Episode 28: Lebanon’s Protest Movement Since the Beirut Explosion

Jade Saab, who previously appeared on the podcast to discuss “The Uprising in Lebanon,” returns to provide an update in the wake of the explosion in August that devastated Beirut and triggered the resignation of Lebanon’s government. He and the co-hosts discuss how the country’s protest movement has responded to these and other events; the role that the French government has been playing; and the future of Lebanon’s current political system, based on power-sharing among religious sects. The segment concludes with a discussion of the role of activity, and the role of thought, in overcoming the obstacles that the protest movement faces.

A Lebanese/Canadian writer and activist, Saab is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Glasgow. He is the editor of and a contributor to A Region in Revolt, a forthcoming book collection about recent uprisings in North Africa and West Asia.

This episode’s current-event segment discusses Trump’s succumbing to COVID-19, Glenn Greenwald’s opportunistic attempt to use this news to take a shot at Democrats, and the completely different, revolutionary-humanist, perspective articulated in MHI’s new editorial, “Trumpism, Democrats, and How to Vote from the Left.”

Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Brendan Cooney and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the co-hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI.

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