Bogaert, Koenraad

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

[Image from OWS action in New York. Photo by KoenraadBogaert.]Global Dimensions of the Arab Spring and the Potential forAnti-Hegemonic PoliticsRecommend 51 people recommend this. Tweet 16I remember a journalist asking a few weeks ago: has the world become abetter place because of the Arab spring? I think what he meant was: are weliving today in a better world because the Arab peoples have gotten rid of, orare getting rid of, some of the worst authoritarian leaders in the world? Thequestion implicitly referred to the matter of democratization. Of course, theissue of democratization has dominated the study of political change in theArab world over the last twenty years. However, a better question to askwould be: can the world become a better place because of the Arabuprisings? There is a slight nuance between these questions. The firstquestion refers to something that has already happened—the ousting ofso-called bad dictators—while the second question opens space to look atthe potential of the social protests in the Arab World in their fight againstsomething bigger, a fight against a kind universal political project: that ofneoliberal globalization. And if we look at it from that perspective, the social struggles of Egyptians, Tunisians, andother peoples in the region entail a much wider political dimension. Moreover, if we truly consider the socio-economicbackground of the Arab uprisings—that is, the increasing uneven development, rising unemployment, and theincreasing concentration of wealth in the hands of a few leaders and their entourage—then we actually see manyparallels with the social struggles and political concerns of other current protest movements in the world, such as theindignados in Europe, Occupy Wall Street in the US, and the Chilean student protests.These parallels between social protest in the Arab region and the rest of the world can be considered both within ahistorical framework and by looking at the connections initiated by the protesters themselves. First, let me brieflyelaborate on the historical framework. To understand the significance and implication of the Arab uprisings, we mustnot forget that the current pressures for change are rooted in the political changes of the last thirty years. Moreprecisely, the socio-economic reforms of the last three decades were evidence of a fundamental politicaltransformation that can be related to the politics of neoliberal globalization. Put simply, what we generally understandas neoliberalism is not just some utopian free-market model that got a little bit out of hand, a model—as aconsequence of this narrow understanding—that can be remedied by appointing “politically neutral technocrats” inEurope (for example, in Italy) or transparent and democratically elected rulers in the Arab world committed to theso-called universal principles of good governance. One should pay attention to the fact that while many Europeanleaders see liberal democracy as the solution for the Arab region, in their own continent they are getting past theconviction that it is up to nationally and democratically elected leaders to resolve the current crisis of capitalism.Instead they now look to technocrats, the IMF, and the European Union for salvation.In contrast to the imagination of neoliberalism as an excessive free-market model, we should understand neoliberaltransformations in the Arab region for what they really are: a political project—or better yet, a range of political projects,because there is no one-size-fits all model. But despite the crucial differences within and between different states inthe region, there are some general tendencies that are necessary to take into account in order to consider the globaldimensions of the current uprisings in the region. First of all, neoliberal politics in the Arab region meant an attack onthe achievements of the developmental state that experienced its heyday in the 1950s and the 1960s. The project offormer Egyptian president Gamal Abdel-Nasser was probably the classic example of the Arab developmental state.Through radical land reform, public sector investment, increasing subsidies on all kinds of primary consumption goods,and prestige projects such as the Aswan Dam and the nationalization of the Suez Canal, Nasser succeeded in raisingthe living standards of millions of ordinary Egyptians. Here we can draw a first parallel with what happened in Europeand the United States, where the achievements of the welfare state were and are increasingly under pressure. WhileKeynesianism/welfarism in the West and state developmentalism in the Global South supported the premise thatgeneral welfare and a minimum guarantee of social security would benefit capitalist development, neoliberal theoryDec 21 2011by Koenraad BogaertGlobal Dimensions of the Arab Spring and the Potential for Anti-Heg... http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3638/global-dimensions-of-the-...1 van 3 17/07/2013 9:19promised that the prioritization of capital accumulation and profit maximization would (through the notorioustrickle-down effect) eventually produce generalized welfare. This has proven to be a myth, and social inequality hasbeen on the rise consistently over the past thirty years in Europe, the United States, and the Arab region.Secondly, and related to this last point, the systematic rollback of the developmental state through structuraladjustments, austerity measures, and privatization meant that the middle and labor classes in the Arab region cameincreasingly under pressure, mainly due to the cutback of income redistribution mechanisms and rising job insecurity.For example, before the 1980s and the 1990s, university graduates were practically guaranteed a job in the publicsector in countries such as Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia. These neoliberal reforms were at the basis of the motivationsof ordinary people to come out into the streets en masse in 2011 and overthrow authoritarian leaders. Again, there areparallels that can be drawn with social protest movements like the indignados and the occupy-movements. Also withinthese movements, the middle classes and middle class youth are the ones that came out onto the streets to denouncesocial injustice and inequality caused by years of neoliberal policies. The important lesson we have to remember hereis that it is not so much poverty that draws these protesters into the streets of Cairo, Tunis, New York, and Madrid, butincreasing and continuously growing social inequality.Third, many who have studied the Arab world know that the protests of 2011 are not new. They are the culmination ofyears of socio-economic unrest, often in smaller villages and towns. Well-known examples are the strikes in Mahalla inEgypt, the struggles of the miners in Gafsa in Tunisia, and the campaigns by unemployed graduates and themovement against the rising cost of living in Morocco (“le movement contre la cherté de la vie”). Anti-neoliberalprotests in the West are also not new, having emerged twelve years ago with the anti-globalization movement. Besides the historical framework, there are other phenomena that prove that the explanations for the Arab uprisingscannot be located exclusively within endogenous political trajectories of regime change and authoritarian persistence.Protesters within the indignados movement or within Occupy Wall Street have repeatedly emphasized and expressedthat they were directly inspired by the occupation of Tahrir Square and the Arab uprisings more generally. People allover the world began to mobilize and organize in similar ways. They used similar tactics and strategies, such as theoccupation of squares and other public spaces, and the setting up of horizontal structures of organization like generalassemblies. Through mutual forms of solidarity and debates, the protesters themselves pointed out the globaldimensions of the Arab uprisings that were often ignored by the mainstream media.An interesting example was the debate that emerged on Jadaliyya between OWS and Egyptian activists regarding howto give form to solidarity. In fact, this debate has shown that the seemingly simple question of how to express one’ssolidarity with someone else living in a different context is not free of pitfalls and power relations. The EgyptianComrades of Cairo reacted with surprise to the proposition of OWS to send twenty observers to the elections of lastNovember. The Comrades of Cairo answered with the following revealing statement:Regardless of how one stands on the efficacy of elections or elected representatives, the Occupy movementseems outside the scope of this; your choice to occupy is, if nothing else, bigger than any election. Why then,should our elections be any cause for celebration, when even in the best of all possible worlds they will be justanother supposedly “representative” body ruling in the interest of the 1% over the remaining 99% of us?As such, they continued:Our struggle—which we think we share with you—is greater and grander than a neatly functioning parliamentarydemocracy; we demanded the fall of the regime, we demanded dignity, freedom and social justice, and we arestill fighting for these goals. We do not see elections of a puppet parliament as the means to achieve them.In contrast to these kinds of messages and insightful debates, mainstream media and politicians have tried to criticizeOWS and the indignados for not knowing what they really want and for not offering any concrete alternatives. Thisimagination of the social protests in Europe and the US proves, I think, that they (the mainstream media and thepoliticians) do not fully understand the dynamics of what is going on and what it might become.The mere rejection of the current status quo by the occupiers embeds an essential and critical vision of the politics ofthe future (or the politics from below). The key lies within its main goal: occupation. First of all, through their actionsand their forms of organization, demonstrators all over the world have created the space for a radical alternative toneoliberal hegemony, without falling into the trap of delivering one directly. Secondly, through the process of organizingtheir protests, they are directly giving form to possible new alternatives, alternatives that are not drafted with specificlists of concrete points that can be handed over to the authorities, but to the contrary, that are constructed on site.In a recent publication by YES! Magazine on OWS, this point was formulated as follows:Through the Occupy Wall Street movement we’re redefining power, learning new ways to make change, andwinning back our political self-respect. Instead of petitioning the powerful for change, we’re making it happenourselves. Instead of taking direction from leaders, each of us can claim the right as a sovereign individual to beGlobal Dimensions of the Arab Spring and the Potential for Anti-Heg... http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3638/global-dimensions-of-the-...2 van 3 17/07/2013 9:19©2010-2013 by the Arab Studies Institute. All Rights Reserved.info@jadaliyya.comsite by concepcion designpart of powerful collective action. (69)To give an obvious example, the very act of occupying and the vision behind the organization of an encampment areevidence of a concrete anti-hegemonic project. After several decades of neoliberal urbanism in which the city has beenredesigned and restructured to satisfy the desires and interests of global capital over and above those of its actualinhabitants, the occupation of public space—or in some cases “privately owned public space” like Zucotti Park—turnsthe urban space back into a battlefield where the increasing privatization of public space and the organization of sociallife according to market-oriented principles are contested and replaced by concrete socio-political alternatives. Sociallife within these encampments reflects a radically different way of life based primarily on solidarity, social equality, andradical democracy. Through these kinds of actions, protesters claim their “right of the city.” As such, these protestersare not just “against the system”; they are actively giving form to possible alternatives.The global dimension of the Arab Spring has nothing to do with some kind of "Arab awakening." The Arab peopleweren’t asleep at all during the past decade, as Rabab el-Mahdi has pointed out on the program "Empire" onAl-Jazeera. In fact, we should see it the other way around. Arab protesters have awakened OWS and the indignados.They restarted what the anti-globalization movement couldn’t carry through. As such, what started in Tunisia has nowcreated space on a global scale to question and contest neoliberal hegemony. Until now, this is its most importantaccomplishment. Hopefully, many others will follow.Latest posts in Politics: Who's Who: Egypt's Full Interim Cabinet  Resurgent NationalismIf you prefer, email your comments to info@jadaliyya.com.JadaliyyaAbout JadaliyyaJadaliyya TeamContributorsContact InformationContributionsSubmission GuidelinesRelease FormPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServicePages/SectionsCultureReportsReviewsInterviewsJad NavigationO.I.L.FeaturesRoundtablesEssential ReadingsPhoto EssaysPedagogy SectionPedagogy Homepage/0ر23ا م673اArabic SectionArabic-CultureArabic-PoliticsArabic-EconomicsArabic-HistoryFacebook social pluginAdd a comment...Comment using... Global Dimensions of the Arab Spring and the Potential for Anti-Heg... http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3638/global-dimensions-of-the-...3 van 3 17/07/2013 9:19

Global dimensions of the Arab Spring and the potential for anti-hegemonic politics

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Global dimensions of the Arab Spring and the potential for anti-hegemonic politics

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Ghent University Academic Bibliography