Global Protest: The Arab “Spring”

CRM2002 9 March 2014

Guest Lecturer: Alyssa Bernsteinabernstein01@qub.ac.uk

Lecture Structure• Context and overview• Examples:–Tunisia: The first revolution–Egypt: Revolution and then return–Jordan: Revolution fizzles–Yemen: Revolution averted

• State crime• Women’s roles• Aftermath/Concluding questions

What has sprung?

http://thehiddentranscript.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/arab-spring-map1.jpg

Effects:

Rulers overthrown:- Tunisia- Egypt - Libya- Yemen

Civil uprising (stifled):- Bahrain

Civil war:- Syria- Libya

Major Protests:- Algeria- Iraq- Jordan

- Kuwait- Morocco- SudanMinor protests:- Mauritania- Oman- Saudi Arabia- Djibouti- Western Sahara- Palestinian territories

There is no “cohesive Arab revolt” (Anderson)

Context• Poverty and high unemployment• Young, educated population• Inflation/rising food costs• Corrupt, authoritarian rule with wealthy elite

• Islamicization of Arab world since 1960’s

• Postulated “Arab malaise” – Lebanese author Samir Kassir identifies as “sense of persecution” or even “self-hatred”

Protests before 2010Small sample:• 1916: “Arab Revolt” against Ottoman rule

• Revolts against British and French colonialism

• Egyptian Revolution of 1952 (King Farouk -> Gamal Abdel Nasser)

• Algerian War of Independence ends in 1962

• Palestinian intifadas

Western focus on ‘Facebook’ or ‘Twitter’ revolution

• Ignores past Arab revolts, overemphasizes importance of Western technology

• “Arab Spring” – cf. “Spring of Nations,” European revolutions of 1848 – European revolts also had little immediate impact

• Ignorance of Islamic organizations– Influential because of previous organization

– Unifying force since failure of Pan-Arabism

History of the Arab Spring

• Tunisia, 17 December 2010Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid, vegetable seller, sets himself on fire after police destroy his vegetable cart, setting off riots • Two days later, President (of 23 years) Ben Ali visits Bouazizi and families of 2 killed, but says: “The law will be applied in all fairness” to “a minority of extremists and mercenaries who resort to violence and disorder”

• A handful of protesters and bloggers are arrested and soon released

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JBeggtYn6k(until 1:40)

Tunisia: The Jasmine Revolution

• Ben Ali steps down on 14 January 2011 after military confronts his security

• Protests have already spread to neighboring countries• Islamic parties win 37% of elections for constituent assembly to draft constitution

• Assassination of Shokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi, both of secular opposition

• Debate between religious and secular parties over constitution

• Adopting new constitution• Prime minister Ali Laarayeth has stepped down • Economy still bad – currently protests against IMF-imposed budget cuts and tax raises (35% of youth unemployed)

• Ben Ali sentenced to life in prison for complicity in murder of 43 protesters

Protests spread

Egypt – Mother of Civilization• Initial revolution begins 25 January, National Police Day.

• 80,000 people responded to Facebook invite; protests held across country against police, corruption, etc

• 2 days later, Friday, ‘Day of Rage’ – arrests, clashes, police stations burned and prisons broken into

• 2 February: “Day of the Camel” – pro-Mubarak groups enter Tahrir Squarehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgYnby7rFXs (until 2:00)

• 11 February: Mubarak steps down• 825 people have died in protests

“The power of this revolution came from these harafish burning police stations and from the collapse of the Interior Ministry. That was utilized by the political elites who centralized the struggle in Tahrir Square.

Without this confrontation, the revolution wouldn’t have been possible, and every police station was burnt to the ground because people have been dying inside them for years.

There is a veneer of nonviolence but no one saw the battles in Suez and elsewhere — How is it peaceful when people are dying in the streets?”

Mohammad Gamal Bashir, member of football team the “Ultras”Harafish: unemployed, lower-class young men – not the intellectual elite with laptops shown running the revolution via Twitter

Egypt after the “Revolution”

• 6 months of military rule • Elections held in June 2012: Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Morsi wins 51% of vote

• Morsi grants himself sweeping legislative power, demands re-trials for officers acquitted of murdering protesters in 2011

• 22 November 2012: 200,000 anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Tahrir; 100,000 pro-Morsi supporters gather elsewhere

Egypt’s military takeover

• 3 July 2013: Egyptian Armed Forces announced the suspension of the newly-passed constitution, they demand of Morsi’s resignation, and new leadership

• Military clamps down on freedom of the press, arrests journalists and bloggers

• Pro-Morsi supporters on the streets• Violent clashes with pro-Morsi/Muslim Brotherhood protesters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRJGfqbMRwY

Raba’a (R4BIA) massacreMilitary violently raids two camps in Cairo where pro-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood members have been sitting in 14 August 2012 - Camps are accused of being terrorist strongholds- 595 were civilians, including 4 journalists, and 43 police killed, according to Health Ministry (MB: 2,6000)

- MB response: Coptic churches, police stations burned

- State of emergency and curfew instated until October 2013

- Sectarian clashes continue to simmerhttp://youtu.be/xJPiotki_iM?t=3m27s

November 2013: Military government bans protest

• Bans on gatherings of more than 10 people without prior permission

• Met with silence from Egyptian population, except from a few human rights groups

Interim PM Hazem el-Beblawi: “Like a man who kills or another who deals in drugs, all those commit violations, and as soon as they commit such violations, if arrested, they will be put to trial and punished.”

Charges against protesters

• 12 bloggers and activists charged and convicted with arson against home of Ahmed Shafik, one of Mubarak’s ministers– despite no evidence

• Charges filed under Mohammad Morsi’s rule and thought to be political– Case continued under General el-Sisi, who led country after military coup

– http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/06/egyptian-bloggers-who-mobilized-support-for-2011-uprising-in-jail-or-under-threat/?ref=egypt (1st 3 minutes; 12:40-14:48

Muslim Brotherhood banned

• 21 women and girls in Alexandria charged with up to 11 years in prison for participating in a pro-MB demonstration (sentences later reduced)

• 20, including Al-Jazeera journalists, arrested and awaiting trial for colluding with the now-illegal Muslim Brotherhood, for spreading ‘lies’ and material support

November 2012: Mubarak charged to life terms for supporting killing of protesters, minor corruption charges

Morsi later demands re-trials for police and military officers acquitted

No trials for military officers

State Accountability

Rise in crime• Armed robberies: 210 in 2010, 2,087 in 2012; 7,386 home invasions to 11,699

• Reduce in influence, confidence, and control of police (and police violence)

• Interior Ministry: rise in weapons flows, unemployment, prisoners released from prison – according to Ministry of Interior and an al-Arabiyya report

But: reduced occurrence of crime

Jordan• Unemployment: 12%; poverty: 25%• Muslim Brotherhood/secular divide; Palestinian/Jordanian divide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN47VYSG8Lc (until 1:05)

• January 2011: Protests against inflation, unemployment, and unchanging regime

• King Abdullah II has changed Prime Minister and cabinet 4 times since 2011

• 24 March: 500 protesters set up a camp; pro-government supporters get in violent clashes w/ camp residents, 1 is killed

• July 2011: Protests continue, some police violence

• Pro-government, anti-reform protests

Jordan con’t• 100 protesters from April 2011 arrested and put on trial

• 11 activists and bloggers from the Hirak youth movement being tried for ‘lengthening their tongues,’ (speaking against the king) ‘undermining the political regime’ and ‘illegal gathering’

• 2012 protests over a 10% hike in fuel prices fizzle out

• Concerns over influx of refugees (500,000), unrest from Syria

Yemen• 27 January 2011: 27,000 protest in Sana’a, Yemen for better economic conditions and the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Salah

• After nearly 100 protesters are killed in protests before March 2011, Salah agrees to step down, but then reneges

• Largest Yemeni tribe clashes with government forces, risk of civil war

• Salah eventually agrees to step down in a GCC-brokered initiative, in exchange from immunity from military prosecution, and hands power to Vice President al-Hadi

• Al-Hadi wins February 2012 elections by 99%

State Crime

Participants in state crime• Leadership

– Complicit in killing of protesters

– Legalizing or banning protests

– Corruption– Organizing groups of ‘pro-government thugs’

• Military – Importance in supporting or rejecting leadership

– Shooting at

protesters• Police

– Cooperation with military

– Role in arresting protesters

– Beatings and shootings

• Judiciary– Corrupt or meaningless trials

– Refusal to dispute leadership’s decisions

Women in the Arab Spring

• Women have never been passive in Arab world, but have participated in the dialogue with social norms, national and international forms of oppression

• Women participate in religious and secular protests

Women in Tahrir (Egypt)

Pro-women demonstration in Tahrir Square following the

‘blue bra’ assault – 23/12/2011

Photo by Georgia Wells, http://www.egyptunplugged.com/?page_id=64

Organization of anti-rape and harassment movement in Egypt

http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/jul/03/cairo-volunteers-women-protesters-video

Yemen: Tawakkul Karman

Three years later – where’s summer?

The end of the Revolution:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dnbnEP2lbSI

• New government in Egypt – elections scheduled; Field Marshal el-Sisi expected to win

• Authoritarian government continues in Yemen• Tunisia is passing a new constitution• King still firmly entrenched in Jordan• Syria is embroiled in civil war• End results of Arab Spring are unclear – overall feeling of dejection, return to authoritarian rule (?)

Lecture Questions• What have the Arab Spring’s successes been?

• How does this fit into the context of crime as protest/protest as crime?

• What techniques did protesters use?

• What techniques did governments use?

• How does this fit into what you have learned about protest and criminology?

Further Reading• The Battle for the Arab Spring: Revolution, Counter-Revolution, and the Making of

a New Era, Lin Noueihed, Alex Warren. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012

• Interactive Timeline: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2013/12/timeline-arab-spring

• Resisting state crime as a criminological project in the context of the Arab Spring, David O. Friedrichs, in State Crime and Resistance, ed. Elizabeth Stanley and Jude McCulloch, Routledge, 2012

• Was the Egyptian revolution really non-violent? Abdel-Rahamn Hussein, Egypt Independent, 24 January 2012 http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/was-egyptian-revolution-really-non-violent

• Arab Revolts – Past and Present, Joseph Massad, Al-Jazeera, 18 November 2011, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011111810259215940.html