Arab Spring and Peripheries: A Decentring Research Agenda by Daniela Huber & Lorenzo Kamel

Author:Daniela Huber & Lorenzo Kamel [Huber, Daniela & Kamel, Lorenzo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138999664
Google: AXoKjwEACAAJ
Goodreads: 28701862
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-01-15T06:25:50+00:00

Mobilization Strategies in the F20M

We now turn to the question of the extent of interaction and mobilization strategies between the urban-based activist middle class and the rural population during the F20M. This implies an assessment of the extent to which this interaction is based on common socio-economic and political grievances and shared values, and hence we present the analysis by actor.

As for the AMDH, the regimehad accused it of beingbehind the outbreak of F20M protests (Gonzalez Riera, 2011: 41). Our findings21 show that the role of the association was significant but it cannot be considered the leader of the protest as the regimeand somemedia have tried to show. According to the AMDH’s activists interviewed,22 the association’s role was important with regard to the co-ordination of certain fringes of the movement in urban areas and supporting the demands emerging from the protests in rural areas. It was thanks to the AMDH’s national networkof92branches, five preparatory committeesand nine regional sections23 that the AMDH’s militants were able to get news about protests, arrestsand rights violationsall over the country, thereby creating asystem of counter-information to the official discourse. Of particular importanceisthe function of communication among rural and urban areas. In this sense, the AMDH militants had the triple function of activist, journalist andnetworker, alongsidethe organization’s traditional roleofdefendingarrested protesters.

The AMDH sectioninAit Ourir supported the protest activities in the Zat valley by co-operating with an existing informal organization bringingtogether someof Tighedouine’s youth, called Tansikiyya Arbia Tighedouine24 as well as local development associations. This is in line with Bogaert (2015: 131), who also stresses the importance of the tansikiyya (or tansikiyat) asavital element in support of the F20M in small towns and the rural peripheries.

In two events in August and November 2011, these organizations managed to mobilize between200 and 400 people in Tighedouine to claim better public infrastructure and services. The first protest held on 9August 2011 was aimed at alerting the authorities about the fact that the unfinished sewerage networkwas polluting the irrigation waters, as well as pushing for the completion of the road between Tighedouineand Ansa. Thesecond protest was held on 14 November 2011, againaimed at the same road issue. The protestswere held at the commune headquarters (town hall) and led to the promise that the requests would be granted. While the sewerage networkhad been completed at the time of ourfieldwork, the improvement and expansion works on the Tighedouine-Ansa road had not yetbegun.25

However, due to the constraints in the opportunity structure outlined above, and the discursive disconnect between urban-based activists and the rural population, the AMDH was not able to mobilize rural populations on alarge scale. Forexample, the AMDH sectionofMarrakech failedtoorganize significant demonstrations in Ait Ourir, which is only about 30km away from Marrakech, at best mobilizing 70 out of atotal of approximately20, 000 residents. According to various local AMDH members, although education levels are fairly high, the localauthorities kept aclose watch on potential protesters.26 The population also did not believe in the success of the F20M and therefore preferred nottotake the risk of exposing themselves to the security forces.

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