7. Transnationalising Dissidence Beyond the Global South: Arab Activists in Occupy Oakland

The chapter draws on what W. J. T Mitchell (2012, p. 18) describes as the “temporality of contagion” between the Arab uprisings and the Occupy Movement. It makes a case for studying Arab immigrant activist networks as political subjects who can provide us with insights into how methods of contention diffuse across Arab and Occupy protest sites. It examines whether – and if so, how – Arab activists in the USA drew on Occupy to advance their claims and connect the roots of discontent that stimulated both protest waves. More specifically, it looks at Arab contentious politics at one Occupy site – Occupy Oakland (OO), and identifies the frames and tactical repertoires Arabs drew on to relate both protest movements. In addition to analysing how Arab activists negotiated their ‘political agency’ notwithstanding scarce resources, the chapter hints at the numerous constraints and existing fractures that weakened their politics of claims-making. The chapter adds to the scholarship on the ways in which immigrants shape political struggles in cityscapes, turning the latter into transnational political fields. Furthermore, it seeks to integrate Arab migrant communities into the literature on social movement theories. Although they are firmly integrated in the Diaspora literature, Arab communities have been only superficially addressed as actors in transnational movements.