4 ChangeNarcissus Flower: a poem by Majid Nafisi
Monday, December 2, 2019
My beloved Has a Narcissus flower in mouth,Her souvenir From the prisons of Iran. I know that nightly From behind bars One can see the trace of flowers…
Revolution: a poem by Ziba Karbasi
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
The people’s hand was wounded The people’s foot The people’s back was wounded So their sky would rain stars. When their sky rained stars The people’s body was…
Gaza: We thought the house was empty
Saturday, November 23, 2019
Vijay Prashad On 13 November 2019, as part of its deadly attack on the people of Gaza, Israeli armed forces bombed a building in the Deir al-Balah neighbourhood…
‘I sort of broke English’: Meet the Lebanese poet crossing boundaries
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Nashwa Gowanlock Zeina Hashem Beck sits in her living room in Dubai, wrapping vine leaves, wara’ ‘enab, over a stuffing of minced meat and rice, which she will…
the Arab region’s long-term revolutionary process
Saturday, November 9, 2019
Gilbert Achar When in late 2018 the people of Sudan took to the streets demanding an end to Omar al-Bashir’s authoritarian rule, this immediately triggered memories of 2010,…
The new Middle East revolutionaries share this one fatal flaw
Monday, November 4, 2019
Robert Fisk Revolutions are like electricity. An electric shock of the most unexpected kind. The victims think at first it must be a powerful wasp sting. Then they…
Defend the women’s revolution in northeastern Syria
Friday, October 11, 2019
ROAR collective Since 2012, with the leading role of women, the people in North and East Syria have been building a social system that enables a peaceful, radical-democratic,…
Iraq is in revolt
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Patrick Cockburn Iraq is poised at a turning point in its modern history as its people wait to see if the government curfew and close down of the…
How the youth-led climate strikes became a global mass movement
Monday, September 23, 2019
Nick Engelfried. It began as a call to action from a group of youth activists scattered across the globe, and soon became what is shaping up to be…
What has become of my country: Said Soltanpour, poet of revolution
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Said Soltanpour, poet, playwright and director changed the pace of the revolution that toppled the Shah. It was mid October 1977. Already the voices of protest against the…
Feminists on the front lines of the Algerian uprising
Monday, September 9, 2019
Leïla Ouitis When in early February Algeria’s ailing octogenarian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced his intention to run for the presidency for a fifth term, millions of Algerians took…
Abdullah Öcalan’s Strategic Success on prison Island of Imralı
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Civaka Azad and Mahmut Şakar. Mahmut Şakar talked to Civaka Azad about his experience as Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan’s attorney. On May 2, 2019, Öcalan’s lawyers had…
Lights out: Tehran’s clampdown on Western habits
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Kourosh Ziabari. Iran is a country in which many aspects of public life: governance, education, foreign relations and even people’s lifestyles are peculiarly determined by ideology. The authorities…
In Afghanistan, We Have Three Dreams
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Dr Hakim Young. Dear fellow human beings, Some of us have wondered, “Are people today too disconnected and frantic to calm down, in order to solve global challenges…
Digital Socialism? The Calculation Debate in the Age of Big Data
Monday, July 1, 2019
Evgeny Morozov. More than a decade after the onset of the financial crisis, capitalist ideologues are eager for good publicity. Once-alluring promises of meritocracy and social mobility ring…
Social Media and the internet: a powerful organising tool
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Podcast by David Harvey. Social media has been a powerful took in organising mass movements. Their use in organising more durable structures such as trade unions, women’s organisation…
‘To sing is not a right in the Gaza Strip’
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Hind Khoudary. Abed Nasser, the owner of Cedar restaurant in Gaza City, broke the news to his customers in a Facebook post: the highly-anticipated music night scheduled for…
Syria: Donor Conditionality, Sanctions, and the Question of Justice
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Omar Dahi. The question of donor conditionality and how it could be used to influence behavior and promote respect for human rights and political inclusion has increasingly gained…
Uprising in Sudan: Interview with Sudanese Comrades
Friday, June 7, 2019
As the Sudanese uprising enters its most critical conjuncture, with negotiations between the military council and the Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change collapsing, and the…
Four Poems of Palestinian Resistance by Mahmoud Darwish
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Ariel Rodriguez. Sometimes, the best way to understand the complexity of a conflict is through art. Words can echo in people’s hearts as much as images can inspire…
Eyewitness Report: Venezuela Up Close
Monday, May 20, 2019
Pat Fry. It was 7 AM April 30th in Caracas when I awoke to hear gun shots outside my hotel. Our group, seven US citizens and one Canadian,…
Women and the War in Yemen: Actors or Victims?
Sunday, May 5, 2019
In most conflicts, women are grouped with children; they are categorized among the most vulnerable groups. This designation erases, in many cases, women who are engaged in the…
Adonis, The Man Who Remade Arabic Poetry
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Robyn Creswell. In March, 2011, when civil protests broke out in cities and towns across Syria, the country’s most famous poet, Adonis—who is in his eighties and has…
What Revolutionaries Have Learned Since the Arab Spring
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Patrick Cockburn. Two very different political waves are sweeping through the Middle East and north Africa. Popular protests are overthrowing the leaders of military regimes for the first…
Trump’s America, Netanyahu’s Israel
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Adam Shatz. Israel’s legislative elections on 9 April were a tribute to Binyamin Netanyahu’s transformation of the political landscape. At no point were they discussed in terms of…
Vartan: a poem of resistance by Ahmad Shamlou
Friday, April 12, 2019
“Vartan didn’t Say a Word” is a political poem by Ahmad Shamlou that underwent censorship because of being addressed to a political prisoner who was tortured to death…
Algeria in revolt: “We woke up and you will pay!”
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Hamza Hamouchene. What is happening in Algeria is truly historic. The people won the first battle in their struggle to radically overhaul the system. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, president for…
Egypt’s brutal crackdown on workers’ rights runs far deeper than the fate of two actors
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Robert Fisk. Khaled Abol Naga – an outspoken critic of the Egyptian government – stands accused of treason ( AFP )It was comical, farcical, droll. An actor’s dream if…
Gaza: Resistance Through Poetry
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Ramzy Baroud. “(At dawn) … I will resist … (Since) upon the wall there is still a white sheet … And my fingers are yet to (completely) dissolve.”…
Uniting Fatah, Not Palestinians: The Dubious Role of Mohammed Shtayyeh
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Ramzy Baroud. Political commentators sympathetic to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Fatah Movement, in particular, fanned out as soon as the news was announced of Mohammad Shtayyeh’s…