goals, its national breadth and what's next. It's all critical, and until
this, notthing put so fully or clearly in anything I've seen. It's an
invaluable measure, to be referenced as the future becomes now.
Thanks to Cindy Kaffen, for this and for listing s previous reports.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: C Kaffen
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2011 9:42 AM
THE STRUGGLE SURGES AHEAD
Comment: Ahmed Shawki
A witness to Friday's massive demonstration in Cairo says that the huge
protests represent a new stage in the uprising against Egypt's dictator
Hosni Mubarak.
http://socialistworker.org/2011/02/04/the-struggle-surges-ahead
International Socialist Review editor Ahmed Shawki reports from Cairo on the
mass demonstrations that shifted the balance away from the violence of the
regime.
February 4, 2011
Millions continue to demonstrate across Egypt calling for an end to the
Mubarak dictatorship (Nasser Nouri)
ANTI-MUBARAK demonstrators gathered in the hundreds of thousands on Friday,
in Cairo's Tahrir Square, in Alexandria and in cities and towns across the
country for a new day of mass protest against the regime.
In my estimation, the Tahrir Square demonstration was even bigger today than
last Tuesday, when across Egypt, between 6 million and 8 million people
protested, according to estimates. As the hour for curfew came and went
tonight, thousands of people were still arriving to demonstrate. In
Alexandria,
an estimated 1 million people also turned out.
Everywhere, people were united around the slogan that Mubarak must go now.
In Tahrir Square, there was an echo of the old civil rights slogan in the
U.S.
"We shall not be moved"--hundreds of thousands of people were chanting,
"He should go! We will not move." Then there was my favorite slogan of the
day: "Ya Mubarak, sahi el noum, inaharda akher youm!" It sounds better in
Arabic because it rhymes, but it translates roughly into English as: "Wakey,
wakey, Mubarak, today is the last day!"
To understand the importance of today's massive turnout, you only have to
remember what happened on Wednesday and Thursday, which can only be
described as the unleashing of the hounds of hell--thugs of the regime sent
out in a coordinated assault on the demonstrators at Tahrir Square and the
whole of the pro-democracy movement.
The scale of violence was seen by millions of people around the world. They
threw rocks and Molotov cocktails, and they wielded knives and all kinds of
other weapons in an attempt to intimidate, injure and drive out the
demonstrators from Tahrir Square.
They also made a particular point to beat up journalists and drive them out
of the square, and they raided hotels where news organizations like Al
Jazeera and CNN were headquartered, trashing their operations. They also
attempted to incite fear against foreigners--anything that would drive a
wedge
among the demonstrators and that would intimidate people from coming out on
Friday.
The violence was so bad that Omar Suleiman--the newly appointed vice
president, whose previous position was head of the army intelligence
services,
someone who must have overseen the arrest and torture of thousands in that
post--came on television last night to deny any involvement on the part of
the
National Democratic Party, Mubarak's ruling party.
Suleiman claimed that no one had any idea who organized the onslaught,
-despite the fact that several of the thugs were captured, and their police
or
government employment IDs were shown in the media. So the hollowness
of his claims weren't lost on the Egyptian people.
There was even a moment of bizarre other-worldliness when Suleiman--this
organizer of repression and torture--appealed for prisoners, who according
to many reports had been released from jail by the regime's thugs to help in
the violence, to show up at the prisons again and turn themselves in.
That's the context of today's demonstrations--after two days of systematic
violence against the anti-Mubarak protestors, people turned out in the
hundreds of thousands today, and it turned the balance back again in the
favor of the demonstrators.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
AS IN every revolutionary situation, there has been a dramatic ebb and flow
to the events in Egypt.
The demonstrations began on January 25--ironically, on "Police Day," which
was previously a celebration of the regime's strength. On that first day,
the
movement broke through a kind of psychological barrier by moving into the
streets in huge numbers, something that didn't happen under the Egyptian
police state.
The demonstrations continued through last Friday, when huge battles
with the police pushed the security forces off the streets. The
government's response was to deploy the army, which is seen as "above
politics"--but to allow Cairo to descend into a kind of chaos, with gangs of
thugs roaming through neighborhoods, many of them organized by the regime.
The mass of Egyptians responded to this by organizing neighborhood
defense committees to protect the people.
Last Tuesday, the demonstrations were the biggest yet. Mubarak spoke on
television that night, declaring that he wouldn't run for reelection, but
had no intention of stepping down. The thugs were unleashed the next day
to show what Mubarak had in mind as a transition.
But Friday represents a new stage following the two days of violence that
came before it. In the preceding two days, not only was the anti-Mubarak
demonstration in Tahrir maintained--that is, the heart of the uprising and
its best-known expression was defended from forces determined to drive
the protesters out--but the manner of its defense produced a response in
support of it that could be seen throughout the day today.
Early on Friday morning, there were literally thousands of people lined up
to go into the square. The army had taken up positions after the two days of
sustained violence, not wanting to appear helpless, but what was
phenomenal was that it wasn't the army guarding the entrances, but lines
and lines of stewards from the demonstration. They searched people as
they came in, making sure no one had the kind of weapons that the pro-
government gangs had used against them. I've never been frisked so often,
and with as many apologies for being frisked.
The army is continuing to maintain its role as a force supposedly above
politics. Unlike the last two days of uncontrolled violence against the
protesters, which the army didn't intervene decisively to stop, today, it
helped create a buffer zone around Tahrir Square. So once the attack on
Tahrir Square failed, there was barbed wire and tanks in all the pivotal
positions around Cairo.
I got to Tahrir in the morning, before the end of prayers, when even larger
numbers came to the demonstration. But already, the crowd numbered half a
million, if not more, by my estimate.
Once inside Tahrir, you could see a level of organization and solidarity
unlike anything I've seen before.
The first thing that struck me was the makeshift clinics set up all over the
place, with dozens and dozens of nurses and doctors--many of whom said they
wereunemployed--stitching up people's legs or arms or faces. These injuries
were the result of the pro-government thugs--there were dozens of people
walking around who had been patched up.
In addition to that, people had brought medical supplies with them. Others
were
circulating through the square with bags of bread, with water, with candy.
One of the aims of the pro-Mubarak forces had been to drive out all
journalists--they focused in particular on foreign journalists to try to
raise anger at a supposed foreign plot against Egypt. So it was good to
see that journalists were operating freely and quite welcome in the crowd.
Probably the most significant sign of the health of the protest was the
continued political discussion and debate within the square. I also saw
dozens
and dozens of people who were calling friends and relatives, and encouraging
them to come to the square--trying to convince them of the fallacy of the
government's claims about chaos and violence.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ACCORDING TO press reports, the U.S. government is lobbying hard to get
officials around Mubarak to pressure him to step down.
The U.S. maneuvers around this question must, as always, be taken with a
grain of salt. No one will say it in the mainstream media, but Obama could
have held a press conference in which he simply declared that aid to Egypt
is cut off, that this kind of violence will not be tolerated, and that the
U.S.
now stands squarely with the protesters.
But of course, he won't say that because that's not how diplomacy works. And
the reason it doesn't work that way is you can't send that signal about a
dictator the U.S. has been supporting for 30 years. Not because Mubarak
isn't finished, but because of how his downfall on those terms would affect
other relationships and the whole Middle East.
So the U.S. is scrambling to find an alternative, and there are plenty of
options. Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, showed up to the
demonstration
today to be among the protesters. He's clearly thrown his hat in the ring to
be
the next president. There's also Mohamed ElBaradai. There's the Muslim
Brotherhood. Even the current defense minister, Mohammed Hussein Tantawi,
made
the rounds through Tahrir Square today, under protection of soldiers,
without
much opposition to him.
But there are still plenty of difficulties and contradictions for the U.S.
and
for the rulers in Egypt, because there are significant problems from trying
to
gently step back from a military dictatorship.
Egypt is still that, in many respects. I should add that a couple offices of
human rights and labor organizations were raided yesterday and closed down.
It's
still very gingerly that people produce any public literature that's against
the
regime. So it was quite an exercise, for example, to get leaflets into
Tahrir
Square today.
One problem for the U.S. is that Omar Suleiman figures prominently in their
plans for a post-Mubarak transition. Many of the demonstrators were dismayed
by
Suleiman's speech last night. But of course, most know the history of the
man--that he was involved integrally in the repression that took place under
Mubarak's regime.
In general, most demonstrators still agree that their central demand is for
the
removal of Mubarak. That's not to say that the rest of the regime should get
off
scot-free. But Mubarak's downfall is what the movement has focused on so
far,
and when that's accomplished, that significant victory will then open the
process.
My own view is that it's virtually impossible to imagine the departure of
Mubarak without the cabinet and the government he's put into place then
becoming
the central question for the movement. That's the underlying dynamic.
Mubarak is the lightning rod that has brought all the forces together. Those
forces don't necessarily agree on the same outcome, but they're at least
agreed
on the central necessity of seeing him go, and that will become the
practical
measure of what's been accomplished.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
ONE OF the most interesting conversations I heard was one man trying to
explain
on the phone to someone the profoundly democratic thrust of the protests.
He said to the person he was talking to that people see demonstrators
chanting
"Allah Akbar," and they conclude these protests must be organized by the
Muslim
Brotherhood. Then they see many famous actors and musicians showing up to
Tahrir
Square today, and they think it's just a middle-class protest of the
intelligentsia.
But it's not the Muslim Brotherhood behind all this. It's not the middle
class.
It's not, as this man went on to say, only socialists and Marxists talking
about
workers' rights, and it's not people talking about just women's rights. This
is
really a protest of all Egypt united in a profound movement for democracy.
I think that's the first thing that has to be grasped about the
uprising--that
this is a movement that seeks fundamental democratic rights. As a friend of
mine
put it a few days ago, it's the 1789 of Egypt--similar to the opening of the
French Revolution in that way.
I think the second aspect that became certain today is that this is no
longer
the Egypt that existed prior to January 25--and there's no turning back,
however
much violence the regime tries to organize. A tipping point has been reached
in
terms of the willingness of masses of people to put themselves on the line
and
defy the existing order, and that's a genie that will be very difficult to
put
back in the bottle.
The third aspect apparent today was, as I described earlier, the enormous
self-organization of the movement in the face of horrendous violence and
repression--most especially, the attacks that took place over the past few
days.
The fourth point is broader--about what happens next. You now have a
movement
that has emerged in a most explosive fashion and is present in every
Egyptian
town and city, which is the product of many, many years of injustice,
including
around economic questions of unemployment and dispossession. But it's also
an
expression of the rise of a number of social struggles in Egypt, including
the
strikes of the last few years and the riots over rising food prices.
Right now, the movement is united around the political aim of getting rid of
Hosni Mubarak. But hopefully, once Mubarak is unseated, the political
questions
will then mesh with social questions that still remain unresolved.
If that happens, there will be a really explosive mix of political and
social
issues that represents the possibility of political and social revolution.
I think that's the key to understanding why Mubarak hasn't left yet. It's
not
just a question of his own stubbornness, but how the regime can continue and
the
status quo can be maintained, not just for the Egyptian elite, but for
Israel,
the U.S., its European allies and so on.
Their interest is in preventing this process from triggering an even greater
change. That's what these demonstrations are heralding, and we hope it's a
process that will continue.
One last story from today: When Mubarak spoke on television on Tuesday night
and
said that he wouldn't run for reelection, he vowed that he was going to die
on
Egypt's soil. One Socialist Worker reporter quipped at the time, "We should
tell
him that the soil is ready for him." I translated that today at Tahrir
Square,
and I can report that it was greeted with wild applause and cheers--it's
another
part of the ongoing Egyptian revolution.
Previous eyewitness reports from Egypt
Comment: Ahmed Shawki
THE REGIME LASHES BACK
Forces loyal to Hosni Mubarak counter-attacked in a highly coordinated
attempt
to intimidate the mass movement against the dictatorship.
http://socialistworker.org/2011/02/03/the-regime-lashes-back
Comment: Ahmed Shawki
MILLIONS AGAINST MUBARAK
An eyewitness to Tuesday's mass demonstrations explains what the largest day
of
protest yet will mean for the uprising against Egypt's dictator.
http://socialistworker.org/2011/02/02/millions-against-mubarak
________
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