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Vijay Prashad Biography

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, journalist, commentator and a Marxist intellectual. He is the Executive Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books.

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Vijay Prashad Quotes

It is convenient for Hillary Clinton and Tony Blair to say the rise of the Islamic State has nothing to do with the Iraq War because that takes the culpability off their shoulders. The Islamic State is a product of the Iraq War. It took about a 100 years to build the Iraqi state, and the Americans and the British destroyed it in an afternoon.

Culpability, Islamic, Product, War, Years

I think a far more important strategic way to deal with the Islamic State would be to bring some of these regional partners and explain to them that Turkey's own contradictory foreign policy has to end. I mean, if United States is serious, it has leverage over Turkey. And apparently it has not been able to move Turkey sufficiently.

Deal, Islamic, Mean, Moving, Partners

To build a mass movement, nonviolence is indispensable.

Build, Indispensable, Mass, Movement, Nonviolence

You see often it's not ideas, it's inertia, it's bureaucratism, it's all the other things that sometimes come in the way of a good idea.

Bureaucratism, Good, Ideas, Sometimes, Way

In times when the tempo for struggle is not very high, you prepare populations by conducting acts of courage-building, confidence-building, respect for each other. That's what the preparation is about and it requires leadership.

Population, Populations, Preparation, Prepare, Struggle

I understand politically that uprisings take place as a combination of spontaneity and preparation, not that preparation is more important than spontaneity.

Important, Politically, Preparation, Take, Uprising, Uprisings

People who become important activists, they also struggle with the process of discovery.

Discovery, People, Process, Struggle

It's Israelis who are ready to abandon the hard work of peace.

Abandon, Hard, Hard Work, Israelis, Ready

When anarchists are having a debate, they're having a debate about tactics, 'Should you do this?', 'Should you do that?' The question isn't 'Should you do this?', 'Should you do that?', the primary question is how do you build confidence among the masses of people who experience hierarchies, who experience exploitation, who experience oppression.

Confidence, Exploitation, Hierarchy, People, Tactics

Mr. Obama needs to make a phone call to Ankara and have a serious conversation about why the current government in Turkey isn't going to seal its border, why it doesn't take a stronger position against the Islamic State.

Government, Islamic, Obama, Phones, Position, Seal

Mr. Assad is not going to be able to feel like there is a moderate opposition that actually threatens him. Currently, the Assad government looks out at the landscape, sees the rise of ISIS, sees that much of the rebel force has become largely Islamist, and then turns to the West and says, well, you know, they look toward the West and say, well, look, what you have is a terrorist group that's fighting against us. So in this context, I think, to talk about moderate opposition being created to put pressure on Damascus is rather illusionary.

Become, Fighting, Government, Like, Pressure, Thinking

People were, in good faith perhaps, writing history books about the Indian working class, Indian peasantry, et cetera, and at no point did Communists make an entry, not even to be criticized. They were essentially being whitewashed from history.

Book, Class, Criticized, Working, Writing

It's plain that the American right wing, the Republicans and some sections of the Democratic Party, don't really care about international norms. They believe in the executive authority of the president. They don't even believe the United Nations or international law should play any role vis-à-vis American policymaking.

Believe, Nations, Party, Play, Policymaking, United

There are cultures that produce different kinds of attitudes, whether it's religion, fatalism, sense of fear, repression, the culture of God and the police minimizes confidence in people.

Attitude, Attitudes, Fatalism, People, Police, Produce

There are several studies done of peasant uprisings where the first chapter might be 'conditions in that area' and so the conditions are bad, and then the second chapter is a kind of conjectural event, somebody's shot and then there's an uprising. But there's no consideration, no chapter on preparation.

Area, Bad, Events, Preparation, Several, Uprising

It's important to reflect about what's happening inside Israel.

Happenings, Important, Israel, Reflect

We are social beings who make communities with an urgency, and it is a stern charge to make us take refuge in the lonely world of oneself. . . . Racism attempts to occlude our cosmopolitanism (of the songs in and out of our bones), and it often appropriates our mild forms of xenophobia into its own virulent project. Difference among peoples is something that we negotiate in our everyday interactions, asking questions and being better informed of our mutual realities. To transform difference into the body is an act of bad faith, a denial of our shared nakedness.

Lonely, Negotiate, Questions, Song, Songs, Xenophobia

There's a different use for different strategies.

Different, Strategies, Strategy, Use

You cannot have politics without building mass-movements.

Building, Mass, Movement, Politics

There's no UN resolution that allows the United States to carry out operations in Syria. You'll remember that in Libya in 2011 there was a great hoopla made about the importance of getting a UN resolution. Here there was no attempt to get any resolution. They simply bombed in Syria.

Bombed, Hoopla, Remember, Resolution, United States

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Vijay Prashad Biography

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