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Bassem Chit and in Lebanon

Sune Haugbolle Figure 1 : Turkey Agenda. “Interview with the Late Bassem Chit on Politics and and Culture in Lebanon and the Middle East.” www.turkeyagenda.com Web. 16. Oct. 2014 This article discusses the Lebanese draws on the sociology of intellectuals, miss your voice, Bassem.” They refer to activist and writer Bassem Chit as an in particular Gramsci, in the analysis of Bassem Chit, the Lebanese revolutionary example of the intellectual rebel in Bassam Chit’s work and his post mortem socialist, writer and activist who died from Lebanon and the Arab world. It analyses veneration. a heart attack on October 1, 2014. For a the ideological tradition of revolutionary limited circle of Lebanese, Arab and inter- socialism and the Arab left. Through Keywords: Socialism; Arab Left; Intellec- national revolutionary socialists, Bassem an analysis of interviews and articles, tual History Chit is a rebel martyr, whose life and work Haugbolle attempts to locate the place continue to inspire. He died at the tender and nature of intellectual production in During the 2015 social protests against age of 34 after a life devoted to renewing the organisation of revolutionary activity, Lebanon’s political elite, I have often read and revolutionary socialism. His and the particular role rebel intellectuals on Facebook threads laments such as, friends and comrades now miss his voice play in bringing about social change. It “what would Bassem have said?” and “we and his sharp analysis more than ever, at a

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time when they feel that a chink in the scape of thought and action. Finally, I that of culture, or in that of political admin- armour of the social system in Lebanon analyse his significance for Lebanese, istration.” Conversely, Havel’s definition may have opened. They also miss his com- Arab and international revolutionary would seem to celebrate the critical intel- pany and particularly his presence in the socialism through a reading of obituaries lectual who writes against the grain and protests and in the organisation of the as well as the fifth issue of the journal he speaks, as Edward Said would have it, ḥirāk (“movement”). helped founding, al-thawra al-dāʾima, truth to power. Power, of course, can be which is dedicated to his memory. located not just in the but in all hege- The life and death of Bassem Chit accentu- monic structures, including institutions ate the challenges of organising dissent Rebel Intellectuals and Arab Marxism that pride themselves on being anti-hege- and formulating alternative ideological The “rebel intellectual” is somewhat of a monic, such as the Eastern European com- directions, which have come to the fore in tautology, as many sociologists see intel- munist parties, which Havel had in mind Lebanon’s trash protests. In this brief arti- lectuals as inherently rebellious agents of when he wrote his text in 1986, or the self- cle, I discuss Bassem Chit as an example social change in the modern era. More- styled mumānaʿa (“rejectionism”) of the of the intellectual rebel in Lebanon and over, many intellectuals themselves define Syrian regime today. For the same reason, the Arab world. I analyse the ideological rebellious change as their credo. The intel- Karl Mannheim thought that critical intel- tradition of revolutionary socialism and lectual, Vaclav Havel (167) has written, lectuals together must form a free-floating the tradition of the Arab left in which his should constantly disturb, should bear intelligentsia, a relatively classless stratum work inscribes itself. I am interested in witness to the misery of the world, of thinkers, able to see beyond the ideo- understanding the place and nature of should be provocative by being inde- logical blinders imposed by the left and intellectual production in the organisation pendent, should rebel against all hid- the right, and thus uphold a democratic, of revolutionary activity, and the particular den and open pressure and manipula- critical conversation. role rebel intellectuals play in bringing tions, should be the chief doubter of Bassem Chit was rooted in a different about social change. I draw on sociology systems, of power and its incantations, intellectual tradition, that of international of intellectuals, in particular Gramsci, in should be a witness to their mendacity. and Arab Marxism. The Lebanese Marxists my analysis of Bassem Chit’s work and the An intellectual who is not rebellious isn’t a that he read and knew generally hold dear veneration of him postmortem. true intellectual. This ideal certainly the Gramscian ideal of the organic intel- excludes many self-styled intellectuals, lectual, the ibn al-balad (‘son of the soil’) In order to place myself firmly in this anal- who uphold the powers that be. It also who speaks for the subjugated classes. ysis, I should make it clear that I was a runs counter to Gramsci’s (97n) broad def- According to Gramsci (5), every social friend of Bassem’s. In 2012 and 2013 I inition of an intellectual as “the entire group creates organically ‘one or more recorded several interviews with him in social stratum, which exercises an organ- strata of intellectuals which give it homo- Beirut, which I use here in addition to his isational function in the wide sense – geneity and an awareness of its own func- writings to place him in the leftist land- whether in the field of production, or in tion not only in the economic but also in

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the social and political fields.’ The trouble (Rodinson 337-48; Tibi 7-17). Historical socialism of Nasser and the Baath Party. in the Middle East is that in reality, very few materialism laid the ground for socialist This group included people who were of the coryphées of, for example, Leba- visions of development and indepen- influenced by Trotsky and the so-called nese Marxism, including the founders of dence. Within the larger spectrum of . Traces of Trotskysm the Lebanese , have socialism, which also included Salama can be found in the work of Yassin Hafez, hailed from a working-class or peasant- Musa’s Fabianism, Arab Marxism was from George Tarabishi and others who clus- class background. Despite their middle- the beginning a strictly intellectual tradi- tered around the group Arab Socialism in class pedigree (or perhaps because of it), tion of writers and publishers who became the early 1960s, which later developed they hold on to the idea that they repre- enthralled with the Bolshevik into what Tareq Ismael, writing in 1976, sent the perspective of the poor and the and in the early 1920s established com- called a New Arab Left (Ismael). This cur- needy. Therefore, instead of taking their munist parties in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, rent is the intellectual foundation on which claims to organic status at face value, we Sudan, Iraq and Palestine. The path of rev- Bassem Chit built his own commitment. It must locate intellectuals in their social set- olution in the age of the Comintern was also provided the methodological and ting. In order to do that, grand theory must set and defined by the rigours of Marxist- organisational inspiration for his re-read- be complemented by careful, local histo- Leninist dogma as imposed by Stalin, as ing of the revolutionary situation in Leba- ries. As Gramsci (18-20) himself was well the Arab communist peers discovered non and the Arab world after 2011. aware, intellectuals serve different func- when they became enrolled in training Importantly, the New Left was not just an tions in different political economies and and ideological regimentation. For intellectual current but also a political cur- cultural contexts. The nature of hegemony decades, the overall ideological and polit- rent, albeit far from a unified one. Despite must be located before a successful analy- ical authority of the Communist their different strategic approaches to the sis of intellectuals can be made. In this Party meant that Arab communists strug- Palestinian issue, and different accents of article, I seek to do so by outlining the gled to develop the Marxist system of Marxism, they shared a sentiment that it intellectual tradition and the social milieu thought into a flexible methodology that was necessary to break with the past lead- that Bassem was a product of and in which might help them understand the realities ership of Arab regimes. The late 1960s and he inscribed his work. and differing conditions of their own early 1970s saw the formation of the Popu- Bassem certainly loved Gramsci, but not countries (Sharif). lar Front for the Liberation of Palestine as much as he loved—and had read—Marx. In reaction to and the domina- (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the He would pepper his speech and writings tion of the Communist Party of Syria and Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in Palestine, with citations from Marx, and he was well Lebanon by Khaled Bakdash, a group of the Communist Party-Political Bureau in versed in the Arab Marxist tradition. This Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian intellec- Syria, and the Organisation for Commu- tradition arguably stretches back to the tuals inspired by the British ‘new left’ of the nist Action in Lebanon. The Arab Marxist debate between Islamic reformers and so- late 1950s wrote critically against the party, tradition—at least in the Levant—is strongly called materialists in the Nahda period against Moscow, and against the Arab influenced by the political affiliation of

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many writers with these groups, and their the Cold War meant critiquing the lack of international class identity (Browers). As political and military struggles in the Leba- internal democracy in Arab , Bassem told me, this experience of dou- nese civil war, the Palestinian freedom and accommodation with liberalism. This ble or triple defeat “came with the genes” struggle, and the confrontation with the accommodation also had the practical for those who grew up in the 1990s. Their Syrian state. This embattled recent history implication that by the mid-1990s a sig- parents’ generation had run up against has certainly lent credence to the image of nificant proportion of Arab Marxists left external enemies and had been divided the intellectual as a rebel. For the New their party and had become free-floating by internal splits, leaving them with severe Arab Left, Marxism was for a time being intellectuals (Sing). ideological confusion and no immediate practiced gun-in-hand. sense of direction. It was clear to Bassem After the end of the Lebanese civil war, Left Melancholia and his leftist peers, therefore, that they the ideological project of Marxism was in The soul-searching post-Marxists that had to struggle, both in order to assert a global crisis as a result of the fall of the Jaber and other scholars like Manfred their influence on the national political , confounded in Lebanon by Sing (2015) and Suzanne Kassab (2009) and social scene, and to fight what Jody the defeat of the National Movement in discuss largely belong to the generation Dean has called the global ‘left melancho- the civil war. This led to intense soul- of thinkers and activists born in the 1940s, lia’ that followed from 1989 (Dean). searching in Marxist milieus in Lebanon as 1950s and 1960s. Bassem Chit’s genera- Dean’s argument, in short, is that the well as other Arab countries. While some tion of Marxists have grown up with a dif- exhaustion of global Marxism was emo- maintained a dogmatic Marxism (mostly ferent outlook. They are at once more glo- tional, physical and generational, but also represented by currents around the Leba- balized and more confused than the a more temporary phenomenon than it nese Communist Party), many drifted previous generation, whose struggle was seemed in the 1990s. The much-trum- towards liberal positions. Faleh Jaber firmly rooted in the great questions of lib- peted triumph of liberalism had been pre- (1997) has termed this new landscape eration and modernization, national inde- mature, in other words. The new revolu- post-Marxism, meaning social theory that pendence and structural improvement of tions and mobilization of the 2010s draws on the broad family of Marxist living conditions of the poor. This struggle combined with the effects of the 2008 thought but goes beyond Marxist dog- ended in defeat, manifested by neoliberal global economic crisis have engendered mas. Some post-Marxists dismiss the reforms in the 1980s and 1990s as well as a revival of communist organisation and claim that Marxism is an infallible scientific the breakdown of Arab unity. On the level Marxist theory. Left melancholia, for Dean, theory, and some have moved on to theo- of social mobilization, Arab Marxists lost was not just the result of triumphant ideas retical pluralism. Thus, some post-Marx- momentum to Islamist groups, which was and actors opposing socialism and Marx- ists maintain class analysis, while others mirrored on the philosophical level by the ism, but just as much the outcome of the only apply selected elements of the Marx- primacy that Arab Marxists put, from the way in which socialists adopted single- ian heritage. In an Arab context, moving 1980s onwards, on the notion of ʾaṣāla issue politics and identity politics, which on to theoretical pluralism after the end of (“cultural rootedness”) as opposed to abandoned the vision of total social trans-

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formation. The strength of the ‘new new last twenty years, we are talking about militants des droits de l’homme.’ (Abi left’ of the 2010s is that it embraces mul- a revolutionary left rising in different Yaghi 41). Seeking to bypass the bureau- tiplicity (and aspects of liberalism), but countries, in Egypt, in Lebanon, and cratic language and institutions of their ties them together in a socialist vision for these groups are effective in a small older communist peers, this budding ‘new change. Bassem shared this view and this degree but still more effective than tra- new left’ worked in networks rather than optimism, but was also, at the time of his ditional left organizations. So it’s a very parties, and preferred public action over death, becoming overwhelmed with fear important development.1 engagement with official institutions of that the counter-revolution unleashed by the state, which they viewed as corrupt. revolutionary fervor in the Arab Uprisings The ‘new new left’ At the beginning of the 2000s, this ‘new threatened to destroy the social fabric of Bassem came to this conviction, that the new left’ increasingly transformed their Arab countries. He struggled with bouts renewal of Arab socialism was possible student engagement and intellectual of exhaustion and melancholia, the com- from the bottom-up, through his own per- debates into activism. Bassem became bination of which probably eventually sonal trajectory. Like all intellectuals Bas- part of this motley crew of new leftists who killed him. But he also stressed that the sem Chit was shaped by the concerns of protested the WTO meeting in Doha in purported ‘failure of the left’ was not sim- the recent past as much as by the present. 2001, organised anti-war demonstrations ply a failure of socialist ideas and Marxist Born in 1979, he was part of the “war gen- against US-led wars in Afghanistan and theory, but resulted from tactical mistakes eration,” who witnessed the Lebanese civil Iraq, published journals such as al-yasārī made by certain people. In his final inter- war as children and came of age with (“the leftist”) and organised activism on view, given just weeks before he died, he debates about post-war reconstruction in many different levels. He was thus an inte- underlined the need for an end to what the 1990s. On Lebanon’s university cam- gral figure in the creation of the Socialist Fawwaz Traboulsi (Revolution) has called puses in the mid-1990s, leftist organisa- Forum (al-muntada al-ishtirākī) in 2010, its “the lacerating self-criticism” of the left. tions such as bi-lā ḥudūd (“No Frontiers”, journal al-manshour, and from 2012 the The uprisings, Bassem (and Trabloulsi) AUB), Pablo Neruda (LAU), al-ʿamal journal al-thawra al-dāʾima (“The Perma- believed, provided an opportunity to al-mubāshar (“”, Balamand), nent Revolution”), which revolved, and still realize that and Tanios Chahine (USJ), provided revolves, around a network of revolution- spaces for rethinking leftist engagement ary socialist groups in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, History doesn’t make mistakes, it just in an age dominate by the neoliberal pol- Egypt and Morocco. happens. There have been loads of icies of the Hariri governments. It involved, Al-thawra al-dāʾima contains Chit’s most mistakes in the traditional left. But as one of its participants remembers, ‘un elaborate intellectual production, not just saying that the new revolutionary mélange de sociaux-démocrates, de mili- his own articles but also his editorship and left could have organized the work- tants laics [“secularists”], d’écologistes, his efforts to create a network for the ing class, to organize itself in the past d’internationalistes, de nationalistes renewal of revolutionary socialism in the twenty years, this is absurdity. In the arabes, de marxistes, de trotskistes, et de region. He wrote insightfully about racism,

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the Syrian refugee question, and particu- and linking social justice to the formation 2006, when a group of leftist intellectuals larly nationalism and sectarianism. Draw- of a secular political order (Haugbolle). in Lebanon published an open letter ing on Ussama Makdisi’s seminal work on denouncing the Democratic Left Move- the modern roots of the sectarian system, A Nineteenth-Century Rebel in the ment and the March 14 alliance for their Chit believed that sectarianism is a prod- Twenty-First Century failure to protect and support Hizbullah in uct of capitalist relations in Lebanon. He Bassem’s writings and manner of speech its war with Israel. In 2011, some leftists believed that the sectarian system was were deeply influenced by Marx and continued to support the Syrian regime in linked to hegemony of the ruling class Trotsky. Talking to Bassem could some- the name of the struggle against Israel established under imperialism and per- times feel like talking to a nineteenth-cen- and resistance to imperialism, but this petuated by the liberal institutions of the tury revolutionary in London, ready to position was challenged by the evident state. In this way, he took Makdisi’s con- organize and theorise all the way to king- and growing violence against civilians. structivist argument further by stressing dom come. He earned the respect of fel- Others stood with the Free Syrian Army, the internal contradictions in the capitalist low from his willingness to the Syrian National Council and the peace- system and the class structure of Lebanon engage in conversation and debate with ful uprising, in the name of revolution and (Chit 2009, 2014). From a scholarly point all sorts of people, from refugees in meth- the defense of democratic rights. Some of view there is nothing novel in this argu- odological workshops that he organised supported a middle way between solidar- ment. It has been elaborated based on in some of Beirut’s poorest neighbor- ity with the protestors’ demands for free- original research by other historical mate- hoods, to Lebanese and foreign academ- dom and rejecting foreign interference, rialists such as Fawwaz Traboulsi, Carolyn ics. In all of this, he stuck to his belief in the and instead advocated national reconcili- Gates, and Salim Nasr. But then, Bassem necessity of revolutionary change. ation (Dot-Pouillard). Chit was not primarily a scholar. For him, Just like the first socialists in the mid-nine- As the Syrian crisis intensified and became the important task was to understand the teenth century, Arab revolutionary social- an outright war in 2012, the splits on the conditions of Arab societies and devise a ists today depend on solidarity and com- left in Lebanon and in the region wors- plan for revolutionary change. He insisted radeship in order to maintain the ened. In May 2013 I asked Bassem to on a class analysis of Lebanese politics momentum of their project to change the explain how he viewed the chances of a and society, because he believed that a social order against all odds. Therefore, unified left in the region, to which he clear, historically founded analysis of the Bassem was very aware of the need to replied that he thought it was crystalizing, complex structures of Lebanese society unify the ideological line in the Marxist- but that the war in Syria showed that unity was a necessary starting point for the socialist milieu. At the time of his death, would necessitate a complete rupture inculcation of revolutionary conscious- deep splits had occurred that existed prior with “the ,” which to him was only a ness. In doing so, he placed himself in a to 2011 but had been accentuated by the left in name. The old left, for him, meant long tradition of critiquing sectarianism uprisings and in particular by the war in the Stalinism of many Arab communist Syria. The splits were already visible in parties, and the authoritarian legacy of

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Arab socialism in the form of Baathism are against any military intervention, even have been imprisoned and persecuted and Nasserism. Their support for the Syr- of Hizbullah, and against dictatorship. This since 2013. For Bassem, the rejection was ian regime and for Hizbullah was not sur- position started in 2002. necessary to maintain against all odds. He prising, as they put collective struggle did not see it merely as a practical position before individual freedom, and anti-impe- Others became involved already around against particular political forces, but rialism—the notion of mumānaʿa (“rejec- the Palestinian Intifada of 2000-2001. But equally as the only tenable ideological tionism”)—before popular mobilization as Bassem said, “that was an easy question position for any democratic Arab left wor- (Traboulsi, Crisis). Bassem had great belief compared to the Iraqi war.” thy of its name. Ideologically, he linked this in the ability of his generation to distance stance to the rejection of stagist theory, themselves collectively from the old left in In the question of Iraq, some of the left, the Marxist theory that underdeveloped a way that the ‘old new left’ in the 1960s for example what became the Demo- countries must first pass through a stage and 1970s perhaps failed to do. The Arab cratic Left Movement, aligned them- of before moving to a socialist were to be the tool of this uni- selves with the imperialists, saying im- stage. This necessitates alliances with the fication, which would lead to a revolution- perialism will bring democracy to Iraq. national . What might seem ary culture that could set the Arab coun- Our group started off from the position like a detached abstract discussion was in tries on the path of regional redistribution between those who supported Sad- fact the central bone of contention of wealth, resistance to foreign interfer- dam against imperialism and the coali- between the Arab nationalist movement ence, and socialist states. For the revolu- tion against tyranny. We came together and new left Marxists in the 1960s. Thus, tions to become such as tool, the new left over this position. And so there was a Khaled Bakdash, on returning from Mos- of the 2000s, he believed, had to join fragmentation, and that fragmentation cow in 1951, had suddenly learned the forces with the hundreds of thousands of has continued... Today [in 2013] the Stalinist line of a stagist approach (Tibi 24). Arabs involved in the revolutions. The aim DLM is deteriorating. The Lebanese Today, Bassem stressed, Communist par- of al-thawra al-dāʾima was to theorize rev- Communist Party is deteriorating. This ties and other leftist currents maintain olution with the people involved in the is because they have chosen sides. And stagist theory “as a justification for their uprisings. Tracing the birth of a new left, he what we see is that our position—of be- support for regimes such as the Syrian.” told me that, ing in-between, of double-rejection if you want—is gaining more momentum. And this is the same stagist theory that In Lebanon it started in the late 1990s, led the left in Lebanon to be destroyed! early 2000s. It started with the movement The position of double-rejection has That led the left to be destroyed by against the war in Iraq. In 2002, the move- proven to be difficult, if not impossible, in Nasser in Egypt. By Khomeini in Iran. ment here in Lebanon adopted the slogan the context of continuous civil war as in All over the region. Can you believe “no war, no dictator.” Ironically this is the Syria, or authoritarian military rule as in it? They are readopting the theory and same position we take today on Syria. We Egypt, where the revolutionary socialists creating illusions about a certain alli-

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ance with the national bourgeoisie. In lion things at the same time—that got the tions we were expecting from him in an era when you have a hugely global- better of his heart. Somebody should the long term.”3 ized economy. And the national bour- have said to him, “take it easy, you’re Beyond the region as well, the legacy of geoisie is linked to the international doing too much.” Somebody probably Bassem was celebrated and the lost bourgeoisie. This is absurd because did, but Bassem wouldn’t have listened. potential mourned. “It’s hard to overstate the line of separation between national He lived the struggle. the political loss the revolutionary left in and international bourgeoisie, which The many obituaries published by Leba- the Middle East has suffered,” wrote Alex may have existed in the nationalist era, nese, Arab, and international socialists are Callinicos in the UK-based Socialist does not exist anymore. For example, a testimony to his impact on this current. Worker. Remembering Bassem as some- when we look at banking, construction, He was one of the few people who could one who added crucial nuance to interna- et cetera, in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, coordinate and develop regional branches tional socialists’ understanding of the they are directly linked to international of revolutionary socialists. In al-manshour, complexities of the Middle East, Callinicos capital. And they are linked to the mon- his close colleagues from the Socialist stressed that a sympathetic “cultural trans- eyed ties of Saudi Arabia extending ev- Forum wrote that he “dedicated his life to lator” such as Bassem is highly needed for erywhere. This is why we think that it is the liberation of humanity from all forms international socialists to make sense of it a destructive theory. of hegemony, occupation and oppression. for them.4 Summarising reactions to Bas- With his sudden departure, we lost more sem’s death, the Moroccan researcher and Remembering Bassem than a rare revolutionary activist. We also member of the international group RS21 The last time I spoke with Bassem we lost a unique leader with very creative ini- Miriyam Aouragh further wrote, “we have talked about the sense of living in revolu- tiatives. It will not be easy at all to fill the lost one of the very few principled voices tionary times, where history was replayed huge vacuum of his absence.”2 The revo- in what is becoming a quagmire.”5 as farce —both the deep history of interna- lutionary socialists in Egypt asserted that The Middle East, the left, and popular tional socialism and that of the Arab left. he “was a towering figure on the Arab rev- mobilization have landed in a quagmire “It’s like the old ghosts are coming back, olutionary Left” with a indeed. Perhaps it is worth remembering the good and the ugly but mostly the “unique ability to coordinate the issu- that for every generation of leftists, the ugly,” he said. We talked about how we ing of a statement on behalf of revo- challenges have been huge and the odds should all work to improve conditions lutionary organizations in different stacked against them. The attempt to here and now and build networks of soli- countries and complete all the neces- carve out a path towards socialist change darity. We talked about the importance of sary discussions and corrections in half has always necessitated iconic figures, focusing on local struggles, even if revolu- a day (…) We have lost a tremendous rebel intellectuals, whose words and tion has to be international. Sadly, it was fighting spirit. We have lost a keen rev- deeds provided guidance. The most probably his failure to live up to this sound olutionary intelligence. We have lost touching indication that Bassem Chit advice—his constant engagement in a mil- the theoretical and political contribu- could become such a figurehead for

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Sune Haugbolle activists in the Middle East is the fifth dead to stand against “the attacks that cumulative process, in which the words issue of al-thawra al-dāʾima, where his are being waged today. Will we be able and deeds of rebels who went before An associate Professor in Global Studies, peers from around the Arab world, old to stand on our feet? The answer is cer- provide guidance for new generations. It Sune Haugbolle is the author of War and young, pay tribute to his thoughts tain, it is that we will not accept anything was unexpected that Bassem should join and Memory in Lebanon (2010), co- and life. These short texts are often quite less than a sweeping revolution to lead us their ranks so soon. editor of The Politics of Violence, Truth poetic and deeply personal, and show towards the other side.”6 and Reconciliation in the Arab Middle the extent to which his death was a col- Bassem himself formed his ideas in a East (2009) and has published widely lective emotional event, a turning point conversation with all of the living people on political culture in the Middle East. after which no one was the same. As his on these pages and many more, and with He currently directs the research group friend Walid Daou wrote, Bassem was not his intellectual heroes, as he grew up in Secular Ideology in the Middle East at quite Christ the Saviour, but his comrades the 1990s, staring down left melancholia Roskilde University, Denmark now almost feel like the disciples who with his Trotsky, his Mahdi ‘Amil and his (www.ruc.dk/sime) and is writing a must be reminded by the example of the Marx in hand. Ideological formation is a modern history of Arab left movements and ideas. email: [email protected] Notes 6 Walid Daou, “Bāsim, Works Cited ---.“Nationalism, Resistance Haugbolle, Sune. “Social kaʾannak dakhalt fī al-nașṣ” and Revolution.” International Boundaries and Secularism 1 org/ar/node/106> reconfiguration de l’espace the End of Left Melancholia.” Havel, Vaclav. Disturbing the militant (de gauche) au Contemporary Political Peace: A Conversation with 2 Université Paris 1 Panthéon- Nov. 2014. Web. 9 Apr. 2016. Vintage Books, 1991. Print. Sorbonne, Département de 3 Browers, Michaelle. Political monde diplomatique (English University Press, 1976. Print. Ideology in the Arab World. edition), 2012: 4. Web. 9 Apr. 4 confessionnelles et lutte de London: Lawrence and classe au Liban.” Que faire? Wishart. 1971. Print. ––› No. 10, Jan./March 2009.

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––› Kassab, Elizabeth Suzanne. ---. “The Crisis of the Politics Contemporary Arab of Mumana’ah - Statehood Thought: Cultural Critique and Participation.” Heinrich in Comparative Perspective. Böll Stiftung, Middle East,> 3 New York: Colombia March 2014.Web. 9 Apr. 2016. University Press, 2009. Print.

Rodinson, Maxime. Marxisme et monde musulman. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1972. Print.

Sharif, Maher. “From Marxism to Liberal Nationalism: A Transformation in Palestinian Marxism.” In Post-Marxism and the Middle East, ed. Faleh Jabar. London: Saqi Books, 1997. Print.

Sing, Manfred. “Arab Post-Marxists after Disillusionment: Between Liberal Newspeak and Revolution Reloaded.” In Arab Liberal Thought after 1967, eds. Meir Hatina and Christoph Schumann. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Print.

Tibi, Bassam. Die arabische Linke. Frankfurt/M.: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1969. Print.

Traboulsi, Fawwaz. “The Left in Time of Revolution”. Jadaliyya, 9 Nov. 2012. Web. 9 Apr. 2016. ISSN: 2196-629X http://dx.doi.org/10.17192/ meta.2015.6.4090

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