Socialism, Resistance Movements and the Arab World
This will be an analysis of the modern political history of the Arab World and its anti-colonial movements, from a socialist/Marxist Leninist lens. This discussion will take a historical analysis of Arab politics, and the Arab World’s role as an neocolonial economic “periphery”, in the eyes of Arab economists Samir Amin and Mahdi Amel, and how political and social factors shaped the ascent and eventual decline of Arab socialism in the age of neoliberalism. We will also discuss Arab resistance post-80s to today as the philosophical and ideological undercurrents of the movements changed, but the contradictions of imperialism and conditions of popular resistance stayed the same.
Readings (tentative):
Samir Amin, “Imperialism and Unequal Development”
Translated Excerpts from Mahdi Amel
Leila Khaled, “My People Shall Live”
Gamal Abdel Nasser, selected speeches on Socialism and Imperialism
Manifestos of various resistance movements (just 2 pages each)
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 