Tag: politics

by jad

We Toasted to Victory

This is the moment we visited my father’s grave. It was the first thing we did, the day after I landed in Beirut. Among these images, some frames I remembered him occupying the last time we were all here together, when he could still walk with difficulty, and could point out the ancestral landmarks to me and Christine. I didn’t look back at those photos I’d taken of him back then. I just felt them in the moment. “If I were you, I’d constantly be going around like: do you know my small Lebanese hometown is basically a cult run … Continue reading “We Toasted to Victory” →

by jad

Irreducible Squares

This wasn’t where I went to the first mass protest in my life, but it was the very first one I went to consciously and after agonizing about what to do. We were all caught up in the mess of affairs, but we were not all parsing them the same way, and the pressure of choosing the right side of history felt visceral at that young age. I don’t think I’ve admitted this to anyone yet, but I cried the night before, frustrated by the contrasting narratives I was scrambling to absorb in order to understand what is to be … Continue reading “Irreducible Squares” →

by jad

Between Hammer & Sickle

“The Paris Commune failed, Russia was isolated and collapsed in the end under its own contradictions and many more examples in between. Does this mean hope is lost? No, however, Marx in Brumaire, talks about revolutions which ‘constantly interrupt themselves in their own course, return to the apparently accomplished, in order to begin anew’. He recognised that revolutions ‘deride with cruel thoroughness the half-measures, weaknesses, and paltriness of their first attempts.’ We should take quite seriously that we are in the midst of many first attempts, and believe we can learn and build on them – that is what it … Continue reading “Between Hammer & Sickle” →

by jad

Beirut/Bellingham/Borderlands

I’m on the Beirut Airport wi-fi waiting for my flight to Istanbul on my way back to Seattle, seeing if I can post these double-exposures I made with @christine.bingham.art and @night_bydesign. Christine and I took the first exposure in Bellingham, which is the same city I took a first exposure the last time I did a film swap like this. It was around Thanksgiving, so we were still reeling from U.S. politics, which probably informed our vague concept. A lone soldier, a ghostly presence; and with Audrey’s lush exposures in Volunteer Park, an added layer of camouflage and obfuscation, perhaps. … Continue reading “Beirut/Bellingham/Borderlands” →

by jad

My Brain’s War Correspondent

People’s reactions to my trip to Lebanon have been thematically consistent. Most tell me that they’re thinking of me and praying for me; some say that they’ll miss me; even those who don’t know my reasons for travel have responded with a mix of investment and alarm. That’s a product of Lebanon’s place in the headlines since my last trip, I suppose. It’s been sweet to receive these sentiments, but the cumulative effect of it all is a mild sense of foreboding. Do people know something I don’t? Will I not make it back? What’s going on? That sense is … Continue reading “My Brain’s War Correspondent” →

by jad

Revolutionary Re-Enchantment

I’m fascinated by what draws people to occupy particular positions. In two very different organizations, I’ve heard bristling against the bogey of “identity politics,” which seems to act as shorthand for everything from managerialist “DEI” box-ticking tactics and the whole of Kamala’s campaign to the very erasure of class. It also borders on being a thought-terminating cliché. More interestingly, though, is when it seems to name a kind of permission for some to “speak again,” with all the problematics that come with that. It’s not just a racist dog-whistle; it’s a grasping at words in between stutters and hesitations. I’ve … Continue reading “Revolutionary Re-Enchantment” →

by jad

There is No Lifeguard on Duty

“The unconscious comes before the conscious. The logic of the historic process comes before the subjective logic of the human beings who participate in the historic process.” (Rosa Luxemburg) The small sign nestled in the “FREE PALESTINE” graffiti says “no lifeguard on duty,” which, I think, is evocative of an amorphous mood many of us are feeling today; the world is spinning off its axis with decades compressed into mere weeks in true ‘Lenin Lives!’ form (these being the final days of V.I.’s centennial), and a lot of us are feeling seasick. What are we to make of it all? … Continue reading “There is No Lifeguard on Duty” →

by jad

Hold The Tension

“Remember that a dialogue presupposes two sides. All too often comrades lecture people, not letting them get a word in edgewise. We must learn how to listen [emphasis in original] to people. Ask questions and get a sense of their political thinking.” We must learn how to listen. On one hand, it’s extraordinary that this needs to be said; on the other, thank God that and when it’s made explicit. All politics is learnt. All politics is also unlearnt. We are constantly relearning the give and take between the two. I’ve been engaging with a couple of points of political … Continue reading “Hold The Tension” →

by jad

32 Days

I didn’t want to mark a month, busying myself with the various “protagonisms” of the day, broadly understood. But now, 2 days later, the feelings are catching up with me. I’m thinking about all the arguing we’d be doing after the apparent “shattering” of the axis; he’d be telling me not to fall for the propaganda and I’d be insisting that he’s missing my point. I hear his voice in every cringe opinion I listen to among my new-found comrades so wrapped up in their “position in the imperial core” that they forget what it actually means to be “internationalist.” … Continue reading “32 Days” →

by jad

Rosebud

I went to my first DSA general meeting in over five years last night; the venue had changed and was much smaller, reflecting the post-pandemic trend towards hybrid meetings. And while I have no idea how many members were on the Zoom, I have a sense that this also reflects other trends too; I think the chapter lost a lot of members since I was last active. I don’t know the stats, but it’s pretty obvious that there are far fewer working groups now. The energy was a lot less fractious than I remember too, but the goofy vibe that … Continue reading “Rosebud” →