The Fire These Times

This is a conversation with Naji Bakhti, author of the novel Between Beirut and the Moon (2020), published by Influx Press. He is also Project Manager at SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom at the Samir Kassir Foundation. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed: Growing up in a ‘postwar’ context, Lebanon Writing in English and the distance afforded to us when doing so Thinking about Arabic and creativity Genesis of Between Beirut and the Moon Writing the local, writing the global The Arab world and the impossibility of Space exploration Billionaires are ruining space in addition to planet Earth Joking about sectarianism in Lebanon (and also Balkans, Iraq etc) West Beirut (1998 film) and its impact, watching it (in Joey’s case) the day Hariri was assassinated in 2005 Writing about Beirut as a character How do we think about fiction when reality is so overwhelming? Inheriting the silences from one’s parents (including postmemory) Friendships versus sectarian politics Recommended Books Guapa by Saleem Haddad De Niro’s Game by Rawi Hage Persepolis by Marjie Satrapi Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with Tareq Baconi, author of the book "Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance" published in 2018. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. List of topics discussed: How Hamas is often talked about Contextualising Hamas in recent and ongoing uprisings Hamas and popular protests The Great Return March Hamas and Israel Western hypocrisy on Palestinian democracy, with a focus on the EU and the US Hamas-Fatah relations The horrific costs of the Israeli blockade of Gaza How the Israeli state views Hamas Hamas breaking out of its 'cage' Does it matter who wins at the Israeli elections? The PA losing legitimacy Hamas' authoritarianism in Gaza Hamas as a democratic movement Difference between party and government in Gaza Moving beyond the framework of partition and into colonial and apartheid frameworks Recommended Books: Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector by Sara Roy Hamas: A Beginner's Guide by Khaled Hroub Decolonizing Palestine: Hamas between the Anticolonial and the Postcolonial by Somdeep Sen

This is a conversation with Aurelien Mondon, he’s a senior lecturer in politics, languages and international studies at the University of  Bath and co-author of the 2020 book “Reactionary Democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream” alongside Aaron Winter. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed How has the far right been mainstreamed? Focus on US, UK and France Liberal racism versus illiberal racism The far right and why calling them ‘populism’ is problematic What is ‘populist hype’ and how can the media be complicit? How the ‘working class’ become racialized into the ‘white working class’ The role of elites in ‘reactionary democracy’ How our knowledge of the world is constructed How the right has asphyxiated the media landscape On echo chambers The generational divide The question of race and ‘populism’ ‘Populism’ and elections The case of France Books Recommended Hatred of Democracy by Jacques Rancière Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva Feminism, Interrupted by Lola Olufemi Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with Phoebe Wagner, co-editor of the 2017 book Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation alongside Bronte Christopher Wieland. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed: What is Solarpunk? What is wrong with modern storytelling about the future? Playing with words (example of Permablitzing) Patriarchal tropes (‘men with guns’) and moving beyond them Is knowledge power? Working on the language we use Is there a crisis of the imagination? Going from fiction to non-fiction and action Community-building What’s punk about solarpunk Works mentioned: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler Parable of the Talent by Octavia Butler Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Novel by Waubgeshig Rice Robin Wall Kimmerer on the Language of Animacy Recommended Books: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer Cover Art by Likhain for the Sunvault book Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with professor Marwa Daoudy, associate professor at Georgetown University and the author of the recently published book The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed: Climate change did not cause the Syrian revolution, despite this  narrative continuing to dominate in many circles, and why this  deterministic narrative strips away the agency of Syrian revolutionaries The  ‘securitization’ of language, how refugees and migrants going to global  north countries are treated through militarized language, and how  calling them ‘climate migrants’ can be problematic How did the pre-2011 drought affect the uprising, if at all? Bashar Al-Assad urban/rural divide and conquer strategy Assad’s neoliberal reforms and their impacts on water and food politics The role of ideology (baathism, neoliberalism etc) in Syria The  issue of ‘state security’ rhetoric and how a  Human-Environmental-Climate Security (HECS) framework can help  understand reality better The relationship between the World Bank and the Syrian regime Neo-Malthusian politics and its presence in international politics Europe’s extractivist economies and the complicity in scapegoating ‘climate migrants’ The idea of ‘climate security’ and why it’s problematic Book Recommendations: Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse Martin Eden by Jack London The Crossing by Samar Yazbeck The Impossible Revolution by Yassin Haj-Saleh The Shell by Mustafa Khalifa + Samira’s Letters on Al Jumhuriya Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with Sophia Armen, an Armenian-American writer, scholar and organizer, about the legacy of the Armenian Genocide today. We spoke about race in the Ottoman Empire and then in the Turkish republic, how the genocide changed Armenian cosmology, the cruel absurdity of borders and various other topics. We also got into Palestine as well as our various positionalities. Sophia shared a lot about her own family's story in what is now Turkey. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed: The legacy of the Armenian genocide and Sophia's personal story Pan-Turkish nationalism and its denial of the Armenian heritage of the modern Turkish state How the Armenian genocide changed the entire Armenian cosmology, including the sea The cruel absurdity of borders Armenians in Turkey today The Palestinian cause today and Turkey's role The Turkish government's lobbying in the US Our specific positionalities How simply reversing the clash of civilizations thesis is also racist Racialization, 'whiteness', and Armenian-Americans in history and today Music by Tarabeat. Book Recommendations: This Bridge Called My Back, Fourth Edition: Writings by Radical Women of Color edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde Food for Our Grandmothers: Writings by Arab-American and Arab-Canadian Feminists by Joanna Kadi Armenian Women in a Changing World: Papers Presented at the First International Conference of the Armenian International Women's Association, edited by Barbara J. Merguerian and Doris D. Jafferian The Right to Struggle: Selected Writings of Monte Melkonian on the Armenian National Question by Monte Melkonian edited by Markar Melkonian Film Recommendation: Ararat directed by Atom Egoyan

This is a conversation with Banah Ghadbian. She’s a Syrian activist  whose dissertation “Ululating from the Underground: Syrian Women’s  Protests, Performances, and Pedagogies under Siege” was the subject of our conversation. As usual, we ended up talking about a lot of other things as well. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed: Banah’s story growing up in a Syrian revolutionary family and being targeted by the regime as a result The video that Banah released on YouTube in 2011, which the Syrian regime played on state tv Her dissertation: Ululating from the Underground: Syrian Women’s Protests, Performances and Pedagogies under Siege (video summary) “How  do Syrian women and youth heal from violence? How can our communities  be embodied when displaced from our lands and spirits?” What is often missing from a lot of discourse regarding Syria? The chronicles of Enab Baladi + An idea called Daraya How does Banah think about the Syrian story and how it’s often misrepresented online? What the Syrian revolution already achieved Multiplicities and the entrenched ‘manliness’ of war analyses (reference to episode with Aida Hozic) Undoing the diaspora/local binary Pedagogies of liberation vs refugee/NGO industrial complex Being friends with Hala Barakat, who was murdered in September of 2017 alongside her mother Orouba Scarcity idea coming from an inherently capitalist logic The Syrian revolution and anti-blackness; intersectionality The misleading debates around ‘integration’, Alan Kurdi Talking about sectarianism Being in the dominant group at home, and in the minority in the diaspora Recommended Books Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline Paperback – November 18, 2014 by Malu Halasa, Zaher Omareen by Nawara Mahfoud Zaatardiva by Suheir Hammad Homegirls and Handgrenades by Sonia Sanchez Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with Promise Li. He’s a US-based member of the Lausan collective and the Democratic  Socialists of America doing solidarity work with Hong Kong and China’s  dissident movements. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed: Growing up in Hong Kong in the shadow of the Tiananmen Square massacre and after the UK-China handover What is Lausan? The difficulties of navigating online discourses on Hong Kong (and Lebanon, Syria etc) Rooting ourselves in democracy Translating Self-Determination Hong  Kong’s water revolution (context and history) and how the Chinese  Communist Party crushed it, at least for now (the national security law,  ongoing crackdown etc) The globalization of the war on terror rhetoric and how ‘anti-imperialist’ governments and parties also use it. How governments and politicians learn from one another (example of Gebran Bassil in Lebanon; Saudi and Palestinian ambassadors to China; Henri Kissinger praising the CCP and vice versa, Chinese cops praising American cops; Hezbollah in Syria) What’s so different about the CCP’s oppression compared to other governments’ authoritarianism, and how western leftists don’t seem to quite grasp that (example of China and Syria) How tankies and others try and think like Xi Jinping or Bashar Al-Assad (and always fail) The multiplicity of places Reacting to the camps in Xinjiang Having a specific anger towards people who were oppressed in the past and who now oppress others (Israel, China) Identifying as Hong Konger Chinese, the complicated identities of being both Jewish  and Arab, the example of Hindutva and Indian Muslims Being anti-nationalist and how that intersect in the global south The importance of including migrant domestic workers in our struggles Linking up Hong Kong with Black Lives Matters Learning from Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement What BLM could look like in Lebanon Fighting anti-Asian violence cannot include apologism for the Chinese state Recommended Books: China: The Revolution is Dead, Long Live the Revolution by The 70’s Collective Punching out and other writings by Martin Glaberman, edited by Staughton Lynd Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement edited by Ejeris Dixon & Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

This is a conversation with Daniel Randall.  He’s a London-based railway worker and workplace representative for the  National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers and a member of  the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. We spoke about antisemitism on the Left as Daniel has an upcoming book on this very topic. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed: What is left antisemitism? The ‘socialism of fools’ The difference between antisemitism and other forms of hatred The impact of Moishe Postone in our understanding of this topic Antisemitism as conspiracy theory in and of itself How it impacts discourse on Israel-Palestine The specific legacy of Stalinism on anti-Zionism Anti-Zionism without Anti-Semitism ‘Anti-Zionist Zionism’ Isaac Deutscher’s lifeboat metaphor for Israel in the 1940s Understanding how one can be both a refugee and a settler What’s wrong with saying ‘the Zionist entity’ Edward Said’s view on this The example of Hindutva The example of Lebanon The pseudo-emancipatory character of antisemitism Intersection between anti-semitism and islamophobia (‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory) How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism (reference to the essay by Erik Ward) What happened in the UK Labor Party Navigating sensitive discourses surrounding Israel-Palestine On anti-nationalism Recommended Books That’s Funny, You Don’t Look Antisemitic: Antiracist Analysis of Left Antisemitism Paperback by Steve Cohen Confronting Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century edited by Shane Burley Confronting antisemitism on the Left: arguments for socialists by Daniel Randall (forthcoming) Music by Tarabeat.

This is a conversation with Guy Standing, a Professorial Research  Associate at SOAS University of London and a founding member and  honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), a  non-governmental organisation that promotes a basic income for all. Get early access + more perks at Patreon.com/firethesetimes Blog: https://thefirethisti.me You can follow on Twitter or Instagram @ firethesetimes too. Topics Discussed: What is Universal Basic Income (UBI)/ Basic Income Why it’s so important that basic income be unconditional Towards a new class system: Precariat, Salariat, Proficients, Oligarchs, Plutocracy, Working Class, Lumpen Underclass etc What is the precariatized mind? Types  of Precariats: Atavists who look to the past/Nostalgics: The migrants,  the roamers, the refugees, the minorities/Progressives Towards a new politics of time How the global COVID-19 pandemic makes the case for a basic income Recommended Books The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polanyi The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All by Peter Linebaugh Music by Tarabeat.