“War Is the Basis of Accumulation” - Ali Kadri on Genocide, Waste, Imperialism, and the Commodification of Death

In this episode we talk to Ali Kadri. Ali Kadri is the author of Arab Development Denied: Dynamics of Accumulation by Wars of Encroachment, The Unmaking of Arab Socialism: Anthem Frontiers of Global Political Economy and Development and The Cordon Sanitaire: A Single Law Governing Development in East Asia and the Arab World Max Ajl recently recommended that everyone needs to be reading Dr. Kadri’s work in these times, and so we reached out to have a conversation with him and I’m so glad that we did and we can share it with you all. In this discussion we talk to Ali Kadri about his theory of waste, and how we make sense of war and genocide within our analysis of how capitalism functions on a global scale. Dr. Kadri gets into these dynamics in relation to the struggle to the genocide of Palestinians today. And we talk about imperialism and the class dynamics at play in the current struggle. I found this to be a super illuminating discussion in the current moment. This was recorded on November 8th, 2023. Check out all 16 of our recent livestreams on our youtube channel. Tonight, November 16th at 8 PM ET we will be hosting a screening of the film The Lobby - USA and we will host a panel afterwards. This is a documentary film that goes into the aims, strategies and tactics of the pro-Israel lobby in the US with regards to crushing Palestinian solidarity organizing among students and I highly recommend it. If you’re listening to this after November 16th you can catch the replay at the same link which will be in the show notes. Links: The Lobby - USA screening & panel Support us on patreon or by becoming a member of our youtube channel