Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (stanford briefs)

177 Pages·2016·4.286 MB·English

by  Joel Beinin

W O R K E R S A N D T H I E V E S

W O R K E R S
A N D T H I E V E S
Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings
in Tunisia and Egypt
J O E L B E I N I N
stanford briefs
An Imprint of Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
©2016 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior
University. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the
prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free,
archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beinin, Joel, 1948- author.
Workers and thieves : labor movements and popular uprisings in
Tunisia and Egypt / Joel Beinin.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8047-9804-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
isbn 978-0-8047-9864-8 (electronic)
1. Labor movement—Tunisia—History. 2. Labor movement—
Egypt—History. 3. Working class—Political activity—Tunisia—
History. 4. Working class—Political activity—Egypt—History.
5. Tunisia—History—Demonstrations, 2010- 6. Egypt—History—
Protests, 2011- I. Title.
hd8784.b45 2015
961.105'2—dc23
Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10/13 Adobe Garamond
FOR IZZIE

“A JOB IS A RIGHT, YOU PACK OF THIEVES!”
TUNISIA, GAFSA, 2008; SIDI BOUZID, 2010
“BREAD, FREEDOM, SOCIAL JUSTICE”
EGYPT, 2011 PROTESTS

CONTENTS
Introduction:
Workers, Collective Action, and Politics 1
1 Colonial Capitalism to Developmentalism 9
2 The Washington Consensus 39
3 Insurgent Workers in the Autumn of Autocracy 61
4 Popular Uprisings in 2011 and Beyond 97
Conclusion:
Workers, Social Struggles, and Democracy 135
Acknowledgments 145
Note on Transliteration 147
Acronyms and Abbreviations 149
Notes 151