Steal | this | Hijab

Egypt’s momentous uprising did not happen because Egyptians willed it into being. It happened because there was a sudden change in the balance of resources between rulers and ruled. Mubarak’s structures of dominion were thought to be foolproof, and for 30 years they were. What shifted the balance away from the regime were four continuous days of street fighting, January 25–28, that pitted the people against police all over the country. That battle converted a familiar, predictable episode into a revolutionary situation. Decades ago, Charles Tilly observed that one of the ways revolutions happen is that the efficiency of government coercion deteriorates. That decline occurs “when the character, organization and daily routines of the population to be controlled change rapidly.”

As it turned out, some revolutions would be televised. But the blow-dried reporters and the drive-by anchormen never quite got it right. And time confirmed that Scott-Heron was right about the radical politics he embraced, and communicated so brilliantly on a series of groundbreaking albums in the 1970s. It is still best communicated via the spoken word. When activists gather, they still note the failures of the media and utter the “revolution will not be televised” catchphrase that Gil Scott-Heron added to the contemporary discourse.

This week, the House is expected to debate and vote on the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – the bill authorizing spending for the Pentagon. Lend your voice to this nationally coordinated campaign. Call Congress today, using this toll free number 1-888-231-9276*.  The calls started yesterday, and we want to keep pressure on Congress [...]

Hossam El-Hamalawy speaks about the role of Labour/Unions in the Egyptian Revolution Bassam [henceforth "B"]:  How are you?  Congratulations. Hossam [henceforth "H"]:  Great.  Thank you! B:  Can you tell us about the post-revolution situation?  There’s fear, hope, etc.  We’d like to hear from you personally, as someone who took part in the battle:  What’s going [...]

by Ramzi Kysia My heart is filled with sorrow. The killing of Osama bin Laden has given birth to an apparently bottomless well of dark, narcissistic delight. Though media manipulation contributes to the basic prejudices that drive that joy, it’s clear that America’s celebration is both deep and genuine. I’m stunned at how happy, how [...]

Legacy of martyred flowers committed me to life, Legacy of martyred flowers, Don’t you see? -Forough Farokhzad, Only the Sound Will Last Since the close of polling late Friday, and the hasty confirmation of Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s second term in office, protests have broken out across Iran. Many Iranians, who consider the landslide victory for Ahmadinejad [...]

Circumstance, directed by Maryam Keshavarz: Nobody Knows About Persian Cats, directed by Bahman Ghobadi: Be Like Others, directed by Tanaz Eshaghian: Gabbeh, directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf: Offside, directed by Jafar Panahi*: The Buddhas Collapsed Out of Shame, directed by Hannah Makhmalbaf: Baran, directed by Majid Majidi: Tehran Has No More Pomegrannates, directed by Massoud Bakhshi The [...]

Recorded in Kabul, Afghanistan in December 2010:

In a neighborhood of northern Kabul once called “little Paris” after its famous patisseries and tree-lined avenues, a taxi driver drops me off in front of a 15-foot-high metal gate. The fence surrounds a large old house barely visible from the street. I am here to have a meeting with the director of the Afghan [...]

It was a vivid autumn evening. Americans were still grieving from the stun of 9/11, and the only entity that dared punctuate the eerily quiet streets of New York were the lurid faces of the missing, plastered across a thousand white pages on everything that could still stand in lower Manhattan. It was under this [...]

By: Raha Iranian Feminist Collective While building solidarity between activists in the U.S. and Iran can be a powerful way of supporting social justice movements in Iran, progressives and leftists who want to express solidarity with Iranians are challenged by a complicated geopolitical terrain. The U.S. government shrilly decries Iran’s nuclear power program and expands [...]