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British terror trial: UK collusion with Musharrafâ€™s dictatorship

The London trial of Baloch human rights activists on trumped up terrorism charges revealed high level collusion between the British government and the dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf. Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were threatened: arrest the Baloch exiles in London or Pakistan will halt all cooperation with Britain in the ‘war on terror.’…

ByPeter Tatchell

Vortex in Bengal.

Violence in West Bengal's western districts has reached crisis proportions. Each day, one or more cadre member or sympathizer of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM] is killed either by Maoists or the Trinamul Congress (TMC). The total figure is now over two hundred dead since late 2007 (most are members and supporters of…

ByVijay Prashad

Bad Sufi

The Bad Sufi A look at the practise of Contemporary Sufism in Pakistan. It is often assumed that Sufism stands opposed to Wahhabism. Wrong. Sufism and Wahhabism, in fact, share a fatal characteristic – they are religions of the status quo. In Pakistan, Sufism legitimises barbarities of inequality and starvation – ‘do nothing, it’s god’s…

ByQalandar Bux Memon

Christian Communists, Islamic Anarchists?

In Part 1 of this article we argued that Slavoj Å½iÅ¾ek and Alain Badiou's account of the foundation of Communist universalism in the event of Christianity signals a number of inconsistencies immanent to their respective ontologies (Coombs 2009). For Å½iÅ¾ek it appears difficult to reconcile his touted open interpretation of Hegel with the ontological significance he accords…

ByNathan Coombs

Running down the wrong road

Vijay Prashad considers the regional alternative to troop escalation in Afghanistan, and suggests its neighbours are ready to take on the burden of stabilising the country - but only if the US doesn't use their efforts to build its empire. This article has been cross-posted from THE SAMOSA More US troops are being prepared for Afghanistan. The President charged…

ByVijay Prashad

INTERVIEWS Uncategorized

‘The Politics of Aesthetics’: Jacques Rancière Interviewed by Nicolas Vieillescazes

Translation by Anna Preger Art and politics N.V.: Your thought mainly revolves around mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion, around a great divide defining positions and shares, determining who may and who may not take part in an activity (primarily, in political practice), and which you term, in recent works, “the distribution…

ByJacques Ranciere

On Frantz Fanon

Forward to Black Skin, White Masks By Zia Sardar. Black Skin, White Masks by Franz Fanon, Pluto, London, 2008 http://www.plutobooks.com/cgi-local/main.pl I think it would be good if certain thing were said Franz Fanon. Fanon and the Epidemiology of Oppression (Direct quotations from Black Skin, White Masks are set in italics) The opening gambit of Black Skin, White Masks ushers us…

INTERVIEWS Uncategorized

‘Between Art and Life’: NP Interview with Arthur Danto

From Naked Punch 03, Summer, 2005. NP: We’re familiar with the discontinuity between art produced before, say, the 14th century, and art produced after that period, with the earlier work being almost exclusively religious or devotional in character. The devotional and religious meanings really structured people’s relations to this art: their artistic character didn’t enter into their production,…

Beyond the Page – Hammad Nasar on Contemporary Pakistani Art

Jan. 12, 2008 From issue 10 of Naked Punch Review Juliana Cerqueira Leite: Peter Weibel has described the curator as a 'producer' –defined here by the producer’s role in film: commissioning writers, actors and directors to realize an idea. [“A cinema producer says 'I have an idea but I need a scriptwriter, I need a director,…

ByJuliana Cerqueira Leite

Violent Thoughts About Slavoj Zizek

Slavoj Zizek has been telling lies about me. He attacked a recent book of mine, Infinitely Demanding, in the London Review of Books.[1] Since then, things have gone from bad to worse, but I will spare the reader the grisly details. What I would like to do here is to use this debate as a lever for trying…

BySimon Critchley