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By Charles Tripp
This ebook is ready strength. the ability wielded over others - by way of absolute monarchs, tyrannical totalitarian regimes and army occupiers - and the ability of the folk who withstand and deny their rulers' claims to that authority by means of no matter what capacity. the intense occasions within the center East in 2011 provided a brilliant instance of the way non-violent demonstration can topple possible invincible rulers. Drawing on those dramatic occasions and parallel moments within the sleek background of the center East, from the violent uprisings in Algeria opposed to the French within the early 20th century, to revolution in Iran in 1979, and the Palestinian intifada, the publication considers the ways that the folks have united to unseat their oppressors and struggle opposed to the established order to form a greater destiny. The booklet additionally probes the connection among energy and varieties of resistance and the way universal stories of violence and repression create new collective identities. Nowhere is that this extra strikingly exemplified than within the artwork of the center East, its posters and graffiti, and its provocative installations that are mentioned within the concluding bankruptcy. This magnificent, but unsettling publication gives a wide ranging view of the 20 th and twenty-first century center East via profession, oppression, and political resistance.
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Extra resources for The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East
Sample text
European settlement was actively encouraged, deepening the colonial enterprise and dispossessing the Algerians of their lands whether or not they had supported the armed uprising. As the French governor of the time stated, echoing the sentiments of the French colonists, his intention was ‘not to perpetuate the national identity of the natives . . 2 Despite the thoroughness and duration of the occupation, this proved to be a doomed endeavour. The occupation only served to reinforce the idea of difference on which resistance is based, suggesting through the open and latent violence of the colonial state the means by which it could be effectively resisted.
But it can also encourage a longer view, beyond the immediate short-term outcomes of a process of resistance. A movement that may have informed and inspired thousands can live on in the power of memory. This can provide the repertoires of meaningful resistance in ongoing confrontations with power over many decades. I hope that this book will help to remind people of these aspects of politics, and in doing so will help them to understand better the ways in which the forms of power are shadowed by the practices of resistance.
Given the origins of much of the ruling elite in Syria among the clans of the Jebel Alawi, it could also give a sectarian sharpness to denunciation of that elite. This had been very much in evidence during the Muslim Brotherhood-led uprisings of the late 1970s. It was also heard occasionally in some of the slogans of 2011 as the violence escalated, particularly in Latakia and Banias, cities with a history of sectarian tension. Nor was the regime itself slow to exploit this social divide. It wanted to portray the protests as driven by sectarian animosity in an effort to ‘denationalize’ the resistance and to create a climate of fear amongst Syria’s religious minorities.