Newswire from Egypt

[Ligeia]

This is all liberal blather laced with vague abstract terms that beg interpretation.

The *critical* thing would be to address the *critical* issues of the day -- when will Mubarak be gone, withdrawal of the army, etc. If people aren't discussing concrete *policy* then what *are* they discussing -- ?!

I know, that's what I was asking about. How can you interpret this?
"A lot of support" and they'll "ensure" it?
Doesn't sound good to me.
At least it's a clear sign, they are working on taking this on their very own directions.

[PhoenixAsh]

Suliman has stated to MENA (state media) that the current regime will not end and that the ousting of Mubarak is not a current concern.

In the mean time the usual suspects (EU, US and Israel) are scrambling to find a solution which keeps their economic and geo-political strategies and interests in tact.

Many begin to worry about the economic damage that the protests have caused and will cause if continued. Concerns are also what would come out of rapid change. Thus...International language is once again "evolving" and express that the current reforms are the best option and are giving in to the "legitimate" wishes of the protestors.

Suliman also issued a threat...they do not want to use police tools....but the protests should end soon.

The protests are still growing in size with todays protests being the largests yet. The protests seems to move away from the square and starts to focuss on government buildings...and are accompanied by massive strikes.

However there is still no direction. There is still no real decisive action taken. Protesters hope that given all that has happened the regime will not use violence again...and will eventually give in to their demands.

This gives the current regime time to formulate an answer and persuade the international political spectrum to allow force to be used. especially since economic damage is now being felt in the rest of the world.

I think the position of the protestors is naive. Until now they have had the growing support of the population. Though there is increased dissent as well by people who now feel economic impact of the protests.

Popular support within a nation does not mean change will come. Its highly naive to think governments will not turn to violence if they can get away with it to protect themselves.

If the protestsers do not turn protest into more direct action soon they will loose any advantage.

[PhoenixAsh]

Suez Canal Company workers (6000 of them) are in an open ended strike as of today refusing to go home and holding a sit in.

They do not disrupt Suez Canal operations as the involved 5 companies do not work close to the Suez Canal itself.

Interestingly enough...oil prices jumped as soon as this was made known....with .56 points.

[PhoenixAsh]

Unions are going to join the protests! Organised strikes and uniosn actions will take place in coordinated effort in the next couple of days.

Already several unions are on strike in several cities!

AJ. reported

[PhoenixAsh]

Yesterday in the city of Al Kahrg in Wadi Al Jadid violent clashes between pro-democracy demonstrators and the riot police resulted in 3 deaths and 300 injured...after 3000 demonstrators took to the streets.

Violence started after police tried to violently put down spontanious demonstrations on tuesday. The demonstrators tried to attack and burn down the NDP headquarters and several policestations.



Suliman warned for a military coup if the protests would not end soon.

[brigadista]

from the al jazeera live blog today


6:07pm Al Jazeera's Shirin Tadros, reporting from Cairo, said that the members of the labour unions - some of them from independent, non-state unions - have joined the protesters, calling for Mubrak to step down.

5:31pm A doctor who treated some of those wounded in last night's clashes in Wadi al-Jadid said he treated four people, all of whom had been shot in the chest. All four, he said, survived.

5:10pm Reuters reports that the Egytian army is "beefing up security" on the road leading up to the presidential palace in Cairo.

4:14pm The AP news agency reports that protesters are responding angrily to Suleiman's statement on Tuesday, in which the vice presidnet said that continued protests would not be tolerated and would trigger a "coup" :

dont think we should underestimate these protests....

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Oh - and in passing, the Egyptian police is using live ammunition on protesters in Mahallah, a major industrial center (weaving) that has been the site of repeated strikes and factory occupations with the support of the Revolutionary Socialists Egypt.

[brigadista]

sorry forgot to add this quote from AJ re Suleiman's statement-

'He is threatening to impose martial law, which means everybody in the square will be smashed,' said Abdul-Rahman Samir, a spokesman for a coalition of the five main youth groups behind protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square. 'But what would he do with the rest of the 70 million Egyptians who will follow us afterward.'
Suleiman is creating 'a disastrous scenario,' Samir said. 'We are striking and we will protest and we will not negotiate until Mubarak steps down. Whoever wants to threaten us, then let them do so.'

[brigadista]

despite the power broking reality of the situation the solidarity of the Egyptian people right now is warming my heart...

[freepalestine]

Human Rights Watch Reports 297 Killed in Egypt
09.02.11 - 16:36
Cairo – PNN - The international non-governmental [??]organization Human Rights Watch reported on Wednesday that 297 people had been killed since the beginning of the Egyptian revolution three weeks ago.



Mubarak-appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman (AP).





At least one former military general, according to democracy activist Wael Abbas, was killed by police in the al-Kantar prison during the unrest. Using recorded evidence posted on his blog, Abbas claimed that General Mohammed al-Batran had been shot by police snipers because he opposed the release of certain prisoners that he believed would be used to terrorize Egyptian protesters.

Meanwhile, torture and police brutality continue to be reported in Egypt today. Hadj Sahrawi of Amnesty International told Agence France Presse (AFP), “When you see the beatings of protesters by security foreces in the last 10 days, there’s really no break in the way they continue to behave.”

Another activist named Aida Seif al-Dawla said torture was back to “business as usual.”
This comes during the halting process of talks between the government of unpopular president Hosni Mubarak and the vice president he appointed, Omar Suleiman, and the hundreds of thousands of protesters still occupying Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Yesterday, news agencies carried secret diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks that Suleiman, who has been in talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently, was talked about as Israel’s preferred successor to Mubarak in 2008.

http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?opti...9534&Itemid=61

[brigadista]

guardian daily blog

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/...tes-9-february

[brigadista]

learned from twitter strikes of transport workers across cairo

[Palestine]

learned from twitter strikes of transport workers across cairo

Not only that, strikes are everywhere, in the post offices, in the Suez and Al Mahalla industrial areas.
It's beautiful to see what's happening in Egypt.
And now the regime is counting days, because I don't think much left.

[freepalestine]

Mubarak regime warns of crackdown as revolt spreads
Published yesterday (updated) 09/02/2011 22:00





By Sara Hussein


CAIRO (AFP) -- Egypt's embattled regime warned of a military crackdown on Wednesday as massive protests demanding its overthrow spilled out across the country and deadly unrest flared in the remote south.

Hundreds of demonstrators marched on parliament from the epicentre of the uprising in Cairo's Tahrir Square the day after the largest protests since the revolt began, as other demonstrations erupted in cities across the country.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit warned the army, until now a respected and mostly neutral force on Cairo's streets, would intervene to protect the country if the protests against President Hosni Mubarak escalated.

"If chaos occurs, the armed forces will intervene to control the country, a step... which would lead to a very dangerous situation," the official MENA news agency said, paraphrasing Abdul Gheit's interview with Arabic-language satellite television channel Al-Arabiya.

His remarks came after newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman warned of a possible "coup" in the absence of a peaceful transfer of power.

The protesters however showed no sign of backing down on their demand for Mubarak's overthrow as tens of thousands of people filled Cairo's Tahrir Square well into the third week of a revolt that could reshape the Middle East.

Around a thousand marched on parliament to demand its members' resignation, vowing to remain until the legislature -- widely seen as unfairly dominated by the ruling party -- is dissolved.

The night before they had been joined by several hundred thousand supporters for the biggest rallies yet in the two-week-old drive to topple the autocratic president and replace his 30-year-old US-backed regime.

On Wednesday, volunteers were building portable toilets, indicating the protesters have no intention of leaving the "liberated" square, now a sprawling tent city with sound stages, flag vendors and a mobile phone charging station.

In a sign the protests were widening beyond Cairo, unrest gripped the remote oasis of Kharga, where at least five people were killed and 100 wounded when security forces opened fire on demonstrators, a security official told AFP.

In the Suez Canal city of Port Said, some 3,000 protesters stormed a government building, torching office furniture and the governor's car.

In the southern town of Assiut, some 4,000 protesters blocked a railway with wooden planks and bricks and shut down a major highway with burning tires.

Several smaller strikes broke out in Cairo and the Nile Delta to the north, where textile workers demanded higher wages and better conditions.

The 82-year-old Mubarak has charged Suleiman, his longtime intelligence chief, with drawing selected opposition groups into negotiations on democratic reform before elections due in September.

Some parties have joined the talks, but the crowds in Tahrir Square insist that Mubarak must go before they will halt the protest. Suleiman, however, warned that the transition must be slow and orderly.

"The second, alternative way would be a coup -- and we want to avoid that -- meaning uncalculated and hasty steps that produce more irrationality," he warned Egyptian news editors.

Protesters in Tahrir said they were unmoved by Suleiman's remarks and vowed to remain in the square until their demands are met.

"He is acting as they've been acting with us for 30 years. The same talk, the same lies," said Neven al-Sergany, a 44-year-old teacher. "I don't think I will leave. The people here are so determined."

The Muslim Brotherhood, the country's best organised opposition group despite a half century of illegality, meanwhile moved to reassure observers who fear an Islamist takeover should Mubarak's regime be toppled.

"The Muslim Brotherhood does not seek power. We do not want to participate at the moment," senior leader Mohammed Mursi told reporters, adding that the movement would not field a presidential candidate.

The United States is watching events in the most populous Arab country with great concern, hoping the transition to elected rule can take place without a descent into violence, or an Islamist or military takeover.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the government had yet to meet the "minimum threshold" of reform demanded by Egyptians.

Suleiman's proposed transition process "does not appear to be in line with the people of Egypt. We believe that more has to be done," he said, adding that it was not for the United States to dictate the shape of reforms.

In another sign the regime has not gone far enough, Culture Minister Gaber Asfour -- appointed just nine days ago in a cabinet shake-up prompted by the revolt -- resigned for "medical reasons."

http://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358568





-------------------------------------------------------------------------







5 dead, 100 wounded in south Egypt clash: Official

AFP

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]February 9, 2011[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]CAIRO - At least five people were killed and around 100 wounded in two days of clashes between police and demonstrators in a town in southern Egypt's New Valley region, medics told AFP on Wednesday.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Earlier, a security official had confirmed three dead.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Police fired live rounds Tuesday when local people rioted in the oasis town of Kharga, more than 400 kilometres (240 miles) south of Cairo, the security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Scores were wounded and three people died of their injuries on Wednesday.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The furious mob responded by burning seven official buildings, including two police stations, a police barracks, a court house and the local headquarters of President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The unrest in the south was the latest indication that the frustration with Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-reign has spread far beyond Cairo's Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the massive protests now in their third week.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The central square saw its largest protests yet on Tuesday, fuelled in part by an emotional televised interview with Wael Ghonim, a 30-year-old Google executive and activist who was released after being detained for 12 days.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The youth-led protesters have said they will not give up the square, now a sprawling tent city, until Mubarak steps down.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]The 82-year-old strongman has said he will not run in September elections but will finish his term, despite the unrest, which has sent Egypt's economy into a tailspin and rattled autocratic regimes across the region.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial]© Copyright (c) AFP[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]:: Article nr. 74797 sent on 09-feb-2011 20:59 ECT[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial][FONT=Verdana,Arial]www.uruknet.info?p=74797 [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana,Arial]Link: www.montrealgazette.com/news/dead+wounded+south+Egypt+clash+Official/4252186/sto[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]ry.html[/FONT]



[/FONT]

[Ligeia]

7:58am The Egyptian military has secretly detained hundreds and possibly thousands of suspected government opponents since mass protests, the Guardian newspaper reports:

The military has claimed to be neutral, merely keeping anti-Mubarak protesters and loyalists apart. But human rights campaigners say this is clearly no longer the case, accusing the army of involvement in both disappearances and torture ..

8:29am Calls for Mubarak to resign are now spreading, with hundreds now camped outside Parliament. Thousands of workers are expected to strike for a second day as they push for pay rises and reforms.

Aljazeera reports.

[brigadista]

from AJ

Egyptian labour unions plan to hold more nationwide strikes for a second day, adding momentum to the pro-democracy demonstrations in Cairo and other cities.

The move comes as the demonstrations calling for President Hosni Mubarak's immediate ouster enters its 17th day.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker, reporting from Cairo, said about 5,000 doctors and medical students were expected to come out on Thursday.

"It's certainly increasing the pressure on the government here. I think it's worth making the distinction that the strikes going on are more of an economic nature, they are not necessarily jumping on the bandwagon of the protesters in Tahrir Square, ...many of them are not actually calling for the president to step down, but fighting for better wages, for better working conditions."

Our correspondents, reporting from across Egypyt, said around 20,000 factory workers had stayed away from work on Wednesday.

"[Strikers] were saying that they want better salaries, they want an end to the disparity in the pay, and they want the 15 per cent increase in pay that was promised to them by the state," Shirine Tadros, reported from Cairo.

Some workers were also calling for Mubarak to step down, she said.

Culture minister quits

Meanwhile, Gaber Asfour, the recently appointed culture minister, resigned from Mubarak's cabinet on Wednesday for health reasons, a member of his family told Reuters.

But the website of Egypt's main daily newspaper Al-Ahram said Asfour, a writer, was under pressure from literary colleagues over the post.

Asfour was sworn in following the start of the protests on January 31, and believed it would be a national unity government, al-Ahram said.


Click here for more on Al Jazeera's special coverage

Determined protesters continue to rally in Cairo's Tahrir [Liberation] Square, and other cities across the country. They say they will not end the protests until Mubarak, who has been at the country's helm since 1981, steps down.

Protesters with blankets gathered outside the parliament building in Cairo on Wednesday, with no plan to move, our correspondent reported. The demonstrators had put up a sign that read: "Closed until the fall of the regime".

There was also a renewed international element to the demonstrations, with Egyptians from abroad returning to join the pro-democracy camp.

Our correspondent said an internet campaign is currently on to mobilise expatriates to return and support the uprising.

Protesters are "more emboldened by the day and more determined by the day", Ahmad Salah, an Egyptian activist, told Al Jazeera from Cairo. "This is a growing movement, it's not shrinking."

Meanwhile, 34 political prisoners, including members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood opposition group, were reportedly released over the past two days.

Our correspondent said that there are still an unknown number of people missing, including activists thought to be detained during the recent unrest.

Human Rights Watch said the death toll has reached 302 since January 28. However, Egypt's health ministry denied the figures, saying official statistics would be released shortly

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/mi...944393156.html

[Ligeia]

5:15pm: Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Cairo, confirmed the new demands of those in Tahrir Square include the entire administration to resign – not just President Mubarak. They want a one-year transitional period before full parliamentary elections - during which a three-person presidential council should run the country while a panel of experts write a new, permanent constitution – taking advice from opposition groups and senior, high-profile Egyptians, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

5:30pm: "Ambiguous" statement from military confirms its “commitment and responsibility to safeguard the people and to protect the interests of the nation, and its duty to protect the riches and assets of the people and of Egypt”. Mentioned the demands of the people are “lawful and legitimate”. Understood the military council met separately from Mubarak.

6:00pm: The CIA chief reportedly says there is a "strong likelihood" Mubarak will step down tonight.

AlJazeera

[freepalestine]

secetary-general of NDP has just been on the bbc-that mubarak is to step down(officially)later today via egypt state television

CAIRO (AFP) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could "respond to the people's demands by tomorrow," the secretary-general of his party told the BBC on Thursday, as protesters demanded the strongman's departure.

"I expect the president to respond to the demands of the people, because what matters to him in the end is the stability of the country. The post is not important to him," Hossam Badrawi of the National Democratic Party said.

Badrawi did not specify that he was referring to Mubarak stepping down, but a senior military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP: "We are awaiting orders that will make the people happyhttp://maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=358825

[Palestine]

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE!!
But the job is half done, although the president resigning is a great success, the regime is still there, and if the vice president assumes control, the revolution will still be on, because in arab countries, the head of the intelligence is the symbol of the oppression the people have been going through, and if the vice president ( Head of the intelligence agency) becomes the president this means the revolution will only grow bigger.
We should bow in respect for our fellow Egyptians.

[ckaihatsu]

[anticapdiscuss] Fwd: The Egyptian Revolution: First Impressions from the Field


A fascinating account of the magnificient, spontaneous achievements in Egypt along with a hint of the problems confronting this movement should it succeed. As the writer says, " But spontaneity provided the Revolution with much of its elements of success, it also meant that the transition to a new order would be engineered by existing forces within the regime and organized opposition, since the millions in the streets had no single force that could represent them." The movement will face huge challenges the day after it achieves its initial goals, if it does. How to end the huge and growing poverty? Unemployment? Subservience to the imperial world order of capitalism?

It's like winning an election and wondering, "How do we confront these huge challenges without having agreed upon a common program beyond change?" The need for a systematic program of revolutionary change awaits its day in the sun. Just as it faced the Russian peasants, workers and soldiers after their successful, spontaneous February Revolution overthrew their dictator, Czar Nicholas II, back in 1917.

The main focus here is on political change: Mubarak out, fair elections, and an end to the state of emergency will open political space, a huge achievement. It leaves until later resolving the growing poverty, unemployment, rising food prices and low pay- the class divide that is life for most. And spontaneity and fair elections can not bridge that reality in Egypt any more that we have here in the U.S.. Indicating how deep the divide, the author writes "..., virtually everyone had a story to tell me about the ostentatious corruption of the business-cum-political elite that benefited most from the system."

Even if successful politically, how will this magnificient movement will face the challenge of formulating a break from the that reality to a new form of social life? That 'new beginning' can be seen, in embryo, in the movement described here. The organic solidarity illustrated here expresses the profound hopes and aspirations in play. Building from that practice into a social revolution is the challenge if this revolution is to achieve the life which most Egyptians (and most people?) clearly want. Historically, both the Marxist and anarchist traditions have fought to embody and realize those aspirations. How well will they/we/others rise to the challenge?

fyi and in solidarity,

Earl


[A visiting sociologist - on the ground in Cairo - assesses the 'revolution' thus far, above all its secular, horizontal, spontaneist disposition. Sending in the camels epitomizes, for Mohammed Bamyeh, the antiquated character of the regime, and the president's concessions revealed simply the deafness of autocracy. Where the world's media sees chaos and the threat of Islamism, the 'ant's view' deems these irrelevant and sees instead the flowering of dignified community through an ethic of mutuality and care. IB]

The Egyptian Revolution: First Impressions from the Field
Mohammed A. Bamyeh
Al-Qahira, The City Victorious
6 ii 11

Never has a revolution that seemed so lacking in prospects gathered momentum so quickly and so unexpectedly. The Egyptian Revolution, starting on January 25, lacked leadership and possessed little organization; its defining events, on Friday, January 28, occurred on a day when all communication technologies, including all internet and phones, were barred; it took place in a large country known for sedate political life, a very long legacy of authoritarian continuity, and an enviable repressive apparatus consisting of more than 2 million members. But on that day, the regime of Hosni Mubarak, entrenched for 30 years and seemingly eternal, the only regime that the vast majority of the protesters had ever known, evaporated in one day.

Though the regime continues to struggle, practically little government exists. All ministries and government offices have been closed, and almost all police headquarters were burned down on January 28. Except for the army, all security personnel disappeared, and a week after the uprising, only few police officers ventured out again. Popular committees have since taken over security in the neighborhoods. I saw patriotism expressed everywhere as collective pride in the realization that people who did not know each other could act together, intentionally and with a purpose. During the ensuing week and a half, millions converged on the streets almost everywhere in Egypt, and one could empirically see how noble ethics—community and solidarity, care for others, respect for the dignity of all, feeling of personal responsibility for everyone--emerge precisely out of the disappearance of government.

Undoubtedly this revolution, which is continuing to unfold, will be the formative event in the lives of the millions of youth who spearheaded it in Egypt, and perhaps also the many more millions of youth who followed it throughout the Arab world. It is clear that it is providing a new generation with a grand spectacle of the type that had shaped the political consciousness of every generation before them in modern Arab history. All those common formative experiences of past generations were also grand national moments: whether catastrophic defeats or triumphs against colonial powers or allies.

This revolution, too, will leave traces deep in the social fabric and psyche for a long time, but in ways that go beyond the youth. While the youth were the driving force in the earlier days, the revolution quickly became national in every sense; over the days I saw an increasing demographic mix in demonstrations, where people from all age groups, social classes, men and women, Muslims and Christians, urban people and peasants—virtually all sectors of society, acting in large numbers and with a determination rarely seen before.

Everyone I talked to echoed similar transformative themes: they highlighted a sense of wonder at how they discovered their neighbor again, how they never knew that they lived in “society” or the meaning of the word, until this event, and how everyone who yesterday had appeared so distant is now so close. I saw peasant women giving protestors onions to help them recover from teargas attacks; young men dissuading others from acts of vandalism; the National Museum being protected by protestors’ human shield from looting and fire; protestors protecting captured baltagiyya who had been attacking them from being harmed by other protestors; and countless other incidents of generous civility amidst the prevailing destruction and chaos.

I also saw how demonstrations alternated between battle scenes and debating circles, and how they provided a renewable spectacle in which everyone could see the diverse segments in social life converging on the common idea of bringing down the regime. While world media highlighted uncontrolled chaos, regional implications, and the specter of Islamism in power, the ant’s perspective revealed the relative irrelevance of all of the above considerations. As the Revolution took longer and longer to accomplish the mission of bringing down the regime, protestors themselves began to spend more time highlighting other accomplishments, such as how new ethics were emerging precisely amidst chaos. Those evidenced themselves in a broadly shared sense of personal responsibility for civilization—voluntary street cleaning, standing in line, the complete disappearance of harassment of women in public, returning stolen and found objects, and countless other ethical decisions that had usually been ignored or left for others to worry about.

There are a number of basic features that are associated with this magnificent event that are key, I think, to understanding not just the Egyptian Revolution but also the emerging Arab uprisings of 2o11. Those features include the power of marginal forces; spontaneity as an art of moving; civic character as a conscious ethical contrast to state’s barbarism; the priority assigned to political over all other kinds of demands, including economics; and lastly autocratic deafness, meaning the ill-preparedness of ruling elites to hear the early reverberations as anything but undifferentiated public noise that could be easily made inaudible again with the usual means.

First, marginality means that the revolution began at the margins. In Tunisia it started that way, in marginal areas, from where it migrated to the capital. And from Tunisia, itself relatively marginal in the larger context of the Arab World, it travelled to Egypt. Obviously the situation in each Arab country is different in so far as economic indicators and degree of liberalization are concerned, but I was struck at how conscious the Egyptian youth were of the Tunisian example preceding them by just two weeks. Several mentioned to me their pride in seeming to accomplish in just a few days what Tunisians needed a month to accomplish.

Marginality appears to have been an important factor within Egypt as well. While much of the media focus was on Tahrir Square in central Cairo, to which I went every day, the large presence there was itself a manifestation of a possibility that suddenly became evident on January 25, when large demonstrations broke out in 12 of Egypt’s provinces. The revolution would never have been perceived as possible had it been confined to Cairo, and in fact its most intense moment in its earlier days, when it really looked that a revolution was happening, were in more marginal sites like Suez. The collective perception that a revolution was happening at the margins, where it was least expected, gave everyone the confidence necessary to realize that it could happen everywhere.

Second, in every sense the revolution maintained throughout a character of spontaneity, in the sense that it had no permanent organization. Rather, organizational needs—for example governing how to communicate, what to do the next day, what to call that day, how to evacuate the injured, how to repulse baltagiyya assaults, and even how to formulate demands—emerged in the field directly and continued to develop in response to new situations. Further, the revolution lacked recognized leadership from beginning to end, a fact that seemed to matter most to observers but not to participants. I saw several debates in which participants strongly resisted being represented by any existing group or leader, just as they resisted demands that they produce “representatives” that someone, such as al-Azhar or the government, could talk to. When the government asked that someone be designated as a spokesperson for this revolt, many participants flippantly designated one of the disappeared, only in the hope that being so designated might hasten his reappearance. A common statement I heard was that it was “the people” who decide. It appeared that the idea of peoplehood was now assumed to be either too grand to be representable by any concrete authority or leadership, or that such representation would dilute the profound, almost spiritual, implication of the notion of “the people” as a whole being on the move.

Spontaneity was a key element also because it made the Revolution hard to predict or control; and because it provided for an unusual level of dynamism and lightness—so long as many millions remained completely committed to a collective priority of bringing down the regime, represented in its president. But it also appeared that spontaneity played a therapeutic and not simply organizational or ideological role. More than one participant mentioned to me how the revolution was psychologically liberating, because all the repression that they had internalized as self-criticism and perception of inborn weakness, was in the revolutionary climate turned outwards as positive energy and a discovery of self-worth, real rather than superficial connectedness to others, and limitless power to change frozen reality. I heard the term “awakening” being used endlessly to describe the movement as a whole as a sort of spontaneous emergence out of a condition of deep slumber, which no party program could shake off before.

Further, spontaneity was responsible, it seems, for the increasing ceiling of the goals of the uprising, from basic reform demands on January 25, to changing the entire regime three days later, to rejecting all concessions made by the regime while Mubarak was in office, to putting Mubarak on trial. Removing Mubarak was in fact not anyone’s serious demand on January 25, when the relevant slogans condemned the possible candidacy of his son, and called on Mubarak himself only not to run again. But by the end of the day on January 28, the immediate removal of Mubarak from office had become an unwavering principle, and indeed it seemed then that it was about to happen. Here one found out what was possible through spontaneous movement rather than a fixed program, organization or leadership. Spontaneity thus became the compass of the Revolution and the way by which it found its way to what turned out to be its radical destination.

It proved therefore difficult to persuade protestors to give up the spontaneous character of the Revolution, since spontaneity had already proved its power. Spontaneity thus produced more confidence than any other style of movement, and out of that confidence there emerged, as far as I could see, protestors’ preparedness for sacrifice and martyrdom. Spontaneity also appeared as a way by which the carnivalesque character of social life was brought to the theater of the revolution as a way of expressing freedom and initiative; for example, among the thousands of signs I saw in demonstrations, there were hardly any standard ones (as one would see in pro-government demonstration). Rather, the vast majority of signs were individual and hand-made, written or drawn on all kinds of materials and objects, and were proudly displayed by their authors who wished to have them photographed by others. Spontaneity, further, proved highly useful for networking, since the Revolution became essentially an extension of the spontaneous character of everyday life, where little detailed planning was needed or possible, and in which most people were already used to spontaneous networking amidst common everyday unpredictability that prevailed in ordinary times.

But while spontaneity provided the Revolution with much of its elements of success, it also meant that the transition to a new order would be engineered by existing forces within the regime and organized opposition, since the millions in the streets had no single force that could represent them. Most protestors I talked to, however, seemed less concerned about those details than with basic demands the fulfillment of which, it appeared, guaranteed the more just nature of any subsequent system. As finally elaborated a week after the beginning of the Revolution, these demands had become the following: removing the dictator; resolving the parliament and electing a new one; amending the constitution so as to reduce presidential power and guarantee more liberties; abolishing the state of emergency; and putting on trials corrupt high officials as well as all those who had ordered the shooting of demonstrators.

Third, remarkable was the virtual replacement of religious references by civic ethics that were presumed to be universal and self-evident. This development appears more surprising than in the case of Tunisia, since in Egypt the religious opposition had always been strong and reached virtually all sectors of life. The Muslim Brotherhood itself joined after the beginning of the protests, and like all other organized political forces in the country seemed taken aback by the developments and unable to direct them, as much as the government (along with its regional allies) sought to magnify its role.

This, I think, is substantially connected to the two elements mentioned previously, spontaneity and marginality. Both of those processes entailed the politicization of otherwise unengaged segments, and also corresponded to broad demands that required no religious language in particular. In fact, religion appeared as an obstacle, especially in light of the recent sectarian tensions in Egypt, and it contradicted the emergent character of the Revolution as being above all dividing lines in society, including one’s religion or religiosity. Many people prayed in public, of course, but I never saw anyone being pressured or even asked to join them, in spite of the high spiritual overtones of an atmosphere saturated with high emotions and constantly supplied by stories of martyrdom, injustice, and violence.

Like in the Tunisian Revolution, in Egypt the rebellion erupted as a sort of a collective moral earthquake—where the central demands were very basic, and clustered around the respect for the citizen, dignity, and the natural right to participate in the making of the system that ruled over the person. If those same principles had been expressed in religious language before, now they were expressed as is and without any mystification or need for divine authority to justify them. I saw the significance of this transformation when even Muslim Brotherhood participants chanted at some point with everyone else for a “civic” (madaniyya) state—explicitly distinguished from two other possible alternatives: religious (diniyya) or military (askariyya) state.

Fourth, a striking development after January 28 was the fact that radical political demands were so elevated that that all other grievances—including those concerning dismal economic conditions—remained subordinate to them. The political demands were more clear that any other kinds of demands; everyone agreed on them; and everyone shared the assumption that all other problems could be negotiated better once one had a responsible political system in place. Thus combating corruption, a central theme, was one way by which all economic grievances were translated into easily understandable political language. And in any case, it corresponded to reality because the political system had basically become a system of thievery in plain daylight. For months before the revolution, virtually everyone had a story to tell me about the ostentatious corruption of the business-cum-political elite that benefited most from the system. They tended to be a clique clustering around Mubarak’s son. Some of its members, reportedly, stood behind the recruitment of thugs who terrorized the protestors for two long days and nights on February 2-3.

Fifth, as everywhere in the Arab World, a key contributing factor was autocratic deafness. The massive undercurrent of resentment that fueled this volcano was stoked over years by the ruling elites themselves, who out of longevity in office and lack of meaningful opposition completely lost track of who their people were and could no longer read them, so to speak. They heard no simmering noise before the Revolution, and when it erupted they were slow to hear it as anything other than an undifferentiated noise. The one-way direction of autocratic communication allowed for no feedback and presented every recipient of its directives as either audience or point of incoherent noise. Throughout the Revolution this deafness of ruling structures was evident in the slow and uncertain nature of government response. On the day following the January 25 demonstrations, editors of government newspapers belittled the events.. On January 28, when all Egypt was in flames and many world leaders had issued some statement of concern, the Egyptian government remained completely silent—until Mubarak finally spoke at midnight, saying the exact opposite of what everyone had been expecting him to say. He thought he was making a major concession, but one which—as any intelligent advisor would have told him—could only be interpreted as a provocation, resulting in several more days of protests. Then on February 1 he made another speech, also thinking that he was making major concessions, although again, it was received by many protestors as the height of arrogance.

He was, in a sense, always responding to what he must have understood as incoherent noise, emerging from undifferentiated masses that could be allayed by the appearance of compromise. Arab state autocracies had long been accustomed to approach their people with either contempt or condescension. They were no longer skilled at any other art of communication (although Muhammad Shafiq, the new prime minister, has been trying to do his best in those arts). Clearly, autocratic deafness was a major factor in escalating the revolution. Many protestors suggested to me that what Mubarak said on January 28 would have resolved the crisis had he said on January 25, when he said nothing. And what he said on February 1 would also have resolved the crisis, had he said it on January 28.

When none of these concessions succeeded in diffusing the crisis, Mubarak’s new appointees had no serious arguments to explain why he wanted to stay in power for just a few more months, and in the face of a determined revolt that did not in fact challenge many other parts of the system. On Feb. 3 his new prime minister said that it was not common in Egyptian culture for a leader to leave without his dignity. He cited as evidence the salute given to king Farouk as the free officers forced him to leave Egypt in 1952! And on the same day, his new vice president opined that it is against the character of Egyptian culture to so insult the character of the father, which he claimed (in a moment of forgetfulness of the revolution just outside) Mubarak was to the Egyptian people. And the president himself asserted on that same day that he could not possibly resign, since otherwise the country would descend into chaos--astonishingly, still not realizing what everyone else in the country knew: that it was already there.

In the absence of autocratic deafness, all successful politicians, including manipulative ones, know that one art of maneuver consists of anticipating your audience’s or enemy’s next step, so that you are already there before it is too late. Here we had the exact opposite situation: a lethargic autocracy, having never known serious contest, was unaware of who its enemies had become, which in this case was more or less the vast majority of the country. That on February 2 some of Mubarak’s supporters found nothing better to do than send camels and horses to disperse the crowd at Tahrir, seemed to reflect the regime’s antiquated character: a regime from a bygone era, with no relationship to the moment at hand. It was as if a rupture in time had happened, and we were witnessing a battle from the 12th century. From my perspective in the crowd, it was as if they rode through and were swallowed right back into the fold that returned them to the past. By contrast, popular committees in the neighborhood, with their rudimentary weapons and total absence of illusions, represented what society had already become with this revolution: a real body, controlling its present with its own hands, and learning that it could likewise make a future itself, in the present and from below. At this moment, out of the dead weight of decades of inwardness and self-contempt, there emerged spontaneous order out of chaos. That fact, rather not detached patriarchal condescension, appeared to represent the very best hope for the dawn of a new civic order.

Mohammed Bamyeh
Department of Sociology
University of Pittsburgh