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Going from Pillar to truce

After bombing Gaza, Israel is more isolated, Hamas has emerged stronger and Egypt, which helped broker a ceasefire between the two, has returned as a major regional actor On the eighth day of the bombardment of Gaza, the Israeli government agreed to sit down with the Hamas leadership and the Egyptian government to come up with…

ByVijay Prashad

We Are Fine in Gaza. How Are You?

In celebrating the 85th anniversary of the Communist Party in Syria and Lebanon, the Palestinian singer and writer—Khaled El-Hibr sang these words:We are fine in GazaHow about you?We are fine under attackHow about you?Our martyrs are under the rubblesOur children now living in the tentsAnd they ask about youWe are fine in GazaHow about you?….The sea…

ByMagid Shihade

The New Obama Doctrine: From Gaza to Goma

The Israeli assault on Gaza continues. The death toll rises over 100, infrastructure is destroyed, and the UN relief agencies are at wit’s end. A desperate tone has entered the dispatches from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which has operated in occupied Palestine since 1950. On November 19, the agency noted: “Israeli Air Force…

ByVijay Prashad

Poetry Uncategorized

Love in Capitalism

Love in CapitalismYou’re all in –but you have nothing to give. You like it that way, though,Maybe. And it works for a while:On credit. When the markets are crashing,It's hard to keep your back straight.And 50:50 becomes too risky a bet. Investment needs consideration. Everything must be accounted for.It needs time and work. But you want it alland you're running out…

ByStephanie Bailey

Philosophy POLITICS

Frantz Fanon: The Philosophical Revolutionary

THE current year, 2012, marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Frantz Fanon, one of the indispensable figures of the 20th century and a man of exemplary commitments to revolutionary action and human liberation. A thinker who offered original and lasting insights of great complexity, he was also a physician and a psychiatrist who…

INTERVIEWS POLITICS

Politics of the Oppressed in Pakistan

The formation of the Anjuman-e-Mazareen-e-Punjab (Association of Punjab’s Tenants) in Pakistan signaled the re-carving of political space by Punjab’s peasants. This interview with Asad Farooq, Professor in the Law Department at LUMS, charts the development of Anjuman-e-Mazareen-e-Punjab from its formation to its recent struggles. Asad Farooq is interviewed by Qalandar Memon. QM: Professor Farooq, you have…

A flawed project

yun bhai Nihala, Azaadi tu hai dekhi. Na bhai Prava, ne kha de ne vekhi. Main Jaggu ti sunni assi Ambala ti aaye si. Listen Brother Nihal, have you seen Freedom? No Brother Prava, I haven’t seen it nor eaten it. I heard from Jaggu It has come up to Ambala. —Gurramdas ‘Alam’, A zaadi, 1946.…

ByVijay Prashad

INTERVIEWS POLITICS

On People’s Law Tribunals (saths) and Water Struggles in South Punjab

Asad Farooq (Law Department, LUMS) interviewed by Qalandar Bux Memon on community struggles in Southern Punjab. QM: A set of movements you have been involved with in Punjab is the sath, a form of people’s law. What is a sath and how does it translate? What areas are governed by sath? What is your involvement? Finally, can you explain how the…

A New Humanism

What motivates the desire for Third World solidarity is the shared history of oppression by a common oppressor.In 2009, a few academics, supported by long standing left-wing activists, founded Pakistanis for Palestine, a Lahore based group that aimed to support Palestinians in their struggle for statehood. Critics—which include Pakistanis—of course, wonder why, given Pakistan’s own…

ByQalandar Bux Memon

On The Struggle of Farmer of Dera Sehgal

The road which leads to Dera Sehgal offers a stark contrast between its broken muddy self and the Grand Trunk road which runs perpendicular to it. Barely an hour away from Lahore lies a site of resistance where the humble inhabitants of a few farmlands have taken on a fight to reclaim their lives. The brave…