundabout.ByAlJazeeraEnglish.jpg "[Protesters re-take Pearl Square on 19 February 2011. Photo from Al Jazeera English]")
There are currently an estimated six hundred political prisoners in Bahrain, as a result of the regime's ruthless retaliation against a popular uprising that started in February 2011. 397 citizens are thought to be currently serving sentences delivered by military and civilian courts that fall far short of international standards for fair trials. On Saturday, 7 April 2012, one of these prisoners was transferred to a prison clinic after allegedly losing twenty-five percent of his body weight as the result of a hunger strike begun on 8 February 2012. Fifty-one-year-old human rights defender Abdulhadi al-Khawaja has reportedly said: "My hunger strike ...
Keep Reading »Migration: The Arabian Gulf story
![[Migrant laborers in Dubai. Image by Ross Domoney/Demotix]](/content_images/3/sm_migrantsdubai.jpg "[Migrant laborers in Dubai. Image by Ross Domoney/Demotix]")
When I arrived in the Gulf fourteen years ago, my perception of this region was the same as that of millions of other migrants, that this is a place where we can easily earn enough to achieve financial freedom. But over the years, a different gulf has been haunting my thoughts: that between expectations and reality. In other words, the fact that many who come looking for gold are having to satisfy themselves with coal. There are around twenty million migrant workers in the Gulf and many millions had walked its sand-swept streets since the oil boom in the 1970s. A vast majority of them are single workers—Asians, Africans, Arabs—and despite the gaping diversities in the ...
Keep Reading »Beautiful Water Day
![[Slide from video posted below. Image by Adalah.]](/content_images/3/sm_Adalah.jpg "[Slide from video posted below. Image by Adalah.]")
Nearly 70,000 Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel live in thirty-six unrecognized villages in the Naqab. The State of Israel deliberately limits access to water in these villages, as well as all other basic services, as a means of forcing the Bedouin to give up their just land claims and move to government-planned townships, the poorest in Israel. As the Bedouin community struggles to remain on their ancestral land, most villagers obtain water via improvised, plastic hose hook-ups or unhygienic metal containers, which transport the water from a single water point located far from their homes, causing health risks and daily hardships. The health ramifications ...
Keep Reading »Saudi Feminism: Between Mama Amreeka and Baba Abdullah
On 9 May 2012, Manal al-Sharif was awarded the Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway. This came shortly after al-Sharif was honored as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World at a Gala in New York City. Such events have given rise to a pattern: just as numerous pictures and videos of activists attending various conferences and receiving numerous awards surface, waves of criticism pour in. Their motives are viewed with suspicion, worthiness is questioned, and ...
Keep Reading »ثورة الجسد
لم يضرم الشاب التونسي، محمد البوعزيزي، النار في نفسه بل أضرمها في جسده. فعندما قام يوم الجمعة ١٧ ديسمبر/كانون الأول عام ٢٠١٠ بسكب الوقود على جسده وإشعاله احتجاجاً على بطش السلطات كان يرسل رسالة واضحة مفادها أن باستطاعة جسده أن يعبر عما تجيش به نفسه بشكل أبلغ من أي شكوى يكتبها وبطريقة أبلغ من أي هتاف يردده. وبالفعل كان من جراء هذا الفعل الدرامي أن سقط نظام من أقوى الأنظمة العربية ومن أشدها قمعاً واستبداداً. الجسد والعسكر إن هذا اليقين ببلاغة الجسد وقدرته على تحدي السلطة رأيناه يتمثل في ...
Keep Reading »Love Bomb: How Deep Is Israel's Love for Iran?
If you follow the news in the Middle East, you have probably come across the online sensation known as the “Israel-Loves-Iran” campaign. The campaign, launched by Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry and his wife Michal Tamir, emerges amidst rising tensions between Iran and the West over the country’s nuclear program, as well as months of sabre-rattling between the leaders of Israel, the United States, and Iran. What started out as a campaign to upload colourful posters with the slogan “Iranians, we ...
Keep Reading »Riot Police Violently Disperse Bedoon Protest in Kuwait's Freedom Square
[The following is a Bedoon Rights report on the violent break-up of a Bedoon protest on 1 May 2012 in Freedom Square and the consequent arrest of fourteen protesters, including one journalist.] After two weeks of waiting, around two hundred Bedoon protesters gathered in the Taima area to protest for their right to citizenship and against the discriminatory policies and false promises of the Central Agency. The protest started in Najashi Street after the afternoon prayer in Al-Shaabi mosque, which was ...
Keep Reading »Let's Talk About Sex
This week Foreign Policy published a “Sex Issue.” They explained their decision to feature a special issue with these words Foreign Policy's first-ever Sex Issue…is dedicated…to the consideration of how and why sex—in all the various meanings of the word—matters in shaping the world's politics. Why? In Foreign Policy, the magazine and the subject, sex is too often the missing part of the equation—the part that the policymakers and journalists talk about with each other, but not with ...
Keep Reading »No Boycotts Here: Veolia's Booming Business from OPT to KSA
Veolia, a publicly owned French company that provides environmental services in the fields of water, waste management, energy and transportation, has long been the target of one of the most successful Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns for its violation of Palestinian human rights. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), Veolia has facilitated the Israeli occupation by building and operating a tram-line which links Jerusalem with illegal settlements in the West Bank, by dumping ...
Keep Reading »مختارات من "طفولة في برلين عند مطلع القرن العشرين" لفالتر بنيامين
وصول متأخر بسببي بدت ساعة فناء المدرسة معطوبة. كانت عقاربها تشير إلى "متأخر جداً". وفي الممر تناهت من الفصول همهمة مشاورات سرية. لقد جمعت الصداقة بين التلاميذ والمدرسين وراء هذه الجدران. أو أن الصمت خيم على الجميع وكأنهم ينتظرون أحداً. لمست مقبض باب الفصل بصوت غير مسموع. غمرت الشمس البقعة التي وقفت فيها. لقد أفسدت يومي الصحو بدخولي. لم يبد أن أحداً قد عرفني، أو حتى رآني. ومثلما احتفظ الشيطان بظل بيتر شليمهيل، امتنع المعلم عن ذكر اسمي ضمن قائمة الحضور عند بداية الحصة. ولم يأت علي الدور في ...
Keep Reading »Reading Fanon in Palestine/Israel
The fiftieth anniversary of the death of revolutionary, writer and psychiatrist Frantz Fanon was commemorated this past December. In late February, the not-so-revolutionary judge Asher Grunis was elected President of the Israeli Supreme Court. The fanfare that accompanied Grunis’ inauguration was an opportunity to extol Israeli democracy by playing out the ritualized Supreme Court induction ceremony. Yet, there was a disquieting stink about the celebration. Mum among the lot of Hatikva-singing ...
Keep Reading »Young Women Demanding Justice and Dignity: By All Means Necessary
Amina Filali was a young Moroccan girl who was raped at the age of 15 then forced to marry her rapist. She was battered, bruised, and starved until she committed suicide in March 2012. She was 16 years old. Contributing to Amina’s suicide are her rapist turned husband, article 475 of the Moroccan penal code that absolves an aggressor of his crime once he consents to marrying his rape victim, the judge who called for a mediation instead of a prosecution against the offender, the police, and the religious ...
Keep Reading »Reflections on Ideology After the Arab Uprisings
A key conceptual problem for observers of the Arab uprisings–academics and journalists alike–continues to be how to classify and assess the ideological transformations taking place. “The people want the downfall of the regime,” the central slogan of the uprisings, has been interpreted as anything from a return to pan-Arab sentiments to a new Arab liberalism. For some, it signaled the unification of action around a single idea that resisted the atomization of Arab societies under the ...
Keep Reading »Infomous
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