Photo credit: Ali Mustafa

Roundtable discussion with Yasser Munif, Ashley Smith, Oula Hajjar and Brian Aboud

Wednesday June 20, 2018
6 pm to 8:30 pm
La Maisonnette des parents
6651, boul. Saint-Laurent
Tionni’tiotiah:ke, Kanien’kehá:ka territory
H2S 3C5
(Metro de Castelnau or bus 55)
Facebook event

Eight years into the Syrian uprising, the grassroots movement, the local councils and the ongoing revolutionary struggle are misunderstood or denied outright by many (even on the left). The military strikes carried out in April by the US, the UK and France against Syrian state targets were cynical and opportunistic actions. They must rightly be condemned. Not, as some do, on strict anti-imperialist grounds, opposing only western intervention in Syria, or, from another standpoint, in blind, apologetic support of the dictatorial Syrian regime, and its allies, Russia and Iran. Such perspectives go hand in hand with a denial of the Syrian popular revolt where, in current debates, support for the brutal Asad regime is justified due to the presence of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and other reactionary groups. Rather, a position on Syria, and on political actions in the Syrian conflict, must start with a recognition of the people’s struggle and the violent repression to which it has been subject at the hands of regime forces (responsible for the overwhelming majority of the hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths). It must also listen to the voices from the Syrian uprising calling for dignity and freedom and respect and support the revolutionary agency and autonomy of the people of Syria.

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Call to Protest the G7
From Gaza to Jerusalem: Solidarity with Palestine
70 years of colonization and occupation! 70 years of resistance!

Thursday, June 7th at 6pm
Corner of St-Foy and Avenue des Braves
Quebec City
Facebook Event

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Friday, August 12th at 8pm
Place Pasteur
1430 Rue Saint-Denis
(Metro Berri-UQAM)
facebook event

For over 80 years and since the Arab revolt in Palestine in 1936, the Palestinian people have been struggling against the seizure of their land in a Zionist colonial project that began even before the British Mandate on Palestinian territory. Since the “Nakba” (Catastrophe) of 1948, the destruction, exploitation and control of Palestine by the State of Israel is one of the most recent cases of Western colonialism on indigenous lands.

Despite condemnation by the “international community” for its illegality, including by the United Nations, Israeli expansionism continues through the violent bombing of civilian neighbourhoods, the forced displacement of the Palestinian population, and ongoing detention, imprisonment and killings – thus making Israel an “eternal dissident” on human rights.

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Event : Roundtable – After #ParisAttacks : colonial violence, racism & war
Date : 9 décembre @ 6:30pm
Location : Café Aquin (*), local A-2030 (Pavillon Hubert-Aquin, 2nd floor)
Université du Québec à Montréal
400 Rue Sainte-Catherine Est, station Berri-UQÀM
Facebook event

The November 13th attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead, were a grave tragedy, and exist only in the context of a greater continual process of violence and war in which France, NATO, the US and Canada have been central to such horrors. When Francois Hollande declared that “we are at war”, it was quite accurate but what had been left out, is that France has always been at war against those it seeks to oppress and dominate.

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Friday, Feb. 27, 6pm
La Passe, 1214 de la Montagne
free / donations welcome
Montréal Québec (facebook event)

A presentation by Houda and Dror reflecting on the political scene in France in the weeks after the shooting attacks at Charlie Hebdo magazine. Dror will offer some critical reflections on the relationship between the French left and Islamophobia, speaking specifically about the historical dynamics around Charlie Hebdo magazine. Houda is going to give a general perspective on Islamophobia in France and how the so-called “anti-terror” legislation impacts the fundamental human rights, especially of marginalized and racialized communities, specifically Arabs and Muslims.

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text by Ricardo “Emrical” Lamour, community activist & hip-hop artist.

Several weeks ago, I stumbled upon french article « L’État Juif et la Perle des Antilles » which makes tenuous linkages between the two countries. Amongst other arguments, the author explains that both countries have nice beaches, and that the State of Israel was the first to provide aid to Haitians. I asked myself: “What?”

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By: Rami El-Amine and Mostafa Henaway

No matter how it unfolds, the Egyptian revolution will go down in the history books as a defining moment in the 21st century. Millions of Egyptians brought down one of the world’s most repressive regimes, that of the U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak, in just 18 days. Their bravery, perseverance, and tactfulness in the face of the regime’s brutal crackdown not only triggered uprisings across the Arab world but inspired and influenced protests against government austerity in the U.S., Spain, Portugal, and Greece. Despite the fact that it is only a few months old, it’s important to begin piecing together a people’s history of the revolution to convey what happened and how it happened so that the lessons from this critical struggle can be disseminated.
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March 4, 2011 – by Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)

Photo: A member of the opposition prayed for safety as he stood guard near the Mediterranean Sea in Benghazi. He held a surface-to-air missile launcher to protect the rebels from incoming planes.

What would a no-fly zone in Libya mean? A bit of history may provide some perspective.

Today in Libya, civilians are being killed by a besieged and isolated dictator. Libyan warplanes have been used to attack civilians, although the vast majority of the violence has come from ground attacks. The Libyan opposition’s provisional national council, meeting in Benghazi, is debating whether they should request military support from the international community, maybe the UN or NATO, starting with a no-fly zone. The Arab League announced that it was also considering establishing a no-fly zone, perhaps with the African Union.

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by Hossam el-Hamalawy, Arabawy Feb. 2011.

Photo Protest at headquarters of state-backed Egyptian Federation of Trade Unions.

Since yesterday, and actually earlier, middle-class activists have been urging Egyptians to suspend the protests and return to work, in the name of patriotism, singing some of the most ridiculous lullabies about “let’s build new Egypt,” “let’s work harder than even before,” etc. In case you didn’t know, actually Egyptians are among the hardest working people in the globe already.

Those activists want us to trust Mubarak’s generals with the transition to democracy — the same junta that has provided the backbone of his dictatorship over the past 30 years. And while I believe the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who receive $1.3 billion annually from the US, will eventually engineer the transition to a “civilian” government, I have no doubt it will be a government that will guarantee the continuation of a system that will never touch the army’s privileges, keep the armed forces as the institution that will have the final say in politics (as for example in Turkey), guarantee Egypt will continue to follow the US foreign policy, whether it’s the undesired peace with the Apartheid State of Israel, safe passage for the US Navy in the Suez Canal, the continuation of the Gaza siege, or exports of natural gas to Israel at subsidized rates. A civilian government is not about cabinet members who do not wear military uniforms. A civilian government means a government that fully represents the Egyptian people’s demands and desires without any intervention from the brass. And I see this as hard to be allowed, let alone accomplished, by the junta.

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Haaretz by Nehemia Shtrasler September 2010

Photo Oded Balilty An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man carries a Palestinian flag as he walks in the street during the Purim holiday in Jerusalem, Monday, March 1, 2010.

The entire week was marked by boycotts. It began with a few dozen theater people boycotting the new culture center in Ariel, and continued with a group of authors and artists publishing a statement of support on behalf of those theater people. Then a group of 150 lecturers from various universities announced they would not teach at Ariel College or take part in any cultural events in the territories. Naturally, all that spurred a flurry of responses, including threats of counter-sanctions.

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