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ABSTRACT
This article describes the confluence of online activism and street protests in Lebanon. While Arab protesters have systematically been portrayed as young, urban and wired since the 2011 uprisings, Lebanese activists are also often regarded as trapped between war and sectarianism. This article challenges both frameworks and looks closer at the ways pre-existing waves of discontent crystallised into the mobilisation of thousands of Lebanese onto the streets of Beirut in 2010 and 2011. To achieve this, the article critiques the over-emphasis on network politics that accompanies internet-related hypotheses. The fashioning of a new kind of politics outside the dominant political factions (‘8–14 March’ blocs) was crucial for activists in Lebanon. New independent initiatives that locate feminist and queer politics within an overall analysis of imperialism and capitalism, as well as experimentation with digital technologies, helped forge a unique and non-sectarian camaraderie. By conveying the circumstances that have shaped political involvement, this article avoids the projection of non-ideological/networked politics that dominate concepts of online activism. The internet played a dual role in Lebanese grassroots politics, as illustrated through the experiences of the feminist collective Nasawiya.
Acknowledgement
I wish to thank Tony Saghbini and Sami Hermez for commenting on an earlier version of this article. I am also grateful to Marie-Noëlle AbiYaghi for her insightful comments on this version. The kind editorial guidance of Contemporary Levant has also been very much appreciated.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Cf. <http://foreignpolicy.com/tag/lebanon/>. The well-known exception is the framing of the 2005 protests (which I will return to later in the article) known then as the Cedar-Revolution and Independence Intifada.
2. The dichotomous debate was entertained by Malcolm Gladwell and Clay Shirky which in due course inspired many similar contributions. See: https://www.wired.com/2011/12/gladwell-vs-shirky/.
3. Some of the names have been altered in order to protect their privacy –although some interlocutors remain identifiable by their blog names.
4. The Democratic Left Movement collapsed in the wake of the assassination of Hariri, which had a negative impact on activist networks that had invested in the Movement (Yacoub Citation2014, p. 101).
5. For their contributions cf. Riz Khan Show on Al Jazeera English (AJE), 21 January, 2011:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C56fzPc4i8&feature=related > as well as <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3ylF2P4-w>, (links last accessed on June 2012).
6. The Kifaya movement and the Mahala al-Kobra strikes supported by the April 6 Movement were crucial. Atef spoke about her experiences at the Oxford Internet Institute seminar Revolution 2.0? in March 2011. The podcast can be found here:<http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20110328_348>.
7. Several researchers studied social movements during the same period. I particularly recommend the doctoral research of AbiYaghi (Citation2013) and Rima Majed (Citation2016).
8. 8 March Coalition represents Hezbollah, with its leader Hasan Nasrallah, and Amal both Shia and the Free Patriotic Movement, with its leader Michel Aoun Christian. Syria and Iran asonsidered crucial allies and the Coalition is often described as ‘pro-resistance’. The Hezbollah and Free Patriotic Movement cooperation is the crux of this alliance. The 14 March Coalition (Future Movement, with its leader Saad Hariri Sunni, Lebanese Forces Orthodox Christian, Phalange or Kataeb Maronite Christian), with US and Saudi as key allies.
9. Resolution 1559 called for the withdrawal of Syrian troops, the disarmament of Hezbollah and new elections. While some believed that disarmament would make another occupation by Israel possible, the opposition was mainly against the collaboration of PM Seniora with George W Bush administration's imperial project, summarised by Condoleeza Rice's description of the horrors of 2006 as the ‘birth pangs of a new Middle East.’
10. One interviewer related how leftists were blocked in 2006 from joining in fighting Israel in the South, another said their convoy could not reach some of the areas to provide civil assistance because they were not affiliated with the party. For others unconditional support continued even when Hezbollah actively began to support Bashar al-Assad's crushing of the Syrian uprising, because they considered Hezbollah's survival to be dependent on the survival of Assad.
11. For similar research about blogs see Jurkiewicz (Citation2011) and Taki (Citation2011).
12. Many of the activists who came together already knew each other from the Palestinian solidarity and anti-war campaigns. For more about Samidoun, see: http://samidoun.blogspot.com/.
13. This is part of a long debate in the discipline of sociology and has become an important source for internet studies as well. For a good review, see Meyer (Citation2004).
14. See for instance the work of Urshahi in Nigeria and Haiti here:<http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/article/review-2011/irrc-884-meier.htm>.
15. See: <http://www.lebanonaggregator.com/>.
16. Global Voices is a community of bloggers around the world who work together and translate voices that are not ordinarily heard in mainstream media:< http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/middle-east-north-africa/lebanon/>.
17. See: <http://remarkz.wordpress.com/> and <http://jamalghosn.blogspot.co.uk/>.
18. He eventually wrote a comprehensive critique: see Tony Saghbiny (Citation2015)
19. It is important to return to the earlier period and to recount why this was such a unique experience in 2009–2010, this reflection does not extend to the period after 2011.
20. In this video the meaning of feminism is explained by young men and women. Available at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baGacHimtcc&list=UUf1jJz78tEJaFmFPmJAyBEw&index=4&feature=plcp>. ‘The Adventures of Salwa’ is an animated narrative that is shown in schools and community centres, see:<https://youtu.be/D-S5RLd_-Ks>.
21. Available, respectively, at: <http://mwtaskforce.wordpress.com/tag/antiracism/>; and <http://antiracismmovement.blogspot.com/>. The leaked video of the beach segregation is at: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fylZa_xPOGA&list=UUaBBARrvSIU9MDzB2_Hj7MQ&index=1&feature=plcp>.
22. The group Jinsiyati Lajawzi wa Waladi is online at: <http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003333125896&ref=tn_tnmn#!/jensiyyati>.
23. They have, for instance, been attacked by Falange militia men during a picket outside the Palace of Justice. The bodyguard of Nadime Gemayel rammed his car into the protesters. See: http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/16294.
24. This became an annual ‘girl geek’ camp at the time. See: https://cafethawrarevolution.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/girl-geek-camp-lebanon-turning-women-into-geekettes-one-tweet-at-a-time/.