Airs on WSFM-LP 103.3 in Asheville / streaming at AshevilleFM from 3am EST on February 24th through March 1st, 2020 and podcasting on libsyn.com.

Social Justice and Struggle in Lebanon and Syria: Joey Ayoub and Leila Al-Shami

This week on The Final Straw we’re featuring a portion of a chat with Joey Ayoub and Leila Al-Shami. In this conversation, Joey tells us of some of the history of Lebanon, since the civil war that ended in 1990 and up to the current demonstrations against the clientelist warlords in power in that country. Intertwined with this, Leila speaks about the sparking of the resistance to Bashar Al-Assad in Syria, the tumult of the civil war, and the state of anti-authoritarian and social justice organizing and media work in that country. Then the two talk about the experience of countering disinformation and poor solidarity in the so-called Left in the west and ways to combat ignorance.

Because of the increased attacks by Syrian regime and Russian forces on rebel-held portions of the country, I’ve decided that this radio broadcast version would focus primarily on the situation in Syria and tools to build better solidarity. To that end, I’ve undone a bit of the complexity of the interview in order to give a bit more focus to the hour allotted us by radio stations, removing the content related to Lebanon. To hear the conversation as intended, consider visiting our blog or find us on many of the streaming platforms out there, to listen to the full chat and where you can find resources the authors suggest to keep yourself better informed on issues pertaining to anti-sectarian and anti-authoritarian movements across Lebanon and Syria.

Joey Ayoub is a Lebanese-Palestinian writer, editor and researcher. He publishes frequently on https://joeyayoub.com/ as well as on the blog https://hummusforthought.com/ and the related podcast by the same title.

Leila Al-Shami is a British-Syrian activist and co-author of ‘Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War‘, a founder of the international solidarity site, TahrirICN and writes on http://leilashami.wordpress.com/ .

Below are links to some resources that Joey and Leila suggest interested listeners check out to for perspectives by folks on the ground in the region:

Lebanon links:

• An updated list of twitter accounts reporting well on Lebanon: https://twitter.com/joeyayoub/lists/lebanon-2019
• The Enab Baladi free PDF: https://hummusforthought.com/2019/05/06/enab-baladi-citizen-chronicles-of-the-syrian-uprising-free-pdf/
• Of relevance to your audience: https://crimethinc.com/2019/11/13/lebanon-a-revolution-against-sectarianism-chronicling-the-first-month-of-the-uprising
• The Lebanese Politics Podcast https://soundcloud.com/lebpoliticspodcast

Syria Links:

• Syrian org working on the ground in Idlib that mentioned: https://molhamteam.com/en/campaigns/177
• and another in Idlib: https://violetsyria.org/en/
• The women-led campaign for prisoners: https://syrianfamilies.org/en/
• Enab Baladi news: https://english.enabbaladi.net/
• Al Jumhuriya: https://www.aljumhuriya.net/en

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