Against marginalization: workers, youth and class in the 25 January revolution

Against marginalization: workers, youth and class in the 25 January revolution

Department

Social Research Center (SRC)

Abstract

Rabab El Mahdi For thirty years, particularly since the advent of neoliberalism, the concepts of ‘marginalization’ and ‘poverty’ have come to replace those of ‘class’ and ‘exploitation’ as analytical categories. The reasons for this are many, but the ideological hegemony and political power of a very small class of big businesses served by technocratic states have been paramount. Under this model, the conflictual power relations revealed by the categories of ‘class’, ‘exploitation’ and the subsequent ‘class struggle’ have been seen not to be useful. Rather, the neoliberal model is legitimized by preaching a harmonious power structure in which ‘trickle-down’, ‘efficient use of resources’, ‘meritocracy’ and ‘technical fxes’ are used to justify and deal with pressing problems of poverty and maldistribution of power and wealth. In similar vein, the recent uprising in Egypt since 25 January 2011 has been constructed as a non-violent, youth revolution in which social media (especially Facebook...

Publication Date

Winter 1-25-2021

Document Type

Book Chapter

Book Title

Marginality and exclusion in Egypt and the Middle East

Editors

Ray Bush , Habib Ayeb

ISBN

978-1-78032-084-7

Publisher

Zed Books Ltd

City

London

First Page

133

Last Page

147

Keywords

Middle East, North African Studies, marginalization, exclusion, Egypt, Mubarak, 25 January, facebook, social media, workers

Against marginalization: workers, youth and class in the 25 January revolution
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