Red Pepper, December-January, 2010-2011
Politicians of all stripes feel obliged to genuflect before the altar of cancer, so it’s not surprising that the government has made strenuous efforts to cast itself as a defender of cancer patients. Some of its measures are genuinely beneficial. Innovative bowel screening procedures will save thousands of lives and extra money for new, expensive life-extending cancer drugs will benefit thousands more (including me).
But the government’s headline cancer pledges are minute compensation for its spending programme’s detrimental impact on cancer patients in general. read more…
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
The Hindu
Britain’s coalition government has embarked on an ambitious programme of social engineering. The purpose of its historic package of public spending cuts and “reforms” is said to be the reduction of the fiscal deficit, which rose sharply in 2008 and 2009 as a result of the recession. But, as we shall see, the deficit is a pretext. By a political sleight of hand masquerading as economic necessity, wealth and power are being redistributed in favour of the rich, whose deregulated appetite for short-term profit triggered the recession in the first place. read more…
The Guardian, 6 November
The cuts will hit cancer patients hard. We need NHS staff to take action against them.
Please note: a longer, more detailed version of this article will appear in the December issue of Red Pepper.
Politicians, it seems, feel obliged to genuflect before the altar of cancer, so it’s not surprising that the government has made strenuous efforts to cast itself as a defender of cancer patients. Some of its measures are genuinely beneficial. Innovative bowel-screening procedures will save thousands of lives, and extra money for new, expensive life-extending cancer drugs will benefit thousands more (including me).
But the government’s headline cancer pledges are minute compensation for its spending programme’s detrimental impact on cancer patients in general. read more…
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
The Hindu, 24 October
At a fringe meeting at last month’s Conservative party conference, one of the speakers began a defence of British bankers’ bonuses (£7 billion this year) by observing that “When God gave out brains, he didn’t give them all out equally, and so we have to live in an unequal society.”
The speaker in question was Stuart Fraser, a multi-millionaire stockbroker and leading light in the City of London Corporation, read more…
Contending for the Living
Red Pepper, October-November 2010
The fact that Stagecoach, a milestone in the development of the Western and the first complete masterpiece of its director, John Ford, begins with the announcement that “Geronimo has jumped the reservation” and the Apache are “on the warpath” may be enough to put many off the film, the genre and the director. That would be a pity: Ford was one of the greatest and subtlest artists ever to work in the medium. His films are rich in emotions and ideas; his vision is both compassionate and sceptical. read more…
Outlook (India), 6 September
On top of floods, war, bombs, a corrupt and incompetent government with a much feared military in the wings, the long-suffering people of Pakistan have now been betrayed, once again, by their cricketers. Most will not be shocked or will profess not to be shocked: over the last 15 years there has been a steady erosion of faith in Pakistan cricket, which has come to be held in the same low esteem as many of the country’s other institutions. read more…
In Swaziland you can get locked up for wearing this tee-shoirt.
Mike Marqusee has just returned from a visit with trade unionists and democracy activists in Swaziland.
An updated version of this article appeared in The Morning Star on 17 September.
Swaziland is a small country with a big problem. The 1.3 million inhabitants of the land-locked southern African kingdom live under the thumb of one of the world’s last absolute monarchies, a venal and repressive regime whose plunder of the country is systematic and comprehensive.
Now presiding over the 37th year of the world’s longest running State of Emergency, King Mswati III controls the parliament, appoints cabinet ministers, judges and senior civil servants and makes and breaks the law at will. Political parties are banned, along with most demonstrations and meetings. read more…
Mike Marqusee’s essay in Midnight on the Mavi Marmara has been published on The Electronic Intifada.
From small beginnings and with few resources, the international movement in solidarity with the Palestinians has grown into a force that Israel perceives as a major threat. The assault on the Gaza aid flotilla was a lethal escalation in what has become an increasingly bitter campaign against that movement, whose constituents now range from dockworkers in South Africa refusing to offload Israeli goods to students at Berkeley demanding divestment.
The brutality of the flotilla attack was a measure of the extent to which the Israeli polity has grown to fear and loathe this global grassroots movement…
For full essay click here.
CONTENDING FOR THE LIVING
Red Pepper, August-September 2010
In Act IV Scene i of King Lear, the blinded, humbled, suicidal Earl of Gloucester hands his purse to the naked madman, ‘Poor Tom’ (actually Gloucester’s ill-used son, Edgar) and as he does so observes, “So distribution should undo excess, / And each man have enough.”
Shakespeare’s 400 year old wisdom has proved far too advanced for the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition, whose plans for the next five years involve a redistribution of wealth from the have-littles to the have-more-than-enoughs of historic proportions. read more…
Asa Winstanley reviews If I Am Not for Myself by Mike Marqusee in The Electronic Intifada, 30 July 2010.
“Mike Marqusee’s book If I am Not For Myself, newly available in paperback, is a fascinating, meandering sort of family memoir. …a fascinating critical insight into Zionism, and a crucial warning from history on Palestine for the liberal left of today.”
To read the review in full click here .
Red Pepper, August-September 2010
Mike Marqusee reviews Against the Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine by William Parry (published by Pluto Press)
When the state of Israel began constructing its “separation barrier” through the West Bank, it never anticipated that the wall would become a living gallery of resistance, crowded with images and words of defiance. This creative response to injustice is by nature impermanent (one day the wall will fall) and even now is subject to constant change as parts are added or effaced. Which is why William Parry has performed such a valuable service in documenting it. read more…
History Today, August 2010
As the England cricket team take on Pakistan in this summer’s Test Match series, Mike Marqusee revisits S.M.Toyne’s article on the origins and growth of the game, first published in History Today in June 1955. The full text of the original article (”The Early History of Cricket”) is available at History Today
In June 1955, when S.M Toyne’s article appeared, domestic and international cricket were still directly governed by the MCC, a self-perpetuating private members’ club. The division between gentlemen (public-school educated “amateurs”) and players (working class professionals) was still strictly enforced, with separate dressing rooms, entrances and forms of address. Limited overs cricket was played only at club level, commerce was kept at arm’s length and the England Test side were, probably for the last time, widely recognised as the best in the world. read more…
“Just as the Palestinian cause is a global magnet for victims of discrimination and dispossession, so the cause of Israel is a magnet for the privileged, the entitled, the beneficiaries of Western and white supremacy. The rich and powerful see themselves as under siege from the poor and powerless and in Israel’s self-portrayal they recognize themselves. The gated communities of the world rally around the gated nation…” – from Mike Marqusee’s essay in Midnight on the Mavi Marmara.
To read more order the book now from: Orbooks
Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How It Changed the Course of the Israel/Palestine Conflict, edited by Moustafa Bayoumi, with contributions from: Ali Abunimah, Omar Barghouti, George Bisharat, Noam Chomsky, Juan Cole, Norman Finkelstein, Neve Gordon, Amira Hass, Rashid Khalidi, Stephen Kinzer, Henning Mankell, Gideon Levy, Mike Marqusee, Ken O’Keefe, Kevin Ovenden, Ilan Pappé, Sara Roy, Raja Shehadeh, Ahdaf Soueif, Alice Walker, Stephen M. Walt, Philip Weiss, Haneen Zoabi and others.
read more…
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
The Hindu, 18 July
In an effort to mitigate the global outrage that followed its attack on the Gaza aid flotilla, Israel has (ever so slightly) eased its blockade on Gaza. However minimal, this step has only been taken because of the pressure applied to Israel by the international grass-roots protest movement. The primary aim of the Gaza aid missions has been to alert the world to the criminality of the blockade, and in this it has succeeded, though the price has been heavy: 9 killed (mostly with shots directly to the head and neck) and 700 others violently abducted, detained and abused.
Unfortunately, President Obama and others have seized on the Israelis’ gesture as an excuse to issue them a renewed license to proceed with their assault on Palestinian lives and rights. read more…
The World Cup and the pleasures of neutrality
The Guardian, 8 June 2010
With the football World Cup pressing hard on us and England mania on the rise, spare a thought for those of us who are not England supporters. Though we go largely unnoticed in the England-centred media coverage, we’re here and we’re a significant minority. read more…
New in paperback
From Verso: ISBN 978-1-84467-435-0; 320 pages
Only £9.99 /$19.99
“A tour-de-force of political and cultural analysis of various aspects of Jewish, Zionist and anti-Zionist history and politics. Marqusee touches on many painful spots … The comparisons he draws between Zionism, Hindu nationalism, and other similar and dissimilar political phenomena are incisive and accurate. He shies away from no controversy, and his accounts of incidents in and around the anti-war movement are penetrating and intellectually honest…. a manifesto for a whole generation of Jewish radical activists who refuse to be deterred by the threat of being labelled, and libelled, as self-haters.” – Daphna Baram, The Guardian read more…
Wednesday’s Commons debate on Gaza was a remarkable illustration of just how weak Israel’s position has become in this country, as in others. Hague’s statement was probably more forceful than David Milliband’s would have been were he still Foreign Secretary. But it was strongly criticised as not going far enough by at least twenty MPs from nearly every party in the House. read more…
A preview of the World Cup
M Magazine (India), June issue
If in the course of a visit to planet earth, an intelligent being from another world attended the great sporting spectacles on offer here, he she or it, without the aid of a translator or explainer, would quickly grasp the essentials of football (even the off side rule), while struggling to comprehend what was going on in cricket, rugby, American football or baseball. Football is our most transparent and universal team sport. With 202 nations entering the competition, and 32 qualifying for the finals, its World Cup has more genuine claim to that title than any other. read more…
CONTENDING FOR THE LIVING
Red Pepper, June-July 2010
Back in August, in the wake of BNP success in the Euro-elections, Red Pepper ran a debate about anti-fascist strategy. Although a good start to a necessary discussion, too much of it was polarised between an attack on and a defence of existing strategies and structures. While these have to be debated, we won’t get far unless we widen and deepen our perspective. read more…
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
The Hindu, 19 May
In the wake of Britain’s inconclusive general election, there is much talk of the “national interest”. It’s said that politicians of all parties have to pull together to address the crisis caused by the country’s enlarged fiscal deficit. Specifically, they must agree to a package of deep cuts in public spending. Nothing, it is said, is more urgent, more unavoidable. In contrast, climate change, it seems, can be left perpetually on the back burner, though there is a far greater expert consensus about the dangers of the latter than the former. read more…
