Sep 4, 2004
WhatsonUK, September 2004 For many years it seemed all but invisible. For a few months after 9/11 you’d be forgiven for thinking it had been utterly extinguished. But the other America, the dissident America, was always alive and over the last two years it’s been kicking with increasing force and rising impatience. On 15th February… Read more
May 31, 2004
Prepared for the Radical Activist Network (London), spring 2004 [In response to a discussion on Palestine, I prepared notes on some of the questions that had arisen relating to Judaism, Jews, Zionism, and anti-semitism. ] The Israel lobby routinely deploys the charge of anti-semitism against supporters of the Palestinians, and uses the sufferings of Jews to justify… Read more
May 20, 2004
Keynote for Red Pepper, June 2004 The images of occupying troops torturing and abusing Iraqi detainees are a challenge to every British and US citizen. These horrors are being perpetrated in our name, and unless we act to stop them, we are culpable. But to stop them, we have to understand them, along with the… Read more
Oct 17, 2003
Review of Dude, Where’s My Country? by Michael Moore The Independent, 17 October 2003 Can the left communicate to a wide popular audience? Can it free itself of the prison of jargon? Can it reach out to the unconverted? New Labour and its co-thinkers in the Democratic party decided that the only answer to these… Read more
Jun 21, 2003
Notes for a speech by Mike Marqusee at ‘Days of Hope’ Seminar organised by Signs of the Times 21 June 2003 I have been asked to respond to two questions. 1. Organisationally the left outside of Labour is dominated by the Leninist groups, particularly the SWP, does their practice act as a bloc on a… Read more
May 5, 2003
The Guardian, 5 May 2003 Tam Dalyell has an honourable record as a parliamentary maverick and forensic critic of military adventures, but his comment on the alleged Jewish influence on US and British war policy should be seen for what it is – an anti-semitic outburst. Although Dalyell does not appear to have used the… Read more
Feb 1, 2003
1 February, 2003 On last September’s 400,000 strong anti-war demonstration in London, I was asked by an excited 15 year old: “How can Blair go ahead with the war now? With so many people against him?” Gently, I broke the news. It would take more than one demonstration to stop this war. But I also… Read more
Sep 25, 2002
The Journalist, October 2002 POPULAR SUPPORT for wars in foreign lands is not a natural phenomenon. It has to be carefully constructed, sometimes over decades, sometimes in a matter of weeks, but always with the assistance of the media. And when powerful forces committed to making war get to work, journalists come under pressure. From… Read more
Feb 28, 2002
Tribune, 28 February 2002 On 19 February, the Pentagon Central Command confirmed that it has launched missile strikes in Afghanistan on “enemy forces” who are neither Al Qaeda nor Taliban, but are apparently hostile to the interim regime of Hamid Karzai. Asked by reporters in Delhi about the progress of the war in Afghanistan, General… Read more
Jan 1, 2002
From Beyond September 11: An Anthology of Dissent (Pluto Press). I was visiting New York when the news of the massacre of 15 Christians in Bahawalpur flashed up on CNN. It was a brief item, included in an update on the war, and all that the casual viewer would know was that ‘Islamic fundamentalists’ had… Read more
