Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Understanding Contentious Politics From Below In Post- War Lebanon
The October 2019 uprising in Lebanon opened up many questions regarding the dynamics of contention from below, the exceptionality of that revolutionary moment in the history of Lebanon, and the possibilities of change through (...)
On August 4, 2020, a new tragedy struck Lebanon. An explosion of unprecedented magnitude in the country’s history occurred in the port of Beirut and left more than 180 dead (Lebanese, Syrians and other nationalities), more than 6,500 injured and 300,000 homeless. Dozens of people also remain (...)
Many Lebanese people had hoped for a silver lining to this tragedy of an independent government and new elections.
The tremendous blast that shook Lebanon on 4 August will be recorded as a major turning point in the country’s history, no less so than the much less powerful explosion that killed (...)
The explosion that devastated Beirut was an indictment of the parties that have misruled Lebanon for decades. Now, however, those parties are using the disaster as a pretext to deepen neoliberal policies, with French leader Emmanuel Macron and the IMF egging them on.
On August 4, 2020, an (...)
This month’s apocalyptic explosion in Beirut was a symbol for the disintegration of a Lebanese state plagued by political and economic crisis – and increasingly subject to the intrigue of its old imperial power, France.
“If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” This (...)
On August 4th, an explosion of nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port of Beirut, Lebanon, left more than 170 dead, thousands wounded, and hundreds of thousands homeless. “This was criminal incompetence, and they are all implicated,” says Lebanese writer and researcher Joey Ayoub who (...)
A statement from left-wing collective Ta’amim al-Masaref in Lebanon, where a protest movement of revolutionary proportions is shaking the state to its foundations.
An uprising is underway in the streets of Beirut, following the huge explosion that rocked the city on 4 August, killing at least (...)
The following is an interview conducted by Bidayat Magazine with a group of Marxist organizers working to form a revolutionary party in Beirut, all of whom played an important role in the recent “Nationalize The Banks” campaign. They include Elia El Khazen, Maya Zebdawi, Sleiman Damien, Pascal (...)
The momentum for liberation is never lost; it simply picks up at different speeds in different places, at different times.
‘The people want the downfall of the regime’: Lebanon in struggle Lausan Collective (LC): Can you tell us a bit about why the protests in Lebanon began?
Joey Ayoub (JA): (...)
Among the mass protests that erupted across the globe in October last year, Lebanon’s were some of the largest, targeting both a failing neoliberal system and ingrained sectarianism. Now in their fourth month, the protests are showing no sign of diminishing.
For more than a hundred days, (...)
As the Lebanese revolutionary uprising enters its third month, the ancien regime has already unleashed counterrevolutionary practices in all its forms. Fear mongering of pre-October 17 sectarian tensions alongside blaming the impending economic collapse on the continuous protests and reviving (...)
A preoccupation with the fallout from Lebanon’s financial crisis caused protests to die down, but it now seems the ruling class are mistaken in thinking the uprising is over.
The thick smoke of burning tires blanketed parts of Lebanon once again, as a second wave of mass anti-corruption (...)
Lebanon has a golden opportunity for the formation of an alternative, we should not let the ruling class reproduce itself again.
The ‘streets’ of Lebanon have exploded in massive protests since October 17th. Following months of austerity and dire economic conditions, a shortage of US dollars (...)
On May 6th, citizens of Lebanon had the opportunity to vote in a general election for the first time in nine years. The timing of the 2018 parliamentary elections in Lebanon was no coincidence. It followed a near decade-long absence that saw parliament extend its own mandate by using security (...)
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri recently threatened to resign and bring down the government, opening a new period of instability in a country that has recently had a sustained but fragile peace. In the weeks since the initial announcement, Hariri has reversed himself and now promises to (...)
Tensions in Lebanon are escalating once again as Saudi Arabia threatens to open up yet another front in its cold war with Iran. The trigger for the latest crisis was the resignation of prime minister Saad Hariri, who has been the Saudi’s main representative since the assassination of his father (...)
Joseph Daher was interviewed about his book Hezbollah - The Political Economy of Lebanon’s Party of God (published by Pluto Press, London in October 2016) on the occasion of a visit to Berlin to speak about it.
Noël van den Heuvel – You have just written a book about Hezbollah. Why, in your (...)
Interview with Joseph Daher on his new book on the political economy of the Hezbollah. Noel van den Heuvel: You have just written a book about Hezbollah. Why, in your opinion, was it necessary to reengage in this topic?
Joseph Daher: When I started in 2010, I thought it would be necessary to (...)
Joseph Daher is a Swiss-Syrian socialist activist, academic, and founder of the blog Syria Freedom Forever. He is the author of Hezbollah: Political Economy of the Party of God, Pluto Press, London, 2016 (distributed in the US by Univeristy of Chicago Press) and (with John Rees) of “The People (...)
Hezbollah’s record shows that the party’s interests are more aligned with elites than with workers.
Though its reputation has waned in recent years, Hezbollah has long earned plaudits from the Left for its military resistance to Israel. Many, too, have pointed to its provision of social services (...)
Twitter
Facebook