M-L-M Mayhem!

Nearly a decade after the emergence of the Boycott-Divestment-Sanction (BDS) Palestinian solidarity movement (which, following the anti-apartheid South African model of first world activism, proposes the international boycott of Apartheid Israel) what was once seen as a tactical approach to Israeli apartheid is now being treated––at least in some significant quarters of the left at the centres of global capitalism––as tantamount to revolutionary strategy.  Talk of bourgeois rights, upholding a naive conception of international law, and all the hallmarks of capitalist legality has been shifted from the realm of means to the kingdom of ends.  This elevation of the tactical use of bourgeois rights, along with a general confusion of what it means to be an internationalist, should give us pause.  And we should be especially worried when we find ourselves speaking of a legal tactic and the dubious propositions of the capitalist discourse of "human rights" as the telos of anti-imper

You would think that in the context of Israel's current ethnic cleansing offensive in Gaza it would be rather inappropriate to publicly flaunt zionist propaganda.  For though the mainstream discourse surrounding Israel-Palestine is still unabashedly liberal, even the liberal world is reacting with a certain level of shock, no matter what qualifications they make, at the unfolding events in Gaza.  So you would think, with this in mind, hard-line zionists might feel a little shame.  Not so with the woman standing beside me on public transit the other day, proudly reading Alan Dershowitz's The Case for Israel (that reactionary piece of zionist "history" that, despite being rather fraudulent , is still treated as a viable source by racists seeking scholarly justification for their backwards views), as if another case for Israel wasn't being made, at the very moment, by the military beloved by the author of her book. Obviously I am being somewhat facetious because I

Now that the imperialists are bombing Libya, again speaking of liberation and humanitarianism, certain sections of the mainstream North American left are tripping over themselves in sophistic attempts to justify the intervention of their governments.  Gilbert Achcar, Znet favourite, even goes so far as to argue that supporting the "no fly zone" (those imperialist parameters maintained by US and Canadian bombs) is actually anti -imperialist.  In fact, he attempts to convince the reader that all "critical anti-imperialists" would support the intervention in Libya, using a fallacy known as a "false analogy" that compares the imperialists to police, Libya to a rape victim, and Qaddafi to a rapist.  Apparently Achcar missed the irony that his false analogy is an imperialist favourite: they always like to compare themselves to police, guardians of a rule of global law, when more accurately (as more than one critic of Achcar's post has noted about his analog

This is a guest post by comrade Wendy G.  that addresses why the New Democratic Party (NDP) is not even a viable social democratic force in Canada.  Since many of the arguments levelled against a potential boycott by leftists who theoretically believe in revolutionary politics (but apparently not practically) centre around the belief that the NDP is our only viable option––or even worse that it's a party that actually represents the interests of the oppressed masses––it is necessary to discuss the actual behaviour of the NDP in Canada.  For those comrades just south of the border, we should also point out that the NDP is even (and sadly) to the left of the US Democratic Party... GUEST POST ON THE BOYCOTT ( upcoming event on March 19th ) by Wendy G.   1.  Past and present experiences of NDP governments show that the party ends up becoming just as pro-capitalist, anti-indigenous and imperialist as the other major parties in Canada.   The NDP has come to power in many provinces, i

I am always fascinated and frustrated by the North American mainstream public's willingness to buy and accept as authoritative "historical" books of dubious scholarship that popularize ruling class ideology.  The reason these books are not treated with the suspicion they deserve, obviously, is because they are designed to reinforce what people are already taught to believe.  These books masquerade as academic, as well-researched and expert , but they rarely fit the standards of academic feasibility and honesty.  And yet they still become part of popular discourse, defended by laypersons who repeat, ad nauseaum, these books' claims and pour scorn on the qualified critics who raise questions. Alan Dershowitz's The Case for Israel , for example, not only argued the ahistorical and racist-colonial position that Palestine was an empty desert, a terra nullius, before the European Zionists arrived to "make it bloom again" (and that the Palestinians are really

There was a time, approximately seven or eight years ago, when Palestine solidarity movements required the massive participation of Jewish anti-Zionist activists in order to combat the spurious charge of "anti-semitism." Since supporting Palestinian self-determination was always bad-jacketed by right-wing and Zionist groups as "anti-semitic" it seemed logical, and perhaps even necessary, to always emphasize the large number of Jewish leftwing activists who rejected Zionism and supported the Palestinian struggle. The problem with this strategy, however necessary it might have been, was that it led to the silencing of Palestinian voices and the marginalization of Palestinian activists. Thus, at every rally, Jewish activists would speak for the plight of their Palestinian counterparts who, watching from the sidelines, cheered them on. If we remove the labels "Jew" and "Palestinian" and, instead, look at the context through an abstract anticolonia

There should be an award for "Most Stupid Marxist Sect" and this year it should be given to "Fight Back." Of course, it is always difficult to know which Trotskyis t group deserves the Most Stupid award but I do think that, this year, Fight Back gets the trophy. [On another note, there should also be an award for "Most Egotistical and Self-Congratulatory Anarchist Group" but that, perhaps, deserves its own post.] The reason I would like to nominate Fight Back for this award is because of an article called "Against the Blanket Boycott of Israel: A Working Class Solution." Here, demonstrating that they are behind the left by at least a century - and that, despite calling themselves "Leninists" have probably never read Lenin's work on the National Question or the debates surrounding this issue (and that actually dealt with the Question of Palestine) in the 3rd International - they condemn the BDS movement against Israel because it

If there is one quote that could adequately describe Elias Khoury's novel Bab Al-Shams [Gate of the Sun] it would be Marx's famous statement in The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte : "The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living." For Khoury's magnum opus about the colonization of Palestine and the resulting trauma of exile is primarily concerned with the crushing weight of history and innumerable dead generations. Or, as Khoury writes: "but tell me, why does history only ever come in the shape of a ravening beast? Why do we only ever see it reflected in mirrors of blood?" Although Yousry Nasrallah's four hour film adaptation of Bab Al-Shams succeeded in capturing the expansive power of the novel, because of Khoury's concern with the haunting shadow the past casts over the present the novel itself defies complete adaptation. This is not to say that Nasrallah's epic was not a brilliant fil