Extended Interview: Where Arab Spring and Occupy Meet
One year after the Arab Spring began, activists in Cairo and New York discuss how the Middle East protests inspired the Occupy movement, and where they go from here
A year ago this month, pro-democracy activists in the Middle East began a series of protests. Starting in Tunisia, and quickly spreading to Egypt, Libya, and throughout the region. Clashes between protesters and soldiers often turned deadly. Yet those demonstrations managed to uproot decades-old military dictatorships, and triggered a wave of activism that swept the world.
One of the organizers in Cairo was Ahmed Naguib. I talked to him – and to Tammy Shapiro, an Occupy Wall Street organizer in New York – about the common ground their movements share and where activists in Egypt and the U.S. go from here. We aired a short version of this interview on the show today. Listen to the full interview above.