International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

From the Ashes of the Arab Spring

Gilbert Achcar — 2026-01-14T16:20:36Z

Today marks 15 years since the overthrow of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali, one of the high points of the Arab Spring. The events of 2011 gave rise to an impressive wave of revolutions. Almost all were bloodily suppressed.
On January 14, 2011, Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to resign, after four weeks of revolt in the north African country. It was a first major scalp for the wave of upheaval known as the Arab Spring — a democratic upsurge across the region, which, (…)

- IVP612 - January 2026 / Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Israel, Arab Revolutions

The establishment of an absolutist regime in Tunisia

Dominique Lerouge — 2022-09-11T12:05:38Z

“If the whole system is put in place, it will be the end of the period opened by the “Tunisian Spring” of 2011.”

- IV572 - September 2022 / Tunisia, Arab Revolutions

Far from Spring

Joseph Daher — 2021-10-30T07:37:17Z

“We must oppose the authoritarian drift of President Saied, while supporting the progressive and democratic alternatives that confront Ennahda and the other parties in power, to prevent the return to a status quo which is unbearable for the Tunisian popular classes.”

- IV561 - October 2021 / Tunisia, Arab Revolutions

Palestinian liberation and the MENA revolutions

Joseph Daher — 2021-07-10T20:06:52Z

“The liberation of Palestine thus passes through the liberation of all the peoples living under tyrants in Damascus, Riyadh, Doha, Tehran, Ankara, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Amman, and all the others.”

- IV558 - July 2021 / Palestine, MENA (Middle East/North Africa), Arab Revolutions

Egypt's Uprising and Its Fate

Joel Beinin — 2021-05-24T07:45:00Z

“The issues that prompted the 2011 uprisings are still on the table. Since then, struggles have continued to erupt over the prevailing failed mode of capital accumulation and governance.”

- IV556 - May 2021 / Egypt, Arab Revolutions

Ten years after the popular uprising in Syria

Joseph Daher — 2021-04-05T07:51:08Z

“The absence of a structured, independent, democratic, progressive and inclusive Syrian political opposition, which could attract the popular classes, made it difficult for various sectors of the population to unite and challenge the regime again and at the national level.”

- IV555 - April 2021 / Syria, Arab Revolutions

An Unfinished Epoch of Revolution

Joseph Daher — 2021-01-29T08:57:25Z

Revolutions are the locomotives of history.

–Karl Marx, Class Struggles in France 1848–1850

- IV552 - January 2021 / Arab Revolutions

After the Pandemic Subsides, We May See a Third Wave of the Arab Spring

Ashley Smith, Gilbert Achcar — 2021-01-20T10:53:42Z

“There's still a very long way to go in this long-term revolutionary process. The good news is that people are learning what they're up against and drawing lessons from both defeats and victories.”

- IV552 - January 2021 / Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Arab Revolutions, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Bahrain

From one Arab Spring to another

Gilbert Achcar — 2020-07-26T07:20:56Z

The crisis of the neoliberal stage of capitalism has been unfolding spectacularly under our eyes in recent months, provoking ever greater social upheavals in an ever greater number of places.

- IV546 - July 2020 / Syria, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Arab Revolutions, Sudan

Pandemic and Oil Crisis Could Make Second Arab Spring Return With a Vengeance

Ashley Smith, Gilbert Achcar — 2020-05-09T12:03:11Z

As the world confronts a global economic crisis exacerbated by the current pandemic, what lessons can the U.S. left learn from those outside our borders?

In this interview, Gilbert Achcar discusses with Ashley Smith how Middle Eastern oil-exporting countries' price war has impacted the world, the ongoing revolutionary actions that could result in a “Second Arab Spring” and how the U.S. left must revive the true meaning of internationalism. The following transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

- IV544 - May 2020 / Arab Revolutions, Covid-19 Pandemic