When “Adjusted” People Rebel: Economic Liberalization and Social Revolts in Africa and the Middle East (1980s to the Present Day) (2021)

This publication is the result of a conference entitled “Interpreting the moment as a transregional one, starting from the perspective of the marginalized”, given in Amsterdam at the International Institute of Social History (IISH). It aimed to bring together contributions about Africa and the Middle East to show the importance of supra-national politics in the revolts within sub-Saharan and South Mediterranean countries.

Abstract of the Introduction :

During the 1980s and 1990s, violent events occurred in the streets of many African and Middle Eastern countries. Each event had its own logic and saw the intervention of actors with differing profiles. What they had in common was that they all took place in the context of the implementation of a neoliberal political economy. The anger these policies aroused was first expressed by people who were not necessarily rebelling against the adjustments themselves, or against the underlying ideologies or the institutions that imposed them, but rather against their practical manifestations in everyday life. This special issue invites reflections on these revolts and what they teach us about the neoliberal turn in Africa and the Middle East.

The echoes between the present and the recent past are as important for the genesis of this work as they are for those that read it. They must not prevent us from investigating the specifics of these uprisings, with a particular emphasis on the intersection between a global political economy and local challenges, while understanding them through their particular circumstances. This issue aims to stimulate a more general reflection on popular feelings and social responses in the face of neoliberalism.

Under the direction of Leyla Dakhli and Vincent Bonnecase.

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Summary of the publication

Introduction – Interpreting the Global Economy through Local Anger – Leyla Dakhli, Vincent Bonnecase

Remembering the 1977 Bread Riots in Suez : Fragments and Ghosts of Resistance – Nayera Abdelrahman Soliman

The Fair Value of Bread : Tunisia, 28 December 1983-6 January 1984 – Leyla Dakhli

“We Cannot Please Everyone” : Contentions over Adjustment in EPRDF Ethiopia (1991-2018) – Mehdi Labzaé, Sabine Planel

Peasant Resistance in Burkina Faso’s Cotton Sector – Bettina Engels

Privatizing the Commons : Protest and the Moral Economy of National Ressources in Jordan – Matthew Lacouture

“Fraudonomics” : Cartooning against Structural Adjustment in Togo – Robin Frisch

International Monetary Fund Riots or Nasserian Revolt ? Thinking Fluid Memories : Egypt 1977 – Mélanie Henry

Democracy and Adjustment in Niger : A conflict of Rationales – Vincent Bonnecase

A Well-Adjusted Debt : How the International Anti-Debt Movement Failed to Delink Debt Relief and Structural Adjustment – Hélène Baillot

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