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Recent content by Mike Marqusee

The false case for humanitarian intervention

The real motives behind the western intervention will shape its impact and outcome. Even if a flimsy excuse of humanitarism is used to cover up their hypocrisy and selectivism.

Cuts, cancer and resistance

The new and extreme austerity measures being introduced by the UK's conservative government will mean that one fifth of everything the national health service does will stop; and this will disproportionately hit cancer patients.

Bankers, bonuses and 'brains'

As British bankers pocket more than 7 billion pounds in bonuses and the government takes an axe to public spending - business leaders deign to declare themselves worthy, for having 'better brains.'

Small country, big struggle

Might Western leaders' silence on the human rights abuses of Swaziland's repressive and venal monarchy, compared to the frequently expressed outrage at Zimbabwe's Mugabe, have something to do with King Mswati's enthusiasm for neoliberalism and western corporations?

The art of resistance

When the state of Israel began constructing its “separation barrier” through the West Bank, it never anticipated that the wall would become a living gallery of resistance, crowded with images and words of defiance.

Insisting on an alternative: meeting the challenge of the cuts

The logic of "the market" masks a modern form of despotism where the self-interests of financial elites are dressed up as the "public good."

This is managed democracy

Given the actual consensus among the party leaders of the three main political parties in Britain, it was amazing to see how many differences they managed to manufacture during last week's televised debate.

The left lacuna

Although there will be left candidates and groups on the ballot in many constituencies in the coming British general election, there will be no single, widely-recognised, nationwide, left alternative. That is a tragedy from which no one can take comfort.

UK election: democracy and inequality

The media frenzy and the ferocity of political competition in the coming general election in Britain will be in inverse proportion to the enthusiasm of the voters, who are being offered little in the way of real political choice.

Britain’s no choice election

For all its democratic claims, the election campaign in Britain serves mainly to obscure the truths about our unequal and unsustainable society.

The land of national health care

Britain’s National Health Service is much more effective than the US’ privately-run system. But Britons may not be spared the US’ healthcare nightmare for much longer.

“Existential” threat
The recent offensive in Gaza shows that it’s the Palestinians, not Israelis, who are besieged, isolated and vulnerable, writes Mike Marqusee.

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 confli ct between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

It was meant as a rebuke to the British government and others who have stood aside as Israel has ass

Obama and the spectre of race

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 huge symbolic breakthrough.

Zionism and the Palestinians

Israel’s 60th birthday is being celebrated lavishly in Britain. The programme includes a gala fund-raising dinner at Windsor Castle in the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh, a variety show at Wembley Stadium and street parades in London and Manchester.

Meanwhile, Palestinians and their supporters will be recalling the same event in entirely different tones, without the benefit of state support or vast sums of money.

No sanctuary this
The current British policy aims to deter future asylum seekers by punishing those presently in the country.

Despite an average of 40 violent deaths a day in recent weeks, Iraq, the British Home office insists, is a safe place. Accordingly, 1,400 Iraqi asylum seekers have received letters informing them that they must return home or face homelessness and destitution in Britain. Those who agree to go back will be required to sign a waiver accepting that the U.K. government bears no responsibility for what happens to them or their families after their return.

1968 The Mysterious Chemistry of Social Change
The last thing the legacy of 1968 needs is nostalgic commemoration, writes Mike Marqusee. Even as it was happening, it was being packaged for consumption. Nor should we celebrate it in the name of some abstract spirit of resistance. It was a year of contradictions and confusions, many of which continue to confront anyone who wants to take part in a movement for radical change.

Year Zero

1968 saw more young Americans drawn to the left than any time since the 1930s.

The great catastrophe
The facts of the Nakba (catastrophe) are now well documented and beyond dispute. Yet Nakba denial remains widespread, and is as vile as denial of any other historic crime.

In the coming months, the same event will be commemorated by two different groups in starkly contrasting fashions.

May 15 sees the 60th anniversary of the birth of the State of Israel.

The first time I was called a self-hating Jew
It was America in the 1960s, and his parents were civil rights activists who encouraged their children to speak their minds. Until, aged 14, Mike Marqusee criticised Israel. In this extract from his new book, he recalls his father's fury

The first person to call me a self-hating Jew was my father. It was in the autumn of 1967. Dad was 39, a successful businessman who was also, along with my mother, active in the US civil rights and anti-war movements.

From Vietnam to Iraq

THIS week marks the 40th anniversary of an event that seemed to turn the world upside down. In the early hours of January 31, 1968, soldiers of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the army of North Vietnam launched what came to be known as the Tet offensive against the US military and its local allies.

The insurgents struck simultaneously across the country, targeting more than 100 cities and towns in what the historian Stanley Karnow describes as an offensive 'of extraordinary intensity and astonishing scope ...

Tet 40 years on
The death toll after the US defeat in Vietnam 40 years ago is a terrifying pointer for the Iraq retreat

Versions of the article below appeared in The Guardian and The Hindu

This week marks the 40th anniversary of an event that seemed to turn the world upside down.