Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
There are big power plays afoot in one of the world’s most contested and unstable regions.
Following political developments in the past fortnight, two state-level policy changes in the Middle East are likely to combine to have a substantial impact on regional stability.
On March 10, in a deal (...)
Revolutions have been the most significant form of political and social conflict in the 20th century, perhaps in human history, with the possible exception of international wars. The outbreak of the revolutionary process in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region over the last decade is (...)
We are in the midst of the 10th anniversary of the 2011 Arab Spring. While most of the revolts suffered terrible defeats, the revolutionary process in the region did not come to an end, as waves of struggle exploded in country after country even amid today’s pandemic and global recession.
In (...)
We need to explicitly state that without a fundamental transformation in labor conditions, without ending the dehumanization of women, without ending the Kafala system in its variety of forms, without ending anti-Black racism, without ending discrimination against Kurds and other oppressed (...)
Once again, many South Asian migrant workers in the Gulf are in extremely precarious circumstances brought on by global economic convulsions. Over the past few weeks, I spoke with Indian laborers working in the Gulf via phone and messaging apps to learn how the global coronavirus pandemic is (...)
The most worrisome aspect of these developments is that they might lead to catastrophic consequences and full-scale war. That would in turn overshadow the wave of uprisings that have broken out in the Middle East and North Africa region in 2019, from Sudan and Algeria to Iraq, Lebanon and (...)
This is a critical moment in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2019, uprisings have emerged in Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon and Iran. All have opposed authoritarianism, neoliberalism, poverty, corruption, religious fundamentalism and sectarianism. Women have been active participants and (...)
Gilbert Achcar is a Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at SOAS University of London. He is the author of numerous books on the Middle East, including The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising and Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising. He was interviewed for the Marxist Left Review by Darren Roso. Darren Roso - Let’s start by returning to what now seems to be a distant memory: the revolutionary shockwave that swept the Arab world in 2011. (...)
Nationwide protests in Iran against a 50% fuel price hike over the last few days has seen widespread suppression by the Islamic regime of Iran’s security forces leaving at least 200 dead, hundreds injured and over a thousand arrested. The use of overwhelming force by security forces has been (...)
The Arab region is immersed in a long-term revolutionary process that pits youth-led movements against authoritarian rulers and neoliberal capitalism.
When in late 2018 the people of Sudan took to the streets demanding an end to Omar al-Bashir’s authoritarian rule, this immediately triggered (...)
Donald Trump’s hostility towards Iran and support for Saudi Arabia has made a delicate situation explosive
Like a furious maelstrom, roiled by opposing currents, the crisis in the Gulf gains in intensity and destructive power almost by the day. On Sunday, Donald Trump said the US was “locked and (...)
Trade unionists, MPs and campaigners have launched the open letter below to build solidarity across the labour and trade union movement around the world with the uprisings in Sudan and Algeria. Find out more about how you can get involved in this campaign below.
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Dear (...)
Recent uprisings in Sudan and Algeria have avoided mistakes of 2011.
Images of popular protests that recall the revolutionary movement of 2011 have dominated news from the Arabic-speaking world for months. Uprisings began in Sudan on December 19 and in Algeria with the marches of February 22. (...)
Let’s build on all the new elements and openings created by the Sudanese and Algerian uprisings. Let’s create regional and international links on this basis to change the course of events in the Middle East and North Africa from endless wars, authoritarian capitalism, religious fundamentalism (...)
Watching the news about the attacks on 2 oil tankers (the Kokuka Courageous and the Front Altair) in the Gulf of Oman (near the Straits of Hormuz) on June 13, I had this strange feeling of déjà vu …, writes Susan Pashkoff. I was only 4 years old when the incident at the Gulf of Tonkin happened in (...)
The recent uprisings in Sudan and Algeria show that the conditions that gave rise to the Arab Spring are not going away. But movements against authoritarianism and exploitation still face existential threats.
After years of counterrevolution and bloodshed, the Middle East began to see some (...)
Many are watching with growing astonishment as the Sudanese and Algerian uprisings have emerged over the past few months, defying the counter-revolutionary wave that swept the region following the Middle East and North Africa uprisings of 2011. Ironically, Omar al-Bashir’s last international (...)
Through butchery and sectarianism, the autocracies of the Arab world have survived this round. But in the long run, any order dependent on murder and bloodshed is doomed to collapse.
Egyptian men take part in midday prayer during a demonstration in Tahrir Square on January 25, in Cairo, (...)
This is a look back at the year 2018, which began with a revolt in Iran, against the high cost of living, social inequalities, corruption and the authoritarianism of the regime of the Mullahs and with demonstrations bloodily repressed, like those currently taking place in Sudan. The (...)
Afrin
The Kurdish struggle in Syria and Iraq has witnessed a number of recent changes, with clear contrasts in each country. The broad victory of the “yes” in the Iraqi autonomous Kurdistan region’s independence referendum on September 25, 2017 was rooted in the long historical will of the (...)
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