THE ARAB SPRING

The Arab Spring or The Democracy Spring , it was a revolutionary

wave of both violent and non-violent demonstrations , protests , riots
, coups and civil wars in the Arab world that began on 17 December
2010 in Tunisia with the Tunisian Revolution , and spread throughout
the countries of the Arab League and its surroundings. Major
insurgencies and civil wars in Iraq , Libya , Syria , and Yemen resulted,
along with civil uprisings in Bahrain and Egypt , large street
demonstrations in Algeria , Iran , Lebanon , Jordan , Kuwait , Morocco
, Oman and Sudan and minor protests in Djibouti , Mauritania , the
Palestinian territories , Saudi Arabia , Somalia and the Western
Sahara . A major slogan of the demonstrators in the Arab world is
"the people want to bring down the regime".

The wave of initial revolutions and protests faded by mid-2012, as

many Arab Spring demonstrations were met with violent responses
from authorities, as well as from pro-government militias and
counter-demonstrators. These attacks were answered with violence
from protestors in some cases. Large-scale conflicts resultedthe
Syrian Civil War, Iraqi insurgency and the following civil war ,the
Egyptian Crisis and coup, the Libyan Crisis, and the Crisis in Yemen. A
power struggle continued after the immediate response to the Arab
Spring. While leadership changed and regimes were held
accountable, power went up for grabs across the Arab world.
Ultimately it came down to a contentious battle between a
consolidation of power by religious elites and the growing support
for democracy in many muslim-majority states. Some have referred
to the succeeding and still ongoing conflicts as the Arab Winter. As of
July 2016, only the uprising in Tunisia resulted in a transition to
constitutional democratic governance.
The term "Arab Spring" is an allusion to the Revolutions of 1848,
which is sometimes referred to as the "Springtime of Nations", and
the Prague Spring in 1968. In the aftermath of the Iraq War it was
used by various commentators and bloggers who anticipated a major
Arab movement towards democratization. The first specific use of the
term Arab Spring as used to denote these events may have started
with the American political journal Foreign Policy. Marc Lynch,
referring to his article in Foreign Policy,[17] writes "Arab Springa
term I may have unintentionally coined in a January 6, 2011 article".
Joseph Massad on Al Jazeera said the term was "part of a US strategy
of controlling [the movement's] aims and goals" and directing it
towards western-style liberal democracy. Due to the electoral success
of Islamist parties following the protests in many Arab countries, the
events have also come to be known as "Islamist Spring" or "Islamist
Winter". Some observers have also drawn comparisons between the
Arab Spring movements and the Revolutions of 1989 (also known as
the "Autumn of Nations") that swept through Eastern Europe and the
Second World, in terms of their scale and significance. Others,
however, have pointed out that there are several key differences
between the movements, such as the desired outcomes, the
effectiveness of civil resistance, and the organizational role of
Internet-based technologies in the Arab revolutions.The Arab Spring
is widely believed to have been instigated by dissatisfaction,
particularly of youth and unions, with the rule of local governments,
though some have speculated that wide gaps in income levels and
pressures caused by the Great Recession may have had a hand as
well.Other sources confirm the US government's support of the
uprisings, funded largely by the National Endowment for Democracy.
Other analysts pointed to the fourth stage "Toppling the Regimes" of
the Al Qaeda strategy for world domination, described in Fouad
Hussein's book published in 2005.Numerous factors led to the
protests, including issues such as dictatorship or absolute monarchy,
[31] human rights violations, political corruption (demonstrated by
Wikileaks diplomatic cables), economic decline, unemployment,
extreme poverty, and a number of demographic structural factors,
such as a large percentage of educated but dissatisfied youth within
the entire population.Catalysts for the revolts in all Northern African
and Persian Gulf countries included the concentration of wealth in
the hands of autocrats in power for decades, insufficient
transparency of its redistribution, corruption, and especially the
refusal of the youth to accept the status quo.Some protesters looked
to the Turkish model as an ideal (contested but peaceful elections,
fast-growing but liberal economy, secular constitution but Islamist
government). Other analysts blamed the rise in food prices on
commodity traders and the conversion of crops to ethanol.] Yet
others have claimed that the context of high rates of unemployment
and corrupt political regimens led to dissent movements within the
region. The causes of the Arab Spring may also be interpreted
through the lenses of various theories of revolution and
democratization, including Relative Deprivation Theory and
Modernization Theory. Tunisia experienced a series of conflicts
during the three years leading up to the Arab Spring, the most
notable occurring in the mining area of Gafsa in 2008, where protests
continued for many months. These protests included rallies, sit-ins,
and strikes, during which there were two fatalities, an unspecified
number of wounded, and dozens of arrests. In Egypt, the labor
movement had been strong for years, with more than 3,000 labor
actions since 2004, and provided an important venue for organizing
protests and collective action. One important demonstration was an
attempted workers' strike on 6 April 2008 at the state-run textile
factories of al-Mahalla al-Kubra, just outside Cairo. The idea for this
type of demonstration spread throughout the country, promoted by
computer-literate working class youths and their supporters among
middle-class college students.The government mobilized to break the
strike through infiltration and riot police, and while the regime was
somewhat successful in forestalling a strike, dissidents formed the "6
April Committee" of youths and labor activists, which became one of
the major forces calling for the anti-Mubarak demonstration on 25
January in Tahrir Square.In Algeria, discontent had been building for
years over a number of issues. In February 2008, United States
Ambassador Robert Ford wrote in a leaked diplomatic cable that
Algeria is 'unhappy' with long-standing political alienation; that social
discontent persisted throughout the country, with food strikes
occurring almost every week; that there were demonstrations every
day somewhere in the country; and that the Algerian government
was corrupt and fragile.[71] Some claimed that during 2010 there
were as many as '9,700 riots and unrests' throughout the country.
[72] Many protests focused on issues such as education and health
care, while others cited rampant corruption. In Western Sahara, the
Gdeim Izik protest camp was erected 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south-
east of El Aain by a group of young Sahrawis on 9 October 2010.
Their intention was to demonstrate against labor discrimination,
unemployment, looting of resources, and human rights abuses.[74]
The camp contained between 12,000 and 20,000 inhabitants, but on
8 November 2010 it was destroyed and its inhabitants evicted by
Moroccan security forces. The security forces faced strong opposition
from some young Sahrawi civilians, and rioting soon spread to El
Aain and other towns within the territory, resulting in an unknown
number of injuries and deaths. Violence against Sahrawis in the
aftermath of the protests was cited as a reason for renewed protests
months later, after the start of the Arab Spring. The catalyst for the
escalation of protests was the self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamed
Bouazizi. Unable to find work and selling fruit at a roadside stand,
Bouazizi had his wares confiscated by a municipal inspector on 17
December 2010. An hour later he doused himself with gasoline and
set himself afire. His death on 4 January 2011 brought together
various groups dissatisfied with the existing system, including many
unemployed, political and human rights activists, labor, trade
unionists, students, professors, lawyers, and others to begin the
Tunisian Revolution.