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#LebanonProtests: Toppling down the REGIME(A thread):
Unlike other Arab regimes, power in Lebanon is not concentrated in one person/figure! Yet people call on toppling down the regime. What are the 3 main pillars of Lebanon’s REGIME?
Unlike other Arab regimes, power in Lebanon is not concentrated in one person/figure! Yet people call on toppling down the regime. What are the 3 main pillars of Lebanon’s REGIME?
Pillar 1: Discursive Hegemony and control over the imaginaries: since the end of the war, ordinary citizens could not imagine their future without the protection or the services of their leader (the leader protects the existence/interest of the sect);
the ruling class depicted the state as weak and therefore it became irrelevant in citizens’ everyday life. Survival of the Lebanese depended on networks of patronage and symbolic power of the leader.
Pillar (2): Violence: not only Hezbollah’s arms but also all violent mechanisms (symbolic included) deployed in order to control potential dissent and guarantee immunity for the leader;
this includes convoys intimidating everyone on the streets, strongmen and control of neighbourhoods (in rural and urban areas), security barriers in urban cities. Life became securitized to protect the leader or the sect.
Pillar (3) Capital control and extraction: while depicting the state as weak the ruling class consolidated its grip over state institutions and enriched itself. They abolished boundaries between public and private; we no longer know who's the minister and who's the businessman.
What did the uprisings achieve so far? (1) Lebanese successfully shook the first pillar of the regime. Now they start to imagine their future outside the realm of the leader and they are acting upon it by claiming back the state as a source of justice.
(2) the state-idea is prevailing: now they're claiming back public institutions and targeting key corrupt institutions (central bank, EDL) (3) they have revived the concept of accountability
(4) everyday struggle and resistance is key: ordinary citizens are the ones to defend their rights (individually or collectively).
Challenges: the road is still way too long to overturn the system. (1) there is a need to channel demands from the streets into structures and unions (old or newly emergent). (2) not fall into the trap of the regime’s second pillar which is violent!
There is a need to find support structures and safety nets for those who took over the streets; these safety nets can help protect individuals from potential acts of revenge – especially in different regions where proximity levels are very pronounced (everyone knows everyone).
(3) we need more tangible actions to redistribute stolen wealth – this will only take place by pressuring the government, any government to come. Protests are key – the rest is details!
