Well, unless you plan on visiting the Zionist part of Palestine (AKA the Ever Victorious State of Israel), I don't think I can be of much help. Sorry. Have fun, though.
Anarchism and communism in the Middle East (en)
I'm in Egypt, so contact me if you come here. I'm not Egyptian though, and anarchism here is a pretty unknown quantity here as well. I do know a Palestinian anarchist so PM me if you want his contact details. It is also well worth meeting up with the Israeli Anarchists against the Wall. There might be some anarchists in ISM at the time you're there as well. PM me if you want to meet up with either groups I can give you some contacts.
Citizen K wrote:
Wow, Devrim, your hospitality overwhelms me. Forget I asked.
Actually Devrims quite right, Ireland is a popular destination and one gets feed up quite quickly with 'anarchist' back packers who are mostly just looking for somewhere to stay for free. After one particularly bad experience (and I've put up dozens of people) I decided in future to only put up those who were members of some organization back home whom I had some level of affinity for or who members of such organizations had vouched for.
Even more to the point if your traveling outside the 1st world where the cost of hospitality to you may be quite considerable to your hosts.
Devrim wrote:
I feel a bit dubious about this. We are very willing to meet people, but I don't want us to end up as a hostel service for Australian backpackers.Which political organisation do you belong to?
Devrim
EKS (Turkey)
Hey Dev
For what it's worth, I've known Citizen K for a good couple of years now and he's active in some of the longer running projects here - he just doesn't spend as much time on forums as some of us 
. He's also involved in helping to get another group up and running with myself and a few others. No need to feel dubious at all; hopefully you'll just feel comradely 
all the best.
gregg.
Quote:
I will probably be in the part of Palestine with the F-15s
Well most of the time they'll be on the Israeli side... but I understand your point. Nevertheless Israeli comrades always find it weird that activists that come often refuse to even explore "their" side of the green line so I would recommend hanging out at least a bit there. In any case you'll probably be in Jerusalem for a bit before going into the West Bank, and unless you're with the ISM it will be very difficult to find accommodation in the West Bank outside of the major towns and cities. However, Arabs are very hospitable so you should be able to find families to stay with, but please remember Joeblack's comment that
Quote:
traveling outside the 1st world (...) the cost of hospitality to you may be quite considerable to your hosts.
I love how I ask to meet some people and it gets interpreted as wanting to eat your food and sleep on your couch (and my first world ways being ignorant of expenses). That's the kind of attitude that keeps a movement swelling, lemme tell you.
Thanks for the pms, though. I'm really looking forward to catching up with some anarchists soon. 
Citizen K wrote:
I love how I ask to meet some people and it gets interpreted as wanting to eat your food and sleep on your couch (and my first world ways being ignorant of expenses). That's the kind of attitude that keeps a movement swelling, lemme tell you.
Yeah, and who the hell are you? Please forgive me for not inviting you to my house immediately. Perhaps, I should put my phone number up, give you my full name, home address, and maybe even post a picture, then you can recognise me at the bus station. God, how inhospitable I am being.
Or maybe, just maybe, I should stop to think for a second that I am a member of an illegal organisation, of which I would be very surprised if any of the members didn't have at least one relative who had been imprisoned and tortured for political reasons.
So maybe, just maybe, we would be right in asking a few questions about people before they come to visit us.
Various people off Libcom have visited us, and can attest to our hospitality. Perhaps you should think that you are talking about going to the Middle East, not to Sydney for a rugby match. It is a politically dangerous place. For example two people were shot dead on demonstrations in this country this week. Did you read about it in the news? No, I don't think so. Do you want to know why? Because two people being murdered on a demonstration in Turkey isn't news. It is just something that happens.
I really couldn't care less about expenses, or sleeping on my couch (our organisation has an office with a sofa bed in anyway). I just don't invite people to come and visit us on the basis of having made two posts on an internet board.
If you can't understand why it is your problem.
Devrim
. Keep up the good work comrade.I think it is a fair response. Basically, I was accused of inhospitality and rudeness because I asked what organisation somebody was from. The only personal dig is that he might not realise what the situation in the Middle east is like, which I think is probably true from the way he approaches it. I don't think there is any 'cock waving', just a description of the way things are. If I had wanted to go on about personal credentials, I could have.
Devrim
Without wanting to sound like a hippy, I think this is all a big misunderstanding. Devrim's first post isn't that bad, a bit short, but nothing too rude:
Devrim wrote:
I feel a bit dubious about this. We are very willing to meet people, but I don't want us to end up as a hostel service for Australian backpackers.Which political organisation do you belong to?
Devrim
EKS (Turkey)
That said, I can see how it might have been interpreted rudely by Citizen K, who doesn't know Devrim and also the internet has a way of making everything seem ruder (a bit like leaving post-its on your fridge, no matter how sweet you think they are, actually make you look like a massive wanker..). If this interaction had taken place face to face I think it would have been more clear that Devrim wasn't being rude, just asking a fair-enough question..
As it is, it escalated. And for the record, it was JoeBlack who - completely innocently - brought up cost of hospitality outside the 1st world, not Devrim. He literally just asked what organisation Citizen K was from. Anyway, just thought my outsiders view might be interesting, I found the whole bust up quite funny.. like when you can see an accident just waiting to happen..
Devrim’s not exactly being out of order here, okay gregg’s a reasonably regular poster to have vouch for you further down the thread, but having a bit of a mind for security is fair enough for someone in an illegal organisation (or even in a non-illegal one for that matter).
Citizen K wrote:
I love how I ask to meet some people and it gets interpreted as wanting to eat your food and sleep on your couch (and my first world ways being ignorant of expenses). That's the kind of attitude that keeps a movement swelling, lemme tell you.
To my mind you sound like the average couch surfing activist. I could be completely wrong - maybe you arent going to move into my flat, sleep on the couch for a few weeks past your welcome, eat all the food, contribute nothing, bitch about how different things are in praque/copenhagen/oregan and then fuck off without contributing anything of worth to the local movement. But that has happened so many times that its not really worth taking the risk.
As a result of people who do that I would never myself get in touch with communists just for cheap places to stay while I am on holidays. That said, people off libcom, anarkismo or who are frens of comrades are welcome to stay. Its the only safe way to filter out the spongers. When I was WSM national secretary every fourth email was from a vegan yoga teacher from Portland who wanted to meet us and "maybe sleep on your couch".
Hi all,
I'll be traveling in the Middle East this spring/summer (probably April and May) and I would like to catch up with some fellow libcommers, anarchists and communists and etc.
My general destinations are, in no particular order, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. Maybe Egypt and Morocco if my cash holds out. I have a few comrades in Palestine to hook up with, but otherwise I'm pretty much clueless about meeting other anarchists/communists in the Arab world.
Can anyone help me out with some places to go and people to meet?
Thanks.