Books
The Dialectic and the Detective: The Arab Spring and Regime Change in Libya
My first book, The Dialectic and the Detective exposed the lie that the so-called Arab Spring was a grassroots revolution by the Arab masses to to get rid of their oppressive and corrupt leaders.
Based on meticulous research and guided by Marx’s dialectical method, I detail how Western spy agencies, NGOs, and jihadist “revolutionaries” - planned and executed this false flag operation, and how the UN and Nato delivered the decisive blow.
This dialectical study of the Arab Spring proves that the so-called revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt were part of a smokescreen to provide cover for the murder of Colonel Gaddafi and regime change in Libya.
Yes, the masses were involved, but only playing the part the very creative directors and co-conspirators had preordained they play - to confer grassroots legitimacy to their dastardly game of death and destruction. Read the book’s introduction here. It is available here.
“[An] impressive volume by [an] estimable and talented dialectician of African descent…I cannot recommend [the book] highly enough…An engaging and worthwhile read that demonstrates the utility of the Marxian dialectic…Here Julian Lahai Samboma has created a useful primer that demonstrates the methodology of dialectically interrogating a recent event, the NATO destruction of Gaddafi’s Libya, in a structured and precisely enunciated fashion... For professors teaching seminars on dialectics I think this is a very good textbook that furthermore will not kill student wallets, always an added virtue”. - Andrew Stewart, Marxist writer and filmmaker, in Counterpunch magazine
“The book offers a rich analysis of the intricacies of the Arab Spring and the regime change in Libya, a process that despite the killing of Colonel Gaddafi is far from concluded. The analysis to unveil the hidden dynamics and the anti-imperialistic nature of the Arab Spring is ingeniously developed using Marx’s materialist dialectics. Thus, posing as a murder detective, the author takes the reader through each element of the plan that Western countries concocted to pursue regime change in Libya by eliminating Colonel Gaddafi and using the Arab Spring, and its purported aspirations of liberation from dictatorship and repression, to disguise their true intentions. Julian Lahai Samboma cleverly triangulates information mostly available in the public domain to reconstruct the jigsaw of the imperialist driven process that led to the fall of Colonel Gaddafi and the ensuing unrest and fragmentation of Libya”. - Grazia Careccia, Human Rights and Middle East Senior Consultant
“A radical and timely dissection of imperialism, as well as a particularly interesting case study of Libya and Gaddafi”.
- Ms A B, a corporate publisher, who subsequently withdrew support … [ Thou shall not upset our masters! ]
"Before the publication of this book, the common perception of the so-called Arab Spring was that it was a rebellion against domestic despotism. However, by judicious deployment of the Marxian dialectic, we prove that the Arab Spring was anti-imperialist in nature and, paradoxically, that it was instigated and manipulated by imperialism". - J L Samboma, Author
“Yeah, the CIA recruited that fruit peddler in Tunisia who self-immolated in January, 2011 just like they recruited the guys who flew jets into the WTC and the Pentagon in 2001. If it weren't for these men willing to die for the right of the USA and Israel to rule over Arabs and North Africans, things would have been much better”.
-A Reviewer
“You have obviously not read the book, even though I submitted a review copy. This is heckling, not constructive criticism. You have conflated several issues in that response. Your take on the self-immolating fruit vendor is a reified perception of the real, hidden movement of what Marx called "empirical matter". That is precisely one of the reasons I wrote the book, to remove the mote from the eyes of comrades and non-comrades alike. If the appearance was the true reflection of the essence, to paraphrase Marx, there would be no need for science, or for the materialist dialectic, which is the scientific method”.
-J L Samboma
Black & Red: Selected Essays and Journalism
The material contained in this volume are essays and articles published over the years in various magazines and newspapers, including blogs. Despite the passage to time, their relevance still resonates.
The collection has pieces on Pan-Africanism, neoliberalism and underdevelopment in Africa, Zionism and the Palestinian Question, racism and, of course, on imperialism and media manipulation – all subjects very close to the heart of the writer, an African journalist and author who writes from a leftist perspective.
If there is a theme common to all the pieces in this collection it is that of social justice, which fact should make this worthwhile reading for anyone who believes in that ideal, regardless of the label under which they operate.
By its very nature, journalism is produced to be consumed in an instant to make way for tomorrow’s news. The book-form, on the other hand, communicates the idea of solidity, a certain here-to-stay, never-to-be-forgotten factor that eludes newsprint, which exists to be discarded – as trash or recycled paper, or to be forgotten in some newspaper morgue or university library.
Enforcing Consent: The Theory of Communicative Violence and How it operates in the Media and Cultural Industries
This essay advances my theory of "communicative violence" to describe how the media and cultural industries operate under capitalism. Through their roles in the legitimation and reproduction of bourgeois relations of production and distribution, the author argues, the communication industries commit acts of violence against the proletariat and subaltern groups.
The work is based on the materialist dialectic of Marx and Engels and critiques the contributions of scholars such as Johan Galtung and Slavoj Zizek. It breaks new ground in the literature by providing a dialectical account of violence, something which had not hitherto been accomplished. It is a must-read for Marxists, media scholars, refuseniks, and the general reader who wants a peek under the bonnet of capitalist violence.
Given his novel, dialectical account of violence, the author calls for a review of existing taxonomies of violence. The book concludes by stating that only “resolute political action from below” can end communicative and other forms of capitalist violence.