Serpico and Social Change Recipe

The great movie director, Sidney Lumet, died a couple of days ago. I remember how inspired I felt after seeing "Serpico", the story of a cop who refuses to go along with the corruption in the department, suffering heavy consequences along the way to a total reformation of the NYPD. I remember calling my favorite professor to recommend the movie to him. (I was a senior at UCSB.) He was unimpressed and said it was typical of Hollywood to write stories of change as though only one heroic person made it happen. He taught a class in "social movements" and was definitely a scholar on institutional change. Leaders on the left (and probably the right too) have always emphasized the importance of organizing and setting up an infrastructure to catalyze and shape change. They would point out that you can have a Martin Luther King Jr. but without the Southern Leadership Conference and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee you don't get a civil rights movement.

A couple of blogs back, I wondered what the secret ingredient is in all the social upheavals going on since February throughout the Middle East. Some folks rightly pointed out that Facebook and social media online is what made the demonstrations go viral. Others pointed out that with very high youth unemployment and highly repressive governments, that the boiling point was finally reached. It does appear however, that the one Tunisian man who immolated himself in protest, was way more the catalyst for what happened in the streets, than any organized opposition organizations.

I think that individual heroes, Internet communications vehicles, a shared social/political frustration, and even opposition organizations all work in concert, but most people have to feel there's a large scale happening underway - before getting involved. Somehow, the risks of getting tear-gassed, arrested, or shot are acceptable if people feel there's a mass movement going on. For many, it may be the draw of the "happening" itself. (I think that dynamic was at play when I think back to our student anti-war demonstrations at Northwestern.)

People will live, beaten down for many years and decades, even knowing there are some people protesting - and getting arrested - maybe tortured - for doing so. When the idea takes hold that there is really going to be a mass uprising, then suddenly thousands can turn out in the street and a movement is underway. I'm still unclear how that perfect storm occurs.

There's another thing my professor said that I haven't forgotten. He was one of the earliest members of Students for a Democratic Society. He traveled to a national convention after reading a number of articles by Tom Hayden who wrote about a mass movement growing quickly at campuses throughout the country. When my professor got to the meeting, much to his surprise, there were only a few dozen people there. Apparently, Hayden was writing the articles with smoke and mirrors in order to help get a movement started. Maybe that's another essential ingredient in the mix.

What do you think is still missing from the recipe?

State of Emergency repression

The San Francisco Chronicle (3/24) reported in the wake of popular demonstrations in Syria – initially met by army gunfire, that "the all-powerful Baath party would study ending a state of emergency that it put in place after taking power in 1963."

That's an astounding 48 years! And now there willing to "study" it??! Although a state of emergency is often declared after a natural disaster, a number of countries like Syria use it to quash dissent and target particular groups. The article said that Syria's state of emergency "allows people to be arrested without warrants and imprisoned without trial. It goes on to say that there are detention centers known for torture, that hold prisoners for many years without trials.

It made me wonder how many other countries have imposed this type of "state of emergency" or outright martial law on their own citizens for long periods of time. Below are the infamous record-holders as I was able to glean from Wikipedia. I don't know how many of the countries actively used their extra-judicial powers on a regular basis to contain dissent, but if I'm a citizen in any of these countries, I'd prefer these arbitrary powers be taken off the books.

I hope that in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Bahrain, etc. a shift toward democracy actually succeeds, but even an end to these "states of emergency" will be an important step forward. Notably, since the demonstrations began in February, there are new "states of emergency" in Yemen, Bahrain, and Tunisia.

Israel - 63 years (since the War of Independence; not including martial law in the occupied areas)
Egypt - 44 years 1967 - 2011 (with an 18 month break)
Taiwan - 39 years 1948 - 1987
Turkey - 24 years 1978 - 2002
Algeria - 19 years 1992 - 2011
Pakistan -11 years 1977 - 1988 (and working on a new one begun in 2007)
Phillipines -9 years 1972 - 1981 (under Marcos)

Egypt; Secret Ingredient for Mass Uprising

photo by Floris Van Cauwelaert


What is the magic elixir that transforms a whole nation of people into social activists, risking life and limb to oust a government? How does it work that in one week's time a whole country can fundamentally change itself after decades of seeming complacency? All eyes are on what's happening in Egypt right now, but we've seen it happen just before in Tunisia and years ago throughout Eastern Europe, and in the Phillipines. It almost succeeded in Thailand recently, and in Iran.

I'm sure that in all these places, for many years, there were opposition parties that spoke out as they could, recruited members, held demonstrations, published writings, and had some leaders imprisoned or even killed. But why did they have so little impact and how can it all happen in an instant like a match to gasoline? As though it were waiting to explode. As though everyone was a government watchdog all along. But what is the spark that sets everything in motion? Is there any connection at all between the years of opposition activities or speeches and writings and the sudden mass uprisings we are witnessing today in Egypt and in the aforementioned countries?

Did these massive protests in Egypt and Tunisia - literally spark from the young, unemployed Tunisian who immolated himself? Were there not other publicized tragedies before? Certainly the conditions of widespread poverty and the unfair divisions between rich and poor, the corrupt government officials - were there for years. Is the spark from a rash of sudden price increases or government subsidy pullbacks? What is it?

I'm sure there are thousands of dissidents and activists fighting for change and justice, in many corners of the globe, scratching their heads and wondering what the secret ingredient is in Egypt this week, that is usually missing from civic recipes for decades at a time.