Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali on Masters of Money

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Masters of Money, a new three-part documentary series on how the work of Keynes, Hayek and Marx shaped the 20th century. Tariq Ali will be contributing to the episode about Karl Marx.

The series begins on September 17th, 9pm on BBC2.

From the archive

  • Tariq Ali: What Is A Revolution?
    September 5, 2013

    Ever since the beginning of the Arab Spring there has been much talk of revolutions. Not from me. I’ve argued against the position that mass uprisings on their own constitute a revolution, i.e., a transfer of power from one social class (or even a layer) to another that leads to fundamental change. The actual size of the crowd is not a determinant—members of a crowd become a revolution only when they have, in their majority, a clear set of social and political aims. If they do not, they will always be outflanked by those who do, or by the state that will recapture lost ground very rapidly.

    Egypt is the clearest example in recent years. No organs of autonomous power ever emerged. The Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative social force, one that belatedly joined the struggle to overthrow Mubarak, emerged as the  …

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  • Scotland on Sunday reviews The Protocols of the Elders of Sodom
    August 9, 2009

    The Protocols of the Elders of Sodom reviewed by  Marc Lambert for Scotland on Sunday, August 9, 2009

    The intrusion of politics into a work of literature, Stendhal once wrote, “is like a pistol shot in the middle of a concert, something loud and vulgar, and yet a thing to which it is not possible to refuse one’s attention”. This piece of wit introduces Ali’s entertaining and informative selection of occasional pieces, documenting his literary, political and cultural interests over the last three decades.

    Each essay is a shot in the air, even if most have been aired before. There is some repetition, and some duds, such as the essay which gives the book its title, a spoof on Proust, Zionism and homosexuality that doesn’t quite work. But for the most part Ali is provocative, polemical and  …

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  • Tariq Ali: “I see Snowden as a Freedom Fighter”
    July 2, 2013

    Interviewed on Outlook India, Tariq Ali discusses the American NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

    Opinion on Edward Snowden is sharply divided. Some see him as a whistleblower, one who has done great service to the world; others see him as a traitor. How do you see him?

    I see him as a freedom fighter. “I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American,” he told the South China Post. If only there were more like him. A whole movement is what is needed. He has informed US and British citizens that they have no privacy whatsoever. The US campaign against China on the hacking issue has been turned upside down. The sheer hypocrisy of Washington is breathtaking. And its not surprising that Germans appear to be the most shocked: the main charge against the Stasi in East Germany was they spied  …

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