التفكير الاجتماعي في أزمنة التحولات الكبرى

Social Thinking in Times of Great Transformations

SifR

What is needed are forces that translate Palestine into questions of power and livelihood — not rhetorical solidarity while neoliberalism devours the rest.

في وداع زياد الرحباني

Farewell to Ziad Rahbani

Ziad created the lingua franca of post-war Lebanon — through it a generation found each other across front lines and carried their innocence to October 17.

في صداقة الياس خوري

On the Friendship of Elias Khoury

I have not yet said goodbye to Elias Khoury — for him, culture was a moral act and friendship its highest commitment.

Social Thinking in Times of Great Transformations

The left must translate Palestine into questions of power and livelihood — not rhetorical solidarity while neoliberalism devours the rest.

سودان: الثورة السلمية في عظمتها وحدودها

Bidayat

A train departed Atbara carrying a revolution. Eight months later, crowds celebrated a constitutional document — joyful yet wary of what the generals might concede.

لبنان البدايات في سيرة مثقف حداثي — مراجعة كتاب جاد تابت

Lebanon's Beginnings in the Biography of a Modernist Intellectual - A Review of Jad Tabet's Book

Tripoli was annexed to Greater Lebanon to prevent it becoming Syria's port — it remains the poorest city on the Mediterranean.

فواز طرابلسي: «زمن اليسار الجديد» سؤال النشأة وسياق التحولات

Fawwaz Traboulsi: "The Time of the New Left" - The Question of Origins and the Context of Transformations

Either the left becomes the party of answers to neoliberalism and social justice — or religious and right-wing extremism takes its place.

استئناف نقاش مع فكر مهدي عامل – ٢

Resuming a Discussion with the Thought of Mahdi Amil - Part 2

SifR

Can theory invent history? And is Marxist-Leninist thought truly absent from Arab thinking? A critical discussion with Mahdi Amil.

استئناف حوار مع فكر مهدي عامل -١

Resuming a Dialogue with the Thought of Mahdi Amil - Part 1

SifR

Mahdi Amil was distinguished by his theoretical independence from Soviet orthodoxy and the Communist Party, yet he remained rigorously committed to justifying its policies, creating a tension between his thought and his theoretical and political practice.

عكس السير – القراءة السياسية للاقتصاد. سلطة المال وسلطة السياسة

Against the Current - A Political Reading of the Economy: The Power of Money and the Power of Politics

SifR

Reverse direction: the political reading of economics — the ruling class uses power to build its interests, and the state is a tool of accumulation, not development.

مجموعة «لبنان الاشتراكي» السنوات الأولى ١٩٦٥-١٩٦٨

The "Socialist Lebanon" Group: The Early Years 1965-1968

Bidayat

From the heart of the "Lebanon Socialist" experience and its self-critique, a contemporary question emerges: Can social justice, by ensuring equal opportunities and fair resource distribution, socio-economically hollow out sectarianism and curb sectarian grievances?

بدايات تختتم عيدها العاشر وتعلّق الصدور مؤقتًا

Bidayat Concludes Its Tenth Anniversary and Temporarily Suspends Publication

Bidayat

After ten years of publication, “Bidayat” magazine is temporarily suspending its work due to funding challenges, hoping to find a qualitative shift that ensures its continuity or concludes its venture.

عن الماركسية والثورات والمجتمع المدني والطائفية

On Marxism, Revolutions, Civil Society, and Sectarianism

Bidayat

This article interrogates post-Cold War concepts adopted uncritically by the Arab world—from Marxism to the national state, civil society, and sectarianism—calling for a critical vision rooted in Arab reality.

المبادئ الاقتصادية والاجتماعية في الدستور اللبناني

The Economic and Social Principles in the Lebanese Constitution

SifR

The Lebanese constitution was neoliberal before the word existed — we beat Pinochet by decades.

الثورة والسياسة الثورية في فكر لينين

Revolution and Revolutionary Politics in Lenin's Thought

Bidayat

Lenin developed his revolutionary theory by adapting Marxism to Russia's reality of being "economically backward yet politically advanced," considering it the "weakest link" where revolution could precede advanced nations.

عن الطوائف والطبقات والحروب الاهلية

On Sects, Classes, and Civil Wars

The weakest expression of societal and power relations is the political one — manufacturing experience demands tools beyond politics.

نحن وين؟ || فقر أم إفقار مع د. فواز طرابلسي أوان | Awan

Where Are We? Poverty or Impoverishment with Dr. Fawwaz Traboulsi - Awan

Awan

The Lebanese situation is not mere poverty, but systematic impoverishment resulting from deliberate policies that concentrated wealth among the few at the expense of the majority, fundamentally altering our understanding of the crisis and the responsibility of those who engineered it.

لينين والكومنترن والصهيونية

Lenin, the Comintern, and Zionism

The Comintern in 1920: "Under pretext of a Jewish state, Arab workers are subjected to British exploitation" — Britain expelled Arabs then turned them against settlers to monopolize control.

العمال يؤسسون للديمقراطية والعلمانية

Workers Lay the Foundations for Democracy and Secularism

Bidayat

150 years since the Paris Commune — 72 days of direct democracy, secularism, and social justice. Paris lived in the future and bequeathed the hope that paradise on earth is possible.

١٥٠ عامًا على «عامّية باريس»

150 Years Since the Paris Commune

Bidayat

From the shock of defeat and refusal to surrender, the Paris Commune declared the first experiment in direct democracy, secularism, and social justice, affirming that democracy is a product of popular imagination and struggles.

قراءة غرامشي في العصر النيوليبراليّ

Reading Gramsci in the Neoliberal Age

Gramsci in the neoliberal age: hegemony through consent, not coercion — "common sense" makes the ruling class's interests seem natural.

الحرية ضد العدالة والمساواة نقاش لأفكار فون هايك النيوليبراليّة

Freedom Against Justice and Equality: A Discussion of Friedrich von Hayek's Neoliberal Ideas

Bidayat

The article discusses Friedrich von Hayek's neoliberal ideas, which prioritize individual liberty over justice and equality, showing how his concept of market "spontaneity" ignores the role of human struggles in achieving justice and transforms the market into a speculative "casino."

ما هي النيوليبرالية؟

What Is Neoliberalism?

Bidayat

Neoliberalism is a comprehensive ideology that governs our lives without being named, presenting itself as a natural, inevitable doctrine, while being the economic face of new American imperialism and responsible for major crises.

مجتمع الاستهلاك

The Consumer Society

Bidayat

Class "frenzy" replaces class struggle — conspicuous consumption is the other face of wealth concentrated in the hands of the few.