Sami Ramadani speaks to Samuel Grove about the dynamics of the conflict in Syria, arguing that democratic resistance to Assad's brutal regime has been eclipsed by reactionary forces, backed by Western and Gulf states The upheaval in Syria is an enormously difficult...
Middle East
Egyptian workers’ movement and the 25 January Revolution | by Anne Alexander
“It is midnight in Cairo”, intoned the BBC reporter on the Ten O’ Clock News bulletin, “and still tens of thousands are in Tahrir Square. One chant echoes again and again: ‘Go, go, go’. But this time it is not Mubarak they want to quit, but Egypt’s military ruler...
Libya’s Restive Revolutionaries | by Nicolas Pelham
Beneath a golden canopy lined with frilly red tassels and vaulted with chandeliers, hundreds of militiamen from across Libya gathered at a security base in Benghazi, the launch pad of their anti-Qaddafi revolution, at the end of April and called for another uprising....
Bahrain and the Arab Spring | by Zach Zill and Ahmed Mohammed
The small island nation of Bahrain sits in the Persian Gulf, between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. When the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings toppled US-backed dictators last year, all of the region’s dictatorships trembled, including that in Bahrain. The winds of change...
The Arab revolutions: A year after | by Samir Amin
Arab regimes achieved success within a short period but then ran out of steam as a result of their internal limits and contradictions. The ruling circles have given in to neo-liberal globalization, leading to rapid decline in social conditions. That is what caused the...
The first round of the presidential elections in Egypt | by Samir Amin
The first round of the presidential elections was organized to produce the result that Washington and the Egyptian ruling power are pursuing, that is, to reinforce the alliance between the two pillars of the system, the high command of the Army and the Moslem...
Revolutions are not decided by elections – Lessons from the ongoing electoral processes in Egypt | by Horace Campbell
It is important for the Egyptian revolutionaries to build new structures outside of parliament and outside of the rigged game that is called elections. BACKGROUND OF THE NEWS I have been monitoring the flames and demonstrations that erupted in Egypt while I have been...
Egypt’s working class and the question of organisation | by Hossam El-Hamalawy
The nascent trade union movement in Egypt will need to develop political structures for the voices of the working class to be heard in electoral processes. ‘Who is the labour candidate in this presidential election?’ This is a question I have been asked frequently in...
Egyptian election: Odds stacked against democracy | by Sokari Ekine
Whilst the Egyptian people continue artistically expressing themselves, the Egyptian government is busy painting over the walls of history in and around Tahrir square that document the uprising. [attributed to Angry Egyptian] It’ been 16 months since the start of...