My book review in The Saturday Paper: In 2020, the murder of George Floyd by policeman Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis sparked a long overdue global reckoning with police violence and accountability. More than a year later, this debate is increasingly relevant. A recent study by the University of Washington, published in The Lancet, found that…
Showing all posts tagged France
Why there are growing corporate attacks on public broadcasting
My weekly Guardian column: The war on public broadcasters by corporate media is currently enjoying a resurgence. Britain’s Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has long loathed the BBC, accusing it of supporting “cultural marxism”. In a… 2007 lecture, he said the organisation attempted to undermine “the values of conservatism, with a small ”˜c’, which, I would…
Echoes of Breivik cloud France and race-baiting media and politicians should look in mirror
After last year’s horrific massacre in Norway by Anders Breivik, an attempt to target the Left and multiculturalism, defenders of the status-quo said it was merely the act of a lone lunatic. The book, On Utoya (I wrote a chapter about the far-right’s increasing embrace of Israel) challenged this notion. Now with a horrible shooting…
How French Jews are embracing an anti-Muslim, French bigot named Marine Le Pen
Tablet reports on how blind love for Zionism and hatred of Islam has become a toxic mix: Since its inception in the 1970s, the Front National has wrapped itself in the repellent rags of traditional French anti-Semitism. The series of outrageous… dérapages, or verbal slips, of the movement’s founder and longtime leader Jean-Marie Le Pen—Marine’s father—are…
Israel doesn’t mind sleeping with Europe’s virulent Right
The growing connection between the Far Right and Zionism is highlighted in my essay in the recently released e-book On Utoya. This story in Haaretz is therefore fascinating, and makes me wonder if the “acceptable” face of the racist Right is viewed as a prospective ally of Israel because of the mutual loathing of Muslims:…
What the Left must understand about the #Occupy movement
It’s not enough to simply talk about inequality and play within a system designed and rigged by the usual political players. The real Left must get far more imaginative. This is a good piece in Le Monde Diplomatique that demands more: The Occupy Wall Street protests in the US are also directed against the Street’s…
What happens when West “liberates” Libya
Chaos, disorganisation, lack of clarity, dishonesty and pain: The International mission in Libya appeared to be running out of momentum yesterday as Barack Obama admitted the situation on the ground had reached a military “stalemate” and France conceded a new UN resolution might be necessary to oust Muammar Gaddafi from power. As the regime’s rockets…
War in Libya pushed by “insufferable” French mini-imperialists
As the war in Libya drags on, this piece in the Daily Beast fully explains the role of French President Sarkozy and the supposed French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL), a man who loves a good Western-led war to allegedly protect the innocent but he reveals his true side by blindly backing Israel at the expense…
West so keen to still be a colonial power in Arab world
Patrick Cockburn on the Western love affair with picking compliant leaders in places we should simply step aside: There is something frivolous and absurd about France’s sudden recognition of the Libyan rebel leadership in Benghazi as a sort of quasi-government. Presumably it’s intended to give the impression Nicolas Sarkozy has a grip on events, it…