Mike Marqusee – Page 12 – Writings on politics, culture and sport

Jan 11, 2009

Israel in Gaza: Beyond Disproportionate

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 11 January Marching amid the 50,000 protesters in London bearing witness against the Israeli offensive on Gaza, I spotted a hand-made placard inscribed with the words of the radical Brazilian educator Paolo Freire: “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the… Read more

Jan 3, 2009

Sacrificing to the fiscal god

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 3 January 2009 It’s now been confirmed that Britain’s GDP fell by 4.75% over the last year, much more than the 3.5% shrinkage forecast by the Treasury as recently as March. Since the onset of recession, 8.5% of all manufacturing jobs have been lost and 3.8% of jobs in finance… Read more

Dec 28, 2008

Afghanistan: Crimes of the New Century

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 28 December There is one sad, near certainty about 2009: the war in Afghanistan will grow bloodier, more brutal and more dangerous to the region as a whole. Barack Obama has coupled his pledge to withdraw US troops from Iraq (a pledge already heavily qualified) with an insistence on escalating… Read more

Oct 24, 2008

Book review: A Freewheelin’ Time

Review of A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Vilage in the Sixties by Suze Rotolo The Independent 24 October, 2008 Suze Rotolo has waited a long time to tell her side of the Bob Dylan story. “My instinct was to protect my privacy, and consequently his.” Despite her reticence, over the decades she’s become… Read more

Sep 21, 2008

Equality – without ifs, ands or buts

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 21 September Wherever there are inequalities, there will be no shortage of people rationalising or defending them. That’s easily explicable. Those who benefit from inequalities enjoy, by definition, greater resources and greater access to the public ear and eye. What’s sad for me is that blunt defenders of equality –… Read more

Sep 7, 2008

Obama and the spectre of race

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 7 September It’s a paradox. Barack Obama’s candidacy is hailed as “historic” for the very sound reason that he is the first African-American to become the presidential nominee of a major party. In a country whose history is permeated by race, that’s clearly a significant event, at the least a… Read more

Sep 1, 2008

Journey of events and evidence

If I Am Not For Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew by Mike Marqusee reviewed by Daniel Machover, Socialist Lawyer, September 2008 “a highly readable and engaging mix of biography, autobiography and political analysis…” This book tracks the life of the author’s grandfather, Edward V Morand (known in the book as EVM), a journalist, founder… Read more

Aug 1, 2008

The Jews and the Left

[This essay was published in 2008 in A Time To Speak Out, the Independent Jewish Voices initiative published by Verso.] “Fear the Lord, my son, and the king, and with dissidents do not mingle.” (Proverbs 24, 21) The recent emergence of Jewish dissent on Israel has been met with fierce hostility by established Jewish organisations… Read more

Jun 15, 2008

Munch’s Scream goes back on display

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 15 June 2008 Four years after it was stolen by masked gunmen in broad daylight, and two years after it was recovered in still undisclosed circumstances, The Scream has gone back on display at the Munch Museum in Oslo. The Scream is one of the world’s most well known and… Read more

Jun 1, 2008

London’s embarrassment

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD The Hindu, 1st June “This is the end of political correctness in London,” exulted a Conservative as newly elected Mayor Boris Johnson entered city hall. Nearly a month after the polls closed, it is still an extraordinary thought that London, of all places, is to be represented in the eyes of the… Read more

Out now: Definable Traces in the Atmosphere

About Mike Marqusee