#YouStink Grows Up To Pose Real Challenge to Lebanese State
Protestors Clashing With Police: Image from AP
Over the past few weeks protesters in Lebanon have reemerged after a short slumber in great numbers, talking over downtown Beirut. “You Stink” protests, which started as result of a “garbage crisis” and government incompetence have been met with extreme repression leading to one death and hundreds of injuries. Bay Area Intifada reached out to a comrade on the ground who has been engaged in the demonstrations. Leyla is a anti-authoritarian queer from Beirut in their early 30’s. The following interview was conducted on Monday August 30th- Tuesday Sept 1st. No changes or edits have been to the text. Read the rest of this entry
Lebanon, August 2015: Notes on Paralysis, Protests, and Hope
Protestors Clashing With Police: Image from AP
by Maya Mikdashi
The past ten years in Lebanon have been a study in political paralysis and escalating anger and frustration among citizens and residents of the country. To recap only the most basic of facts, since 2005 the country divided and polarized into two “camps”—March 14 and March 8, led by the Future Movement and Hezbollah, respectively. In these ten years there has been a war with Israel, armed clashes between these two camps, and a series of political assassinations. These years have also brought the military destruction of a refugee camp (Nahr Al-Bared), armed clashes between the army and Islamists in Saida and Tripoli, a war in Syria that has again polarized the population, a series of bombings by radical Islamist groups across the country, and an ongoing war against ISIS in the north of the country. Lebanon has become a front in the international war on terror, according to the US, Israel, and the Lebanese government. Politicians have failed to form governments, leading to power vacuums and a series of caretaker governments and the degradation of government services and institutions. There has been a presidential vacuum for over fourteen months, and Parliament has illegally extended its own term twice so far. In short, there is no legitimately elected political representation in the country. Read the rest of this entry
Iraq, winds of hope
By Joseph Daher
Since the end of July, and despite continued terrorist attacks by the so called Islamic State (IS) against Iraqi civilians, massive popular demonstrations have taken place in the capital Baghdad and several cities in the south of the country mainly to denounce corruption in the country and the political bankruptcy of the ruling sectarian political parties. Demands of the protesters notably included the dissolution of parliament, the end of the domination of the clergy on the structure of the Iraqi state and the modification of the Constitution to end the sectarian quotas. The demonstrations also condemned the continuing failures and power outages, deteriorating public services and increasing social inequalities. Read the rest of this entry
Nasrallah’s blood-soaked road to Jerusalem
By Budour Hassan
In early March of this year, about 6,000 smuggled photographs of torture victims in Syrian regime jails were leaked on the internet and published on various web sites.
The eyes of parents, siblings, partners and relatives of Syrian detainees became transfixed on their screens. Sorting through pictures of hardly-recognizable corpses, they wondered if they might find a trace of their loved ones.
Known as the “Caesar” photographs, in reference to the pseudonym of the defected Syrian sergeant and forensic photographer who smuggled the images out of Syria, the photographs inevitably lead us to question the morality and ethics of disseminating graphic portrayals of dead bodies on the internet. Read the rest of this entry
SYRIA: Film – Ecos del Desgarro
A self-managed and collective documentary about the Syrian revolution
and counter revolution, interviewing Syrian activists.
In Spanish/Arabic with English subtitles
Source: http://camaranegra.espivblogs.net/
Syria’s multi-party conflict and multi-way war
[this is a translation of the original Arabic that will shortly appear in therepublicgs.net]
Shiar Youssef *
Four years after the start of the Syrian revolution, much of the dominant analysis and commentary on the revolution and the subsequent war remains dominated by simplistic, dualistic world views and equally simplistic and dualistic policies and proposals. This article is an attempt to analyse the Syrian revolution as a multi-party conflict of interests and values, and the war in Syria as a multi-way war. Read the rest of this entry
Call for a first Mediterranean anarchist meeting by FA, IFA and Le Commun libertaire
Tunisia, March 2015
Today, the Mediterranean region continues to be one of the regions in the world beset by popular uprisings and protests. These range from north to south of the Mediterranean, following the global economic and financial crisis, causing an increase in insecurity and poverty and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
SYRIA: #Douma4 Relaunched
PALESTINE: The war is not over
By Mariam Barghouti
As you walk in the streets of Ramallah, with its aesthetically appealing buildings and the chaos of shoppers and street vendors the silence here is deafening.
We continue to protract this bubble deeper into the echelons of denial and complacency. The ululations in the summer for Gaza, and the metamorphosis into a population of cheerleaders continues to etch its indentation. We offered blistered tongues and Gaza offered its soul. Read the rest of this entry
