THE PRICE OF STABILITY - Egypt's democratic uprising

Since the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace agreement, Egypt was touted by the United States as an outpost of stability in a politically turbulent region. But this “stability” came at a high cost for many Egyptians. Hosni Mubarak’s regime was founded on the belief that keeping Egypt safe from the threat of religious extremism, terrorism and regional strife required a coercive security state that could suppress any political unrest through force and intimidation. That “stability” has now unfolded. This, however, has not been a sudden event. It has been brewing for a few years, with the timing and strategies of the democratic uprising growing out of a series of social and political mobilisations, which laid the groundwork for what flared up on 25 January.

The popular uprising that has gripped Egypt since 25 January represents a historic turning point for mass politics under President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, which it threatens to end. Never before in this period have millions of Egyptians taken to the streets to demand the ouster of the ruling regime and a complete overhaul of the political order. Under intense popular pressure, a defiant Mubarak delivered a televised

THE ROAD TO TAHRIR

Charles Hirshkind -

     What appears to be a sudden upsurge of popular protests in Egypt has a history of gradually building political unity among all those opposed to Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian rule. It started a decade back with the coming together of political activists from the opposed streams of Islamic and secular political activism and has been nurtured through a vibrant and creative political practice which has relied heavily on the tools of new communication technologies and social media. This has not only helped create a new political public in Egypt, it has helped moderate the radical extremes which kept Mubarak’s opposition divided.

While the uprising in Egypt caught most observers of the north Africa and west Asia off guard, it did not come out of the blue. The seeds of this spectacular mobilisation had been sown as far back as the early 2000s and had been carefully cultivated by activists from across the political spectrum, many of them working online via Facebook, Twitter, and within the Egyptian blogosphere. Working within these media, activists began to forge a new political language, one that cut across the institutional barriers that had until then polarised Egypt’s p­olitical terrain, between more Islamic-oriented currents (most prominent among them, the Muslim Brotherhood) and s­ecular-liberal ones.

Why Egypt’s Progressives Win

By: Paul Amar 

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Vol XLVI No.7 February 12, 2011

While Mubarak’s social base of power appears to have been destroyed, an alliance of nationalist businessmen and themilitary is trying to come to power. However, they are opposed by a large alliance of working class, small business and women organisations and interests who are leading the massive popular revolt in Egypt for the past fortnight. An analysis of the social base of the various political actors in Egypt today shows why progressive forces are on the ascendant.

On 6 February 2011, Egypt’s hastily appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman invited the old guard, or what we could call the businessmen’s wing of the Muslim Brothers, to a stately meeting in the polished rosewood cabinet chamber of Mubarak’s presidential palace. The aim of their tea party was to discuss some kind of accord that would end the national uprising and restore “normalcy”. When news of the meeting broke, expressions of delight and terror tore through the blogosphere. Was the nightmare scenario of both the political left and right about to be realised? Would the United States/Israel surrogate,

Bloody repression in Tunisia and Algeria: the bourgeoisie is a class of assassins! Submitted by ICConline on January 19, 2011 - 22:59

NTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY OF THE WHOLE WORKING CLASS!

For several weeks now we’ve seen an uprising in Tunisia against the misery and unemployment which is particularly hitting the young. All over the country, street demonstrations, meetings, strikes have spontaneously broken out protesting against the regime of Ben Ali. The protestors are demanding bread, work for the young and the right to live in dignity. Faced with this revolt of the exploited and youth deprived of a future, the dominant class has responded with a hail of bullets. These protestors are our class brothers and these are their children who are massacred in the demonstrations and whose blood flows today in Tunisia as in Algeria! The killers, and those that command them at the heads of the Tunisian and

Campaigns about the fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia: how the media serves the ‘democratic’ bourgeoisie Submitted by ICConline on January 19, 2011 - 23:07

For weeks, all the democratic states, with France at their head, have been supporting Ben Ali’s blood-soaked regime. There was an almost total black-out of information even though all these governments knew exactly what was happening in Tunisia. All the bourgeois media justified this disinformation by letting on that the country was experiencing riots but was in a confused, chaotic situation which was very difficult to understand. We were supposed to think that no one really knew what was going on. Lies! The savagery of the repression was known about all over the world. Thanks to the video footage put out on the internet

“Open Public Discussion” on the ongoing class struggles in EGYPT and ARAB world.

EGYPT: Fight for Democracy- A spectre of rising Class Struggles

                EGYPT: Fight for Democracy- A spectre of rising Class Struggles

                    

       Quiet opposite to the vulgar propaganda of western Imperialism about the ‘backward’ culture and ‘Islamist orthodox’ consciousness of middle East, people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and especially North African Country – Egypt,  has so courageously torn every cobweb of lies around them and about them . Millions of people swarming in the streets of Cairo including women of all ages have raised their voice against the 30 year old Dictator – Hosni Mubarak who happens to be a faithful client of fascist Israeli Govts. and ally of American Ruling Classes. Recently when people of Egypt gave ultimatum to the much  

MIRCHPUR : - SHAME ON INDIAN DEMOCRACY

              MIRCHPUR : - SHAME ON INDIAN DEMOCRACY  

                                

            “ Cut these Valmikis into pieces, kill them so that they would not dare to speak again” – Slogan shouted by upper-caste women on 21^st April, 2010 in Mirchpur .( from fact-finding of NDMJ, NCDHR, ANHAD  )

     This is how Indian countryside greets and expresses its most feudal assertiveness. Wonders the so called ‘civil society’ of our nation who fancies and watches India from prism of false development and builds the imaginary fairy tales of greatness of their ‘culture’. On the other hand, so common is the most cruel and inhuman oppression of majority of the people in countryside, that it has become the part of the daily life of ‘low-caste’ people, since it is their ‘karma’ ! Their women being raped by upper-caste/class landlords (which are taken as matter of right and pride), social boycotts, lynching etc. Mirchpur is just another incident. As it happened that upper-Caste jats got infuriated that a bitch of a ‘valmiki’ (lower caste ) is barking at them, that lead to argument and further to physical clash on 19^th of april,2010. On April 21, 2010 Valmikis were called upon at Two persons, an old man of approximately of 60 years named Tara Chand and his daughter Suman were burnt alive to death. Suman was a physically challenged, hence could not escape. In the attempt of rescuing her, father Tara Chand also succumbed to fire injuries that subsequently led to his death.