Middle East

Support the new Middle East workers' movement

Two months after Mohamed Bouazizi, a street fruit-seller in Tunisia, burned himself to death in protest at poverty and official harassment, setting off an upheaval in his country, almost the whole Middle East is socially aflame. Tyrants have fallen in Tunisia (14 January) and Egypt (11 February). As we go to press it looks as if Qaddafi in Libya, the most vicious of them all, is the next to go. Protests have spread to Morocco, Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, and Iraq, and beyond the Arab world to Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan. We can read well-informed analyses telling us why Syria, or Jordan, or...

SWP hopes Egypt will declare war on Israel

Of the many pithy formulae which members of the Socialist Workers’ Party use, one that seems to have a particular current resonance is that idea that “the road to Palestinian liberation runs through Cairo.” Or, as the headline to an article by John Rose in Socialist Worker (12 February 2011) puts it, “Answer to Palestine question is in Cairo.” What do the SWP mean by this? Rose’s article argues against any possibility for Palestinian liberation that does not involve “the rest of the Arab world” and asserts that “the outcome of the Egyptian revolution will shape the Palestinian leadership.”...

Constituent Assembly is key idea in Iran and Middle East

The Green Movement leaders in Iran used the opportunity of Khameini’s call for support for the Egyptian people to call for demonstrations on 14 February. They said these demonstrations were to defend the Egyptian people and pushed the establishment not to attack them. That did not happen. [The demonstrations were attacked with tear gas and one person is reported killed]. The Iranian secret services are well trained and stopped the demonstrations from becoming a big force. In the end there were several sizeable demonstrations around Tehran, of 5,000 and 10,000, marching from and to different...

Strikes, fatwas and repression

The Tunisian Ministry of Defence has asked all reservists to report to barracks from 16 February. That may indicate a crackdown against the bubbling workers’ movement is being prepared by the transitional government. In Tunisia, class struggle is continuing. Strikes and protests are breaking out in many different sectors of the economy as groups of workers take advantage of the relative political freedoms. On 13 February, the new Tunisian foreign minister, Ahmed Ounaies, resigned following strikes by workers in the ministry. The strikes were sparked by Ounais’ complimentary remarks about the...

Middle East Workers' Solidarity and Egypt Workers' Solidarity websites

A new committee, focused on supporting the new workers' movement in Egypt, was launched at a meeting in London on 17 February. Its website will soon be live at http://www.egyptworkersolidarity.org/ . Activists from Middle East Workers' Solidarity helped set up the 17 February meeting, and MEWS expects to be collaborating closely with the new group. The Middle East Workers' Solidarity website gives up-to-date information on workers' activity in the whole region, and many links to background material. http://middle-east-workers.blogspot.com . And join the Middle East Workers' Solidarity e-list...

Yemen: US plan won’t stop the violence

The plague of crazed Islamist violence and threats has continued with an apparent attempt to bring down planes with explosives. No-one will be surprised that the conspiracy seems to have begun in Yemen. By any standard measure of freedom and well-being Yemen and its people fare poorly. Reporters Without Borders ranks Yemen at 170 of 178 countries for press freedom. Transparency International puts it at 131 out of 179 countries for corruption. National Income per capita is $950 per year; 45% live below the official poverty line while a tiny minority live very well indeed; there is at least 35%...

Anti-Semitism and the Left: an Open Letter to Tony Cliff [1988]

Click here to download pdf . Dear Cliff: The present nightmarish reawakening of the furies of Judeophobia in Eastern Europe demands of honest socialists whose commitment to the destruction of Israel puts them in an attitude of comprehensive hostility to all but a handful of the Jews alive in the world today that they look at their own political features in the mirror of these events. After Hitler, anti-semitism disguised itself, and drew new nourishment from the conflict between Arab and Jew in the Middle East which had been intensified by the Holocaust. It was a doctrine that dared no longer...

Holocaust denial in the Middle East

Andy McKay reviews From Empathy to Denial: Arab Responses to the Holocaust by Meir Litvak and Esther Webman. This is good reading for anyone wishing to understand the current situation in the Middle East. It explains the centrality of “Holocaust denial” to Islamist and much other Arab political discourse, putting it into both its correct historical context and the wider context of the often incomprehensible politics of the most volatile region in the world. Throughout the rest of the world “historians” like David Irving, Robert Faurisson and Fred Leuchter are discredited and viewed as little...

Yemen: a state falling apart

Since a Yemen-based al-Qaeda group was blamed for the foiled Christmas day plane attack calls for foreign “intervention” have grown. But, as Dan Katz explains in this background article, such intervention has already begun. Yemen’s population is predominantly rural (73%), young (most are under 15), and poor (National Income per capita was $950 in 2008; only 40% have access to electricity). Its oil sector provides 90% of export earnings, and 75% of government revenue, but oil production has passed its peak and output is declining. Oil revenue is expected to dry up completely by 2017 (BBC). The...

As right gains, step up solidarity with Israeli left!

As we go to press, both of Israel’s main centre-right parties — Likud and Kadimah — were claiming victory in the general election. Most exit polls gave 30 seats to Kadimah and 29 to Likud. Neither have enough seats to win outright, meaning the huge gains made by Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Beiteinu party place this grotesque far-right formation in a position of enormous influence and power when it comes to forming a government. Ehud Barak’s Labour Party — right-wing social democrats on social issues and hawkish on the national question – have been relegated to fourth place. As placards on...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.