Tags: social movements, modernity, Orientalism, Eurocentrism, Arab revolution, Egyptian revolution

The articles in this special issue are diverse and cover several issues.

Austin Mackell’s interview with Egyptian labour activist Kamal Elfayoumi is particularly significant for Interface because of the arrests of Mackell, his translator Ailya Alwi and postgrad student Derek Ludovici when they arrived in Mahalla al-Kubra for the interview (see Mackell 2012). As with other recent attacks on foreign media, the Egyptian state are seeking to discredit local activists by associating them with fictitious external agendas and thus cutting them off from international media. In this particular case, the claim is that the three researchers promised children money to throw rocks at a police station: a claim which would be ridiculous if the charge did not carry a sentence of 5 – 7 years. We ask Interface readers to sign the petition on http://www.change.org/petitions/australian-prime-minister-act-on-austinmackell-s-matter-now-freeaustin.

Samir Amin’s article provides a context for the Arab revolution and the rise of what he defines as the tri-partite cluster of forces (comprador elites, political Islam, and imperialism) that aim at maintaining the dependence of the region, its subordinate position, and the absence of development that allows U.S. led global imperialism and Israeli hegemony in the region.

Vijay Prashad’s article contextualizes the revolution in a long history of resistance in the South and attempts for people there to shape their own history through different projects such as the Non-Allied Movement, and the counter imperialist projects to suppress any independent path for the peoples of the South. Jeremy Salt discusses the different dynamics in the region since the start of the revolution, the rise of different regional powers, and the continuous western interventions in the region.

The article on Tunisia by Corinna Mullin and Azadeh Shashahani discusses how western intervention historically and at the moment is going to affect the development of the revolution in Tunisia (and elsewhere). Andrea Teti and Gennaro Gervasio provide an inside look at the political context and the challenges and possibilities for social movements in Egypt one year after the taking of Tahrir Square.

Bassam Haddad tries to find room for opposing western interventions and imperialism while being critical of despotism, and supporting popular aspirations in Syria and elsewhere for freedom, justice, and liberty. Steven Salaita discusses media coverage in the U.S. and its rootedness in modern Orientalism and assumptions about Arabs and Muslims, and insists on calling contemporary events a revolution.

Ahmed Kanna discusses the unreported revolution and protests of South Asian workers in the Gulf, while Aditya Nigam argues for rethinking the traditional frameworks of what defines political organizing and allowing more space for seeing new forms of protest and politics also outside of western paradigms of social movements and protests.

Finally, Cassie Findlay discusses the struggle to archive the graffiti and other forms of public art from the Egyptian revolution

The season of revolution - the Arab Spring and European mobilizations.pdf