{"id":2494,"date":"2011-07-04T14:49:51","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T20:49:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lavozlit.com\/?p=2494"},"modified":"2011-07-04T14:49:51","modified_gmt":"2011-07-04T20:49:51","slug":"egypt-a-revolution-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2011\/07\/04\/egypt-a-revolution-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt: A revolution underway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
International Courier Supplement \u2013 June 2011<\/strong>
\nWritten by IWL-FI<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tuesday, 28 June 2011 02:25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"Egypt: A revolution underway<\/strong>
\nBetween the 3rd and the 6th June, a representation of Brazilians took part in the Conference of Solidarity with the Arab Revolution in Egypt. Dirceu Travesso, representing CSP Conlutas, Clara Saraiva for ANEL (Students\u2019 National Association \u2013 Free) and Gloria Ferreira of the PSTU. What follows is the text of a report on situation in Egypt, written by comrades Gloria and Clara.
\nWinds of Revolution still blow in Cairo<\/strong>
\nConversations with workers and activists revealed that winds of revolution are still blowing in Egypt. The process initiated on January 25th goes on posing the alternative: revolution \u2013 counterrevolution.
\nThe city breathes revolution. Cairo has 7.9 million inhabitants, 2 out of which wee on the Tahir Square during the denouement of the great events in February. Seeing the numbers it becomes easy to understand: the revolutionary awareness was built up by the millions out in the streets stands for the absolute majority. The taxi-driver, the caretaker, the worker, the student, the young unemployed woman\u2026 they have all been on the square, they saw the power of the moving masses, and they know that after 25th January the country is no longer the same. Inquired as to what has changed after the fall of Mubarak, Ahmedm a young taxi-driver answered categorically, \u201cEverything.\u201d
\nYouth and vanguard<\/strong>
\nThe first anniversary of the day when Khaled Said, a middleclass youth was arrested, tortured and murdered by the police of the Mubarak dictatorship. The entire population was shocked by this terrible injustice, thinking that this could have happened to any of them or to any of their children. This turned into a great symbol of struggle and, in 2010, thousands walked out into the streets carrying his photographs and saying \u201cWe are all Khaled Said\u201d.
\nWe talked to many young people during this trip, to the protagonists of this revolution. Practically all of them has been jailed or had a story of repression during the Mubarak days to tell. Many even have a friend who has been killed. When we reached the Cairo University, we saw the exhibition of the photographs of the students killed during the Revolution.
\nWe managed to have a meeting with representatives of the 6th April who, even though they do not have a socialist programme or a clear strategy of power, their activity was central to the Revolution. They are young people who, in 2006, built an organisation stemming out of a workers\u2019 strike in Mahallah, in the north of Egypt, when workers occupied factories. These youngsters, many of them students, felt identified with the struggle of the workers and they realised how important that was to challenge the dictatorship. They began to have a larger scope of action in 2007 due to an audience conquered through the Internet.
\nThe Revolution<\/strong>
\nThey gave us the best report on the Revolution: \u201cAfter the ascent in Tunisia, when Ben Alli was toppled, combined with the enormous repudiation (real hatred) of the population against the Mubarak, the 25th January dawned. As an outcome of these two conditions, the Engineers\u2019 Trade Union summoned for a rally for January 25th, traditionally an institutional commemoration of Egyptian police. When we issued this summons we never knew how this date would remain marked in history.\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThe demonstration was a great success and, in several points of the city, many thousands of workers and young people started gathering little by little. During the march, they chanted, \u201ccome, come, bring your families and join us.\u201d Meanwhile the police brutality accrued against the demonstrators. But the effect was contrary to what it was meant to be: more and more people walked out into the streets.\u201d<\/em> News started coming from other cities in Egypt: they were also occupying squares and streets and spawned more confidence in resistance.
\n\u201cSo we thought, \u2018oh OK. So now we have a revolution. So what are we supposed to do now?\u2019 Half a million people were already occupying the Square and the number kept on increasing as a part of the same national movement increasingly confident that they would only stop when Mubarak fell.\u201d. <\/em>There was no other conclusion to be drawn: we were face to face with a revolution. Repression became more savage. Thousands of demonstrators were arrested and some were killed. The deep meaning of what was going on spawned more self-sacrifice and greater predisposition to fight to the absolute end. Simultaneously what grew was also the felling of equality among those present. Men and women, Moslem and Christians, young and old, all together were equal and revolutionary.
\nMassive self-organisation began. Commissions to guarantee security, food and cleanliness were formed. There were millions living in an inexplicable harmony in quest of building for future of their country. \u201cThe Square was the most perfect place in the world at that moment,\u201d<\/em> one of the leaders tells us.
\nMubarak tried to demoralise them saying that they were an isolated movement on the Tahrir and they not more than youngsters. He threatened them dreadfully, cancelled the internet in the whole country to avoid communication through social networks. They told us that at that moment they discussed the need to extend the revolution to workers. And this was the turning point. Mubarak\u2019s attempts at isolating the Revolution at Tahrir Square proved to be a failure: workers at factories went on strike, something that was evidenced during the three days when the Suez Channel, economically very important for imperialism, was paralysed. The Revolution became stronger until, on 11 February 2011, Mubarak fell.
\nNew tasks<\/strong>
\nA young activist asks us about Brazilian experience. He poses the problem:\u00a0\u201cWe are all under 30: we have not done any militant activity before the Mubarak dictatorship. We do not know how to do overt military activity.\u201d<\/em>
\nThere is an ample process of political and trade union reorganisation underway. Strikes have extended all over the country; at the universities there is a broad process of mobilisation against local leaderships and administrations; activists discuss building of trade unions, independent students\u2019 associations and political parties.
\nAnd yet, even from the democratic point of view there are still many tasks to be completed. They army is the boss of the country, even the same police are still patrolling the streets, the officials of the old regime have not yet been published and there are new rules demanding that $160 000 are to be raised before a party can be mounted, etc.
\nUnemployment and poverty are still rampant<\/strong>
\nWhen we asked a taxi-driver about the living conditions, he answered,\u00a0\u201cAh! This is still just the same\u201d. <\/em>The structural conditions that had led to the revolution are still there: economic crisis, inflation where food is concerned, unemployment and poverty.
\nAn activist expressed the indignation of the people clearly,\u00a0Can you understand this? A kilo of meat here costs about 15 dollars. Thousands of Egyptians do not know the taste of meat.\u201d<\/em>
\nChange in the living conditions and even the furthering of the democratic achievements depend on the split with imperialism and clash against the limits of capitalism in the region. Showing off their total subordination to imperialism, the military administration have just signed an agreement with the IMF including a 3000 million dollars, allegedly \u201caid\u201d to \u201cwarrant the transition to democracy and freedom\u201d. Actually it is conditioned to keep the new government under neo-liberal regulations and in agreement with the IMF prescriptions and includes such measures as privatisations, opening to foreign investment and free transit of capitals.
\nYouth is still fighting against the authoritarianism of the government <\/strong>
\nAs from 25th of January, Fridays became protest days, larger or smaller rallies; the square has never been empty. There went young workers, unemployed, many of them newly graduated from universities, with no prospects for future. The military Council has been tying hard to control and \u2013 if necessary \u2013 to repress this movement. But they are up against an entire generation educated in this revolution. The government repressed a march in support of the Palestinians heading for the frontier with Gaza on the Nakba anniversary.
\nThe army, the strongest institution of the new regime, continues committing all kinds of maltreatment and has recently been involved in a scandal. An office stated that they had been practising a \u201ctest of virginity\u201d on women activists arrested during protests at the Tahrir Square to make sue that later on they could not be accused of rape. This real aggression against women spawned commotion among the population.
\nYoung people made headway in their organisation, even in the neighbourhoods and together with workers. For the first time in the history of Egypt, they are holding free elections to students\u2019 centres and trade unions for teachers and employees. We can perceive their great mistrust in the current regime governed by the militaries.
\nA few days ago, a newspaper issued an article suggesting the possibility of freeing Mubarak without a trial. An outraged population reacted to that so the government issued a statement saying that it was all the periodical\u2019s fault and that as from now every article will have to be authorised by them. They still feat the power of the masses and \u2013 especially so \u2013 the selflessness of the Egyptian youth.
\nThe contradiction: the masses still trust the Council administration<\/strong>
\nThe great contradiction is that the masses have great expectations in the current administration. The High Council of the Armed Forces (HCAF) claim to be part of the 25th January revolution when actually they are part of the counterrevolution for they upheld the old regime until the very last and only yielded when the adamant stance of the masses made the change unavoidable if social order was to be maintained. But not everybody is aware of that: armed forces enjoy high prestige in the country. In spite of their own crisis in the face of the revolution, they went through the process without a split because \u2013 even if they were obliging and allowed the police to repress, it was not their troops who repressed the protest overtly. It was the police who shot at the demonstrators. That is why it is the police that wound up so burnt-out, that is why they had to abandon the Square and, after the fall of Mubarak, were dissolved \u2013 even if the cadres were stationed elsewhere and are still part of the repressive schema.
\nThis is why the situation of the country is so complex: there is terrific confusion in the awareness of the workers as to the current government headed by the armed forces and a great doubt as to what the future of the country is supposed to be. But, according to the young people we have been talking to, people can see very clearly that it was the workers who made the revolution and the people and not the militaries, even if they do expect the army to carry out the transition towards democracy and a change in the country.
\nThe recent government-proposed Referendum held on the reforms to the Constitution was a way of channelling the revolution towards small constitutional changes meant to create the mirage of a real change in their lives. The 6th April Movement stood for the NAY vote. They told us that most of the young people voted NAY, especially in Cairo. The inland regions, less affected by the revolution and receiving more army-made ideological propaganda pushed the final result to 77% for AYE.
\n\u201cRevolution in Egypt: AYE or NAY?<\/strong>
\nAmong the youth who participated in the mobilizations experience is further ahead. For example: we met a young man wrote on the walls, \u201cRevolution in Egypt: AYE or NAY?\u201d<\/em>
\nWhen we asked him what this meant he spoke of the ire against the social pest of the country and the military government. What he was trying to express was that Revolution in Egypt had not reached its end that we could not be celebrating so much, that the banners raised on the Tahrir Square had not yet been achieved. He criticized the current government bitterly and said that the living conditions of the population had not changed. He regretted that the demonstrations did not keep on with the same strength, but at the same time he expressed hope that economic and social demands should go on being raised alongside with the democratic ones. He was an unemployed newly graduated architect. He was the face of the revolution. Criticism posed to the government was a recurrent issue in conversations with young people. We might say that youth regards the Superior Council of the Armed Forces.
\nThe young vanguard of the revolution does not feel represented by the figures that lead the country. On Friday 27th May, several youth organizations, headed by the 6th April Movement, summoned for a day of demonstration. About 500 000 people got mobilized; it was the biggest event since the Revolution. The main demand was trial for Mubarak and immediate establishment of a civilian government.
\nIt was a great demonstration in spite of the boycott of the Moslem Brotherhood who, consistently with their role of the principal political mainstay of the government and the Council of the Armed Forces, took a stance against the protests.
\nThe rally expressed that the revolutionary process goes on and that, in spite of their traditional leaders. Workers are seeking ways and building their own. The government and the armed forces are trying to find a way of aborting this while Egyptian workers and youth are gaining awareness of the deep change they have spawned: Mubarak fell. The toiling masses entered the stage with an impressive force. When workers and youth get together with the purpose of changing their lifestyles, there is no stopping them.
\n_______________________________________________
\n\u201cGadafi and Assad are dictators\u201d<\/strong>
\nThere is no doubt among Egyptian activists that the revolution initiated on January 25th in Egypt was possible due to the victory achieved in Tunisia when Ben Ali was toppled. The doubtless awareness that all the mobilizations in all the countries (Egypt, Syria, Yemen, etc.) are part of an only one revolutionary process in the Arab world as a whole is a fact.
\nApart from the awareness that all these mobilizations are parts of the same process, there is an evident identification between the Arab people and its culture. This identification has a fundamental political aspect, which is materialized in their repudiation of the State of Israel. It exists especially among activists but it is also there in a more ample sector of the population, which rejects the State of Israel and is aware of what this does to the Palestinians. They know that his state is a totally controlled and financed by imperialism and that is why revolutions have necessarily the contents against Israel and the genocide promoted against the Palestinians.
\nConsequently, the Palestinian issue, combined with the awareness of all the mobilisations being part of the same process, makes it very clear that the role played by Gadafi and Assad in Libya and Syria is the same as that of all the dictators in the Arab world. At all the meetings we attended in Egypt, activists made it very clear that, in order to build and strengthen the Arab revolution, the struggle must be against these dictators as well as against imperialism.
\n\u201cChavez is not on our side\u201d<\/strong>
\nAs part of the understanding that Gadafi and Assad are playing the same authoritarian role as all the other dictators, activists strongly repudiate the posture taken by Chavez and Castro. Even if they do regard revolution in Latin America as a reference, when talking to them, we were under the impression that the support for Gadafi and Assad was a real divisor of waters and caused expectations regarding these two rulers to dwindle.
\nAt a meeting we were explaining the current revolutionary process in Latin America and we asked a comrade about his position on Chavez. He said, \u201cHe is with Gadafi; he is not on our side\u201d. We believe this to be the position of the majority of left activists in Egypt.
\nThey repudiate these dictators but they do not accept the imperialist military intervention and they have no doubts about the fact that their interest lies in the natural wealth of the countries and the subjugation of these nations. As from that discussion it became very simple to explain that at present these rulers will do nothing to improve the living conditions of the workers, that the contrary is true: they too, are on the side of imperialism.
\nWe had an impression that a slightly broader fringe of participants in the revolution tended to accept the imperialist intervention saying,\u00a0\u201cLibyans are being murdered by Gadafi\u2019s troops; it is necessary to support them.\u201d <\/em>But not even this position is accompanied with political confidence in imperialism. On the contrary, because of the relation that exists with the State of Israel, they are familiar with their real interests but they tend to support the military intervention because they fear what will happen to the Libyans. They underrate the harm that imperialist intervention can produce to the interests of the revolution. But support for Gadafi simply would not even occur to them. That is why Chavez\u2019s and Castro\u2019s position has no audience in the country.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International Courier Supplement \u2013 June 2011 Written by IWL-FI Tuesday, 28 June 2011 02:25 Egypt: A revolution underway Between the 3rd and the 6th June, a representation of Brazilians took part in the Conference of Solidarity with the Arab Revolution in Egypt. Dirceu Travesso, representing CSP Conlutas, Clara Saraiva for ANEL (Students\u2019 National Association \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27901],"tags":[28089,27828,28090,27950],"class_list":["post-2494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-correo-internacionalinternational-courrier","tag-aye","tag-egypt","tag-nay","tag-tunisia"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdQxqk-Ee","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13882120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}