Eqbal Ahmad: Legacy of Resistance

2 CDs

The main theme of Noam Chomsky’s lecture which began the tribute to Eqbal Ahmad event, was confronting empire. He talked about the “international community” as essentially the U.S. and its allies, Bush’s “messianic mission” and the “unusual historic event we are witnessing” the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Palestinians enabled by Washington. By Israeli attacks, he says he means “Israeli and U.S. attacks, since the U.S. is supplying Israel with weapons as well as diplomatic and ideological support.” His talk was followed by an informative panel discussion.

Noam Chomsky, legendary MIT professor and among the world’s leading intellectuals, is joined by Pakistani journalist and filmmaker Beena Sarwar, scholars Margaret Cerullo, Emran Qureshi, and Stuart Schaar, in a celebration of the great Pakistani activist/thinker Eqbal Ahmad and the publication of The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad. Ahmad, a charismatic and brilliant strategist, died in Islamabad in 1999. He was called by his close friend Edward Said, “the shrewdest and most original anti-imperialist analyst of the postwar world.” Chomsky opens the event with a great talk on the Middle East. A panel discussion follows on Ahmad’s work and its significance with a particular focus on Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Pakistan.

Moderated by Jack Trumpbour of the Harvard Trade Union Program.

Recorded at Ames Hall, Harvard Law School as part of its Labor and Worklife Program.