Tariq Ali

Can Democracy Co-exist with Contemporary Capitalism?

Thursday, 12 June 2014

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Tariq Ali: The Independence Lectures

Monday, 17 March 2014

Tariq Ali discusses the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence in Glasgow.

For more information, visit the Bella Caledonia website.

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Tariq Ali’s Don Quijote

Friday, 08 November 2013

Der tragische Held Don Quijote bricht auf zu neuen, hochaktuellen Abenteuern: von Piratenüberfällen vor der Küste Somalias über die Untiefen des Finanzsystems bis hin zu offenem Rassismus.

Das Schauspiel Essen zeigt eine anekdotische Adaption des Literaturklassikers mit prominenten Namen hinter den Kulissen: Inszenieren wird das Auftragswerk Jean-Claude Berutti, ein europaweit bekannter Regisseur. Der streitbare Tariq Ali hat das Stück verfasst; wie Don Quijote selbst ist der gebürtige Pakistaner ein Grenzgänger zwischen den Welten und ein Kämpfer gegen das Unrecht. Was kommt heraus, wenn das Schauspiel Essen internationale Theaterprominenz ins Revier holt? Ein Probenbesuch von West ART. Read more and watch a video here

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Tariq Alí visita a la CNTE: “Un país sin educación está condenado a morir”

Thursday, 24 October 2013

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Tariq Ali discusses Syria on Democracy Now!

Tuesday, 03 September 2013

Speaking on Demoncracy Now!, Tariq Ali discusses the Syrian situation with Steven Clemons.

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From the archive

  • 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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  • ‘Musharraf will be gone in days’
    August 14, 2008

    ‘Musharraf will be gone in days’ by Tariq Ali for The Guardian, August 14, 2008

    The Pakistani president is likely to quit soon. But don’t expect democracy to rush in: the military’s habits die hard

    There is never a dull moment in Pakistan. As the country moved from a moth-eaten dictatorship to a moth-eaten democracy the celebrations were muted. Many citizens wondered whether the change represented a forward movement.

    Five months later, the moral climate has deteriorated still further. All the ideals embraced by the hopeful youth and the poor of the country—political morality, legality, civic virtue, food subsidies, freedom and equality of opportunity—once again lie at their feet, broken and scattered. The widower Bhutto and his men are extremely unpopular. The worm-eaten tongues of chameleon politicians and resurrected civil servants are on daily display. Removing Musharraf, who  …

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  • Granadillo Award for the Islam Quintet
    January 2, 2010

    Text of the speech made by Tariq Ali upon receiving the Granadillo Award, January 2, 2010

    Thank you very much and I am privileged to be so honored, but I am only too aware of the significance of this day and the fact that you are honoring the ideas expressed in the ‘Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree’, the first novel of the Quintet that I started writing in this city over twenty years ago. I wanted to remind readers of the last tormented days of Islamic civilization in al-Andalus; not for reasons of nostalgia, but because the crimes that were committed—the burning of the books in the Bibbarambla a few minutes walk from where we are now, the expulsion of the Jews, the forced conversions, the auto-da-fes (burning of heretics on the stake), the Inquisition and  …

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