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Materializing the Global Dimensions of the Arab Spring Over Space and Time UNIVERSITEIT GENT FACULTEIT POLITIEKE EN SOCIALE WETENSCHAPPEN Materializing the global dimensions of the Arab spring over space and time Wetenschappelijk artikel aantal woorden: 8222 CLAUW OLIVIER MASTERPROEF POLITIEKE WETENSCHAPPEN afstudeerrichting INTERNATIONALE POLITIEK PROMOTOR: DR. KOENRAAD BOGAERT COMMISSARIS: PROF. DR. SAMI ZEMNI COMMISSARIS: PROF. DR. CHRISTOPHER PARKER ACADEMIEJAAR 2013 – 2014 2 Abstract This article argues the different protests that sprung up since Mohamed Bouazizi’s self- immolation to be a part of a global movement instead of an amalgam of distinct, national struggles. By tackling the revolutionary phenomena in their spatio-temporal dimensions it explores how three decades of neoliberalism have reconfigured the lives of the subordinate in a market-oriented geography of uneven development and created a soil for growing popular discontent. The article elaborates on the urban level as the privileged space for the regulation of transnational capitalism as well as the building of new forms of community and (transnational) identity, and investigates at which point the upheavals can be framed as urban phenomena. Further, it discusses the constraints of both the national container perspective and the globalist position for grasping the full complexity of the multiple dimensions underlying the on-going cycle of protest. The article examines why local actions of certain groups resonate with distant and different grievances of others and provide inspiration to activate dormant potentialities at the domestic level. By interacting and expressing mutual solidarity and the claims they hold against global capitalism, but first and foremost by the very act of occupying – as allies in a common struggle – the protestors pointed out the global dimensions of the Arab uprisings themselves. They created the space for redefining fundamental political questions about democracy and social justice and taught us that acting differently implies a conditio sine qua non for creating other globalizations. 3 Nederlandstalig abstract Dit artikel kadert de diverse protesten die sedert Mohamed Bouazizi’s zelfverbranding de kop opstaken als een onderdeel van een globale beweging die het specifieke van de lokale strijd overstijgt. Onderzoek van de historische processen die aan de massademonstraties voorafgaan wijst uit hoe de neoliberale hervormingen van de voorbije decennia het leven van de ondergeschikte klassen hebben hertekend in een marktgerichte geografie van ongelijke ontwikkeling en een voedingsbodem creëerden voor de huidige protestgolf. Het artikel verduidelijkt de rol van de stad in de regulering van het transnationaal kapitalisme en belicht diens mogelijkheden voor de opbouw van nieuwe gemeenschapsvormen en (transnationale) identiteit. Vanuit dergelijk perspectief wordt onderzocht op welk vlak de protesten als stedelijke fenomenen kunnen worden beschouwd. Waar containervisies en over-gesimplificeerde globale perspectieven er niet in slagen de meervoudige gelaagdheid en de complexiteit van de huidige protestgolf te omvatten, focust dit artikel op de vragen waarom lokale sociale grieven en protesten het latente revolutionaire potentieel van samenlevingen aan de andere kant van de wereld activeren en weerklank vinden in de slogans, statements en (inter)acties van een gedifferentieerd amalgaam aan demonstranten. Via hun interactie en wederzijdse solidariteitsbetuigingen en hun afkeer van de werking van het globaal kapitalisme, maar bovenal door de manier waarop ze het bezetten van publieke ruimte beleven, wezen de activisten zelf reeds op de mondiale dimensie van het protest. Ze creëerden de ruimte om fundamentele politieke vragen inzake democratie en sociale rechtvaardigheid te herdefiniëren en leerden ons dat anders handelen een conditio sine qua non is voor het creëren van andere vormen van globalisering. 4 Materializing the global dimensions of the Arab spring over space and time In a world in which velocity is king and political questions about democracy, representation and equality are being redefined in terms of efficiency, budgetary discipline, flexibility and global connectivity, neoliberal globalization has been imposed upon us as the one story, an inevitable, political neutral force acting beyond the scope of political agency (Parker, 2009). This very tale of inevitability actually constructs and legitimizes a subjective political reality which assembles the interests of certain groups over those of the rest of the population and transforms citizens into mere consumers. Over the past decades market-oriented policy reforms have been the prerogative of a range of geographically differentiated processes of class formation which have gradually compromised the lives of the subordinate classes and created a soil for popular turmoil. Along these lines, the wave of protest that submerged the Arab region in 2011 did not really come as a surprise. While analysts in international mass media explained the Arab revolts as an Arab awakening (a rise against authoritarianism and decades of political stagnation) and criticized the turmoil that struck the West for being ignorant of what it really wanted to accomplish and for not offering alternatives, I argue that the worldwide protests did not sprout up out of nowhere and should rather be interpreted as phenomena which inevitably emanate from social conditions. Studying social struggle is a multidimensional engagement, exploring matters beyond a revolutionary momentum, container perspective and the protesters’ demands and grievances most cited by mass media. Far more than willing to deliver a state-of-the art contribution to social movement theory or a full-scale politico-economic critique of the working of neoliberalism, in this article I aim to sketch some insights which allow us to draw a number of parallels at work in the wave of protest that has been cross-cutting the globe in recent times. I begin with a brief outline of the historical developments in the social, economic and political architecture of the state that have led to an entanglement of political and economic interests, facilitated the restoration of elite power and created a soil for popular discontent. Next, I will highlight the key role played by the urban level in the regulation of international capitalism, investigate at which point the diverse protests can be framed as urban phenomena and explore how local triggers in such a setting can grow out to be something much bigger, crossing borders, cleavages and continents and go through a global dimension. Further, I will consider the local upheaval a part of a cycle of protest that transcends the national container. We must however not venture the pitfall of constructing a single global activist story or future against the monolith of neoliberal globalization. Freeing the concept of space of its linear burden and reframing the position of the local in relation to the global, I perceive the different protests as a part of a wider socio-political phenomenon of men and women all over the globe who are willing to take their future in their own hands. To end 5 with, I will point out how the protesters interact, exchange tactics, declare mutual solidarity and why their actions resonate across the globe, activating the dormant potentialities lying underneath societies, altering existing as well as constructing new (transnational) identities and living through a range of alternative globalizations. Geographies of social protest in a historical perspective The protests of the Tunisians are not those of the Egyptians, Greeks, Indignados, Occupy or Gezi activists. Nonetheless there seems to be more at stake than a mere coincidental simultaneity or succession of local struggles. As Koenraad Bogaert (2011 and 2012) already pointed out, we cannot come to a correct understanding of the full complexity of the events without taking into account the historical developments in which he claims the protests to be embedded. While fordism after World War II ruled the Northern hemisphere and developmentalism spread over the Global South, a social contract – on the premise of generalized welfare and a minimum guarantee of social security – had been forged between regime and mass (Walton and Seddon, 1994). Both models of redistribution enabled large parts of the population to ameliorate their living standard. In the Arab region a growing middle class enjoyed the increased prosperity and legitimized clientelist systems of patronage at the expense of their own political rights (El-Mahdi, 2011). From the late 1970s on, when Thatcher and Reagan started dominating the political scene, outdated keynesianist economic recipes have been systematically replaced by their neoliberal counterparts (Hatem, 2012). As Paul Volcker’s skyrocketing interest rates caught the third world in a debt trap, saddling it with a tremendous increase of foreign debt, no choice was left than to accept the structural adjustment programmes – implying austerity measures, deregulation, privatization and market liberalization – imposed by the IMF, the World Bank and the leading capitalist countries (Harvey, 2005). Public assets were being sold far beneath their value to relatives or cronies of the regime and an international financial elite, leading to an entanglement of economic and political interests, causing a growing social inequality and pauperization of the masses and resulting in the enrichment of a glocal elite (Armbrust, 2011). While the Ben Ali clan squeezed Tunisia, the Assads and the cliques around Mubarak
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