National Catholic Reporter December 22, 2011 and The Free Library
Of the popular pro-democracy civil insurrections that have swept the Middle East over the past year, none were as large — relative to the size of the country — as the one that took place in the island kingdom of Bahrain. And while scattered resistance continues, none were so thoroughly suppressed.
Category: Nonviolent Action
Nonviolent Action
Protests Alone Are Not a Movement
Dr. Stephen Zunes op-ed in the New York Times, October 7, 2011
Occupy Wall Street must represent the majority of Americans who lack corporate power and political influence. Nevertheless, whether targeted at dictators or corporate greed, protests alone — however impressive in their numbers or disruptive in effect — do not make a movement.
Lessons and False Lessons From Libya
Truthout August 30, 2011. Also in Peace Review
A Journal of Social Justice Volume 25, 2013 – Issue 4
Washington Okays Attack on Unarmed U.S. Ship
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies June 30, 2011. Also in Truthout.
Nine people were killed when Israel intercepted Gaza-bound aid ships last year. Now a new flotilla is planned, but Instead of condemning the murder, the Obama administration appears to be giving the right-wing Israeli government a green light to flout international law and human rights…
Yemen on the Edge
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies May 13, 2011
Since Obama came to office in January 2009, U.S. security assistance to the Yemeni regime has gone up 20-fold. Despite such large-scale unconditional support, however, the 32-year reign of autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh may finally be coming to an end. Yet the Obama administration has been ambivalent in its support for a democratic transition… [Source]
Pro-Democracy Protests Spread to Oman
Foreign Policy In Focus/Insitute for Policy Studies
March 7, 2011. Also in Eurasia Review and Huffington Post
Oman’s autocratic monarchy has long been one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East. And, as with authoritarian U.S. allies in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Yemen, a largely nonviolent, pro-democracy struggle has arisen in Oman as well. Protests began in the capital of Muscat on February 19 but soon spread…
America Blows It on Bahrain
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies March 2 & Alternet March 15, 2024
The Obama administration’s continued support of the autocratic monarchy in Bahrain, in the face of massive pro-democracy demonstrators, once again puts the U.S. behind the curve of the new political realities in the Middle East. For more than two weeks, a nonviolent sit-in and encampment by tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters has occupied the Pearl Roundabout. This traffic circle in Bahrain’s capital city of Manama – like Tahrir Square in Cairo – has long been the symbolic center of the city…
Credit the Egyptian People for the Egyptian Revolution
Truthout February 26, 2011
While there will undoubtedly have to be additional popular struggle in Egypt to ensure that the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak leads to real democracy, the ouster of the dictator is by any measure a major triumph for the Egyptian people and yet another example of the power of nonviolent action. Indeed, Egypt joins such diverse countries as the Philippines, Poland, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Nepal, Serbia, Bolivia, Indonesia, and others…
Mubarak’s Ouster: Good for Egypt, Good for Israel
Huffington Post Feb 17, 2011 | Updated May 25, 2011
Also in Common Dreams and Tikkun: The inspiring triumph of the Egyptian people in the nonviolent overthrow of the hated dictator Hosni Mubarak is a real triumph of the human spirit. While there will likely be continued struggle in order to ensure that the military junta will allow for a real democratic transition, the mobilization of Egypt’s civil society and the empowerment of millions of workers, students, intellectuals and others in the cause of freedom will be difficult to contain…
Interview: Departure of Mubarak and the Future of Egypt (audio)
China Radio International February 14, 2011
Source link and recording are no longer available. Find related links.
Why Egypt Will Not Turn Into Another Iran
The Huffington Post Feb 10, 2011 | Updated May 25
Also at Iranian.com and CarolBaker.net
Some prominent congressional leaders and media pundits, in a cynical effort to mislead the American public into supporting the Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and opposing the popular nonviolent struggle for democracy, have raised the specter of Egypt’s government falling into the hands of radical Islamists who would attack Israel and support international terrorism. To illustrate this frightening scenario, these apologists for authoritarianism try to compare the current pro-democracy uprising against the U.S.-backed Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak with the 1978-79 insurrection against the U.S.-backed Iranian dictatorship of Shah Reza Pahlavi…
Egypt’s pro-democracy movement: The struggle continues
Open Democracy February 8, 2011
Despite the natural subsidence of dramatic demonstrations on the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities, as many protesters return to jobs and catch their breath, there is little question that the pro-democracy struggle in Egypt has achieved lasting momentum, barring unexpected repression. As with other kinds of civil struggles, a movement using nonviolent resistance can ebb and flow. There may have to be tactical retreats, times for regrouping or resetting of strategy, or a focus on negotiations with the regime before broader operations that capture the world’s attention resume. Those who were expecting a quick victory are no doubt disappointed, but successful People Power movements of recent decades have usually been protracted struggles…
Egypt: Lessons in Democracy
Life as a Human February 3, 2011. Also in Common Dreams
Together, the unarmed insurrection that overthrew the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia and the ongoing uprising in Egypt have dramatically altered the way many in the West view prospects for democratization in the Middle East. The dramatic events of recent weeks have illustrated that for democracy to come to the Arab world, it will come not from foreign intervention or sanctimonious statements from Washington, but from Arab peoples themselves…
Interview: MSNBC Q&A on Egypt
Americans for Peace Now, January 30, 2011 By Lara Friedman
… I recommend this MSNBC post with Professor Stephen Zunes
A: “Most Arab countries share these problems. However, some are more susceptible to these kinds of uprisings than others. For example, in Syria, civil society is weaker and the secret police are stronger. In Saudi Arabia and the smaller emirates of the Gulf, they can buy off much of the opposition. However, I would not be surprised to see an upsurge in pro-democracy protests in Yemen, Sudan, Jordan, Algeria and Morocco…”
Interview: All eyes on Egypt’s military: How will it respond?
Yahoo!News/The Lookout January 31, 2011, with Dr. Stephen Zunes
As mass demonstrations continue to threaten Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s grip on power, the country’s powerful military is emerging as perhaps the crucial player in determining the course of events in the Middle East’s most populous nation… The Lookout asked Stephen Zunes about how the Egyptian military might respond, and how that response might influence events…
Obama’s Shift on Egypt
Truthout January 31, 2011; Also in Huffington Post
The administration has yet to issue an explicit call for the authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak to step down, at least in public. However, yesterday, for the first time, Secretary of State Clinton and other officials began calling for “an orderly transition” to democracy. The apparent change in the administration’s approach comes from the belated realization that nothing short of a Tienanmen Square-style massacre would probably stop the protests…
US Continues to Back Egyptian Dictatorship in the Face of Pro-Democracy Uprising
Truthout January 27, 2011. Also in Huffington Post
Washington’s continued support for the Egyptian dictatorship in the face of massive pro-democracy protests is yet another sign that both Congress and the Obama administration remain out of touch with the growing demands for freedom in the Arab world. Just last month, Obama and the then-Democratic-controlled Congress approved an additional $1.3 billion in security assistance to help prop up Hosni Mubarak’s repressive regime.
The United States and the Prospects for Democracy in Islamic Countries
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies January 21, 2011. Also in Common Dreams and Eurasia Review
Many in the West are familiar with the way unarmed pro-democracy insurrections have helped bring democracy to Eastern Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia and Africa. But they discount the chances of such movements in Islamic countries, despite Tunisia being far from the first. Meanwhile, the United States… continues to actively support authoritarian governments…
U.S. Backs Tunisian Dictatorship in Face of Pro-Democracy Uprising
Foreign Policy in Focus/Institute for Policy Studies, Jan. 13, 2011
Also in Accuracy.org, UncommonThought.com and Huffington Post, Jan. 14, Updated May 25, 2011:
The regime of U.S.-backed Tunisian dictator, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, has been the target of a nationwide popular uprising in recent weeks, which neither shooting into crowds of unarmed demonstrators nor promised reforms has thus far quelled…. In recent decades, largely nonviolent insurrections such as this have toppled corrupt authoritarian rulers in the Philippines, Serbia, Bolivia, Ukraine, the Maldives, Georgia, Mali, Nepal and scores of other countries and have seriously challenged repressive regimes in Iran, Burma and elsewhere…
Upsurge in repression challenges nonviolent resistance in Western Sahara
Open Democracy November 17, 2010
On November 8, Moroccan occupation forces attacked a tent city of as many as 12,000 Western Saharans just outside of Al Aioun, in the culminating act of a months-long protest of discrimination against the indigenous Sahrawi population and worsening economic conditions. Not only was the scale of the crackdown unprecedented, so was the popular reaction: In a dramatic departure from the almost exclusively nonviolent protests of recent years, the local population turned on their occupiers, engaging in widespread rioting and arson. As of this writing, the details of these events are unclear, but they underscore the urgent need for global civil society to support those who have been struggling nonviolently for their right of self-determination and to challenge western governments which back the regime responsible for the repression…