Palestine 1967

Decentering Damascus

A great blog from a sister in Syria

She runs the statement (in Arabic) signed by the Angry Arab, among others, on the scapegoating and racism directed at Armenians following the defeat of the governing bloc in the Metn bi-elections. Apparently the Armenians are to blame for the fact that the majority of Christians rejected the phalange and all their works.

Or maybe people just didn't want to vote for a buch of sectarian murderers and thieves? Just a wild guess.

Nahr el-Bared

Our work with the campaign continues on a daily basis on Bourj al Barajneh, Mar Elias, Shatila, and Badawi refugee camps. We continue to distribute hygiene kits to families every week in the Beirut-area camps and are the only group who has consistently kept up the pace with this work.

Our food distribution has been streamlined to alternate among the other various Beirut-area camp organizations providing food parcels to families; this week we will pack and distribute food as well in Beirut.

In Badawi we continue to work with our partners who are giving out clothing, medicine, and fresh fruits and vegetables to families from Nahr el Bared

Link TV roundup

Enlightenment 1895

"A woman is not lower in rank [than a man]. This is particularly obvious after science and enlightenment has uncovered the true and natural position of a woman, her capacities and mental prowess and her ability to [do] all that a man practices."
Salma Kalila writing in the magazine Lubnan in 1895

Woman in traditional clothing, Lebanon, 1880.
Picture: Bonfils, Marie-Lydie (Salam, Nawaf Collection Copyright © Arab Image Foundation)

No to the WTO

Attac Lebanon are holding a No to WTO protest in Gemayze. The alter-globalization group is calling for a mobilisation against the WTO fair being held in Beirut between Saturday 11 August at 6:00pm to Tuesday 11 September 2007 at 12:00am.

Click on header to link to Attac website or call 03509939 for more info.

A battle between rich and poor

"I have looked at the world with an objective eye and found it to be a major battlefield between the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak."

Yusuf Ibrahim Yazbak (1901-1982) One of the founders of the communist movement in Lebanon. From the article "Socialism in Lebanon" published in al-Sahafi al-Ta˓eh newspaper, 5 May 1923

Click on header to read the first chapter of The Communist Movement in Syria and Lebanon, by Tareq Y. Ismael and Jacqueline S. Ismael


A crowd watches the roadblocks burn, Beirut, 23 January 2007. Thousands of Lebanese demonstrators blocked main roads in the capital and around the country, burning rubble and tyres, protesting against the government. The strike was abandoned in the afternoon. (Picture: Irin)

Reasons to be cheerful—part two

Gemayel supporters show their colours before their election defeat in the Metn district. The Lebanese fascists were unable to win in their heartland despite the bag loads of cash from the US and threat against their opponents in the FPM.

They blamed their defeat on the Armenians.

Professor Joshua Landis gives his take on the result.

Click on the header for link

Modernism 1927

To the right: Rafat Mardam Bey. Lebanon/Dhour Choueir, 15/9/1927
Mardam Bey, Hala Collection
Copyright © Arab Image Foundation

Peasant children

Children of peasants. Lebanon, 1915 - 1920

Fouad el-Khoury Collection
Copyright © Arab Image Foundation

Reasons to be cheerful—part one

Background to the defeat of March 14 block in the Metn elections

Robert Fisk on false representation of Hezbollah

Robert Fisk on the Lebanese impass

Lebanese Forces

Lebanese Forces attack supporters of Michel Auon in the Metn

Lebanon in Scotland

Cluster bombs—the deadly legacy of Israel's war on Lebanon (picture: Irin)

It is now one year since the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon. Much of the infrastructure of the south – bridges, roads, power stations, businesses and homes – was wiped out.

Thousands of innocent people were killed.

All with the full support of the British and US governments. Tony Blair and George Bush ignored the world (once again) and blocked the international call for a ceasefire at the UN, EU and G8.

Israeli troops were finally driven out of the country by the popular resistance of the Lebanese people, led by Hizbollah, but not before Israel dropped over a million cluster bombs in the last few days before a ceasefire was reached.

Glasgow Stop the War Coalition, Glasgow Lebanese community and Landmine Action are organising an event to mark the war with speakers and discussion.
 
Sunday 12 August
4.30-7.30pm
 
Charles Wilson building
(corner of Gibson Street & University Avenue)



Among the guests are Azzam Tamimi from the Institute of Islamic Political Thought; Caoimhe Butterly, the Irish antiwar activist who heckled Tony Blair's press conference in Lebanon last summer; Nicola Fisher, Chair of Glasgow Stop the War Coalition and human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar

Plus speakers from Landmine Action, Scottish Labour Party, Scottish Nationalist Party and others.

If you would like to help spread the word about this event
call 0044 7952 452 906.

Tony Cliff on working class and the oppressed

Recorded in 1994, Tony Cliff on the relationship between organised workers and the oppressed.

Cliff is a Palestinian Jew who was expelled from Palestine by the British in 1947. He is the founder of the International Socialists

Click on header for the link

Iraqi oil minister enforces Saddam law on trades unions

In a disturbing development, the Iraqi oil minister Hussein Shahrastani has ordered his ministry to apply a 1987 law issued under Saddam Hussein's regime to ban the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU).

The directive, dated 18 July 2007, states:

"The minister has directed that all members of all unions be banned from participating in any committee if they use their union identification, since these unions have no legal status to work within the state sector. They should not be permitted to use the offices and equipment of the [ministry’s] companies, because they do not have legal status within the state sectors."

All necessary measures should be taken to implement the minister’s directive within a maximum of two weeks, it concluded.

In a message to Naftana oil campaign, the oil union leader union Hassan Juma`a affirmed that the union would not recognize the decision, stressing that the oil minister has been fighting against trade union work because of the patriotic stand.

“We are working for Iraq," he declared.

In flagrant violation of the principle of free association, the governments since occupation have continued to treat all trade unions as illegal, until such time as a ‘legal framework is enacted’.

Thus the directive upheld Saddam’s infamous decree 150 of 1987 that banned all trade union activity by deeming workers in the state sectors to be ‘civil servants’ without the right to organize. It should be remembered that, in spite of strenuous efforts by the occupying powers to privatize the Iraqi economy, the overwhelming majority of Iraq's industrial workers belong to the state sector.

Last year the government froze the assets and bank accounts of the oil workers’ union along with that of all other unions. The new directive is seen by the union as a preemptive measure to weaken the union’s successful campaign against the proposed oil law, which was instigated and is being imposed on Iraq by the occupation governments.

The proposed law, popularly known in Iraq as the ‘thieves’ law’, has attracted the hostility of Iraqi workers and technical oil experts alike. Popular opposition is such that the government has failed to meet several deadlines laid down for it by the Bush administration and US Congress to enact the law.

We call on all trade unions and supporters of democratic rights to protest the Iraqi government’s dictatorial measures and to support the IFOU and Iraq’s workers in their struggle for freedom and democracy.

Sami Ramadani – 07863 138748 sami.ramadani@londonmet.ac.uk
Kamil Mahdi – k.a.mahdi@exeter.ac.uk
Sabah Jawad – 07985 336886 sabah.jawad@idao.org

Bad Men: Guantanamo Bay And The Secret Prisons

A first hand account of the fight to free some of the deatinees of Guantanamo Bay by their legal representative. The book is a damming insight into the treatment of the prisoners and a country that can incarcerate, not as a result of tested evidence, but on the judgement of George W Bush, who said 'The only thing I know for certain is that these are bad men'.

Click on the header for link

Britain's Klaus Barbie

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights has launched a campaign to put on trial British officer Ian Henderson—the “butcher Bahrain”—for crimes against humanity.

Ian Henderson is renowned for his use of torture to put down the Mau Mau independence uprising in Kenya in the 1950s.

Later he plied his trade in Bahrain where he became head of the security services and director of intelligence.

He gathered around him mercenaries notorious for the use of electric shock equipment.


One victim describes his experience at the hands of "Britain's Klaus Barbie":
"My first experience of Henderson took place in 1982 when I was hanged like a chicken at the office of Adel Flaifel, one of Henderson's henchmen.

"I was hanged by my arms and legs when Henderson entered the room and said: 'Do you want to confess?'. He immediately assaulted me in an immoral way and after a while he left the room."

Hassan said he was naked at the time and Henderson beat him over the buttocks. He went on: "The encounter lasted about 10 minutes during which I was in severe pain.

The three torturers - Flaifel, Abdulla Al Tanak and Abdulla Al Dowsari - stopped when he entered the room awaiting further instructions from him, but upon receiving satisfactory approval from him, they resumed their beating.”