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Title: Egypt’s Ongoing Uprising Author: CrimethInc. Date: January 25, 2012 Language: en Topics: Read All About It, Egypt, Arab Spring, uprising Source: Retrieved on 29th November 2020 from https://crimethinc.com/2012/01/25/egypts-ongoing-uprising
Just in time for the anniversary of the beginning of the Egyptian
uprising, we’ve received this report from a comrade who participated in
the most recent clashes in Cairo. It offers an overview of the current
context in Egypt, along with photos and video footage from the front
lines.
When we heard gunshots coming from the cabinet building, we were certain
they were blanks. Despite having seen the military use live rounds
earlier that day, we had a naĂŻve sense of security amongst the thousands
in the streets.
When the screams and panic erupted as one of the people standing next to
me was shot in the neck and rushed to the ambulances at the back of the
crowd, we stayed put, along with most of the crowd. The calm we felt was
a testament to a feeling of strength in numbers we had never experienced
before.
The scene was surreal: a few hundred people at any given time exchanging
projectiles with Egypt’s military, while over a thousand more stood only
a few meters away as the protest buffer zone. Among them, street vendors
sold everything from snacks and tea to helmets and keffiyehs.
We’d been there since we woke up to the news that the army had burnt
down the occupation at the Cabinet building. We knew that as night fell,
things would get harder for us. Dodging the military projectiles from
the roof would be tricky in the dark, and without media there, the
military would fight even dirtier. But the determination of the crowd
was contagious, and we couldn’t pull ourselves away.
One year ago, millions of Egyptians took to the streets and occupied
public squares as part of the wave of revolts popularly referred to as
the Arab Spring. Inspired by the uprising in Tunisia, Egyptians overcame
the paralysis of fear and met their oppressors head-on, clashing with
the police on National Police Day. The people were dispersed, but
confrontations continued in neighborhoods and streets across Egypt,
spreading police numbers thin while systematically destroying police
infrastructure and readying the masses for the Day of Rage. On January
28, the people of Cairo retook Tahrir square, breaking through police
barricades with decentralized marches originating from neighborhoods
throughout the city. With the police defeated and withdrawn,
neighborhood patrols spontaneously emerged to protect neighborhoods,
while Tahrir was transformed into an autonomous zone and tent city. Two
weeks later, the streets erupt in joyful celebration as Mubarak
surrendered power.
One year later, the third round of elections has just concluded, while
the military still holds political power. They also hold over 12,000
political prisoners, who are being hastily sentenced in military trials.
The streets of Cairo are filled with graffiti and the residue of
political protests that became street fights. Walls made of huge
concrete slabs block roads where the military and police faced off with
protesters only months earlier; the marble sidewalks remain torn up
where street militants recently improvised ammunition. Some neighborhood
assemblies have transformed into “popular committees in the defense of
the revolution,” working on issues ranging from basic services to local
governance. Meanwhile, over 100 independent trade unions were formed,
breaking the state’s former monopoly on organized labor.
From the Circle As spray painted on the sides of government buildings to
the explosion of independent and federated trade unions, anarchist
currents can be seen throughout Egypt as its people scramble to win
revolutionary change following their great revolutionary moment. But
this isn’t the first time that anarchist currents, both implicit and
explicit, have been part of Egypt’s political landscape.
Greek anarchists based in Cairo and Alexandria were instrumental in
establishing Egypt’s first trade union, the cigarette rollers’ union, in
1899. Italian anarchists were also involved in Egypt’s union movement
until the 1950s, but the independent union movement was crushed
following the military coup of 1952. The independent trade union
movement re-emerged in late 2006, but only really materialized in late
2008.
Unions played a key role in the success of the uprising of January 25.
Starting on February 7, a public transport strike across Greater Cairo,
coupled with labor protests along the Suez Canal—along with other
industrial actions across the country—helped bring down Mubarak on
February 11.
The revolution also led to the birth of the first independent trade
union federation in Egypt’s history. Since its founding on the fifth day
of the revolution, over 100 independent trade unions, syndicates, and
professional associations have been formed, including one for public
transport. It has also spurred authorities into dissolving the board of
the state-controlled Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), which had
monopolized the union movement—by law—since 1957.
But revolutions aren’t just confined to the workplace. While strikes and
other industrial actions put economic pressure on the regime, the
success Egyptians had in liberating the streets from police control is
largely due to another organized group. The “Ultras,” Egypt’s extreme
football fans, were some of the most well-prepared and coordinated
groups in the marches toward Tahrir. They became the front line in the
battle with police to regain access to the square. Organizing via online
message boards after one of their own was killed at Tahrir, they came
out in force on the Day of Rage. They maintained a strong presence
within the square during the occupation, especially at times when the
occupiers were most threatened by state and para-state violence.
Before last January, “Ultras” were regarded as apolitical football
hooligans who liked to cause trouble. However, they were one of the only
social groups in Egypt with experience fighting police, and their
central role in winning the streets has made their popularity skyrocket.
Ultras groups have tens of thousands of members across the Egypt, many
of whom identify as anarchists. Although Ultras organizations refuse to
be officially placed on the political spectrum, their tactics and modes
of organizing are extremely anti-authoritarian. They organize without
leaders or hierarchies, refuse financial sponsorships, fight against the
commercialization of sport, and live their lives in conflict with state
security forces. “All Cops Are Bastards” is a central tenet of the
Ultras, and through graffiti and chants they have popularized this
slogan in Egyptian society.
The Ultras were the first to use graffiti to discuss police brutality
and freedom of expression, and this attracted supporters and members in
the years before the revolution. Today, ACAB is the most common graffiti
tag in Cairo and is scrawled on walls in other cities across Egypt as
well. The Ultras continue to be a powerful social force giving teeth to
the movement, showing up to protests with fireworks, Molotov cocktails,
flares, and songs of defiance that have been widely adopted.
The revolutionary movement born out of Tahrir also attracted many who
were traditionally excluded from formal political organizing: the
millions who survive through direct action and subsist on as little as a
dollar a day. The street kids and slum-dwellers that made Tahrir their
home stayed there once the party was over. The conditions that led them
to revolt had not changed with the fall of a politician, so their
occupation continued. Street youth as young as six continue to be some
of the bravest and dedicated fighters in this revolution, ripping out
the paving stones and running to the front with makeshift shields,
keffiyehs, and slings. Egyptian state media dismisses them as
thrill-seekers without political motivations, or claim they’ve been paid
or forced to fight. But seen dodging live rounds through clouds of tear
gas, these young Egyptians bear a striking resemblance to the iconic
rock-throwing Palestinian youth that many say inspire them.
In the sprawling expanse of informal neighborhoods surrounding Cairo,
self-organization is a means of daily survival. Those without homes
build on squatted land or occupy vacant structures. They seize water and
electricity when the authorities turn them off, and clash with police
when they raid neighborhoods to evict or shut off essential services.
Pockets of gated communities inhabited by Cairo’s upper-class fence out
the growing excluded class and make visible the intense stratification
of wealth in Egyptian society today.
But some of Egypt’s growing underclass, emboldened by the revolution,
are going on the offensive. They have begun highly orchestrated waves of
occupations targeting empty apartment buildings in more affluent areas.
A coordinated takeover of over 2000 housing units in 6^(th) of October
City only a few months ago forced a major confrontation with the
thousands of soldiers deployed to evict them. The squatters defended
their new homes with firearms and Molotov cocktails. Others stormed
apartment buildings in Sheikh Zeyad City, occupying flats and demanding
permanent housing. These high profile actions are a testament to the
growing strength of different communities that organize horizontally and
act collectively.
And it’s not only in the slums. Examining the construction of much of
contemporary Cairo, you can tell that informal development has occurred
with minimal intervention or assistance from the state, mostly through
either the organization of neighboring plot owners or just spontaneous
development checked by the intervention and negotiations of neighbors.
This has lead to a fairly high functioning system of neighborhoods,
albeit with some common problems having to do with planning issues
around green space, street widths, and building heights. Still, the
outcomes have met a serious set of needs without any real action by
government, and definitely display evidence of some planning and
cooperation at the local level.
During the original occupation of Tahrir, neighborhood self-governance
again became a necessity. The already minimal functioning of government
infrastructure ceased, and plainclothes police even took part in
organized looting in attempts to terrify people. Popular neighborhood
committees appeared throughout the entire country within the matter of a
night. People came down from their apartments to the streets in the
midst of a mobile phone and internet blackout and set up checkpoints and
communications systems to defend their neighborhoods from police and
other anti-social elements.
Within Tahrir, an autonomous community also emerged. Clinics and
logistics tents met the needs of the protesters, while discussion
groups, lectures, concerts, a library, a school, and even a regular
“Cinema Tahrir” ensured that the square became a space for political
education and the forging of deep relationships. Like the Occupy
protests it inspired, these initiatives were supported by donations and
self-organized by volunteers. Mutual aid and voluntary association
became the norm, and the logic of capitalism and power relations faded.
But the occupation didn’t come without issues. Thieves and thugs were a
persistent problem throughout Tahrir, one that led to the creation of
jails and vigilante security and justice systems with varying degrees of
respect for human rights. Still, many Egyptian anarchists rightly point
out that the occupation of Tahrir and the subsequent Cabinet occupation
were successful experiments in anarchy.
A year ago, the exploits of revolutionaries in Egypt turned Tahrir
square into a household name. But a few blocks away another occupation
shook the foundations of power more recently. People fed up with
military rule and disenchanted with elections occupied the entrance to
the cabinet building in order to prevent meetings from taking place
there and to protest military rule. In the early hours of December 16,
this occupation became the latest flashpoint of social war in Egypt. The
military kidnapped and seriously beat an occupier, then burnt the entire
occupation to the ground, kicking off five straight days of intense
street battles. Unlike all the clashes that came before, the people were
no longer facing off with the universally despised police forces, but
with the army.
People woke up to the news that protesters were under attack and rushed
to the scene where a once lively and blossoming tent city had been
reduced to fires and rubble in the streets. Rocks were flying through
the windows of the cabinet building at the soldiers who had retreated
inside, and the numbers in the street continued to grow into the
thousands. For the next five days, Tahrir became the convergence point
and staging ground for a 24-hour-a-day battle with the military.
First-aid clinics opened up and banks closed. Youth could be seen
breaking ATMs and ripping marble off the walls and paving stones out of
the ground to use as projectiles. The cabinet building was set on fire
repeatedly with Molotov cocktails, while soldiers dropped huge chunks of
concrete off the rooftop indiscriminately into the crowds, injuring
dozens. At some points, the people seemed to be winning, at others the
army looked as if it had the upper hand, but there was no mistaking this
for a mere protest; this was full-scale conflict.
People were pushed back to Tahrir, but even though the military began
using live ammunition and lethal force, their first attempt to clear the
square failed. As rocks rained on them from every direction, they
retreated back to the ruins of the cabinet building. To formalize the
stalemate, a huge wall made of concrete slabs was erected, completely
blocking the road between Tahrir square and the cabinet. But the
fighting simply continued down a different street. The next day, the
military succeeded in clearing Tahrir and burning occupation
infrastructure to the ground. But new groups arrived to fight them and
they were pushed back once again. While the State television was
creating conspiracy theories about the protesters and showing
child-protesters claiming that they were paid to fight in the streets,
the independent media was documenting the abuses, the casualties, and
the real reasons behind the conflict. The image of a woman being dragged
and beaten by police as they lifted off her niqab to reveal her blue bra
eventually led to the end of the street battle. In response to that
image and reports of sexual abuse in detention, a women’s march of
thousands gathered and decisively pushed back a humiliated army, ending
the military confrontation in victory on its fifth day.
As has been the case for the last century, women have been on the front
lines of this revolution leading marches and chants, writing and
distributing leaflets, fighting police, doing independent media work,
and serving in popular committees. Defying the culture of patriarchy
that still exists in much of Egyptian society, women shattered sexist
stereotypes with their actions and empowered themselves to push the
revolution forward in all spheres of daily life.
Some women are now running for the highest levels of government. But
like their male counterparts that abandoned the streets for the
political process, they are about to realize the bitter truth about
“democracy.” As the elections wrap up, it is clear that the winners of
Egypt’s so-called “democratization” will be the once-outlawed Muslim
Brotherhood. This isn’t exclusively because so many revolutionaries
decided to boycott the elections. The Muslim Brotherhood’s “Freedom and
Justice” party had the financial capacity to pay for the big campaign
that bought them the votes of many Egyptians. In Egypt as in other
capitalist democracies, the axiom one dollar = one vote rings truer than
ever. Although economic conditions were a major spark for the uprising a
year ago, the MB have the exact same economic policies as their
predecessors. So many Egyptians who simply voted for the party with the
deepest and longest-running conflict with their previous rulers will
have to take it to the streets to topple their government yet again in
the near future.
Alongside the widespread implicitly anti-authoritarian currents,
explicitly anarchist organizing has also been growing throughout Egypt’s
ongoing revolutionary process. Individual anarchists have played key
roles in the revolution from organizing protests and occupation
logistics to doing independent media work. Meanwhile, anarchist
conferences and assemblies are also being organized by a growing
anarcho-syndicalist organization called the Libertarian Socialist
Movement. With members in Cairo and Alexandria and connections to
international anarchist networks, the LSM is starting to also attract
enemies, entering into conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood and others.
As empowered protesters build organizations, coordinate direct actions,
and become increasingly bold in demanding revolutionary change,
institutionalized repression continues to rise. People drafted their own
trade union law, while the military made laws criminalizing strikes;
independent media has risen to new heights of popularity, while the
state media has become more blatant in their lies against the protest
movement; and people continue to fight authority in the streets, while
12,000 are locked up and denied due process in military tribunals.
Egyptian society is experiencing diverging realities. On one hand,
people are determined to finish the revolution that sparked a year ago;
on the other, elections mask the continuation of state dominance and
co-opt the potential of an emerging social order.
The revolution was alive in every moment. The determination of people in
the streets to finish what they started last year was matched by the
urgency we felt from our comrades to actualize the revolution within
broader society. Every moment was an opportunity to seize the future,
and everybody knew it.
Before the clashes broke out, we spent every night talking about
revolution, analyzing the present and strategizing for the future. I
could only imagine that there were thousands more conversations like
these happening throughout Egypt. When we said our goodbyes—which we
hoped would only be “see you laters”—there was a gravity to the moment.
While my new friends may be celebrating victories in the streets and
might even win this battle in the long run, some could be killed,
injured, or taken prisoner by the military in the days and months to
come. The same risks will apply to all of us once we each begin to
“fight like an Egyptian.” The pyramids of power weren’t built in a day,
and the epic task of dismantling them may take a little while yet, but
it is well underway in Egypt.