This paper focuses on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights. The movement arose in Israel/Palestine in the wake of the failure of the Oslo Process in the early 2000s and has since attracted increasing support and publicity translocally. It has been characterized by its critics as an “anti-Semitic poison pill” (Brackman). By contrast, this inter-disciplinary paper, drawing on desk-based research, activist archives, and extensive participant observation, explores the radically democratic characteristics of the movement. Treating the movement as an instance of contentious mobilisation, the paper compares BDS activism with other networked, horizontalist, diverse, de-centralized and translocal movements that have emerged in and out of the region since the 1990s in a period of globalisation. The primary goal is ontological: how can we best characterise this mobilising project, with its identities, principles, and goals on the one hand, and its repertoires of contention (organization, strategies and tactics) on the other? The aim is to compare and contrast this mobilising project with both democratic-diverse and anti-democratic-essentialist forms of activism. The paper argues that the radically democratic characteristics of the BDS movement deserve recognition, while maintaining, against the conventional wisdom, that even in highly-networked and seemingly horizontal activism, leadership, strategic interventions, structure, coordination, mobilisation, and well-defined ends play important roles. The paper also draws out homologies between the BDS movement and other democratic movements of recent origin in the region. The paper contributes to debates about what it means to speak of anti-doctrinal and anti-hierarchical forms of contemporary organizing, while developing our understanding of a movement that is playing an increasingly important role on the regional and international scene.

The proposed paper will address the significance of feminist mobilizations for radical transformative politics within the Middle East while also highlighting the specific dilemmas and obstacles that feminists have been facing within the region. Against a historical background of authoritarian regime’s modernizing gender politics, feminists have historically been challenged to resist state co-optation while pursuing transformative and often radically democratic politics. Accusations of ‘westoxification’ and inauthenticity have seriously impeded feminist activism in a context where nationalist, communalist and sectarian politics are deeply gendered. The accusation of betrayal and cultural inauthenticity continue to be amongst the most debilitating constraints for contemporary feminist activists. While addressing some of the broader historical trends and challenges with respect to feminist mobilizations in the region, the paper will focus on the specific empirical contexts of Iraq and Egypt, two countries with long histories of feminist politics. Both countries are experiencing political changes albeit under radically different circumstances. A comparative analysis will point to both similarities and differences in terms of historical and current feminist trajectories and strategies. Based on ethnographic research in both empirical contexts, involving informal interviews, life stories, oral histories and focus groups, the paper will employ a transnational feminist approach to analyse the ways the struggle against gendered inequalities intersects with the struggle against authoritarianism.

This paper looks at the little-known history of leftists and Arab nationalists in the Gulf states and the Arabian Peninsula. In our contemporary understanding of the region, the focus on political Islam and religious conflict obscures the fact that the region had a long history of radical politics before the advent of Islamism. The Gulf states all experienced labour movements, strikes and mobilisations by clandestine leftist groups from the 1950s onwards. Transnational connections that linked regional arenas of revolutionary politics such as South Yemen and Dhufar to Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were key for this activism. This paper will outline through which networks these movements mobilised, what their strategic visions and ideological outlook were, and what led to their ultimate defeat. While remnants of these movements still exist, and have a certain amount of influence on politics in Bahrain, Kuwait and to a lesser extent Saudi Arabia and Oman, these movements had lost much of their mass appeal by the late 1970s. This decline happened for a multitude of reasons. Ideological divisions, as well as alliances of opposition groups with often competing regimes led to factionalism. It was also related to their anti-religious outlook and efforts by the regimes to repress and discredit them. In addition, the regional surge of Islamist movements also had an impact. Particularly after 1975, the regimes managed to co-opt many former leftist and Arab nationalist opposition activists and integrate them into the rentier political economy of the Gulf. Nevertheless, particularly in Bahrain, one can still find several leftist parties, who have a strong presence in the labour unions. These parties, as well as the unions, also played a key role in the 1990s intifada and in the uprising since 2011. This paper is based on interviews with current and former leftist activists across the Gulf states and the wider region, a close reading of opposition publications, as well as archival research.

The protest against police brutality on the 'day of anger', 25 January 2011, which developed into a nation-wide uprising that ended with the ousting of Mubarak, was the culmination of a long struggle which had mobilised millions of Egyptians across class, age and gender for over a decade. Since 2000, a myriad of informal political groups, activist forums,political coalitions and protest activities has altered the face of Egyptian opposition politics and mobilised wide sectors of the population. Critical analysis of these protests has often examined them within a framework of New Social Movements under authoritarian regimes. The study of protests within this framework emphasises a number of features which characterise NSMs including decentralised, loose organisational structures, rejection of traditional leadership and interchangeable membership between different groups. This paper examines the dilemmas which groups and members of protest movements and activist networks, working on these principles, face when the context in which they operate is dramatically changed. The case of Egypt is pertinent in addressing the question of how some features of new social movements have posed a challenge for the mobilised millions in the aftermath of Mubarak's downfall and explain the ease with which counter revolutionary forces have been able to subvert the work of these millions towards a more radical project of transformation. I will focus on one main characteristic of these networks of activism in this regard; namely, their organisational structures. This will be examined through situating the debate on organisation and its role in revolutionary process both historically and in a comparative perspective with other forms of global networks of activism.

Kurdish activism in Syria: building a post-national consensus in uncertain times This paper focuses on Kurdish political mobilization in Syria in the past 4 years. The mass protests taking place in Qamisli in 2004 and 2005 started a new wave of Kurdish political activism and in 2011, after the start of the conflict in Syria, Kurds started to form stronger political and military organisations. The Democratic Union Party (PYD) has been playing a central role in Kurdish politics in Syria and since July 2012, it has been effectively in charge of the Kurdish majority areas. The international media coverage of these developments has focussed mainly on the ongoing Kurdish–Islamic State (IS) conflict and the resistance of Kurdish forces against IS attacks, especially in the border town of Kobani. However, more focus on the ideology and demands of the Kurdish movement in Syria is needed to unpack the motivations behind Kurdish mass mobilisation and the political project the Kurds seek to build in Syria in the long run. I analyse primary sources including key political and ideological texts, manifestos, party programs, media interviews of the leading figures of the movement, speeches, news reports etc., to firstly explain the political demands raised by the PYD and the wider Kurdish movement in Syria, the type of society that they envision, the institutional set-up they propose to develop for accommodating Kurdish rights within a democratic and plural Syria, and their ideas on the recognition of cultural and political diversity and gender equality. Then, I discuss the developments that have been taking place since July 2012 and the establishment of three autonomous administrations (Cantons) in January 2014 in areas under the control of the Kurds. The model of autonomy proposed by the Kurds is seen as an alternative to authoritarianism of both Islamists and Assad’s regime. Following on, I highlight the political practices that have been fostered thus far, including steps taken to increase gender equality, build cooperative economy and environmentally sustainable multicultural communities. Finally, I discuss the understanding of emancipation and social progress that underpins such practices by examining the PYD’s ideological development and discussing the ideas that they draw from the progressive political traditions such as radical democracy, environmentalism and feminism.