Since 2011, media coverage of the Arab uprisings has focused on the contest for power between old-guard regimes, liberal pro-democracy activists, and Islamist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood. But labor unions and left-wing organizations have also played an important role in the political struggles of North Africa and the Middle East.

From the Tunisian trade-union movement and Egypt’s wildcat strikes to the Sudanese Professionals Association, action by organized workers has often been of pivotal importance in the fight for political freedom and social justice. Whenever counterrevolutionary forces have gained the initiative, working-class organizations have been the first to suffer from the chilling effect of repression.

Joel Beinin is a leading historian of the Middle East, and the author of Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. He spoke to Jacobin about the record of Arab left and labor organizations across a decade of intense political drama.