Tag: revolution

Egypten – diktatoren faldt, men kampen er først begyndt

Den egyptiske hær har nu opløst parlamentet, meddelt, at der vil være valg til september og lægger nu op til at forbyde strejker, som 3arabawy skriver:

From Reuters…

Egypt’s new military rulers will issue a warning on Sunday against anyone who creates “chaos and disorder”, an army source said.
The Higher Military Council will also ban meetings by labour unions or professional syndicates, effectively forbidding strikes, and tell all Egyptians to get back to work after the unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Remember, when the army took over in 1952, first thing they did was executing two strike leaders at Kafr el-Dawwar textile mill.

Militæret siger, at de vil give borgerne deres rettigheder tilbage og afholde valg, og det er svært at se, at de har andet valg – uden at gribe til vold i en skala, som selv Mubarak var ude af stand til at ty til. Men militæret har de sidste 60 år været mere eller mindre identisk med regimet. Det er svært at se deres halve års overgangsperiode som andet end en lejlighed til at bage store mængder af rævekager, der skal bevare deres egne og Mubarak-regimets velhavende klienters privilegier.

Ifølge førciterede Hossam el-Hawalawys twitterstrøm foregår der netop nu et intenst arbejde med at danne fagforeninger og organisere strejker, så revolutionen ikke bare bliver overtaget af militæret, men bliver fastholdt og kommer almindelige mennesker til gode:

we bloody need free labor unions to keep those strikes going and coordinate #egyworkers

Oil #egyworkers on strike – LIVE at http://bambuser.com/v/1412290

The militancy is impressive. The strikers attacked ministry officials for still putting up Mubarak’s photos on the wall.

Spoke with the oil strikers, put them in touch with labor lawyers to start forming free union.

Also more divers I’m in touch with r joining initiative for a free union of Egyptian divers, in Marsa Alam, Hurghada, Sharm and Alexandria.

Everyone should start forming unions & labor associations now. If we don’t build those now, we’ll be fucked by the regime soon.

Don’t trust the Generals! Don’t trust the Generals! Keep building your trade unions. That is the only thing that can protect our revolution.

Omar Suleimans og Mubaraks konstante forhandlen på skrømt, mens deres halve eller potentielle indrømmelser blev fulgt op af intense forsøg på at lade det hemmelige politi slå ned på demonstranterne med vold, kidnapninger og tortur, giver i hvert fald ikke i sig selv nogen grund til at stole på militærets velvilje – med mindre aktivisterne og folk nede på jorden bliver ved med at holde dem godt og grundigt i ørerne.

Og de vestlige regeringer? Vel, de står sikkert allerede på spring for at bestikke de spirende politiske partier med støtte for at sikre en “fornuftig” (læs: Mubarak-lignende) politik i fremtiden. Men de skal måske ikke forvente sig for meget af egypterne, især ikke taknemmelighed.

Wael Ghonim udtrykte det meget klart i én af sine mange tweets:

Dear Western Governments, You’ve been silent for 30 years supporting the regime that was oppressing us. Please don’t get involved now.

Here’s hoping they won’t.

Song to the people of Egypt

The following verses were written by the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1819 in the hope of inciting a peaceful revolution which would bring down the tyranny of the King and the rich, land-owning nobility.

This poem aptly describes what Shelley was hoping for in England, which is almost exactly what has happened in Egypt right now. For England, substitute Egypt. What England never could, Egypt did.

This Egyptian revolution brought down the dictator, but it must also be the end of Orientalism and the stupid European notion of the Arab world as “other”. Our culture and beliefs may not be the same, but our hearts and dreams and hopes and aspirations are the same. Our leaders may be enemies, but those who suffer will eventually think the same. Who is to say we are not brothers and friends?

SONG TO THE PEOPLE OF EGYPT (From: The Mask of Anarchy, by P.B. Shelley)

‘Ye who suffer woes untold,
Or to feel, or to behold
Your lost country bought and sold
With a price of blood and gold–

‘Let a vast assembly be,
And with great solemnity
Declare with measured words that ye
Are, as God has made ye, free–

‘Be your strong and simple words
Keen to wound as sharpened swords,
And wide as targes let them be,
With their shade to cover ye.

‘Let the tyrants pour around
With a quick and startling sound,
Like the loosening of a sea,
Troops of armed emblazonry.

‘Let the charged artillery drive
Till the dead air seems alive
With the clash of clanging wheels,
And the tramp of horses’ heels.

‘Let the fixed bayonet
Gleam with sharp desire to wet
Its bright point in English blood
Looking keen as one for food.

Let the horsemen’s scimitars
Wheel and flash, like sphereless stars
Thirsting to eclipse their burning
In a sea of death and mourning.

‘Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war,

‘And let Panic, who outspeeds
The career of armed steeds
Pass, a disregarded shade
Through your phalanx undismayed.

‘Let the laws of your own land,
Good or ill, between ye stand
Hand to hand, and foot to foot,
Arbiters of the dispute,

‘The old laws of England–they
Whose reverend heads with age are gray,
Children of a wiser day;
And whose solemn voice must be
Thine own echo–Liberty!

On those who first should violate
Such sacred heralds in their state
Rest the blood that must ensue,
And it will not rest on you.

‘And if then the tyrants dare
Let them ride among you there,
Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew,–
What they like, that let them do.

‘With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay
Till their rage has died away.

Then they will return with shame
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek.

‘Every woman in the land
Will point at them as they stand–
They will hardly dare to greet
Their acquaintance in the street.

‘And the bold, true warriors
Who have hugged Danger in wars
Will turn to those who would be free,
Ashamed of such base company.

‘And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.

‘And these words shall then become
Like Oppression’s thundered doom
Ringing through each heart and brain,
Heard again–again–again–

‘Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number–
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you–
Ye are many–they are few.’

Den egyptiske revolution bør skræmme Vestens regeringer

John Pilger skriver noget, jeg har tænkt i nogle uger nu: Revolutionerne i Tunesien og Egypten giver en solid dosis “anti-orientalisme”.

I stedet for at vise os de arabiske befolkninger som fundamentalt anderledes, som “den anden” i forhold til os her i vesten, viser billederne fra gaderne i Cairo og Alexandria os noget, vi umiddelbart genkender: Mennesker som os selv. Det er blandt andet derfor, de højreorienterede spindoktorer har så travlt med at forsikre, at det ikke vil lykkes og islam vil overtage. De ser et verdenssyn baseret på orientalisme og racisme smuldre, når egypterne træder frem på vore TV-skærme som medmennesker med motiver, der til forveksling ligner vore egne, og de frygter for deres egen fremtid.

Og i den forstand kæmper de unge på Tahrir-pladsen også for vores frihed, som Pilger skriver:

The uprising in Egypt has discredited every western media stereotype about the Arabs. The courage, determination, eloquence and grace of those in Liberation Square contrast with “our” specious fear-mongering, with its al-Qaeda and Iran bogeys and iron-clad assumptions of the “moral leadership of the west”. It is not surprising that the recent source of truth about the imperial abuse of the Middle East, WikiLeaks, is itself subjected to craven and petty abuse in those self-congratulating newspapers that set the limits of elite liberal debate on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps they are worried. Public awareness is rising and bypassing them.

In Washington and London, the regimes are fragile and barely democratic. Having long burned down societies abroad, they are now doing something similar at home, with lies and without a mandate. To their victims, the resistance in Liberation Square must seem an inspiration. “We won’t stop,” said a young Egyptian woman on TV. “We won’t go home.” Try kettling a million people in the centre of London, bent on civil disobedience, and try imagining it could not happen.

Når oprøret har sejret i Egypten (siger jeg med krydsede fingre) kommer tiden måske og forhåbentlig til London, Paris og København. Lad magthaverne frygte. Og læs endelig det hele!

Den ægyptiske revolution – Q&A

Hossam el-Hamalawy, en ægyptisk blogger og journalist, der er meget aktiv i disse dages begivenheder,  havde i går lejlighed til at besvare spørgsmål fra Washington Posts læsere:

Boston, Mass.: How long before Mubarak steps down?

If he does, do you worry about a power vacuum?

Do you see ElBaradei as property interim leader until free and fair elections can be held?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: I see him stepping down pretty soon or else he will be taken into custody of the protestors and will be put on trial.

I do not worry about power vacuum because the people are already taking initiatives on the ground to fill any security or political vacuums as we saw in the case of the popular committee that are running security now in the Egyptian neighborhoods, following the evacuation of the police.

Regarding ElBaradei, I do not want to see him as an interim leader because he will diffuse the revolution, not take it forward.

_______________________

Sheffield, U.K.: Which are the opposition parties capable of replacing Mubarak and will they respect the call for elections?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: I don’t see any of the current opposition groups capable of providing an alternative at the moment. And what I hope for is that we end up with direct democracy, not liberal democracy. Direct democracy is based on collective decision-making from below based on the committees that are springing up now in the neighborhoods and hopefully soon in the factories.

Liberal democracy is voting for rich fat cats once every five years.

_______________________

Bluffton, Ohio: As a university student interested in social justice and social change, what can American students alike do to help during this situation?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: They can protest in the front of the Egyptian embassies and consulates and pressure their own government into cutting the aid they give to the Mubarak dictatorship.

_______________________

Durham, N.C.: How much truth is there to rumors that police are behind the looting?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: These rumors are largely through many of those criminal thugs who work closely with the police who use them against political dissidents previously in elections and in protests.

_______________________

Coon Rapids, MN: Do you think the new government will be a secular one?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: At the moment it is very hard to say what the outcome of the uprising will be since it’s not over yet. However, the Islamic forces are not running the show. Personally I’m hoping for a secular system.

_______________________

New York, NY: I am a Coptic Christian and would like to know if Coptic youth are taking part in the protests? And if you have spoken to any of them what are their hopes for Coptic rights if the regime leaves? Please give us some information. Thank you.

Hossam el-Hamalawy: Despite the call by the Coptic church in Egypt not to take part in the protests because the church is closely affiliated to the Mubarak regime but many of the Coptic youth are taking part in the uprising and the Muslim protesters largely welcome that and in demonstrations there are always slogans chanted by the demonstrators calling for unity between Copts and Muslims against the regime and denouncing sectarianism.

_______________________

London: What does “diffusing the revolution” mean for you? What is the aim of this revolution if not an interim leader and then a properly and freely elected new government?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: The revolution for me is about radical redistribution of wealth and a government that will represent the will of the Egyptian people when it comes to civil liberties in addition to a pro-resistance stand vis a vis the U.S. hegemony on the region and Israel. ElBaradei is not the man for that.

_______________________

Toronto, Canada: We see the size of the street protests but what types of organizations are springing up to organize these? For instance neighbourhood committees, factory committees, political parties. Or is it still primarily “spontaneous” and localized organizations?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: In many cases the protests are spontaneous but slowly there are grassroots organizations that are mushrooming to manage the protests, including the neighborhood committees, the few independent trade unions we have and hopefully soon factory committees.

_______________________

London: Do you see this as a popular, mass led, revolution? What chance do the Muslim Brotherhood have of hijacking it?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: It is a popular mass revolution indeed. However, history is full of previous cases where groups have hijacked the uprisings. Up until now the Brotherhood have not presented themselves as an alternative to Mubarak. But who knows about tomorrow?

_______________________

Washington, DC: If Mubarak steps down, is there a fear that a radical regime will take his place instead of a democratic one? How likely is that to happen?

Hossam el-Hamalawy: If you are talking radical, like in radical redistribution of wealth and active support for the spread of regional dissent against both the local Arab dictators and the western backers, then we welcome the radicalism. But if it was radicalism in the direction of religious fanatacism we definitely do not want that and I see no signs on the ground that religious fanatics are taking over.

Læs det hele!