Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The October Revolution that erupted on October 17th amidst fuel, bread, and dollar shortages and in the aftermath of nation-wide wildfires culminated in response to outrageous government proposal to yet again make the wider population pay the price for years of financial mismanagement, debt accumulation and neoliberal policy prescriptions. While the government retreated from its tax plan, protests raged on imposing on the cabinet to resign and have since retained momentum. Three months in, the unprecedented nation-wide protests succeeded in challenging entrenched regional sectarian divides, radicalizing demands, and reclaiming public spaces and squares across the country. The recent upsurge in popular disaffection in Lebanon is long in the making. The Lebanese scene has been witnessing over the past decade a significant rise in anti-establishment movements and different forms of alternative collective action, that hold in common a deep disaffection with self-serving political elites, and respond to degenerating social services and socio-economic conditions. Yet, what the Lebanese scene is witnessing today is also a break with tried and tested social movement repertoires and frames of action. The rapid accumulation of struggles over the past years, especially since the trash crisis in summer 2015, subjected activists’ mobilization tools to marked re-negotiation and self-critique. The nature and scope of the current uprisings in Lebanon represents a marked radicalization of political discourses and imaginaries, and departure from, if not a reaction against, previous repertoires of action. This research examines the departures in the revolutionary rhetoric and organizational repertoires characterizing the contemporary uprising in Lebanon.