Archive

The commodification of hope — a sobering account of the Lebanese elections

Amid record abstention, hovering at around 59 percent, and a curfew that banned Syrians and Palestinians from leaving their homes for 48 hours, the Lebanese parliamentary elections were held on 15 May 2022. Naturally, local and international bourgeois media largely...

Map of collective actions in Lebanon, and looking back at the 1960s New Left

In light of the continuing wave of strikes, many of them called by trade unions, Lebanon Support's has compiled a map of collective actions, this is a useful tool to track strikes, demonstrations, sit-ins and other forms of protest. *** The Fire These Times talks to...

Última entrevista con Bassem Chit sobre Líbano y Medio Oriente

SEPTIEMBRE 2015 Bassem Chit socialista libanés, militante y revolucionario fiel a sus compromisos, luchó sin descanso por los derechos sociales, económicos y políticos en Líbano y en esta región agitada. Bassem Chit que había jugado un papel esencial en la creación y...

The long crisis (May 2021)

Tonnes of dead fish wash up on shore of polluted lake Reuters: Tonnes of dead fish have washed up on the banks of a lake on Lebanon's Litani river, engulfing a nearby village in a pungent smell, in a disaster blamed on polluted waters. Gherbal Initiative asks: After...

Al-Manshour on Soundcloud

Al-Manshour will become available on Soundcloud. Bassem Chit, sectarianism and class struggle in Lebanon (2004) Simon Assaf, ISIS, imperialism and the Middle East (2016)

The Myths of Zionism – Book

Available to download free in Arabic. This is It is a critical account of the historical, political and cultural roots of Zionism. John Rose shows how this powerful political force is based in mythology; ancient, medieval and modern. Many of these stories, as with...

Rebel Cinema online

Aflamuna (“our films” in Arabic) is a nonprofit streaming platform, made by Beirut DC, to share Independent Arab Cinema with audiences across the World. Cinematheque Beirut / Metropolis Cinema AssociationRe/belles عربي To mark the recent launch of Cinematheque...

Divisions confessionnelles et lutte de classe au Liban (2009)

Septembre 2009 L’image dominante de la société libanaise est celle de l’affrontement confessionnel. La plupart des propagandistes impérialistes le présentent comme « une conséquence de l’échec du nationalisme » tandis que d’autres prétendent que le...

Jou’an, jou’an… I am hungry! (April 2021)

The Lebanese Politics Podcast shines a light on the great famine that devastated Mount Lebanon and neighbouring regions during the First World War, an event that has been swept under the carpet for over a century... and is finding a grim echo today. The current price...

Libya at the Crossroads (2012)

International Socialism Journal Issue: 133, January 2012 The revolutions in the Middle East burst like thunder across a region long considered beyond change and are being undertaken by people long considered incapable of acting in their own interests. The idea that...

Bassem Chit’s critique of Arab nationalism

International Socialism Journal, Issue: 145 January 2015 Before his sudden death in October 2014 at the age of 34, Lebanese revolutionary socialist Bassem Chit fired the first salvo in what he hoped would be a far reaching debate on the problems of the left exposed by...

Nationalism, Resistance and Revolution

International Socialism Journal, Issue: 145 January 2015 Identity and entity The reduction of current struggles in Lebanon and Syria in particular, and across the Middle East in general, to purely abstract nationalistic, sectarian and “identitarian” dimensions...

Women Workers and Resistance in Egypt – Talk (2008)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xk4_Hou1pU

The 2011 Revolutions

Selected Works Egypt and Tunisia: People make history Al-Manshour (February 2011) Less than two months ago the dominant language in the Lebanese street, and the Arab world in general, was frustration. The street was characterised by indifference. If we thought to say...

Open letter to revolutionaries in Lebanon

Dear comrades, We are now entering a deeply divisive phase in the revolution that began on 17 October 2019. For those of us who were involved in the early years of rebuilding a viable left in Lebanon, the uprising is a vindication of all that we dreamed of: that...

The LGBT struggle in Lebanon (2011)

Socialist Worker (US) February 2011 The mainstream media – and some gay rights organizations – would have people believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Middle East need the West to "save" them from the violent backwardness and...

Brief Communication – The Story of HELEM (2011)

Ghassan Makarem Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies Vol. 7, No. 3 (Fall 2011) This article is an account of the formation of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) group, Himaya Lubnaniya lil Mithliyeen wal Mithliyat (HELEM). In Arabic, the name means...

Can the Syrian Revolution Succeed? – Talk (2012)

https://youtu.be/ZGTCAsKkBYg

Imperialism and the new wars in the Middle East (2015)

Socialist Review May 2015 In the heady days of the Arab Spring revolutions, tens of millions of people took to the streets in vast movements for change that raised the possibility of a deep transformation of the region. The retreat of these revolutions has been marked...

The Growing Crisis in the Army (March 2021)

Al-Manshour 10 March 2021 According to the Carnegie Middle East Center the commander of the Lebanese Army, General Joseph Aoun, told senior officers that the ongoing crisis is undermining the military. The economic collapse has meant that army salaries have lost 80...