Mass Movements Without Leaders: Lasting Phenomenon or Temporal Anomaly?

The protest movements that have gripped the Middle East since the beginning of the Arabic Spring (AS) have had success in toppling long-standing dictators and evoking pronounced changes in government. While these movements exhibit vast diversity in terms of composition, methods, identity and goals, occasionally diverging from one another in sharp deviations and disagreements, as a whole they have been able to successfully mobilize activism, instill change and encourage a greater political awareness among the population. However, will this change be lasting or temporal?

           

The rapid ascent of the AS protest movement from the fringes into the mainstream was successful in large part due to the use of new communications technology within what Manuel Castells, a sociologist specializing in research on communication and information refers to as the “expanding network society” (See Castells, Manuel). Social movements often begin at a local grass-roots level, but the democratizations of information and technology beginning in the 1970s (such as the internet) were transformative in nature. They altered permanently the means and methods by which these movements were facilitated, organized and sustained. "Groups around the world became suddenly able to act globally…coordinating action groups around the world”(See Castells, Manuel, p180). In essence, previously disconnected and dispersed individuals and groups could now interact with wide segments of other populations on an unprecedented scale. This is manifested in the use of “spectacles”; grand events and displays transmitted through mass media instruments to publicize issues of protest, raise awareness, provoke debate, and induce mobilization in the mainstream audience. An example of a spectacle would be the huge gatherings of hundreds of thousands of protestors in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during Egypt’s recent revolution. Castells refers to this as "reaching minds, (and) courting the State, (through) tap-dancing with the Media". This evokes Marshall McLuhan’s famous quote “The medium is the message”, the point of which is that the content of a message and the delivery technology of a message are synergistic. Mass media awakens consciousness among people. Concerns and affiliations with protest movements have become an important primary identity for many people (see Castells, Manuel, p180) throughout the Arab world and the globe at large.

           

            A characteristic of leaderless technology-driven mass protests is the speed at which protests form and develop. This is an advantage to the extent that leaderless mass protests cannot easily be defanged or defused in one fell swoop by the neutralizing of a protest leader by the government. However, while protests movements can generate immense momentum for change at a specific point in time, they often lack persistence— that is, they tend to fragment and disperse. Leaderless movements are vulnerable to appropriation by more organized and persistent entities. “Revolutionary movements lacking a vanguard are crushed by more entrenched and better-organized forces in the aftermath of massive social and political upheaval” (see Bradley, John, p79). An example of this is the Muslim Brotherhood’s seizure of leadership of the Egyptian Revolution (see previous blog post “Springtime for Egypt”). The Muslim Brotherhood, for example is an organization with a long history of public outreach, charitable work, and presence that extends throughout Egypt. In contrast, it is difficult for an ephemeral protest movement to create a sustainable presence.

           

            Visionaries such as Manuel Castells and Marshall McLuhan predicted the transformative convergence of media and technology on society. However, at least taking the Egyptian Revolution as example (and similar observations could be made about other recent Arab Spring revolutions), the factors of organizational presence, boots on the ground, community outreach and face to face interactions are crucial factors in creating and sustaining social change-- still more important than the magic of networking and social media, or leaderless protest movements spurred by technology. The Muslim Brotherhood came late to the revolution, was relatively unskilled at the use of social media in comparison to the young protestors of the Arab street, but nevertheless has been able to grasp the reins of government in Egypt. 

English Sources:

Bradley, John. (2012). “After The Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts.” New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Brisbane, Arthur. (November 12, 2011). “Who Is Occupy Wall Street?” The New York Times. Retrieved September 19, 2012, from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/who-is-occupy-wall-street.html?_r=0

Castells, Manuel. (2004). “The Power of Identity 2^nd Edition.” Singapore: Blackwell Publishing.

Sifry, Micah. (November 14, 2011). “How Technology is Reorganizing Protests Movements.” CNN. Retrieved September 19, 2012, from: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-14/tech/tech_web_occupy-wall-street-sifry_1_wall-street-movement-jenny-beth-martin-mark-meckler?_s=PM:TECH

Arabic Sources:

“Egypt Awaits the Biggest Protest Movement Against the Muslim Brotherhood.” Al-Nahar. (August 24, 2012). Retrieved September 20, 2012, from: http://www.alnaharegypt.com/nhar/art90227-cat7.html

“Egypt: Veiled Presenter Appears for the First Time on Official Television.” BBC Arabic. (September 3, 2012). Retrieved September 19, 2012, from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/arabic/middleeast/2012/09/120902_egypt_female_presenter_veil.shtml