A renewed interest in Arab political subjectivity in recent years has brought increased debate and research about the left. Some write about memory making amid the retreat of revolts, others about the impact of ideology during intense (counter-)revolutionary shifts.Footnote ¹ These revolutionary processes are not linear, and their role in shaping leftist movements and revolutionary moments are unequal across time and place. The trajectory of the Moroccan left raises the question of how new experiences are linked to previous ones. An anthropological approach to this question offers a bottom-up view that allows us to think about the cycle of revolts in Morocco as praxis and as maintenance of intergenerational leftist genealogies. Recurring disappointments notwithstanding, examples from Morocco show how leftist activists continue to shape radical political transformations. The outburst of protests in 2016 under the slogan al-hirāk al-shaʿbī can be understood as a continuation of the mass protests that roiled the country in 2011 under the now-legendary emblem Harakat 20 Fibrayir, which in turn connected to earlier mobilizations. This dual reading of protests as both praxis and maintenance demands a complex interrogation beyond idealized, static notions of the left. Local experiences shed light on how the left is organized in Morocco.

Political life in Morocco exists under unique conditions, what I call a makhzanian ecology, which cultivates the left. Morocco cannot be reduced to a (mystical) monarchy, nor can the king's legitimacy simply be explained as (authoritarian) charisma. The ecology of the Moroccan left represents three concentric circles. The first circle is the heritage of an unfinished revolution as part of a settled decolonization. The Moroccan revolutionary leader Mehdi Ben Barka famously described it as “an agreement by which we won and lost at the same time,”Footnote ² referring to the ultimate failure of reaching qualitative change and true justice beyond formal independence. For this reason leftist militants in the 1960s regarded the new regime under Hasan II as a new colonization.Footnote ³ The second circle is related to the way the makhzan state crafted a biopolitical system built on three taboos of King, Land, and Religion.Footnote ⁴ A core motive to repress those who transgress these red lines (khaṭ aḥmar) is fear of independent thinking.Footnote ⁵ The third and final circle is the deep resentment on the left for the wealthy state elites and their system. It is precisely because Morocco is a deeply unequal capitalist society that it also inhibits a recurring inclination towards social unrest. This specific ecology influences the experiences of the Moroccan left.

Roughly speaking, Marxist, socialist, and anarchist tendencies make up the left in Morocco, whether organized in social movements or political parties. These movements and parties have not been equally influential, and some have changed markedly. Whereas the contemporary Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) is among the more flexible parties, accepting and guiding some of the most neoliberal policies, its predecessor the National Union of Popular Forces (UNPF) of the 1960s was a key historical component of the left. Its famous frontrunner Mehdi Ben Barka played a leading role in the internationalist socialist and nonaligned movements. The evolution of USFP coincides with a common division between the liberal left, the reformist left, and the radical (nonparliamentary) left. The latter has a more grassroots and activist tradition, and in Morocco it refers mostly to the Marxist variant. An essential cornerstone of contemporary Moroccan activist Marxism is Nahj al-Dimuqrati and al-Munadila, whose antecedents are the Marxist-Leninist (Maoist) Ila al-Amam and the (Trotskist) Fourth International respectively. Both in fact broke with the Moroccan Communist Party (renamed PPS). Although the void caused by the failure of the political left vis-à-vis the co-optation of the USFP and the collapse of the CP was detrimental, this vacuum also created space for the radical left to reinvent, reorganize, and reinsert itself. Despite the historical rivalries between radical left groups, the Moroccan radical left has largely outgrown such feuds. In terms of political outlook, it is focused on the struggle against capitalism and dictatorship with a strongly anti-imperial bent, considering solidarity with the Palestinians a duty rather than goodwill.Footnote ⁶ Overall, it is less dogmatic than, for instance, the prodigiously nationalist or Stalinist leftist groups in the region. Just as al-Munadila stands out for its support of the Syrian revolutions and rejection of Bashar al-Asad in recent years, its position on the importance of self-determination in Western Sahara set Ila al Amam apart from other left tendencies (mainly communist and social democratic) in the 1970s.Footnote ⁷

How does a left movement develop and grow in such a political ecology? A local and historical prism allows us to observe the importance of revolutionary transgressions during this process. We may, for example, examine the rituals and repertoires of leftist activists who maintain their networks but also prolong their claims and promises. Leftist activists are aware of the converging concentric circles that mark the wider ecology within which the Moroccan radical left is predestined to operate. Here the idea of transference and mediation matters deeply because each new collective transgression challenges the legitimacy of the ruling order. What defined the 2011 momentum was the eagerness to offload a deep-felt urge to protest “al-hugra”: the unfair treatment and humiliation felt by many due to this. At the same time, the fact that this same anger was felt and expressed by many others in similar ways and through similar chants, marked the 2011 experience. The transference of progressive values is hidden amid the loud and chaotic activist rituals. The sit-ins, and later dhikras (public commemoration/reunion activities one or two years later) became spatial mediators between old and new activists, but also offer the place to retell victorious tales through chants. It is for this reason, the power of inspiration and persuasion, that the regime has to censor the protests in the media. It seeks to eradicate them from Morocco's collective memory.

But the activist rituals also recall previous setbacks and hence become suggestive of the challenges ahead. Some narratives embody the idea that revolutionary change is difficult and requires commitment, for instance by inserting the name of someone who is dead or in prison and adding sa-nuwaṣṣil al-kifāḥ (we shall deliver the struggle on your behalf). When activists chant the names of left-wing activist shuhadāʾ (martyrs) such as Saida Menebhi (Sayyida Minibhi), who died in prison in 1976, or Zubayda Khalifa, who was killed in 1988 during a Palestine solidarity protest, they chant their names in the present tense, as if to prepare for what is to come.Footnote ⁸ The final letter composed by Abdellatif Zeroual (ʿAbd al-Latif Zirwal), the activist from the underground Marxist Ila al-Amam who was eventually tortured to death 1974, ended with benis ma mort, o mon amour (bless be my death, oh my love). It is regarded as a love letter to the revolution, because a truly revolutionary love is aware of the sacrifices required. This is still found in public odes, rituals during which activists swear allegiance to the struggle. When a group of political activists from Al Hoceima were released after a year of imprisonment, they interrupted the hugs in order to pledge honor to the movement.Footnote ⁹ As they acclaimed their oath, by-standers filmed and screened it through Facebook Live. In this way, they honored those who sacrificed their lives but in a style that also incurs pride (sharaf) infused with energy. Such performative pledges are the activist rituals that ensure the passing down of historical injustices and the taking over of the struggle to protest them. They function as reminders, aide-memoirs, that trigger a new round of leftist activists. The fact that repressive regimes can hear the same echoes of the past explains their attempt at either co-optation or violent crackdown. The activists react by stating openly that they know what the regime is up to. And in doing so they reject the empty promises and cosmetic changes, and keep alive the lessons of past attempts by state or elite organizations to undercut them. In one chant they literally said “this makhzan wants to take us back to the years of lead.”Footnote ¹⁰

Thus, the history of the Moroccan left is not a linear one and activist rituals give important direction. The presence of an organized radical left is crucial because their strategies of resistance or endurance have to be generalized across society and therefore historical lessons still require mediation. Rebellion is their praxis, yet through ephemeral rituals they resist apathy and demystify dynastic ruling-class or royal charisma. The left offers an alternative and can be an imminent, rather than mere theoretical, source of inspiration that may due in course tip the scale towards actual democratization.