Table Of Content

The People Want The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Joan Palevsky Literature in Translation Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation. The People Want A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising Gilbert Achcar Translated from the French by G. M. Goshgarian University of California Press Berkeley • Los Angeles • London University of California Press, one of the most distin- guished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its ac- tivities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institu- tions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Achcar, Gilbert. The people want : a radical exploration of the Arab uprising / Gilbert Achcar. pages cm ISBN 978-0-520-27497-6 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-520-28051-9 (pbk) 1. Arab Spring, 2010– 2. Protest movements—Arab countries—History—21st century. 3. Revolutions— Arab countries—History—21st century. 4. Arab countries—Politics and government—21st century. 5. Arab countries—Economic conditions—21st century. 6. Youth—Political activity—Arab countries. 7. Unemployment—Arab countries. 8. Information technology—Political aspects—Arab countries. I. Title. JQ1850.A91A336 2013 909'.097492708312—dc23 2013014452 Manufactured in the United States of America 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Rolland Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer fiber paper that is FSC certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free, and manufactured with renewable biogas energy. It is acid- free and EcoLogo certified. Contents Figures and Tables vii Acknowledgments ix Preliminary Notes xi On the Arab Countries and “the Middle East and North Africa” (MENA) xi On Transliteration of Arabic xi Introduction: Uprisings and Revolutions 1 1. Fettered Development 7 The Facts 10 Poverty, Inequality, Precarity 15 Informal Sector and Unemployment: The Bouazizi Syndrome 22 Youth Underemployment 26 Female Underemployment 29 Graduate Unemployment 32 Fetters on Development 35 2. The Peculiar Modalities of Capitalism in the Arab Region 38 The Problem of Investment 39 Public and Private Investment 41 A Specific Variant of the Capitalist Mode of Production 50 1. Rentier and Patrimonial States 54 2. A Politically Determined Capitalism: Nepotism and Risk 60 The Genesis of the Specific Regional Variant of Capitalism: An Overview 67 3. Regional Political Factors 76 The Oil Curse 77 From “Arab Despotic Exception” to “Democracy Promotion” 85 The Muslim Brothers, Washington, and the Saudis 93 The Muslim Brothers, Washington, and Qatar 100 Al Jazeera and the Upheaval in the Arab Mediascape 108 4. Actors and Parameters of the Revolution 114 Overdetermination and Subjective Conditions 114 The Workers’ Movement and Social Struggles 123 New Actors and New Information and Communications Technologies 129 States and Revolutions 136 5. A Provisional Balance Sheet of the Arab Uprising 144 Coups d’État and Revolutions 144 Provisional Balance Sheet No. 1: Tunisia 145 Provisional Balance Sheet No. 2: Egypt 148 Provisional Balance Sheet No. 3: Yemen 155 Provisional Balance Sheet No. 4: Bahrain 160 Provisional Balance Sheet No. 5: Libya 163 Provisional Balance Sheet No. 6: Syria 172 6. Co-opting the Uprising 188 Washington and the Muslim Brothers, Take Two 189 Nato, Libya, and Syria 197 The “Islamic Tsunami” and the Difference between Khomeini and Morsi 208 Conclusion: The Future of the Arab Uprising 218 The Difference between Erdogan and Ghannouchi . . . 218 . . . And the Difference between Erdogan and Morsi 225 Conditions for a Genuine Solution 235 Notes 243 References and Sources 281 Index 303 Figures and Tables Figures 1.1 GDP per capita average annual growth rate / 11 1.2 Egypt— GDP per capita annual growth rate / 12 1.3 Average annual population growth rate13 1.4 GDP average annual growth rate / 14 1.5 Human Development Index (HDI), 1980–2 010 / 15 1.6 Informality in labor force and employment / 23 1.7 Unemployment rate / 24 1.8 Unemployment rate youth and adults / 26 1.9 Youth in total population, 2010 / 27 1.10 Unemployment rate by sex, 2010 / 29 1.11 Employment-to-population rate by sex, 2010 / 30 1.12 Population with advanced education / 33 2.1 GDP per capita annual growth; MENA—1 969– 2010 / 39 2.2 Gross fixed capital formation / 40 2.3 Gross capital formation annual growth; MENA without GCC— 1969– 2007 / 41 2.4 Gross capital formation annual growth; MENA without GCC— 1969– 2007 / 42 2.5 Gross fixed capital formation, public sector, 1995– 2007 / 43 vii viii | Figures and Tables 2.6 Net official financial flows / 43 2.7 Gross fixed capital formation, private sector; 1995– 2007 / 44 2.8 Gross fixed capital formation, total and public; Egypt—1 982– 2010 / 47 2.9 Public sector revenue, 2006 / 57 Tables 1.1 Distribution of Consumption / 19 1.2 GDP per Capita 2008 / 22 1.3 Gross Enrollment Ratio in Tertiary Education (2009) / 32 1.4 Graduate Unemployment Rates 1984–2010 / 34 4.1 Percentage of Individuals Using the Internet (2010) / 132 Acknowledgments This book is the outcome of intensive work that started shortly after the beginning of the revolutionary wave engulfing the Arabic-speaking region. It is based, however, on the course on Problems of Development of the Middle East and North Africa that I have taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London) since the academic year 2007– 8. This means that I owe much to my institution, which offers an ideal environment and one of the richest libraries for the research on the region that is the object of this study. The students who attended my lectures and who will remember them when they read the following pages have contributed with their questions to forming the answers this book provides. Yet scholarly teaching and research are but one of the sources of this work. My major debt is toward the great number of those whom I met and with whom I had a chance to discuss during my travels in differ- ent countries of the region over decades, and most particularly since the beginning of the uprising. I clearly cannot name them all. Four key stages in this experience occurred in 2011, when I was honored to be invited to take part in the “Spring University” of ATTAC Morocco in Casablanca, in April; the “Socialist Days” organized in Cairo after the uprising by the Egyptian Center for Socialist Studies, in May; the meet- ing of prominent members of the Syrian Opposition, many of whom came directly from Syria to the place near Stockholm where it was held, in October; and the festivities celebrating the first anniversary of the ix