Tariq Ali's Blog, page 26

Lecture in Ghent: 'The Economic Crisis, the Political Response and the Future of Democracy'

'The Economic Crisis, the Political Response and the Future of Democracy'

Lecture on December 7 2010, 8pm. With Joseph Vogl at:

Art centre Vooruit
Kunstencentrum Vooruit vzw
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat
239000 Ghent,
Belgium

'How Obama surrendered at home and waged war abroad'

How Obama surrendered at home and waged war abroad by Tariq Ali for the Daily Telegraph, October 30 2010

As the midterms rapidly approach, the beleaguered US President's ratings are in steep decline, putting him on the defensive with little to offer his supporters except fine words. Those supporters have been voicing their discontent on the television networks but, much more seriously, are likely to punish Obama by staying at home and ignoring the ballot box on Tuesday.

Indeed, this has been a humiliating time for the once seemingly messianic President. This week's decision for Obama to appear on the US satirical current affairs TV programme The Daily Show – which is largely watched by liberal voters – was a disaster. The audience openly laughed at him; the presenter, Jon Stewart, gave Obama the honour of being the first President to be called "Dude'' to his face on national television; and, worst of all, Obama was forced to recant on the most effective marketing slogan of his generation. "Yes we can," Obama admitted, had become "Yes we can, but…'' Not exactly a rallying cry.

The desperate move to try to rescue himself from disarray, if not extinction, was misguided. While the audience laughed at him, Obama's self-justificatory response was wooden and dull. "When we promised 'Change you can believe in', it wasn't 'Change you can believe in in 18 months'."

So how has Obama ended up in this mess? The question voters are asking is whether anything has altered substantially since the White House changed hands? To which I can answer: very little, apart from the mood music. The high hopes aroused during Obama's galvanising election campaign have receded rapidly. Two wars and an economic crisis would test the capacity of any president, but Obama has been found wanting on many levels. His desire to please all has succeeded in antagonising many of his own supporters.

In Washington and New York last month, I spoke to several Afro-American activists whose sadness and anger was written on their faces. They won't vote for him again. Sadly, proximity to power has an unsurprising ability to mutate a politician's spinal cord into bright yellow jelly. But, in times of crisis, punishment is not long in coming. Despite the media hoopla that surrounds them, Obama isn't being much punished by the rise of the Tea Party movement. Their shenanigans are, much to the delight of the White House, largely succeeding in destabilising the Republican establishment.

The election to the presidency of a mixed-race Democrat, vowing to heal America's wounds at home and restore its reputation abroad, had been greeted with a wave of ideological euphoria not seen since the days of Kennedy. The shameful interlude of Republican swagger and criminality, they thought, was over.

Illusion-mongering about America's new dawn spread to every continent. Europeans concluded that if they had to permanently kow-tow to the great global hegemon across the water, better this Holy American Emperor than his ghastly predecessor. read more

'Obama hope was all hype'

'Obama hope was all hype' by Tariq Ali for the Guardian, October 28 2010

As the midterms approach, 15 million Americans are out of work and Obama's ratings hover at about 40% to 45%. There is no doubt Democrat majorities in house and Senate may disappear. Democrats in marginal seats keep the president at arm's length, aware that the mood of the electorate reflects the desperate straits in which the country finds itself.

Obama's electoral triumph of 2008 coincided with the most colossal economic crisis since the Great Depression (and far more global in scope); to add to his troubles, two wars were under way on difficult terrain in far away Islamic lands. The first few months of 2009 became the most abbreviated honeymoon period granted a new president in recent memory.

In times of crisis, the incumbent suffers. And the bigger the crisis the greater the punishment inflicted on those in power, unless they do something that makes a change. Obama has not done so. Instead, both at home and abroad, the continuities between Obama's administration and that of Bush-Cheney far outweigh any differences.

Whenever vested interests resisted, Obama caved. On the economy, despite the advice of Robert Reich and Joseph Stiglitz, the president defended the very orthodoxy that led to the Wall Street crash. And this at a time when inequality in the US was much higher than it had been 40 years ago.

The healthcare "reforms" also saw a total capitulation to the corporations: the insurance companies, the pharmaceuticals, the for-profit hospitals and the top of the range specialists will benefit. Even the loyal Los Angeles Times felt compelled to complain: "As a candidate for president, Barack Obama lambasted drug companies and the influence they wielded in Washington. He even ran a television ad targeting the industry's chief lobbyist, former Louisiana congressman, Billy Tauzin … [for] preventing Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices … Tauzin has morphed into the president's partner. He has been invited to the White House half a dozen times in recent months."

Vested interests resisted. Obama caved. The healthcare "reform" was actually crafted by Liz Fowler, former executive for a private health insurerand an employee of Senator Max Baucus, who presides over the Senate finance committee and is, according to John R MacArthur, the publisher of Harper's Magazine, "a beneficiary of millions of dollars in contributions from insurance and health care companies".

To dissociate politicians from capitalists is slightly disingenuous, to put it mildly. US lawmakers are competitive and auction themselves to the highest bidder via the lobby system. read more

V40 Philosophy at the Tate Modern: Tariq Ali In Defense of Philosophy

Following a screening of Derek Jarman's Wittgenstein at the Tate Modern on Friday 22 October, Tariq Ali discussed the work of Jarman and Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the writing and making of Ali's series of filmic philosophers' lives with Jonathan Derbyshire, culture editor of the New Statesman. This event, celebrating Verso's 40th year of publishing, was the first in the In Defense of Philosophy Series hosted by the Tate Modern.

In Defense of Philosophy Part 2 will take place in February 2011 with a screening of Tariq Ali's Spinoza: The Apostle of Reason with a very special surprise guest …

Tariq Ali in praise of Arundhati Roy

'They can't buy her silence' by  Tariq Ali for the London Review of Books Blog, October 26, 2010

Arundhati Roy is both loathed and feared by the Indian elite. Loathed because she speaks her mind. Feared because her voice reaches the world outside India and damages the myths perpetrated by New Delhi regardless of which party holds power. She often annoys the official Indian Left because she writes and speaks of events for which they are either responsible or of which they dare not speak. Roy will not allow her life to be subjugated by lies. She never affects a courage or contempt she does not feel. Her campaigns against injustice are undertaken with no view to either fame or profit. Hence the respect awarded her by the poor, ordinary citizens, who know the truth but are not allowed a voice in the public sphere. The authorities can't buy her silence. One of the few voices in India who has spoken loudly against the continuing Indian atrocities in Kashmir, she is now being threatened. If she doesn't shut up they'll charge her with sedition, aping their colonial masters of yesteryear. Her response to those who would charge and imprison her is a model of clarity, conviction and refusal to compromise. read more

Paris launch: Obama s'en va-t-en guerre

The Société Louise Michel and Editions La Fabrique invite you to an event to launch Obama s'en va-t-en guerre, the French edition of The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad.

A roundtable with Tariq Ali, Eric Hazan and Olivier Besancenot, chaired by Thierry Labica

on Thursday 18 November @ Le merle moqueur – bookshop of the cultural centre 104, 19h Atelier 1 of 104, 104 rue d'Aubervilliers, 75019 Paris, FRANCE

'What We Can Learn From Terrorists'

Appearing at The Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney earlier this month, Tariq Ali discussed what we can learn from terrorists …

C-SPAN: A Midterm Debate with Tariq Ali

On September 20th, Tariq Ali was joined at New York's Brecht Forum by John R. MacArthur (President and Publisher of Harper's and author of You Can't Be President) and Frances Fox Piven (Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center and author of Keeping Down the Black Vote) for an event to launch The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad—itself a kind of midterm report on the (failures of the) Obama administration to date. The event aired on C-SPAN's Book TV on October 10th and can now be viewed online by visiting the C-SPAN archives.

'Why can't we protest against cuts like the French?'

'Why can't we protest against cuts like the French?' by Tariq Ali for the Guardian, October 19, 2010

Many thousands have protested in France against cuts; we have a proud history of dissent in Britain, so why aren't we on the streets?

A few years ago, the French president Nicolas Sarkozy told an interviewer that he knew the French better than most. Today they were admiring the good looks of his wife; tomorrow they would cut his throat. It hasn't quite come to that just yet, but the French—students and workers, men and women, citizens all—are out on the streets again. A rise in the pension age? Impossible. The barricades are up, oil supplies running out, trains and planes on a skeleton schedule and the protests are still escalating. More than three million people a week ago. Hundreds of thousands out this week and more expected this weekend. And what a joyous sight: school students marching in defence of old people's rights. Were there a Michelin Great Protest guide, France would still be top with three stars, with Greece a close second with two stars.

What a contrast with the miserable, measly actions being planned by the lily-livered English trade unions. There is growing anger and bitterness here too, but it is being recuperated by a petrified bureaucracy. A ritual protest has been planned, largely to demonstrate that they are doing something. But is this something better than nothing?

Perhaps. I'm not totally sure. But even these mild attempts to rally support against the austerity measures are too much for dear leader Ed Miliband. He won't be seen at them. The rot of Blairism goes deep in the Labour party. A crushing defeat last year might have produced something a bit better than the shower that constitutes the front bench. Balls the bulldog might have gone for the jugular but he has been neutered. Instead, the new front bench is desperate to prove that it could easily be part of the coalition and not just on Afghanistan. read more

Insight with Tariq Ali: The Obama Syndrome at the Frontline Club

November 09, 2010, 7pm at the Frontline Club

Insight with Tariq Ali: The Obama Syndrome

Two years since the White House changed hands, how has the American empire altered? Very little, argues Tariq Ali, apart from the mood music. Ali will be at the Frontline Club to discuss his new book The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad in which he slices through Obama-mania, demystifying the narrative arc of redemption.

Contrary to what the world hoped Obama symbolised; redemption of a racist history, the overcoming of adversity, and the hope of a better, fairer future. Ali argues the wind that drove Obama into the White House was really the immaculate symbiosis of big money and big politics.

In this dissection of Obama's overseas escalation and domestic retreat, renowned author, filmmaker and international commentator Tariq Ali asks how the American empire has changed since Obama took control, with military activity in the Middle East more prevalent than during the Bush Era. The hopes aroused during Obama's election campaign have rapidly receded: Obama's failures are paving the way for a Republican surge, while his own supporters become increasingly despondent.

Tickets £12.50. Early booking £10 / £8 concessions

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