Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:56 pm

Morsi's entrance interview with NY Times.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/world ... nted=print


September 22, 2012

Egypt’s New Leader Spells Out Terms for U.S.-Arab Ties

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and STEVEN ERLANGER



CAIRO — On the eve of his first trip to the United States as Egypt’s new Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi said the United States needed to fundamentally change its approach to the Arab world, showing greater respect for its values and helping build a Palestinian state, if it hoped to overcome decades of pent-up anger.

A former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mr. Morsi sought in a 90-minute interview with The New York Times to introduce himself to the American public and to revise the terms of relations between his country and the United States after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, an autocratic but reliable ally.

He said it was up to Washington to repair relations with the Arab world and to revitalize the alliance with Egypt, long a cornerstone of regional stability.

If Washington is asking Egypt to honor its treaty with Israel, he said, Washington should also live up to its own Camp David commitment to Palestinian self-rule. He said the United States must respect the Arab world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values.

And he dismissed criticism from the White House that he did not move fast enough to condemn protesters who recently climbed over the United States Embassy wall and burned the American flag in anger over a video that mocked the Prophet Muhammad.

“We took our time” in responding to avoid an explosive backlash, he said, but then dealt “decisively” with the small, violent element among the demonstrators.

“We can never condone this kind of violence, but we need to deal with the situation wisely,” he said, noting that the embassy employees were never in danger.

Mr. Morsi, who will travel to New York on Sunday for a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, arrives at a delicate moment. He faces political pressure at home to prove his independence, but demands from the West for reassurance that Egypt under Islamist rule will remain a stable partner.

Mr. Morsi, 61, whose office was still adorned with nautical paintings that Mr. Mubarak left behind, said the United States should not expect Egypt to live by its rules.

“If you want to judge the performance of the Egyptian people by the standards of German or Chinese or American culture, then there is no room for judgment,” he said. “When the Egyptians decide something, probably it is not appropriate for the U.S. When the Americans decide something, this, of course, is not appropriate for Egypt.”

He suggested that Egypt would not be hostile to the West, but would not be as compliant as Mr. Mubarak either.

“Successive American administrations essentially purchased with American taxpayer money the dislike, if not the hatred, of the peoples of the region,” he said, by backing dictatorial governments over popular opposition and supporting Israel over the Palestinians.

He initially sought to meet with President Obama at the White House during his visit this week, but he received a cool reception, aides to both presidents said. Mindful of the complicated election-year politics of a visit with Egypt’s Islamist leader, Mr. Morsi dropped his request.

His silence in the immediate aftermath of the embassy protest elicited a tense telephone call from Mr. Obama, who also told a television interviewer that at that moment he did not consider Egypt an ally, if not an enemy either. When asked if he considered the United States an ally, Mr. Morsi answered in English, “That depends on your definition of ally,” smiling at his deliberate echo of Mr. Obama. But he said he envisioned the two nations as “real friends.”

Mr. Morsi spoke in an ornate palace that Mr. Mubarak inaugurated three decades ago, a world away from the Nile Delta farm where the new president grew up, or the prison cells where he had been confined by Mr. Mubarak for his role in the Brotherhood. Three months after his swearing-in, the most noticeable change to the presidential office was a plaque on his desk bearing the Koranic admonition, “Be conscious of a day on which you will return to God.”

A stocky figure with a trim beard and wire-rim glasses, he earned a doctorate in materials science at the University of Southern California in the early 1980s. He spoke with an easy confidence in his new authority, reveling in an approval rating he said was at 70 percent. When he grew animated, he slipped from Arabic into crisp English.

Little known at home or abroad until just a few months ago, he was the Brotherhood’s second choice as a presidential nominee after the first choice was disqualified. On the night of the election, the generals who had ruled since Mr. Mubarak’s ouster issued a decree keeping most presidential powers for themselves.

But last month Mr. Morsi confounded all expectations by prying full executive authority back from the generals. In the interview, when an interpreter suggested that the generals had “decided” to exit politics, Mr. Morsi quickly corrected him.

“No, no, it is not that they ‘decided’ to do it,” he interjected in English, determined to clarify that it was he who removed them. “This is the will of the Egyptian people through the elected president, right?

“The president of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the commander of the armed forces, full stop. Egypt now is a real civil state. It is not theocratic, it is not military. It is democratic, free, constitutional, lawful and modern.”

He added, “We are behaving according to the Egyptian people’s choice and will, nothing else — is it clear?”

He praised Mr. Obama for moving “decisively and quickly” to support the Arab Spring revolutions, and he said he believed that Americans supported “the right of the people of the region to enjoy the same freedoms that Americans have.”

Arabs and Americans have “a shared objective, each to live free in their own land, according to their customs and values, in a fair and democratic fashion,” he said, adding that he hoped for “a harmonious, peaceful coexistence.”

But he also argued that Americans “have a special responsibility” for the Palestinians because the United States had signed the 1978 Camp David accord. The agreement called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza and for full Palestinian self-rule.

“As long as peace and justice are not fulfilled for the Palestinians, then the treaty remains unfulfilled,” he said.

He made no apologies for his roots in the Brotherhood, the insular religious revival group that was Mr. Mubarak’s main opposition and now dominates Egyptian politics.

“I grew up with the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said. “I learned my principles in the Muslim Brotherhood. I learned how to love my country with the Muslim Brotherhood. I learned politics with the Brotherhood. I was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.”

He left the group when he took office but remains a member of its political party. But he said he sees “absolutely no conflict” between his loyalty to the Brotherhood and his vows to govern on behalf of all, including members of the Christian minority or those with more secular views.

“I prove my independence by taking the correct acts for my country,” he said. “If I see something good from the Muslim Brotherhood, I will take it. If I see something better in the Wafd” — Egypt’s oldest liberal party — “I will take it.”

He repeatedly vowed to uphold equal citizenship rights of all Egyptians, regardless of religion, sex or class. But he stood by the religious arguments he once made as a Brotherhood leader that neither a woman nor a Christian would be a suitable president.

“We are talking about values, beliefs, cultures, history, reality,” he said. He said the Islamic position on presidential eligibility was a matter for Muslim scholars to decide, not him. But regardless of his own views or the Brotherhood’s, he said, civil law was another matter.

“I will not prevent a woman from being nominated as a candidate for the presidential campaign,” he said. “This is not in the Constitution. This is not in the law. But if you want to ask me if I will vote for her or not, that is something else, that is different.”

He was also eager to reminisce about his taste of American culture as a graduate student at the University of Southern California. “Go, Trojans!” he said, and he remembered learning about the world from Barbara Walters in the morning and Walter Cronkite at night. “And that’s the way it is!” Mr. Morsi said with a smile.

But he also displayed some ambivalence. He effused about his admiration for American work habits, punctuality and time management. But when an interpreter said that Mr. Morsi had “learned a lot” in the United States, he quickly interjected a qualifier in English: “Scientifically!”

He was troubled by the gangs and street of violence of Los Angeles, he said, and dismayed by the West’s looser sexual mores, mentioning couples living together out of wedlock and what he called “naked restaurants,” like Hooters.

“I don’t admire that,” he said. “But that is the society. They are living their way.”


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 24, 2012
An earlier version of this article carried a correction that was posted in error. It has been removed for further research.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 26, 2012
An article on Sunday about a call by Egypt’s new Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, for the United States to show greater respect for Arab culture and values referred incompletely to the 1978 Camp David accord in some editions. As the article noted, the accord called for an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territory to make way for Palestinian autonomy. It also should have pointed out that an Israeli withdrawal would come after Palestinians took steps toward self-rule that were not implemented as the accord had envisioned.


We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Nov 06, 2012 7:11 pm


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/world ... nted=print

The New York Times

November 5, 2012
Harassers of Women in Cairo Now Face Wrath of Vigilantes
By KAREEM FAHIM

CAIRO — The young activists lingered on the streets around Tahrir Square, scrutinizing the crowds of holiday revelers. Suddenly, they charged, pushing people aside and chasing down a young man. As the captive thrashed to get away, the activists pounded his shoulders, flipped him around and spray-painted a message on his back: “I’m a harasser.”

Egypt’s streets have long been a perilous place for women, who are frequently heckled, grabbed, threatened and violated while the police look the other way. Now, during the country’s tumultuous transition from authoritarian rule, more and more groups are emerging to make protecting women — and shaming the do-nothing police — a cause.

“They’re now doing the undoable?” a police officer joked as he watched the vigilantes chase down the young man. The officer quickly went back to sipping his tea.

The attacks on women did not subside after the uprising. If anything, they became more visible as even the military was implicated in the assaults, stripping female protesters, threatening others with violence and subjecting activists to so-called virginity tests. During holidays, when Cairenes take to the streets to stroll and socialize, the attacks multiply.

But during the recent Id al-Adha holiday, some of the men were surprised to find they could no longer harass with impunity, a change brought about not just out of concern for women’s rights, but out of a frustration that the post-revolutionary government still, like the one before, was doing too little to protect its citizens.

At least three citizens groups patrolled busy sections of central Cairo during the holiday. The groups’ members, both men and women, shared the conviction that the authorities would not act against harassment unless the problem was forced into the public debate. They differed in their tactics: some activists criticized others for being too quick to resort to violence against suspects and encouraging vigilantism. One group leader compared the activists to the Guardian Angels in the United States.

“The harasser doesn’t see anyone who will hold him accountable,” said Omar Talaat, 16, who joined one of the patrols.

The years of President Hosni Mubarak’s rule were marked by official apathy, collusion in the assaults on women, or empty responses to the attacks, including police roundups of teenagers at Internet cafes for looking at pornography.

“The police did not take harassment seriously,” said Madiha el-Safty, a sociology professor at the American University in Cairo. “People didn’t file complaints. It was always underreported.”

Mr. Mubarak’s wife, Suzanne, who portrayed herself as a champion of women’s rights, pretended the problem hardly existed. As reports of harassment grew in 2008, she said, “Egyptian men always respect Egyptian women.”

Egypt’s new president, Mohamed Morsi, has presided over two holidays, and many activists say there is no sign that the government is paying closer attention to the problem. But the work by the citizens groups may be having an effect: Last week, after the Id al-Adha holiday, Mr. Morsi’s spokesman announced that the government had received more than 1,000 reports of harassment, and said that the president had directed the Interior Ministry to investigate them.

“Egypt’s revolution cannot tolerate these abuses,” the spokesman quoted Mr. Morsi as saying.

Azza Soliman, the director of the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance, dismissed the president’s words as “weak.” During the holiday, she said, one of her sons was beaten on the subway after he tried to stop a man who was groping two foreign women. The police tried to stop him from filing a complaint. “The whole world is talking about harassment in our country,” Ms. Soliman said. “The Interior Ministry takes no action.”

For years, anti-harassment activists have worked to highlight the problems in Egypt, but the uprising seemed to give the effort more energy and urgency.

Over the holiday, the groups staked out different parts of Cairo’s downtown. One avoided any violence, forming human chains between women and their tormentors. The other group forcefully confronted men and boys it suspected of harassment, smacking around suspects before hauling them off to a police station.

One of that group’s founders, Sherine Badr el-Din, 30, started her work as an anti-harassment activist by asking men to get off the women-only cars on the Cairo subway, regarded as a safe zone. When they refused, she videotaped them and posted their pictures on the Internet, she said.

Last summer, one of the men attacked her. “I wanted to file a case, but the police officer refused, claiming they were only there to monitor the train schedules.” She said the group escalated its tactics out of frustration, after the police started releasing suspects the group had caught.

“Violence is not our method,” she said. “But the pressure was tremendous.”

Last week, as the group gathered near Tahrir Square, one member had what looked like a stun gun, and another shook a can of spray paint. Most participants were men, and some wore fluorescent green vests, with the words “combating harassment” written on the back.

They mused on the reasons for the frequency of the attacks on their sisters, mothers and friends, finding no sure answer in the blame often laid on poverty or religion, society’s indifference or the state’s contagious chauvinism.

They seemed more certain of the solution, as they plunged into the holiday crowds over several evenings. Some bystanders were supportive. But when violence broke out, there was less support. “I will tell the government on you,” one man screamed as the activists wrestled with a suspect.

Sometimes the patrol acted after seeing a woman being groped. At other times, it justified its attacks as preventive.

Two boys on a scooter hardly knew what hit them. One minute, they were driving along the Nile Corniche, saying something — maybe lewd, maybe not — to two girls strolling on the sidewalk. The next, they were being hauled off the scooter by the men in green vests. The melee that broke out afterward stopped traffic on one of downtown’s busiest roadways, before the police chased the patrol members off.

Afterward, Muhaab Selim, 23, a member of the group, could barely contain his anger. “Why do I have to wait until he touches them?” he yelled. “Why do people defend the harassers?”

By the end of the holidays, one of the group’s leaders, Muhammad Taimoor, 22, had been arrested after fighting with a suspect on the subway. Even so, he called the weekend a success. “We caught some harassers, sprayed them with paint and published their pictures everywhere,” Mr. Taimoor said. “The Interior Ministry wasn’t cooperating with us at all. They weren’t protecting women in the streets.”

While Mr. Taimoor and his colleagues were on patrol, another group, called Imprint, was in a nearby square. Nihal Saad Zaghloul, 27, an activist with the group, said its members stopped more than 30 men who were trying to harass women.

When the group believes someone is being harassed, some members form a wall between the attacker and the victim, while others take the woman to safety. “We don’t push back, and we don’t fight,” Ms. Zaghloul said. They ask police officers to be present, in case the woman wants to file a report.

Ms. Zaghloul, who became active after she and a friend were assaulted, was less critical of the patrol officers than some of the other activists. “They are understaffed, and at the same time, they are part of a society that always blames women, although they know it’s wrong.” She worried that the other group’s methods would alienate the public.

But she added, “No one understands their frustration better than me.”

Asmaa Al Zohairy contributed reporting.

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby beeline » Fri Nov 23, 2012 5:27 pm

Link

Clashes erupt across Egypt over Morsi's new powers

MAGGIE MICHAEL and AYA BATRAWY , The Associated Press
Posted: Friday, November 23, 2012, 2:17 PM

CAIRO - Thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president clashed with his supporters in cities across the country Friday, burning several offices of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the most violent and widespread protests since Mohammed Morsi came to power, sparked by his move to grant himself sweeping powers.

The violence, which left 100 people injured, reflected the increasingly dangerous polarization in Egypt over what course it will take nearly two years after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Critics of Morsi accused him of seizing dictatorial powers with his decrees a day earlier that make him immune to judicial oversight and give him authority to take any steps against "threats to the revolution". On Friday, the president spoke before a crowd of his supporters massed in front of his palace and said his edicts were necessary to stop a "minority" that was trying to block the goals of the revolution.

"There are weevils eating away at the nation of Egypt," he said, pointing to old regime loyalists he accused of using money to fuel instability and to members of the judiciary who work under the "umbrella" of the courts to "harm the country."

Clashes between his opponents and members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood erupted in several cities. In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, anti-Morsi crowds attacked Brotherhood backers coming out of a mosque, raining stones and firecrackers on them. The Brothers held up prayer rugs to protect themselves and the two sides pelted each other with stones and chunks of marble, leaving at least 15 injured. The protesters then stormed a nearby Brotherhood office.

State TV reported that protesters burned offices of the Brotherhood's political arm in the Suez Canal cities of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said, east of Cairo.

In the capital Cairo, security forces pumped volleys of tear gas at thousands of pro-democracy protesters clashing with riot police on streets several blocks from Tahrir Square and in front of the nearby parliament building.

Tens of thousands of activists massed in Tahrir itself, denouncing Morsi and chanting "Leave, leave" and "Morsi is Mubarak ... Revolution everywhere." Many of them represented Egypt's upper-class, liberal elite, which have largely stayed out of protests in past months but were prominent in the streets during the anti-Mubarak uprising that began Jan. 25, 2011.

"We are in a state of revolution. He is crazy of he thinks he can go back to one-man rule," one protester, Sara Khalili, said of Morsi.

"If the Brotherhood's slogan is `Islam is the solution' ours is `submission is not the solution'," said Khalili, a mass communications professor at the American University in Cairo. "God does not call for submission to another man's will."

Frustration had been growing for months with Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, who came to office in June. Critics say the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, has been moving to monopolize power and that he has done little to tackle mounting economic problems and continuing insecurity, much less carry out deeper reforms.

Morsi's supporters, in turn, say he has faced constant push-back from Mubarak loyalists and from the courts, where loyalists have a strong presence. The courts have been considering a string of lawsuits demanding the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated assembly writing the next constitution. The courts already dissolved a previous version of the assembly and the Brotherhood-led lower house of parliament.

Morsi made his move Thursday, at a time when he was bolstered by U.S. and international praise over his mediating of a cease-fire ending a week of battles between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Only a day earlier, Morsi had met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton just before the truce was announced.

Mustafa Kamel el-Sayyed, a Cairo University political science professor, said Morsi may be confident that the U.S. won't pressure him on his domestic moves. "The U.S. administration is happy to work with an Islamist government (that acts) in accordance with U.S. interests in the region, one of which is definitely the maintaining of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel" and protecting Israel's security.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday that Morsi's declarations "raise concern for many Egyptians and for the international community."

The U.S. calls for Egyptians to "resolve their differences over these important issues peacefully and through democratic dialogue," she said.

On Thursday, Morsi unilaterally issued amendments to the interim constitution that made all his decisions immune to judicial review or court orders. He gave similar protection to the constitutional panel and the upper house of parliament, which is dominated by the Brotherhood and also faced possible disbanding by the courts.

Morsi, who holds legislative as well as executive powers, also declared his power to take any steps necessary to prevent "threats to the revolution," public safety or the workings of state institutions. Rights activists warned that the vague , and unexplained , wording could give him even greater power than those Mubarak held under emergency laws throughout his rule.

The decree would be in effect until a new constitution is approved and parliamentary elections are held, not expected until the Spring.

The state media described Morsi's decree as a "corrective revolution," and supporters presented the move as the only way to break through the political deadlock preventing the adoption of a new constitution.

Amnesty International said the new powers "trample the rule of law and herald a new era of repression." It said a new "law protecting the revolution" also announced Thursday could provide for detaining people for up to six months without charge.

Prominent Egyptian democracy activist Mohamed ElBaradei called Morsi a "new pharaoh." The president's one-time ally, the April 6 movement, warned that the polarization could bring a "civil war."

One of Morsi's aides, Coptic Christian thinker Samer Marqous, resigned to protest the "undemocratic" decree.

"This is a crime against Egypt and a declaration of the end of January revolution to serve the interest of the Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship," wrote Ibrahim Eissa, chief editor of daily Al-Tahrir. "The revolution is over and the new dictator has killed her."

In front of the presidential palace, Muslim Brotherhood supporters and other Islamists chanted "the people support the president's decree," pumping their fists in the air.

"God will humiliate those who are attacking our president, Mohammed Morsi," said ultraconservative cleric Mohammed Abdel-Maksoud. "Whoever insults the sultan, God humiliates him," he added.

In rival protests in the southern city of Assiut, ultraconservative Islamists of the Salafi tend and former Jihadists outnumbered liberal and leftists, such as the April 6 youth groups. The two sides exchanged insults and briefly scuffled with firsts and stones.

With his decrees, Morsi was playing to widespread discontent with the judiciary. Many , even Brotherhood opponents , are troubled by the presence of so many Mubarak era-judges and prosecutors, who they say have failed to strongly enough prosecute the old regime's top officials and security forces for crimes including the killing of protesters.

In his decrees, Morsi fired the controversial prosecutor general and created "revolutionary" judicial bodies to put Mubarak and some of his top aides on trial a second time for protester killings. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop police from shooting at protesters, but many were angry he was not found guilty of actually ordering the crackdown during the uprising against his rule.

In his speech Friday. Morsi told supporters that his decisions were meant to stop those "taking shelter under judiciary."

He said the courts had been about to disband the upper house of parliament.

"This is minority but they represent a threat to the revolution's goals," he said. "It is my duty, if I see this, to go forward along the path of the revolution and prevent any blockage."
User avatar
beeline
 
Posts: 2024
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 4:10 pm
Location: Killadelphia, PA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby beeline » Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:01 pm

Link

Egypt draft constitution sparks mass protest

AYA BATRAWY and MAGGIE MICHAEL , The Associated Press
Posted: Friday, November 30, 2012, 11:04 AM
CAIRO - More than 100,000 protesters took the streets in Egypt vowing to stop a draft constitution that Islamist allies of President Mohammed Morsi approved early Friday in a rushed, all-night session without the participation of liberals and Christians.

Anger at Morsi even spilled over into a mosque where the Islamist president joined weekly Friday prayers. In his sermon, the mosque's preacher compared Morsi to Islam's Prophet Muhammad, saying the prophet had enjoyed vast powers as leader, giving a precedent for the same to happen now.

"No to tyranny!" congregants chanted, interrupting the cleric. Morsi took to the podium and told the worshippers that he too objected to the language of the sheik and that one-man rule contradicts Islam.

Crowds of protesters marched from several locations in Cairo, converging in central Tahrir Square for the opposition's second mass rally in a week against Morsi. They chanted, "Constitution: Void!" and "The people want to bring down the regime."

Senior opposition leader Hamdeen Sabbahi took the stage before the crowd and vowed protests would go on until "we topple the constitution."

"The revolution is back ... We shall be victorious," said Sabbahi, a liberal politician who came in a surprisingly close third in last summer's presidential election. "We are united against the oppressive regime."

The protests were sparked by the president's decrees a week ago granting himself sweeping powers and neutralizing the judiciary, the last check on his authority. The edicts tapped into a feeling among many Egyptians that Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, from which he hails, are using their election victories to monopolize power and set up a new one-party state, nearly two years after the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

But the sudden adoption of a draft constitution by the Islamist-dominated assembly tasked with producing the document throws the confrontation into a new phase.

The opposition must now decide how to deal with a nationwide referendum on the document, likely to come in mid-December: Boycott the vote to protest what critics call a deeply flawed charter or try to use anger at Morsi rally the public to reject it in the referendum.

Morsi says his new powers are in effect until the referendum passes. He is expected on Saturday to announce a date for the vote.

Egypt has already been thrown by Morsi's edicts into its most polarizing and volatile crisis since Mubarak's ouster. The past week, clashes between Morsi's supporters and opponents left two dead and hundreds wounded and raised fears of further chaos. The Brotherhood and other Islamists plan their own massive rally backing Morsi on Saturday.

The draft constitution has an Islamist bent. It strengthens provisions that set Islamic law as the basis of legislation, gives clerics a still undefined role in ensuring laws meet Shariah and commits the state to enforce morals and "the traditional family" in broad language that rights activists fear could be used to severely limit many civil liberties.

At the same time, it installs new protections for Egyptians against some abuses of the Mubarak era, such as stronger bans on torture and arbitrary arrest. It weakens somewhat what had been the near total powers of the presidency, giving parliament greater authorities.

Almost all liberal and secular members of the assembly had quit in the past weeks to protest what they called Islamists' hijacking of the drafting process.

As a result, 85 members , almost all Islamists, with no Christians , participated in the session that began Thursday. The voting, which had not been expected for another two months, was hastily moved up to approve the draft before the Supreme Constitutional Court rules on Sunday on whether to dissolve the controversial assembly.

Racing against the clock, the members voted article by article for 16 hours on the draft's more than 230 articles, passing them all by large margins.

The rush resulted in a process that at times appeared slap-dash. Assembly head Hossam al-Ghiryani doggedly pushed the members to finish.

When one article received 16 objections, he pointed out that would require postponing the vote 48 hours under the body's rules. "Now I'm taking the vote again," he said, and all but four members dropped their objections.

In the session's final hours, several new articles were hastily written up and swiftly voted on to resolve lingering issues. One significant change would reduce the size of the Supreme Constitutional Court by nearly a third to 11 judges, removing several younger, sharply anti-Brotherhood judges.

The voting ended just after sunrise Friday, to a round of applause from the members.

"This constitution represents the diversity of the Egyptian people. All Egyptians, male and female, will find themselves in this constitution," Essam el-Erian, a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood, declared.

"We will implement the work of this constitution to hold in high esteem God's law, which was only ink on paper before, and to protect freedoms that were not previously respected," he said.

But the opposition denounced the vote as a farce.

Speaking on private Al-Nahar TV on Thursday, Egypt's top reform leader, Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei predicted the document "will go to the garbage bin of history."

Among the protesters in Tahrir on Friday, Salwa Mustafa said the constitution was "cooked up."

"It was very strange the way they voted. None of the 80 had objections, and if one of them did accidently open his mouth, al-Ghiryani is there to shut him up," said Mustafa, an engineer.

Her daughter, Basma Mohieddin, marching with her, added, "We must not let this charter reach the referendum cause you know that people are easily fooled. We have to stop it right now and cancel it."

Speaking in an interview on state TV aired late Thursday, Morsi said the constitution's swift passage was necessary to get Egypt through a transitional period in which there has been no elected lower house of parliament. The courts dissolved the Brotherhood-led lower house elected last winter.

"The most important thing of this period is that we finish the constitution, so that we have a parliament under the constitution, elected properly, an independent judiciary, and a president who executes the law," Morsi said.

Rights group Amnesty International said Friday that the adopted text of the constitution has provisions that purport to protect rights but instead "mask new restrictions."

As in past constitutions, the new draft said the "principles of Islamic law" will be the basis of law.

Previously, the term "principles" allowed wide leeway in interpreting Shariah. But in the draft, a separate new article is added that seeks to define "principles" by pointing to particular theological doctrines and their rules. That could give Islamists the tool for insisting on stricter implementation of rulings of Shariah.

Another new article states that Egypt's most respected Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, must be consulted on any matters related to Shariah, a measure critics fear will lead to oversight of legislation by clerics.

The draft also includes bans on "insulting or defaming all prophets and messengers" or even "insulting humans" , broad language that analysts warned could be used to crack down on many forms of speech.

The draft says citizens are equal under the law but an article specifically establishing women's equality was dropped because of disputes over the phrasing.

One article underlines that the state will protect "the true nature of the Egyptian family ... and promote its morals and values." The phrasing suggests the state could prevent anything deemed to undermine the family.

"Women, who were barely represented in the assembly, have the most to lose from a constitution which ignores their aspirations, and blocks the path to equality between men and women. It is appalling that virtually the only references to women relate to the home and family," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's deputy director for the region.

The draft also preserves much of military's immunity from parliamentary scrutiny, putting its budget in the hands of the National Defense Council, which includes the president, the heads of the two houses of parliament and top generals.

The committee has been plagued by controversy from the start. It was created by the first parliament elected after Mubarak's ouster. But a first permutation of the assembly, also Islamist-dominated, was disbanded by the courts. A new one was created just before the lower house of parliament, also Brotherhood-led, was dissolved by the judiciary in June.

,,,

Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb and Lee Keath contributed to this report.
User avatar
beeline
 
Posts: 2024
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 4:10 pm
Location: Killadelphia, PA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby beeline » Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:47 am

Warning: manipulation of facts contained in today's article.


NYT


Thousands (try millions) of Egyptians Protest Plan for Charter

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: December 4, 2012

CAIRO — Riot police officers fired brief rounds of tear gas on Tuesday night at tens of thousands of demonstrators outside the presidential palace protesting the Islamist-backed draft constitution. It was the clearest evidence yet that the new charter has only widened the divisions that have plagued Egypt since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.

Eleven newspapers stopped publication for the day on Tuesday to protest limits on the new constitution’s protections for freedom of expression. At least three private television networks said they would go dark on Wednesday. By Tuesday night, demonstrators had also filled Tahrir Square and taken to the streets in Alexandria, Suez and several other Egyptian cities.

President Mohamed Morsi’s supporters say the constitution establishes a new democracy, not a theocracy. But while it does not impose religious rule, his opponents say, it does not preclude it, either. They say it contains major loopholes in individual liberties, could enable Muslim religious authorities to wield new influence and still leaves too much power in the hands of the president.

“It seeks to impose a one-sided religious extremist national identity, contrary to Egypt’s moderate character and openness to the world,” a coalition of secular opposition groups said Tuesday.

Still, the document promises an end to nearly two years of tumultuous transition, and the odds are against blocking its ratification in an up-or-down vote on Dec. 15, many in the opposition acknowledge. But Mr. Morsi’s opponents hope that their campaign to defeat the draft might at least narrow its margin of approval.

They hope to carry that momentum into parliamentary elections in two months, and hurt the Islamists’ chances at the polls. Last year Islamists won about three-quarters of the seats in the parliamentary elections, before a court dissolved the chamber.

Protesters turned out on Tuesday for the third day in the last two weeks to protest against Mr. Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president and a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Marchers used slogans recycled from the revolt against Mr. Mubarak against Mr. Morsi and the Islamists. “Bread, freedom and bring down the Brotherhood!” some chanted. “Shave your beard, show your disgrace, you will find that you have Mubarak’s face!”

When the crowds reached the palace around 6 p.m., they pushed briefly against police barricades, and officers responded with short volleys of tear gas. But the riot police then retreated behind the palace walls, apparently to avoid further clashes.

Two rows of riot police officers stood guard so Mr. Morsi’s motorcade could leave for his suburban home. “Coward!” they chanted. “Leave!” The crowd looted a guardhouse and covered the palace walls with graffiti mocking either Mr. Morsi, the Brotherhood, or other Islamists.

President Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, met Tuesday in Washington with his Egyptian counterpart, Essam el-Haddad, and emphasized “the need to move forward with a peaceful and inclusive transition that respects the rights of all Egyptians,” according to a White House spokesman.

The protests did not suggest widespread defections from among core Morsi supporters. The crowd appeared more affluent than those at the usual Tahrir Square protests here, to say nothing of the Islamist rallies. There was an unusually high concentration of women, especially for an event after dark, and very few traditional Islamic headscarves. Interviews suggested a heavy representation from Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, who fear marginalization under the Brotherhood.

The relative affluence of the crowd “is a good thing,” said Farid Beshay, a 29-year-old Christian. “This is not a revolt of the poor. This is people coming to demand their rights.”

The newspapers that shut down for the day said their action was aimed specifically at the draft constitution’s failure to protect free expression. “You are reading this message because Egypt Independent objects to continued restrictions on media liberties, especially after hundreds of Egyptians gave their lives for freedom and dignity,” a short statement declared Tuesday morning on the Web site of Egypt Independent, the English-language sister publication of the country’s largest independent daily, Al Masry Al Youm.

That paper and 10 others did not publish. Among other criticisms, analysts and human rights groups say the draft all but eviscerates its provisions for freedom of expression, in part by also expressly prohibiting “insults” to any living individual or to religious “prophets.”

The draft charter also stipulates that a purpose of the news media is to uphold public morality and the “true nature of the Egyptian family,” and specifies that government authorization may be required to operate a television station or a Web site.

“The protection of freedom of expression is fatally undermined by all the provisions that limit it,” said Heba Morayef, a researcher with Human Rights Watch who has studied the text. “On paper, they have not protected freedom of expression. It is designed to let the government limit those rights on the basis of ‘morality’ or the vague concept of ‘insult.’ ”

The Web site of the state newspaper Al Ahram on Tuesday reported that at least 60 of its own journalists had joined the protest marches — a sign that could be taken as a notable endorsement of the cause, or a measure of how much has already changed since Mr. Mubarak’s exit.

Mayy El Sheikh contributed reporting from Cairo, and Peter Baker from Washington.
User avatar
beeline
 
Posts: 2024
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 4:10 pm
Location: Killadelphia, PA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:22 pm

Things are getting very bad in Cairo and Alex and I can't say I'm anywhere near certain that this is the ideal polarization or time for it. Such a clusterfuck.

Lots of twitters have been put as updates here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021931254

7 out of 17 Morsi's Advisors have resigned

!!!

This one may be all too indicative:

Mona Abd-El Aziz ‏@Monabdelaziz

Hearing extremely loud chants against Morsi by my house in Khalifa El Maamoun.


Mona Abd-El Aziz ‏@Monabdelaziz

My apologies, the chants were pro Morsi in Khalifa El Maamoun.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby beeline » Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:40 am

Link

Egypt protesters march toward president's palace

MAGGIE FICK and MAGGIE MICHAEL , The Associated Press

CAIRO - Thousands of Egyptians marched toward the president's palace early Friday afternoon for another day of demonstrations against the president while thousands of his Islamist backers gathered outside the country's most respected Islamic institution for a funeral for two men killed in Wednesday's bloody clashes.

Egypt's simmering political crisis showed no signs of letting up the day after President Mohammed Morsi responded to the violence outside his palace with a fiery speech denouncing his opponents, deepening the crisis. The opposition turned down his appeal for talks, saying the president had not fulfilled their conditions for beginning negotiations.

At the funeral held by Morsi's Islamist backers after midday prayers at Al-Azhar mosque, Egypt's premier Islamic institution, a hardline Muslim cleric denounced anti-Morsi protesters as "traitors." Mourners yelled that opposition leaders were "murderers." In a twist on a revolutionary chant from the 2011 uprising, they also yelled for "bread, freedom, and Islamic law."

Amid the rival rallies and marches in Cairo and in the cities of Alexandria and Luxor, the public standoff continued over what opponents call the Islamist president's power grab.

In a televised address late Thursday, an angry Morsi refused to call off the vote on the disputed constitution. He accused some in the opposition of serving remnants of Mubarak's regime and vowed he would never tolerate anyone working for the overthrow of his government.

He also invited the opposition to a dialogue starting Saturday at his palace, but he gave no sign that he might offer any meaningful concessions. Morsi's opponents replied they would not talk until Morsi cancels his decrees.

The president's remarks were his first comments to the public after bloody clashes outside his palace on Wednesday, when thousands of his backers from the Muslim Brotherhood fought with the president's opponents. Six people were killed and at least 700 injured.

The speech brought shouts of "the people want to topple the regime!" from the crowd of 30,000 Morsi opponents gathered outside his palace , the same chant heard in the protests that brought down Mubarak.

Since the crisis erupted, the opposition has tried to forge a united front. The squabbling groups created a National Salvation Front to bring them together, naming Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, the country's top reform campaigner, as its leader.

Speaking on the new umbrella group's behalf, ElBaradei responded to Morsi's speech in his own televised remarks, saying that Morsi's government showed reluctance in acting to stop Wednesday night's bloodshed outside the palace. He said this failure has eroded the government's legitimacy and made it difficult for his opposition front to negotiate with the president.

ElBaradei said Morsi has not responded to the opposition group's attempts to "rescue the country" and that the president had "closed the door for dialogue" by "ignoring the demands of the people."

After Friday prayers, protesters began marching to the palace from several different directions.

Protesters are demanding that Morsi rescind decrees that give him almost absolute power and push an Islamist-friendly constitution to a referendum on Dec. 15. The decrees sparked a crisis that has boiled for more than two weeks. Demonstrations have reached the size and intensity of those that brought down President Hosni Mubarak early last year.

The April 6 movement, which played a key role in sparking the uprising against Mubarak, called its supporters to gather at mosques in Cairo and the neighboring city of Giza to march to the palace. They termed Friday's march a "red card" for Morsi, a reference to a football referee sending a player off the field for a serious violation.

Egypt's military intervened on Thursday for the first time, posting tanks around the palace and stringing barbed wire.

Also on Friday morning, thousands of Brotherhood members gathered in Cairo outside the mosque of Al-Azhar, Egypt's most respected Islamic institution, for the funeral of two members of the fundamentalist group who were killed during Wednesday's clashes.

During the funeral, thousands Islamist mourners chanted, "with blood and soul, we redeem Islam," pumping their fists in the air. "Egypt is Islamic, it will not be secular, it will not be liberal," they chanted as they walked in a funeral procession that filled streets around Al-Azhar mosque.

Ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis are organizing their own rally Friday against what they say is biased coverage of the crisis by private Egyptian satellite TV channels.

Criticism is growing from Egyptian journalists, including those working for state-run news organizations, over what they say are attempts by Islamists to control themedia.

On Thursday, dozens of Egyptian journalists from the state-run Al-Ahram daily held protests in front of the paper building denouncing the editorial policy of the paper. The paper had been seen as the mouthpiece under Mubarak's rule.

Also on Thursday, prominent television presenter Khairy Ramadan resigned on air after the private network he works for banned prominent opposition leader Hamdeen Sabahi from appearing on air for an interview.

The TV network is owned by a businessman who was believed to be linked to old regime.

This resignation came hours after the head of state television resigned in objection to official coverage of the crisis.

Egypt's Ministry of Information is led by a Muslim Brotherhood member who recently permitted female presenters to wear veils on air.

Egyptian activists circulated footage on Facebook and Twitter that they said showed that state TV was turning a blind eye to Wednesday's clashes outside the president's palace.
User avatar
beeline
 
Posts: 2024
Joined: Wed May 21, 2008 4:10 pm
Location: Killadelphia, PA
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Dec 11, 2012 4:27 pm

Have collected a lot of interesting material on the Egyptian developments but here's an overview from today, Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Democracy Now!

Poor Egypt. In the two years of SCAF and now Morsi, things could not have been more backwards. Every damn constitutional move has been sprung on people for immediate approval, before time for debate. Any rational sequence of setting up a democracy (say, a constituent assembly makes a constitution and then there are elections to representative bodies and executive offices) has been reversed. With haphazard intentionality, of course, to prevent a real democracy. So you had the military spring an immediate referendum on constitutional changes to the Mubarak system before the parliamentary elections, complicated parliamentary elections after many delays, a constituent assembly appointed by this parliament and working without transparency, the parliament half-dissolved by the judiciary, the election of a president in a continued strongman system, all this before there was even a constitution. And then this constitution is again sprung on everyone with two weeks notice in the middle of what's played as ultimate crisis. And so this horrible mess, with the people split into factions fighting each other on the street.


http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/11/ ... arif_abdel

Tuesday, December 11, 2012
"Protest Here is Vigorous": Unrest, Polarization Before Egypt’s Referendum


Egypt is bracing for new protests today over President Mohamed Morsi’s hotly contested effort to hold a referendum on a controversial draft constitution. Ahead of today’s rallies, masked gunmen attacked opposition protesters camped out in Tahrir Square overnight, injuring more than a dozen. At least seven people have died in clashes, and hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets, since Morsi unilaterally expanded his powers last month. Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous files a report from Cairo. [includes rush transcript]
Filed under Egypt, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Gehad El-Haddad, Khaled Fahmy, Ahmed Shokr, Lobna Darwish, Yasmine Alaa, Khaled Dawoud
Guests:

Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! senior correspondent in Cairo, Egypt.

Gehad El-Haddad, senior adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Khaled Fahmy, American University in Cairo.

Ahmed Shokr, Egyptian writer and activist.

Lobna Darwish, Egyptian protester.

Yasmine Alaa, Egyptian protester.

Khaled Dawoud, spokesperson, National Salvation Front.

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Egypt, which is bracing for massive protests today ahead of President Morsi’s bid for a referendum on a hotly disputed draft constitution. Morsi has given the army the power to arrest people and ordered them to protect state institutions ahead of a vote on the new constitution set for Saturday. Today, Egyptian security officials say masked gunmen attacked opposition protesters camped out in Tahrir Square ahead of the mass rallies, injuring more than a dozen. At least seven people have died in clashes. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets since President Morsi issued his decree last month.

Well, for more, we turn to a report filed by Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous, in the streets of Cairo.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Mass protests, deepening polarization and new levels of political violence. Nearly two years after it launched a revolution, Egypt finds itself in the throes of a severe transitional crisis. Amidst the turmoil, a highly contentious referendum on the country’s new constitution looms just days away.

The firestorm was ignited three weeks ago, when the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, issued a controversial declaration that granted him near-absolute powers and placed him beyond the reach of the judiciary. The decree sparked some of the largest street demonstrations in Egypt since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, but this time the anger was directed at the elected president and the group he hails from, the Muslim Brotherhood.

At the center of the crisis lies the constitution. Morsi and his supporters have made it clear the main reason the president issued his controversial decree was to protect the body that was drafting the new constitution from possible dissolution by the courts.

GEHAD EL-HADDAD: So he issued the declaration to protect it from a known date where the constitutional court was set to actually annul the constitutional assembly. And not just that, they were going to go as far as questioning the legitimacy of the presidency itself.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Gehad El-Haddad is a senior adviser to the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party. He says the Supreme Constitutional Court posed a threat to the democratic transition process.

GEHAD EL-HADDAD: At the end of the day, this is a Mubarak-appointed body. And we don’t believe that appointed bodies should have an oversay on elected bodies in the post-revolutionary Egypt. The judiciary has to have its independence. But then again, the judiciary was largely one of the main actors that derailed Egypt’s constitution many times before.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The move escalated a confrontation between the Brotherhood and the judiciary that saw thousands of judges across the country go on strike. Muslim Brotherhood offices in cities across Egypt were attacked. Meanwhile, the constituent assembly itself was also facing dissent from within. Nearly all of the assembly’s non-Islamist members, including representatives of Coptic Christian Church, had pulled out in protest.

KHALED FAHMY: We have a text, first of all, that has been drawn up by a group, by a constituent assembly, that is not representative of the diversity of Egyptian society.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Khaled Fahmy is the chair of the History Department at the American University in Cairo.

KHALED FAHMY: This text is written by people, by the majority as a majority. The constitution should be written from the perspective of the minority. The constitution—the whole idea of a constitution is to protect personal rights and freedoms. It is to limit and curb the power of the state, not to reflect the hegemony of the majority. And this is what we are seeing in this—in this process.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The Brotherhood’s Gehad El-Haddad denies that those who withdrew from the assembly had legitimate grievances with the drafting process. He says they only pulled out at the end, after months of negotiations.

GEHAD EL-HADDAD: They withdrew for the media primarily, because of the pressure put on, peer pressure. Their parties had to put pressure on them, regardless of the reason. Political muscling, many of them were. I’m saying that grievances are not legitimate. I’m saying that some of them, very minor of them, were—have basis. But at the end of the day, Egypt is a very diverse nation. It has both fundamental secularism and fundamental Islam in it, and all the things in between. And within that constitutional assembly construct, the Muslim Brotherhood was walking a very fine line of a right and a left.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The draft constitution became even more contentious when assembly members hastily called for a final vote and passed the draft document in a 17-hour session that lasted until 6:00 the next morning. Morsi then called for a national referendum on the constitution to be held on December 15th. The move further escalated the mass protests in cities across the country and deepened the political divide. Yet the Brotherhood claims they have the backing of the majority of the people.

GEHAD EL-HADDAD: Everyone knows what type of grassroots support the Islamic current has in Egypt. So it’s not very wise to go in a head-to-head with a game of numbers.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Ahmad Shokr, a writer and Ph.D. candidate in Middle Eastern history, disputes that claim.

AHMAD SHOKR: Of course, President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood often speak as if they are an authentic expression of the Egyptian majority, and this is a line that has been repeated in much of the English-language media coverage. But there are simply no empirical grounds to prove this. Like I said, hundreds of thousands have been showing up to rallies on both sides. And if we look at the results of the last presidential election in the summer, President Morsi only managed to get—in the second round, he won by a razor-thin majority of 51 percent, which also included the Salafi vote and a quite large number of voters from the non-Islamist camp, who were afraid of a restoration of the old regime under Ahmed Shafik.

KHALED FAHMY: That’s a very serious way of thinking—you know, basically, we have the numbers; we can crush you; you have no legitimacy. I mean, it is that mentality that informed the drafting of the constitution: We have the majority, you are the minority; you do not count.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: In the wake of Morsi’s call for a referendum, the opposition opted to intensify the protests and move from squares like Tahrir to the presidential palace. Tens of thousands took part in the largest demonstration of its kind outside the presidential compound. A few hundred pitched tents and stayed for a sit-in. What happened the next day marked a serious escalation in the crisis. Senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood called on their members and other supporters to head to the presidential palace in order to, quote, "protect the legitimacy" of the president.

GEHAD EL-HADDAD: This was an attempt at a coup. And the Muslim Brotherhood put its supporters, and the rest of the supporters of his, of President Morsi’s, stand—stood by them as a human shield to protect the president and the presidential palace.

KHALED FAHMY: Very senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood gave orders to the rank and file to take to the streets to clean the area around the presidential palace. That’s a very, very ominous sign. And this is not the way to run a country. And they knew this.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Many thousands of Brotherhood members and their supporters came to the palace grounds. They cleared the area of protesters, beating some of them and destroying their tents. When news of the attack spread, the protesters regrouped and retaliated against the Morsi supporters. The clashes quickly escalated, with both sides hurling rocks at each other as well as firing shotguns and live ammunition. At least seven people were killed and hundreds more wounded. Lobna Darwish is one of the anti-Morsi protesters.

LOBNA DARWISH: What happened last Wednesday was especially horrifying, because for the first time there were civilians who were not in the street because—attacking us because they were paid or because this is their job or whatever, but because they believed in something. And this belief was kind of—it’s, I think, for everybody on both sides—and I like to think that on both sides it was very shocking and very sad to—to, all of a sudden, instead of being opposed to the regime and its official ranks, I mean, for someone wearing, you know, a policeman-like outfit or manning like army outfit or whatever, you’re seeing normal people that you probably live on the same street with, or like everyday people, chanting against you as if you are the enemy or you’re like—or someone who’s occupying the land or the infidels or whatever. And this was a very different experience on the emotional and political level.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The presidential guard was called in, and a dozen tanks were deployed around the palace. Meanwhile, five presidential aides to Morsi resigned, blaming him for the violence. The next evening, Morsi had a nationally televised address where he blamed the outbreak of violence on a "fifth column" and claimed that Mubarak regime remnants had been hiring thugs. This echoed much of the Brotherhood’s criticism of the opposition as being driven by former members of Mubarak’s regime.

AHMAD SHOKR: While that may be true that a number of Mubarak-era state elites are in fact trying to obstruct their plans, but that is not the case, I would say, for many of the newly emerging non-Islamist parties and the thousands of protesters who have been turning up onto the streets over the past couple of weeks. These are people that are demanding a voice in the process.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The president also stood firmly by his plan to hold the referendum on December 15th. Opposition groups planned mass protests the next day and held a series of large marches to the presidential palace. The presidential guard had built barricades to prevent people from approaching the compound.

We’re standing on a newly built wall that’s separating tens of thousands of protesters from the walls of the presidential compound just a few hundred yards away. There’s tens of thousands of protesters that have gathered here that are calling now on the president, Mohamed Morsi, to leave. No longer is the call for it to him to reverse his decree. The presidential guard has been deployed. They have locked arms and are preventing people from going, and there are presidential guard tanks that have been deployed, as well. People here are very determined, and the protest is vigorous.

With vast numbers, the protesters peacefully overwhelmed the presidential guard, crossed the barricades, and rushed towards the palace. Protesters began to graffiti the walls and chant against Morsi and the Brotherhood. Many said they now wanted Morsi to step down, following the violence on Wednesday night.

YASMINE ALAA: [translated] My name is Yasmine. I’m 23 years old. I’m here because I saw when they cleared out the sit-in, and they came in on us, and we were very few. I’m originally here to say no to the constitution and no to the constitutional decree and no to Morsi after the massacre that took place on Wednesday that I witnessed. Morsi lost his legitimacy after I saw people die in front of me on Wednesday. He should fall. Yesterday in his speech, he didn’t apologize or anything, and he still says there’s a third party, and he still says there are thugs. We are not thugs.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: In his speech, Morsi insisted the referendum go forward on December 15th. He also invited members of the opposition to a dialogue on Saturday. The National Salvation Front, an alliance of fractured opposition groups that came together for the first time to oppose Morsi’s constitutional decree, refused to attend. This is Khaled Dawoud, the spokesperson for the group.

KHALED DAWOUD: The president, when he offered the dialogue, he offered the dialogue over an agenda that was his own agenda, while insisting on disregarding our two key demands in his speech on Thursday. He said, "Come and talk to me about expanding the Shura Council, the upper house of Parliament, and come talk to me about the next election law," and insisted in taking it, throughout his speech, that he is going to hold the referendum on the new constitution on time. So, basically, we felt there was no need to talk on an agenda that’s already determined in advance and that ignores our own demands.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: The National Salvation Front is headed by Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, along with former presidential candidates Amr Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi. The group is seen as the face of the political opposition, yet it does not necessarily represent the protest movement, parts of which are calling for a more fundamental change.

LOBNA DARWISH: Part of it is anger towards the constitution and the decree and all this, but it’s not only this. For Baradei, for Hamdeen Sabahi, for Amr Moussa, for the whole Salvation group or Salvation Front, their demand is to be represented in this constitution. Their demand is have a say as political, you know, opposition.

For us, we’re not opposition; we are revolutionaries. Our problem is not to have a better constitution, but our problem is to get to the demands of what we’ve been demanding for two years now: topple the regime, get a better life, have a life that we think we deserve and that we’ve been fighting for for at least—at least two years. So, they have very different demands than ours. What they want is a liberal representation in the constitution and decision making and to be heard. For us, what we want is a different Egypt, a different future.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: While the National Salvation Front did not meet with Morsi, a number of less prominent figures did engage in the dialogue. And by late Saturday night, the group announced the president had canceled the November 22nd decree, including the powers that placed him beyond the judiciary. The referendum, however, would proceed as scheduled on December 15th.

KHALED FAHMY: Effectively, we’re given a week, from now ’til next Sunday, when we vote. A week is not enough to debate these things. We did not have time last week to do this. We were busy killing each other on the streets. So, how can a responsible president think that by giving this text to the people to vote on it in a matter of a week, he will end up increasing his legitimacy? Or—I mean, he might, but the problem is that this increased legitimacy will be at the expense of the very stability of society.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Many expect the referendum to pass, given the Brotherhood’s proven electoral prowess. The Brotherhood insists a vote on December 15th is fair.

GEHAD EL-HADDAD: It’s not our fault that the opposition’s arguments are too weak to attract the voters. We can’t be the ones responsible for paying the price for their failure to be representative to their own demographics. At the end of the day, we had an argument, they had an argument, we were voted in. The yea vote has a road map; the no vote has a road map. At the end of the day, some will find reasons to say yes; many of us will find reasons to say no. Whatever the outcome, we will go through the process. And we don’t mind it, as long as it’s the will of the people.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: With mass protests by both supporters and opponents of the president, the situation in Egypt remains highly volatile. The military began to deploy troops this week across the country to secure polling stations for Saturday’s referendum. The deployment comes after Morsi gave the military the authority to arrest civilians until the result of the referendum is declared. The military has a stake in the outcome of the vote.

AHMAD SHOKR: Well, again, it’s clear in the constitution that the army’s core prerogatives will be protected. They’re getting a very good deal with this constitution. Their budget will remain secret. They will have a strong say in national security decisions. The defense ministry will remain under the control of officers, not civilians. They have the right to continue trying civilians before military trials. And so, the army has essentially preserved all of their key interests and have managed in this new constitution to carve out enough autonomy to preside over its interests without any democratic oversight.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Regardless of the outcome of the referendum, protesters say they will struggle against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood in power.

LOBNA DARWISH: When the protests against Mubarak started, there was this term that the fear barrier was broken or crossed. And again, the fear barrier was crossed with the Muslim Brotherhood. For years and years and years, we’ve been like terrified with what the Muslim Brotherhood can do to Egypt, and here they are. They’re in power. They’re unable to do anything, except what exactly Mubarak has been doing for years and years. And even on the ground, we’re seeing their numbers like decreasing. We’re seeing their support decreasing. We’re seeing people who are like everyday people, not people who you usually—I mean, usually expect to see them against the Muslim Brotherhood, saying that, like, "This is enough. We’re not going to take this. These people want to steal this country from us. We’re not going to let them do it." And I think, for the 80-something years that the Muslim Brotherhood has been like operating, this is, I think, the lowest popular support moment.

KHALED FAHMY: Because the Muslim Brotherhood is resorting to violence and is saying, "We are much more than you are. We will crush you, if not by the police or the army or the presidential guards, then by our own thugs." This is what the leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood had explicitly said. But the determination and the principled opposition—with their bodies, nothing else—is, again, what gives me confidence that the revolutionary spirit in this country is very much alive and kicking.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: For Democracy Now!, I’m Sharif Abdel Kouddous, with Hany Massoud, in Cairo, Egypt.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Sat Jan 05, 2013 5:50 pm


http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/02/ ... hree/print

January 02, 2013

Military Lets Muslim Brotherhood Take the Heat
Understanding Egypt in Year Three


by CARL FINAMORE



The Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), gets most of the attention these days when discussing Egypt. Criticism flows easily and the FJP’s reputation has definitely been sullied and bloodied because of their numerous sectarian and undemocratic policies.

But, what appears most remarkable is that the military establishment has been relatively unscathed in the polarized battles that have erupted the last several months. In fact, this is not accidental. It is the result of very clever political maneuvering by the country’s military leaders.

It is certainly true that FJP leader, President Mohamed Morsi, made himself an easy target by recklessly misusing his extensive constitutional authority to appoint cronies and to issue unilateral decrees.

Just in the last few months, he stacked the Constituent Assembly with an unrepresentative majority that wrote a very controversial new constitution lacking internationally recognized rights for women and for workers. It was ultimately passed in December but, notably, with only one third of eligible voters showing up at the polls.

Then, Morsi shocked the nation by issuing a decree disallowing any court oversight of his decisions, an embarrassingly blatant power grab that was formally reversed only after huge public demonstrations.

But the president did not stop there. On the heels of his “hotly contested decree granting the Egyptian president unlimited authority,” as Erin Radford reported in the Dec. 11, 2011 Cairo Review, Morsi’s amendments to the nation’s 1976 trade union law “signals potential suppression of the right to freely form unions.” Radford is Middle East and North Africa program officer at the AFL-CIO supported Solidarity Center in Washington DC.

Fatma Ramadan, an executive board member of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), also was quoted in Radford’s article warning that “Morsi is clearly preparing a systematic crackdown against Egypt’s union movement, against the right to strike, against the right to organize and against union plurality.”

Igniting further opposition in late December, the president padded his FJP majority in the 270-member upper chamber of parliament by appointing an additional 90 delegates.

These are, indeed, grievously divisive and offensive policies arousing critical attention against the FJP government but it is, nonetheless, still noteworthy that the military is largely given a free pass. How can this happen?

Since the historic 1952 military officers’ coup overthrowing the constitutional monarchy and ending British occupation, the Egyptian military has very craftily preferred a backstage role, mostly leaving overt repression to the notorious Ministry of Interior and mostly leaving government to nominal civilian rule.

As you might suspect, this is neither altruism nor enlightenment by the corrupt coterie of generals who propped up Mubarak’s decaying regime for 29 years. On the contrary, away from the spotlight, the generals are better able to stealthfully conduct the very lucrative business of accumulating personal wealth and private property.

Credible diplomats, leading academics and scholarly economists generally agree the military controls 15 to 35 percent of the economy. The wide variance in estimates is itself testimony to the secretive nature of these military dealings and it has gotten even worse under the FJP government.

The military has never had civilian oversight and the new constitution written largely under Muslim Brotherhood influence has even further “immunized it against accountability” writes Cairo University professor Dina El Khawaga in the Dec. 27, 2012 Egypt Independent.

In fact, even with a new post-Mubarak constitution, it is still a mystery how large the military budget actually is, how much property the military owns and how billions of U.S. aid dollars are spent. This data is considered a state secret. Neither the government nor the new constitution challenges any of these privileges of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

Nonetheless, it should be obvious that unless the militarization of the economy is eliminated and unless the curtain of secrecy surrounding the armed forces is lifted, there will be no significant social or economic change in Egypt.

Marriage of Convenience

Despite their historical reluctance, the military command was forced to the forefront on February 11, 2011. The startling fact is that the military was the lone surviving institution left intact after Mubarak’s forced resignation.

In the days immediately following the regime’s collapse, the parliament was dissolved, the constitution suspended, the cabinet dismissed, the ruling National Democratic Party outlawed and the secret police formally disbanded (in name only).

In addition, Mubarak himself was arrested along with several of his cronies, including his two sons. Meanwhile, the ban on exiles was lifted and political prisoners were freed. This was an incredibly huge victory for the 18-day massive wave of protests and labor strikes.

It was also a series of very astute moves by a system under siege. Without question, in their new starring role, the military proved to be even more sophisticated and polished than their deposed benefactor, the distant and detached Mubarak.

As such, the generals clearly understood it was best to shield themselves from social criticism by returning backstage as soon as possible.

Thus, the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (SCAF) cautiously and reluctantly selected the Muslim Brotherhood to share leadership, primarily because of their considerable prestige and authority among millions of people.

This influence was earned. The Muslim Brotherhood had been outlawed for most of its existence, its leaders banned, imprisoned and often tortured. Yet, the organization founded in the 1920s, continued its extensive charity work and religious instruction even under repression, gaining profound respect from millions in the impoverished communities they served.

As a result, it was alone among opposition forces to successfully build a substantial organization during the difficult years of dictatorship. To this day, it remains the best organized social organization in the country with its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, reaping the benefits through its ascension to government positions of power and influence.

It is extremely important to understand that the Brotherhood is a genuine mass organization based on millions of poor Egyptian masses. Because of its mass roots and because it has also embraced conservative International Monetary Fund economic policies of privatization, reductions in subsidies to the poor and opposition to strikes and independent unions, it has become a powerful ally of the ruling powers in Egypt.

But, at the same time, those same mass roots and social composition of the Muslim Brotherhood make it vulnerable to enormous pressures from below and, therefore, despite their policy agreements with the ruling sectors in Egypt, they are not considered permanent nor reliable bourgeois allies.

Thus, the Muslim Brotherhood was not originally the military leaders preferred choice as an ally, it was more like their best choice – for the moment.

Muslim Brotherhood Role

Arab nationalistic and anti-imperialist policies of the charismatic Gamal Nasser were eroded and eventually ended after his death in 1970 by his successor, president Anwar Sadat, who notoriously announced, “I am a Muslim president of a Muslim state.”

His U.S.-backed policies completely altered the political shape of Egyptian politics away from the nation’s powerful and unifying Arab identification into the dark abyss of religious conflict and division. Thus, religious pretexts were used to drum up support for conservative economic policies that began selling off nationalized state properties to regime favorites.

At the same time, the government orchestrated attacks on workers and academic oppositionists who were hounded and persecuted as Marxist atheists and secular opponents of Islam. Muslim Brotherhood members often joined in these physical attacks.

The military continues this devilish paradigm with the Brotherhood who traditionally and enthusiastically whip up religious fervor in support of their policies. Thus, the unity of the oppressed majority is prevented and the clarity of social and economic class issues concealed by obscurant religious references.

This explains why the Muslim Brotherhood is no real threat to the property elite in Egypt and why they are currently such a useful ally for the military command.

Making them even more useful, they have absolutely no affinity for the independent unions, for the right to strike or for increases in the standard of living. The Brotherhood fully embraces the austere economic policies of the past, so much so that Kamal Abu Eita, president of the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (EFITU), noted in the October 15, 2012 Egyptian Independent that “Nowadays we have more unionists who have been sacked, subjected to trials and unemployment than under the Mubarak regime.”

While the mass movement of youth has been severely attacked and attempts to build independent labor organizations undermined in the last two years, the spirit of the January 25 Freedom and Justice movement has not been defeated, not by a long shot.

Is a Bitter Divorce in the Offing?

Thus, strikes and protests are sure to continue and at some point, the FJP government may become too unstable and too much of a liability for the property owners and generals. If this happens, numerous examples in modern world history record a likely nefarious outcome.

The FJP-government could be displaced by a military-backed civilian savior with far more entrenched and reliable bourgeois connections who will offer stability to millions exhausted by continuous struggle against a government that conceals its alliance with the rich and powerful and camouflages its wretched social and economic policies with discordant religious appeals.

In the meantime, most of the opposition fire is aimed at the Muslim Brotherhood and that suits the military and the monied rulers of Egypt just fine.


Carl Finamore is Machinist Lodge 1781 union delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO and hopes to return to Egypt for the second anniversary celebrations of the revolution on January 25, 2013. He can be reached at local1781@yahoo.com

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Jan 29, 2013 9:49 pm


http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/28/ ... ests/print

January 28, 2013

"How Can We Trust the Government?"
Egypt Aflame Over Protests


by CARL FINAMORE


Cairo.

Late this evening, President Mohammad Morsi declared Emergency Law in three provinces around the Suez Canal that are ablaze in protests. He frankly conceded the government was losing control.

The strategic area around the Suez Canal earns the country five billion dollars a year according the Egyptian Maritime Bank. So, this was an incredibly embarrassing admission.

Nonetheless, there is absolutely no doubt that both the military and the Muslim Brotherhood government were caught completely off guard by angry, increasingly intense protests, immediately following what were already massive anti-government actions in Tahrir Square and elsewhere on January 25, the second anniversary of the 18-day revolution that ended the 29-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Elections of a new Parliament, a new president and the writing of a new constitution were supposed to appease the population.

Quite the opposite. The undemocratic nature of all the political initiatives of the military and Muslim Brotherhood have inflamed the population. And, this anger is inflamed further by the absolute lack of progress solving the economic problems of the vast majority.

“Nothing has changed for me, in fact, it has gotten worse,” is a common refrain in news reports and from ordinary people on the street.

All of these factors came together in the last twelve months in dramatic events that played out in Port Said, a city of 600,000 north of the Suez Canal that is currently the main target of the Emergency Decree curfew.

Here is how it happened.

Last year, at the Jan. 25, 2012 first anniversary massive assembly in Tahrir, I observed palpable tension between the Muslim Brotherhood’s stance of ending protests and oppositionists defiantly proclaiming that “the revolution is not finished.”

There was some minor shoving and pushing here and there but no serious breech flared out into the open. It was probably accurate to say that even after one year had gone by, the majority of Egyptians were still willing to give the military and the Muslim Brotherhood alliance a chance to put things back together again in the uncertain post-Mubarak era.

However, that all quickly changed a few days later on Feb. 1, 2012.

A deadly massacre occurred in Port Said’s soccer stadium leaving 74 people shot and trampled to death. It was commonly believed to be orchestrated by the military government and police in collusion with Mubarak leftovers still in power.

Why? Because soccer games are televised live for all to see.

As witnesses told me, “we could see on the TV, police standing by doing nothing as thugs, [purportedly fans of the Port Said soccer team] began physically assaulting unarmed Cairo soccer fans.”

Later investigations revealed that the expansive huge concrete exit doors were shut, perhaps with chains, leaving many of the victims to be crushed against thousands desperately trying to escape the onslaught. There was so much compressive force that the concrete doors buckled.

For millions of Egyptians, the Feb. 1, 2012 murderous attack on Cairo soccer fans, Ultras, was obviously orchestrated as revenge against this same club that so courageously beat back the notorious police-inspired “Camel assault on Tahrir” on the exact same date of February 1, one year earlier in 2011.

No coincidence. People were outraged, with growing suspicions about the nature of the military and their post-revolutionary government.

This is why Egyptians anxiously awaited the verdict. On January 26, the judge ultimately handed down death sentences for the first 21 cases of Port Said defendants.

I saw Ultras in Tahrir celebrating the verdict for around two hours with their trademark clapping in unison and congregating together in tightly disciplined formations. But then it stopped and it did not grow as huge as had been expected

Soon, Ultras began forming again in Tahrir. But, this time by joining with their comrades in Port Said to denounce the verdict as a cover up. Why were only a handful of police indicted? What about higher authorities without whom such a plan could not possibly have been so coordinated?

In fact, the defendants sentenced to death are now being described as “scapegoats” as the blame has shifted to the military and to the government.

Therefore, a unified message is being presented exposing extensive government secrecy, dishonesty and collusion with thugs rather than debating the merits of each individual defendant’s case.

“How can we trust the justice of this government when they have not convicted one single Ministry of Interior thug who killed us two years ago?” a Tahrir protestor defiantly asserted to me.

Thus, an attempt to divide protestors has failed. Cairo and Port Said soccer fans who normally fight each other in sports are now reaching out to each other in politics.

The common enemy is the lies and hypocrisy of the power structure “that all must be changed,” as a relatively conservative former army officer who is now a businessman told me immediately after Morsi’s Emergency Degree. “I was one of those who wanted stability and the end of protests” he said in response to my question. “Not now. All the old power must go. We cannot trust them to be fair with us or to let us make our lives better. The protestors are doing right.”

The first days of Tahrir in January 2011 began as protests against police brutality and corruption but they soon grew, under pressure of the police attacks and government intransigence, into demanding the ouster of Mubarak.

Two years later, this powerful but still somewhat disjointed movement would seem to benefit once again by escalating their demands through linking their democratic and social justice objectives with unified calls for economic justice.

The World Bank reports that 40 percent still live on two dollars a day and things have only gotten worse. The Muslim Brotherhood government’s plan to solve the problem is for observing Islamic duties of charity. They have placed donation boxes in the stores of their business supporters.

In other words, a frivolous delegation of government responsibility.

Coming on top of the dramatic encroachments on democratic liberties by the Muslim Brotherhood government, their utter failure to properly address the abject living, housing and working conditions of the majority is cause for taking the revolution one step further.

It was reported to me that one important Egyptian observer has already called “for the next stage being a revolution for bread.”

Crucial challenges lay ahead in the next days and weeks for the brave and courageous Egyptian people. Their demands have not been satisfied nor their spirit diminished


Carl Finamore is Machinist Local 1781 delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO. This is his third visit to Egypt. He can be reached at local1781@yahoo.com

Thanks to my good friend Mark Harris for his late night collaboration from Portland.




CHECK OUT THIS PHOTO ALBUM
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/01/28/ ... last/print

Image




http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/world ... nted=print

January 29, 2013

Chief of Egypt’s Army Warns of ‘Collapse’ as Chaos Mounts

By KAREEM FAHIM, DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and MAYY EL SHEIKH

CAIRO — Egypt’s top military officer warned Tuesday of the potential “collapse of the state” if political forces in the country did not reconcile, reflecting growing impatience with the country’s growing unrest.

In a speech to military cadets that was distributed as a statement, Gen. Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, the defense minister, publicly warned Egypt’s new Islamist leaders and their opponents that “their disagreement on running the affairs of the country may lead to the collapse of the state and threatens the future of the coming generations." As such, General Sisi suggested, the polarization of the civilian politics was becoming a concern of the military because “to affect the stability of the state institutions is a dangerous matter that harms Egyptian national security."

His remarks came as violence in Cairo began to escalate. During clashes between riot police and protesters along the Nile Corniche early on Tuesday, the fighting spilled into one of the city’s luxury hotels, leaving the lobby in ruins.

The worst of the turmoil, which has left at least 45 people dead, has been in Port Said at the northern tip of the Suez Canal. Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, has imposed a monthlong state of emergency in the city and two others in the Suez Canal zone, calling on the army to regain control of security.

General Sisi also said the army would protect the “vital” Suez Canal.

The state of emergency imposed by Mr. Morsi virtually eliminates due process protections against abuse by the police.

Angry crowds burned tires and hurled rocks at the police. And the police, with little training and less credibility, hunkered down behind barrages of tear gas, birdshot and occasional bullets.

The sense that the state was unraveling may have been strongest in Port Said, where demonstrators have proclaimed their city an independent nation. But in recent days, the unrest has risen in towns across the country. In the capital on Monday, a mob of protesters managed to steal an armored police vehicle, drive it to Tahrir Square and make it a bonfire.

After two years of torturous transition, Egyptians have watched with growing anxiety as the erosion of the public trust in the government and a persistent security vacuum have fostered a new temptation to resort to violence to resolve disputes, said Michael Hanna, a researcher at the Century Foundation, based in New York, who is now in Cairo. “There is a clear political crisis that has eroded the moral authority of the state,” he said.

And the spectacular evaporation of the government’s authority here in Port Said has put that crisis on vivid display, most conspicuously in the rejection of Mr. Morsi’s declarations of the curfew and state of emergency.

As in Suez and Ismailia, tens of thousands of residents of Port Said poured into the streets on Sunday in defiance just as a 9 p.m. curfew was set to begin. Bursts of gunfire echoed through the city for the next hours, and from 9 to 11 p.m. hospital officials raised the death count to seven from two.

When two armored personnel carriers approached a funeral Monday morning for some of the slain protesters, a stone-throwing mob of thousands quickly chased them away. And within a few hours, the demonstrators had resumed their siege of a nearby police station, burning tires to create a smoke screen to hide behind amid tear gas and gunfire.

Many in the city said they saw no alternative but to continue to stay in the streets. They complained that the hated security police remained unchanged and unaccountable even after President Hosni Mubarak was ousted two years ago. Protesters saw no recourse in the justice system, which is also unchanged; they dismissed the courts as politicized, especially after the acquittals of all those accused of killing protesters during the revolution. Then came the death sentences handed down Saturday to 21 Port Said soccer fans for their role in a deadly brawl. The death sentences set off the current unrest in this city.

Nor, the people said, did they trust the political process that brought to power Mr. Morsi and his Islamist allies in the Muslim Brotherhood. He had vowed to usher in the rule of law as “a president for all Egyptians.” But in November, he used a presidential decree to temporarily stifle potential legal objections so that his Islamist allies could rush out a new Constitution. His authoritarian move kicked off a sharp uptick in street violence leading to this weekend’s Port Said clashes.

“Injustice beyond imagination,” one man outside the morning funeral said of Mr. Morsi’s emergency decree, before he was drowned out by a crowd of others echoing the sentiment.

“He declared a curfew, and we declare civil disobedience,” another man said.

“This doesn’t apply to Port Said because we don’t recognize him as our president,” said a third. “He is the president of the Muslim Brotherhood only.”

Officials of the Muslim Brotherhood and its party could not be reached. The group had recently moved offices because of security threats, and at the new office, neighbors said Brotherhood officials had not appeared since the start of the unrest.

As tens of thousands marched to the cemetery, many echoed the arguments of human rights advocates that the one-month imposition of the emergency law and reliance on the military would only aggravate the problem. The emergency law rolled back legal procedures meant to protect individuals from excessive violence by the police, while the reliance on soldiers to keep the peace further reduced individual rights by sending any civilians arrested to military trials.

“It is stupid — he is repressing people for one more month!” one man argued to a friend. “It will explode in his face. He should let people cool down.”

The police remained besieged in their burned-out stations, glimpsed only occasionally crouching with their automatic rifles behind the low roof ledges.

When one showed his head over a police building as the funeral march passed, voices in the crowd shouted that his appearance was a “provocation” and people began hurling rocks. Others riding a pickup in the procession had stockpiled homemade bombs for later use.

In a departure from most previous clashes around the Egyptian revolution, in Port Said the police also faced armed assailants. Two were seen with handguns on Monday around a siege of a police station, in addition to the man with the Kalashnikov.

Earlier, a man accosted an Egyptian journalist working for The New York Times. “If I see you taking pictures of protesters with weapons, I will kill you,” he warned.

Defending their stations, the police fought back, and in Cairo they battled their own commander, the interior minister.

Brotherhood leaders say Mr. Morsi has been afraid to name an outsider as minister for fear of a police revolt, putting off any meaningful reform of the Mubarak security services. But when Mr. Morsi recently tapped a veteran ministry official, Mohamed Ibrahim, for the job, many in the security services complained that even the appointment of one insider to replace another was undue interference.

In a measure of the low level of the new government’s top-down control over the security forces, officers even cursed and chased away their new interior minister when he tried to attend a funeral on Friday for two members of the security forces killed in the recent clashes.

“What do you mean we won’t be armed? We would be disarmed to die,” one shouted, on a video recording of the event.

In an effort to placate the rank and file, Mr. Ibrahim issued a statement to police personnel sympathizing with the pressure the protests put on them. Later, he promised them sophisticated weapons.

“That can only be a recipe for future bloodshed,” said Hossam Bahgat, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, which monitors police abuses.

By turning to the military, Mr. Morsi signaled that he understood he could not rely on the police to pacify the streets, Mr. Bahgat argued.

But it was far from clear that Mr. Morsi was fully in command of the military either. The new Islamist-backed Constitution grants the general broad autonomy within the Egyptian government in an apparent quid pro quo for turning over full power to Mr. Morsi in August. Mr. Morsi’s formal request for the military to restore order was “not so much an instruction as a plea for support,” Mr. Bahgat said.

It remains to be seen whether the military retains the credibility to quell the protests. The soldiers stationed in Port Said did nothing to intervene as clashes raged on in the streets hours after curfew Monday night.

Analysts close to the military say its officers are extremely reluctant to engage in the kind of harsh crackdown that would damage its reputation with Egyptians, preferring to rely on its presence alone.

Near the front lines of the clashes, residents debated whether they would welcome a military takeover. “The military that was sent to Port Said is the Muslim Brotherhood’s military,” said one man, dismissing its independence from Mr. Morsi.

But others said they still had faith in the institution, if not in its top generals. “In the military, the soldiers are our brothers,” said Khaled Samir Abdullah, 25. Pointing to the police, he said, “those ones are merciless.”


David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh reported from Port Said, Egypt.

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:38 pm


http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/30/i ... e_brink_of

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We begin today’s show in Egypt, where mass protests have continued since they began last Friday on the anniversary of Egypt’s revolution. Now Egypt’s defense minister is warning of the potential, quote, "collapse of the state." General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi posted the comment on a Facebook page after military forces were deployed in three cites along the Suez Canal, where a month-long state of emergency has been declared. In recent nights, thousands have filled the streets of Port Said along the northern tip of the canal in defiance of a night-time curfew imposed by President Mohamed Morsi.

SUEZ RESIDENT: [translated] I’m against these decisions. It will destroy people’s incomes. Why does he implement these measures here in Suez? Why doesn’t he take the same measures in Cairo and Alexandria? Is he angry at the residents of Suez, Ismailia and Port Said? Of course this is a disaster. It will devastate Suez. We are against his decisions. And if he runs again as a candidate, we will not elect him again, and we will ignore him.

AMY GOODMAN: Meanwhile, clashes have also erupted in Cairo, including an attack on an upscale hotel that drew response from the Egyptian special forces. More than 50 people have died in the country’s protests. Some of the violence was sparked by death sentences handed down Saturday for 21 soccer fans involved in riots that left 74 people dead last February. Protesters have also accused President Morsi of betraying the two-year-old revolution. All of this comes as the value of the Egyptian currency has plummeted to record lows, causing a spike in the prices of basic goods like sugar, rice and cooking oil.

Well, for more, we go to Port Said, where people continue to protest in defiance of a state of emergency. And we’re joined by Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who is in Port Said.

Sharif, tell us what’s happening, and place Port Said in Egypt for us.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Hi, Amy. It’s good to be with you.

Port Said is a city that is on the Suez Canal and on the Mediterranean. It’s at the mouth of the Suez Canal that attaches to the Mediterranean. And it’s a city that has had a long history of resistance. When Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in the ’50s and Egypt came under attack by France, Britain and Israel, Port Said was a central target. And the attack and the resistance against it here is a source of local national pride in the collective memory of residents here. And it is that—that culture of resistance that has exploded on the streets here.


[Right, and if you want to watch an excellent hour's history of that, go to the download links for "The Other Side of Suez" at http://www.thedossier.info/video_cover-ups.htm.]

What happened really on Saturday was a massacre of over 30 people who were outraged by a death sentence of 21 of their local football team fans, soccer team fans, for a case that’s been going on for more than a year now. There were many of the families of those who—of the defendants around the jail. And once the shocking verdict came out, 21 death sentences handed down, you could hear the wails and screams of people in the streets. They approached the prison, and the police opened fire. And just that first day, 30 people were killed, including two police officers. That death toll—the next day, they went out in a funeral the following day, on Sunday; seven more people were killed when that funeral came under attack from police on rooftops. Nearly all of these people were killed with live ammunition. The death toll now is somewhere at 40. And this is a part—just a part of what’s happening in Egypt overall.

As you mentioned, there is a revolt. Egypt is undergoing a revolt right now that began on the second anniversary of its revolution, that has—we’ve seen protests and clashes in the capital, in Cairo, that are still going on, in Alexandra, in Mahalla and cities across the Delta. Something like 10 provinces are in revolt right now. And the president, Mohamed Morsi, in a bid to quell what was going on, finally made a speech. But in that speech, a very—with a very angry tone, a finger-wagging speech, he imposed a state of emergency for 30 days in these three cities that lie along the Suez Canal, which are the most restive cities right now. As opposed to Cairo kind of leading this revolt, it’s actually really in Suez, Ismailia and Port Said where you’re seeing kind of the most resistance. And he also imposed nighttime curfew and fines of that curfew. The curfew is supposed to be from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Thousands of people in all three of these cities began marches at 8:45 p.m. to tell Morsi that they won’t abide by this curfew, that they won’t abide by his governance. And so, he is facing a very serious crisis of legitimacy right now. The police have lost control of these cities. The army has been deployed, but largely is guarding state institutions that have to do with the Suez Canal. So, it’s a very significant and pivotal moment in Egypt.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Sharif, can you explain what the implications are of the declaration of the state of emergency? And since, as you point out, thousands have defied the order, what kinds of consequences are they likely to face? What does a state of emergency entail?

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, the state of the emergency was one of the most despised tools of the Mubarak regime to suppress dissent, and it was a feature in Egypt for 30 years, from October 6, 1981, until March 12th, 2012, when it expired. Its lifting of the state of emergency was a principal demand of the revolution. And what it does is that it essentially lifts from judicial—you’re allowed to imprison people without judicial review, and it gives the police widespread powers. And there’s also been a law passed which allows the military to arrest citizens, gives them policing powers, and it would mean that those citizens would be put before military trials. So, this is a very—just the fact that Morsi, who before pledged never to have another state of emergency, the word "state of emergency," which is such a despised tool of the Mubarak regime, is now being instilled again, I think resonated very harshly with many people.

To be honest, you know, the fact on the ground is, there has been little reform whatsoever, actually no reform of the police forces since the revolution over these two years. This is, you know, a force that has—that sees citizens as enemies and that—and by some accounts, has engaged in more killing and more torture than before the revolution, because now citizens, when they are facing abuse, no longer are quiet about it and take to the streets in protest. And so there’s a growing battle with this internal militia of repression that is this police force, that has not been resolved in any way whatsoever. There has been no accountability whatsoever for the over a thousand people who have been killed since the revolution. And so, this is—this is an inevitable outgrowth, this kind of revolt on the streets. And Morsi is trying to do what Mubarak did for so many years: trying to use the police on the streets to solve his political problems. And right now, you know, Egypt is ungovernable, by Morsi or perhaps by, you know, anyone else. There’s a serious crisis of legitimacy of the government.

AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, do you agree with Egypt’s top military officer, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is saying that Egypt could potentially collapse? He’s warning of collapse of the state.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: I mean, it’s hard to tell. You know, we’ve seen throughout these two years uprisings that come and go, these clashes that happen on the streets. And there’s really no real solution or political solution. The entire political class has failed to come together to forge a path with consensus to have some real change and some real reform in Egypt. And so, if we carry on on this path of just [inaudible] over problems, then the [inaudible] you know, there is this serious threat that cities like Port Said no longer recognize the legitimacy of the government, cities like Suez and cities like Cairo and Alexandria and elsewhere, that people do not—they feel completely disenfranchised by the political process.

And I’m not only talking about Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, but also Mohamed ElBaradei and Amr Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi, the three main figures which make up the National Salvation Front, which is a loose alliance of non-Islamist opporition groups. They have performed very poorly, have really acted in a way that is crass and seems politically opportunistic, especially since this last crisis broke out. So, you know, the natural response is for people to vent their rage on the streets, this ongoing feud with the police. So, you know, we’ll—

AMY GOODMAN: Sharif, we’re going to leave it there, because your voice is breaking up a bit, though we’re really thrilled we were able to speak to you outside of Cairo, speaking to you in the northern coastal city of Port Said, where a great deal of the protest is taking place. Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous, speaking to us from Port Said. We will link your article at TheNation.com.

This is Democracy Now! When we come back, the only person to go to jail around the torture program. He was the whistleblower on torture. Stay with us.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Feb 12, 2013 9:32 pm

Interesting census of the different political groupings in Egypt currently, followed by a defense of Morsi from the more extreme criticisms, especially those coming from institutions of the ancien regime...



http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/08/ ... -fog/print

Weekend Edition February 8-10, 2013

Two Years After a Popular Revolution
Egypt’s Political Map: Clearing the Fog


by ESAM AL-AMIN


If parties from across all of Egypt’s political spectrum agree on one thing, it’s this: the country is currently witnessing the greatest turmoil since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster and is facing massive upheaval with no end in sight. The unity and resolve displayed by millions of Egyptians two years ago when they decisively deposed the authoritarian and corrupt Mubarak regime is long gone. Throughout these tumultuous two years, there emerged two major fault lines across the country’s political class: one that resulted from the revolution, namely the revolutionary vs. the counter-revolutionary groups; and one along ideological grounds, namely the Islamic vs. the secular parties.

All agree that the revolution was launched spontaneously by non-ideological youth groups, who paid the heaviest price and made the biggest sacrifices during the early days of the revolution. Such groups proclaim the mantle of the revolution and maintain that it has been hijacked by better-organized and established groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and the Salafis.

The MB, however, asserts that although it did not publicly join the initial protests on January 25, 2011, it immediately joined forces within three days and protected the revolution as the group mobilized its massive membership and supporters across the country, especially during the battle of the camel on February 1, ultimately forcing the surrender of the regime ten days later.

The more conservative Salafi groups, while acknowledging that they were slow in joining the ranks of the revolution, argue that they embraced its objectives and the democratic process unleashed in its aftermath and thus legitimately represent the interests and aspirations of a substantial segment of Egyptian society.

On the other hand, the secular and liberal groups, including the Coptic Church, which are quite wary of the religious groups and are very adamant about limiting the role of Islam in political life, have been very frustrated in seeing decisive electoral victories by the more popular Islamic groups. Since the fall of Mubarak, Egyptians have been to the polls in largely free and fair elections on eight different occasions. And each time the voters decisively favored the Islamist groups.

In March 2011, the electorate voted 77 percent for a political process advocated by the Islamists that called for elections before writing a new constitution. Furthermore, between November 2011 and January 2012 Egyptian voters went to the polls four times to choose the upper and lower chambers of parliament. Once again the Islamist parties won over 73 percent of the contested seats. By June 2012 Egyptians went to the polls yet again in two stages to choose a president, eventually electing in a tightly contested race, though narrowly, the MB candidate, Muhammad Morsi. In December 2012, the Egyptian electorate went to the polls an eighth time, approving by a 64 percent majority a new constitution endorsed mainly by the Islamist groups, while strongly opposed by the secularist, liberal, and leftist parties as well as by many revolutionary youth groups.

As the second anniversary of the remarkable and peaceful Egyptian revolution approached in late January 2013, new alliances and coalitions were formed largely as the mistrust had widened between those who support and oppose Morsi, the Islamists’ agenda, or the new constitution. Consequently, new battle lines were drawn in anticipation of the new parliamentary elections scheduled for this spring.

With over 100 registered or declared parties across the country, what is the political map of Egypt two years after the revolution?

1) The Islamist Parties: There are at least a dozen parties that proclaim to be Islamist in nature. They belong to three distinctive blocks. The first block constitutes the MB and its political affiliate, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). The eighty-five year old Brotherhood has established itself as the most organized political and social group in the country. Additionally, the FJP cemented its position as the majority party when its former head, Morsi, was elected as president last June and when it won 47 percent of the seats in the lower house of parliament before it was dissolved last June by the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC), as well as winning almost 60 percent of the seats in the upper chamber of parliament. Although hundreds of members resigned from the group in opposition to its manipulative tactics or dismissive attitudes, the group still has a strong and disciplined base between seven and eight hundred thousand members and several million supporters.

The second ideological block within the Islamist parties is the more conservative Salafist groups led by al-Noor Party, which came in second in last year’s parliamentary elections with 25 percent of the vote. But more recently the party was split into two because of differences over tactics, priorities, presidential endorsements, and clashing personalities. As a result, a new Salafist party, Al-Watan al-Hurr, or the Free Nation party, was formed and led by former Noor party head Emad Abdul Ghafoor. While the greatest support of the Noor party is centered around Alexandria and the Delta, the greatest Salafi support of the newly established Watan party is in Cairo and upper Egypt. Another Salafi stronghold is in Giza province where its head, Hisham Abul Nasr, has not made up his mind yet as to whom he would lend his support. Other smaller parties affiliated with the Salafi school of thought have yet to decide which block to join, while a Salafi group in the city of Al-Mansoura has formed its own party under the name of Al-Sha’ab or the People’s party. Meanwhile, former presidential candidate and popular Salafi preacher Hazem Salah Abu Ismail recently established his own Salafi-oriented party called the Umma (Nation) Party. Subsequently both Abu Ismail and Abdul Ghafoor announced that they would form a coalition in the upcoming parliamentary elections. In short, the politically nascent Egyptian Salafi movement has splintered and its supporters fear that their block vote that earned them a second place finish in the previous elections might be further fragmented and wasted.

The third ideological block within the Islamic current consists of the moderate and more independent parties. Many of these parties are led by former MB leaders who were disenchanted by the current leadership of the group. This block includes Al-Wasat (Center) Party and Al-Hadara (Civilization) Party led by former MB leaders Abolela Madi and Ibrahim al-Za’afarani, respectively. There are also other smaller political parties such as Building and Development, Asala (Authenticity), and Islah (Reform) parties. While these parties are considered to the right of Al-Wasat, the Strong Egypt Party, led by former MB leader and presidential candidate Abdelmoneim Abol Fotouh is considered left of center focusing on issues of social justice and liberal domestic spending. Currently most of these Islamist moderate parties are negotiating with each other to form an electoral bloc in order to compete in the next parliamentary elections.

While the FJP has ruled out forming a coalition partnership with the other Islamist parties, most experts believe that it might form a tactical alliance with Al-Watan to protect its right flank. A tactical alliance is where parties decline to field a candidate in a particular district; instead, they ask their supporters to vote for another candidate from a friendly block in order to not split the Islamist votes and to defeat vocal secular anti-MB or anti-Islamist candidates.

2) The Secular Parties: There are several dozen liberal, nationalist, Nasserist, and leftist parties that belong to this category. Some are old and prominent such as Al-Wafd Party that was established over 90 years ago, while others were just formed in the past year. Last November, thirteen of these parties formed the National Salvation Front (NSF) after Morsi issued his ill-fated constitutional declaration. The most prominent members of the NSF are former presidential candidates Mohammed Elbaradei (Constitution Party), Amr Moussa (Congress Party), Hamdein Sabahi (People’s Current), Ayman Nour (Ghad al-Thawrah or Revolution Tomorrow Party) and Elsayyed El-Badawi (Al-Wafd Party). Most Coptic Christian-affiliated groups such as the Free Egyptian Party also belong to this alliance. Combined, these groups barely won 20 percent of the vote in last year’s parliamentary elections, with Al-Wafd gaining almost half of the non-Islamist seats.

Principally what united these various groups was their hatred and contempt for the MB, which they claim angered them, in part, because of its arrogant attitude towards its former pre-revolution political partners turned rivals. More significantly, the failure of the secular parties to win democratically at the polls added to their frustration and hardened their position by taking to the streets and airwaves, raising questions about the legitimacy of the president and his government while using tactics that undermine the political process, democratic principles, and economic stability in the country.

3) The Revolutionary Youth Groups: Invariably every political party in Egypt acknowledges the indispensable role these groups played in initiating and sustaining the revolution not only in the early days of anti-Mubarak protests but also subsequently during the sixteen-month military rule. Genuine youth groups such as the April 6 Youth Movement and the Egyptian Current have been at the forefront of reminding the Egyptian political class about the objectives of the revolution, namely, decent living, freedom, social justice, and human dignity. Because of inexperience and a lack of resources, the energy and sacrifices of these groups did not translate into electoral gains. For the past two years, the political support of these groups was sought by all sides. During the presidential elections Morsi met with youth leaders such as Ahmad Maher (April 6 Movement), Wael Ghoneim (We are all Khaled Said), Taqadum Al-Khatib (National Society for Change), and Islam Lotfi (The Egyptian Current), affirming his support for the goals of the revolution, such as purging the government of former regime loyalists and bringing to justice those who killed the martyrs of the early days of the revolution. Today, most of these groups complain that Morsi has either neglected his promises to them or has been slow in fulfilling them. Many were angered by the November constitutional declaration and the speed by which the new constitutional referendum was passed. Although they declined to join the NSF because it included many personalities affiliated with the former regime, they have been a significant part of the opposition formed against Morsi and the MB rule.

4) Other Youth Groups: Because political life during the Mubarak era was meticulously manipulated and staged, many youth groups spent their energy in groups that supported popular soccer teams. In Egypt such support teams are called the Ultras. The Ultras of Al-Ahly of Cairo, the most popular team in Egypt, number in the millions. During the military rule in January 2012, seventy-two of their supporters were massacred in Port Said, a city along the Suez Canal, after a soccer game. Subsequently the Ultras have charged the security forces of condoning the massacre if not actually committing it and have staged many protests during the year demanding justice. Uncharacteristically for Egypt, several recently-founded youth groups have called for chaos and violence against the government. One of these new groups, whose members wear black clothes and masks and modeled after a character in the film “V for Vendetta,” has been called the ‘Black Bloc.’ For the past several weeks this mysterious group staged several violent acts and robberies while claiming they were committed in support of the revolution. Another group that called for resisting the government by spreading chaos and fear, and torching public properties call itself the Anarchists, claiming to model itself after similar Western style groups. So far it has not been clear who directs or finances such groups even though the secular parties have largely either defended or condoned their behavior or put the blame on the government for instigating the violence that produced counter reaction from these self-styled vigilante groups.

5) The Fulool groups (or former regime elements): For almost a year after the revolution the individuals, businesspeople and groups affiliated with the former regime were nowhere to be found. In fact, many of their political and business leaders were either arrested and tried for corruption, or fled the country. But as the rivalry between the Islamist and secular groups intensified, these groups and many of the media-affiliated organizations they control became increasingly more active and visible especially since last spring when Mubarak’s former prime minister, Gen. Ahmad Shafiq (tacitly supported by the military leaders ruling the country at the time) became an official presidential candidate. As the crisis over Morsi’s declaration and the new constitution deepened by the end of 2012, many fulool elements openly joined the NSF and the opposition and filled the airwaves while viciously attacking Morsi, the MB, and the Islamists in general. Listening to the rhetoric of many of the proliferating private Egyptian media outlets, in less than two years, the former regime loyalists have suddenly become the fervent supporters of the revolution while the MB and their allies now represent the counter-revolution. What these groups bring to the political equation is deep pockets and massive resources, connections to the security apparatus and state bureaucracy, and a keen knowledge of the weak links of state power.

6) The Deep State, the Security Apparatus, the Judiciary, and State Bureaucracy: The concept of the deep state surfaced shortly after the success of the revolution in toppling Mubarak and his senior hirelings. This deep state that developed over decades of dictatorship and military rule is entrenched and intersects with economic and political interests of many oligarchs and the corrupt political or business classes. It was an open secret that this deep state and its massive bureaucracy was mobilized for Shafiq during the presidential elections that he lost by a mere two percent. Even seven months after becoming president and assuming power, Morsi hardly controls the levers of power in the country. Although he was able to outmaneuver and force the retirement of the top military echelon, it is clear that he only has nominal control over the military, the security forces, or the state intelligence services. Unfortunately, most of the officers of these vital institutions are functionaries of the old regime even while claiming loyalty to the new president. The MB leadership bitterly complains that even two years after the revolution these institutions still retain large autonomy and are difficult for ordinary citizens or affiliated groups to join or penetrate. In many instances during the past two months when MB headquarters and buildings were torched or ransacked, the group’s leaders protested that the security forces and the police stood by and did nothing to stop the carnage.

In every revolution or uprising against corrupt and dictatorial regimes people generally acknowledge the need to elect new political structures. But the judiciary is also not immune from decades of corruption and repression. In fact, a dictatorship could not have functioned effectively without the active participation or acquiescence of the judicial branch. Why would Egypt be the exception? Since the fall of Mubarak, Egypt’s judiciary has demonstrated this dilemma. While in certain instances judges have shown courage and independence, in far too many instances some judges, especially within the SCC, have only shown bias in favor of the former regime and its supporters, or prejudice against the new regime. Within months of its election, the SCC dissolved the lower chamber of parliament and was about to dissolve the Constituent Constitutional Assembly and the upper house of parliament before Morsi issued his constitutional declaration and sidelined the SCC.

In short, part of the political problem in Egypt has been that many of the state institutions are full of former regime loyalists or anti-revolution proponents holding state power thus preventing or frustrating the implementation of the objectives of the revolution. Unlike Iran for example, the Egyptian revolution hardly purged any state officials and thus real change has become very difficult to achieve.

7) Regional and International Powers: Undoubtedly, the success of the Arab Spring meant the collapse of an old political order and the establishment of a new one. Once fully instituted, the new order promised freedom, equality, social justice, and the embrace of democratic principles. But the spread of such notions in the region would certainly threaten other established orders, particularly the wealthy Arab monarchies such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain. For over a year, Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Zayed of the UAE and Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar Bin Sultan have been busy undermining the Egyptian revolution. Reliable sources within the Egyptian government claim that Saudi and UAE money has been flooding the country and corrupting its political system.

Israel is also understandably very nervous about the change in the political order in Egypt and across the Arab world. After all, a former Israeli minister of defense described Mubarak as “Israel’s strategic treasure.” In turn, Israel has been pressuring the U.S. and Europe to keep political and economic pressure on the new rulers of Egypt. What Israeli leaders want in the near term is quiet on their borders and to focus on ending Iran’s nuclear program while consolidating their control over the West Bank through vast settlement expansion. The U.S. on the other hand, has a more complex calculus that includes a secure and powerful Israel, regional stability, effective control and access to oil with reasonable prices, providing protection for its regional allies especially in the Gulf, and curtailing or containing regional powers such as Iran or jihadi groups such as al-Qaeda and its affiliates. The U.S. and its European allies continue to keep the pressure on Egypt until it agrees to assist the U.S. in achieving these strategic objectives.

Two-Year Anniversary: Celebrating or Mourning?

The clash between the Islamist and secular groups reached its peak when Morsi issued his constitutional declaration in late November. He stated that his intention was to protect the Constituent Assembly from being dissolved by the SCC and wanted to give it additional time to reach consensus. But the secular parties immediately seized on this injudicious act and began a public campaign to undermine his rule and the domination of the MB and their Islamist allies. For weeks they mobilized the streets and the media, first calling on Morsi to annul his decisions, then calling on him to cancel the constitutional referendum, and finally challenging the president’s legitimacy and calling for early presidential elections. Upon each presidential call for a national dialogue, the secular opposition would raise its demands and harden its positions in order to justify boycotting the national dialogue and further weakening the president. Throughout this unsettling period, the NSF leaders consistently used hyperbolic language that charged Morsi with being a worse dictator in his six-month presidency than Mubarak was during his three decade rule. It is not too far fetched to conclude that the real objective of the secular elites is not the fulfillment of the objectives of the revolution as they claim but the downfall of Morsi and the end of the Brotherhood’s political domination.

But these exaggerated claims against Morsi could easily be refuted through demonstration of two examples. First, when the lower house of parliament was dissolved, all legislative powers were held de facto by the president in addition to his executive powers. Although Morsi tried several times to give up such legislative powers, he was overturned by the courts as well as strongly opposed by his secular rivals. When he tried through his constitutional declaration to protect the upper house from being dissolved by the courts the opposition decried his action and labeled him a dictator. After the constitutional referendum passed with a two-thirds majority, thus handing down all legislative powers to the upper house until the next parliamentary elections, the opposition again objected citing the domination of the Islamists over the upper house. In short, if Morsi retains all legislative powers that he inherited from the military council he is labeled a dictator. And if he transfers these powers to either the lower or upper houses of parliament, which were elected in free and fair elections, he is still called a dictator by the opposition. Either way he could not win.

A second telling example concerns the fulfillment of one of the main demands of the revolution, namely, bringing to justice the perpetrators of the crimes against the martyrs of the revolution and returning the tens of billions stolen by officials and corrupt elements of the former regime. With the exception of Mubarak, the state prosecutor failed for over twenty months to convict a single official or return a single penny of the stolen money. As many judges insinuated, it was abundantly clear that much of the damning evidence had either been withheld by the prosecutors or concealed. So last November when Morsi forced the retirement of Mubarak’s state prosecutor and appointed in his place an independent judge known for his honesty and integrity, not only did all the corrupt elements protest this move but the secular opposition also vehemently objected and demanded the return of the corrupt former prosecutor.

During this period NSF leaders committed grave mistakes that fundamentally put to question their patriotism, further underscoring their opportunistic behavior. In their dispute with Morsi and the MB, they called for the intervention of the military, invited foreign interference, especially from Western countries, and provided cover for the use of violence by sanctioning the violent behavior of some youth groups against the police as well as public and private property.

Such violent incidents condoned by the opposition took place on the second anniversary of the revolution on January 25 and the following two days. NSF leaders called for either the resignation or overthrow of Morsi in the same manner that Mubarak was overthrown. Although the government welcomed all peaceful demonstrations, the protests quickly turned violent as some demonstrators tried to storm the presidential palace and the Interior Ministry resulting in the death of several victims. By the following day, a court in Port Said convicted 21 individuals charged with murdering the seventy two soccer fans a year earlier and sentenced them to death. Shortly after, protests erupted not only in Port Said but also in Suez and Ismailiya, the three cities along the Suez Canal. By January 27, fifty four individuals lost their lives in the ensuing violence including some police officers, prompting Morsi to declare emergency laws and a curfew for 30 days in the three cities to restore calm and end the violence. The opposition promptly condemned his actions and called the residents of these cities to defy his curfew orders and continue the protests.

Meanwhile, Morsi called all the major parties and major leaders of the opposition including Elbaradei, Moussa, Sabahi, and Elbadawi, for a national dialogue in a meeting on January 28 but the secular opposition refused to meet and escalated the confrontation by demanding that he rescind his curfew orders, take full responsibility for the violence, suspend the constitution, disband the MB, and call for early presidential elections, practically, demanding his complete surrender. By the following day, all leaders of the major Islamist parties as well as liberal Ayman Nour met with Morsi for five hours resulting in the appointment of five committees to further resolve the major political and economic problems facing the country.

But one of the reasons NSF leaders have hardened their positions is foreign interference, especially by Saudi Arabia and UAE. The latter is hosting Gen. Shafiq and openly calls for the end of MB rule. According to one informed source in Saudi Arabia, Prince Bandar’s plan is to topple Morsi through the spread of violence and chaos by the opposition. But if this scheme fails, his Plan B is to push for a tactical alliance between the NSF and the Salafist al-Noor Party, which receives much of its financial backing from clerics and private foundations in Saudi Arabia. Shortly after, the evidence was on display as the head of Noor Party met openly for several hours with the main leaders of the NSF, condemned Morsi’s government, called for a national unity government, and hinted at a future alliance after the upcoming elections.

Meanwhile, the average Egyptian is disgusted and confused by the political theater created in the streets that basically created economic havoc in all segments including the breakdown in security, the collapse of infrastructure, the fall of the Egyptian pound, the rise of unemployment, and the decline in tourism. In addition, the timidity and weakness of Morsi’s government as well as the MB’s lackluster performance allowed such unscrupulous maneuvers by the opposition. The people complain that they gave their support in anticipation of the so-called ‘Renaissance Project’ by the MB, which turned out to be mere rhetoric. Economic experts complain that the government’s response to Egypt’s endemic economic problems are no different from Mubarak’s capitalist and market-oriented policies that ignore most social justice and economic structural issues. People also complain that the president has not been open with his people or transparent about the deep problems facing Egypt. If there is a foreign conspiracy facing the country, they ask, why hasn’t the president exposed it? But informed individuals close to Morsi’s advisors discreetly say that the president has been warned by Saudi Arabia and the UAE and threatened with the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Egyptian expatriates if he shows any hostility towards their host nations. On the other hand, Morsi is responding by slowly building closer relationships with Iran and Turkey in response to the hostile policies of the Gulf countries. While the CIA is giving tactical assistance to Bandar’s plans in Egypt, U.S. policy has not been definitive in backing either side of the internal dispute but hedging its bets on both sides by keeping open the line of communication to both the government and the opposition.

The political class in Egypt is so polarized currently that it is difficult to see a light at the end of the tunnel. But the Egyptian people deserve to realize the fruits of their remarkable revolution. There must be a real national dialogue between all major parties regardless of ideology or political affiliation. The only conditions imposed should be: No to intervention by the military; No to the participation of the fulool; and No to foreign interference. Furthermore, the parliamentary elections must proceed on schedule this spring and all sides must pledge to respect its democratic outcome. The president must also be allowed to serve his full term, and the opposition must behave as a loyal opposition putting the national interests before party or personal interests. In return, the president must be seen as a symbol of national unity, and one who fulfills his promises. He must also speak openly and frankly with his people, explaining the obstacles facing the country.

In short, a magnanimous majority party and loyal opposition are essential requirements to restore the glory of the revolution, and the security, stability, democracy, and progress that all Egyptians aspired for when they rose up and cried in unison for a decent living, freedom, social justice, and human dignity.


Esam Al-Amin can be contacted at alamin1919@gmail.com. He is the author of the newly released book The Arab Awakening Unveiled: Understanding Transformations and Revolutions in the Middle East.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Tue Feb 12, 2013 10:27 pm

With a different perspective, Carl Finamore:



http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/02/05/ ... rent/print

February 05, 2013

Who Will Fill the Political Void?
Why Egypt’s Revolution is So Different


by CARL FINAMORE

Cairo.

Entering the third year of the revolt in Egypt, no amount of repression seems able to contain the swelling pressure exploding throughout the country the last several weeks. In fact, protests against the Muslim Brotherhood government of President Mohammed Morsi seem to be gaining support.

The truth is, the revolution in Egypt is deeper and more profound than any of the other valiant examples of the Arab Spring.

“We are not always coming together in protests,” 28-year old unemployed accountant, Saber, told me as he arrived for a demonstration in Tahrir Square last week. “Most workers have families which they must feed, so they go to work. Other youth, like myself, have nothing to lose. Our future is past.”

As Saber explains, political sympathy among the population cannot always be measured in the size of the recurring protests. But for sure, the rebellion remains alive.

When Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship fell on Feb. 11, 2011, the decayed state structures collapsed along with him. Social and political institutions running Mubarak’s regime were in complete shatters. His regime was exposed as a very thin layer of corrupt officials and family friends.

His political party was outlawed, his parliament dissolved, his cabinet disbanded, local municipal councils in disarray and his secret police dispersed. Significantly, Mubarak’s national labor federation, already thoroughly discredited, had its national leadership temporarily dismissed as well.

All these steps occurred under pressure of the mass revolt.

This sweeping disintegration was unique to Egypt and it had revolutionary consequences because the political and social void was filled by an energized people raising demands unrestrained by residual conservative institutions and parties.

The authentic voice of the Egyptian people was heard without filters and this form of direct action politics put unprecedented pressure on authorities to enact meaningful reforms.

The 500,000-strong army was the only Mubarak institution left standing. It was also quite unscathed because it had historically avoided conflicts with the population, leaving that abhorrent chore to the despised Ministry of Interior security force.

It was left to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), therefore, to fill the empty political space. There was no credible alternative representing the old order.

But, as it turned out, the prestige enjoyed by the army did not last out the year. Protests against military violence and arbitrary military trials grew increasingly larger until the Muslim Brotherhood government finally took over in 2012.

Now this government, after only six months in power, faces the same stiff resistance to its rule as did the military.

Direct Action Prevails over Parliamentary Debates

Yet, the struggle continues at a high level in Egypt because, as I argue, the unfiltered voice of the people is being heard through the organization of street protests.

By contrast, in Tunisia, a massive trade union confederation helped lead the revolt. It became a huge factor in initially stabilizing and giving credibility to the new post-revolutionary regime and Parliament. Currently, however, this government is undergoing severe criticism for failing to lead the country out of economic stagnation and for including many remnants from the regime of ousted dictator Ben Ali.

Nonetheless, despite its current problems, there was definitely a period of stabilization and broad acceptance of the initial transition in Tunisia that simply never emerged in Egypt.

In fact, the new Egyptian Parliamentary elections in 2011 were immediately met with controversial charges of Muslim Brotherhood manipulation. The reputation of the newly elected parliament was further eroded after legislators failed to enact even one meaningful reform.

Even an increase in the minimum wage was enacted in 2011 by a court, not by parliament. And there are credible charges that the government has since actually obstructed its implementation.

As a result, millions have no confidence in the governing institutions reconstructed since Mubarak.

Unsolved Economic Tasks of the Revolution

Democratic and justice concerns of Egyptians are compounded by growing concerns for the third demand of the Jan. 25, 2011 revolt – bread!

The economy has actually worsened since Mubarak fell. The Egyptian pound suffered seven percent inflation since December, tourism is down some 20 percent, petrol subsidies have been reduced and President Morsi very cautiously floated in December possible sales tax hikes, food and commodity subsidy reductions and cuts in the number of state employees as a result of International Monetary Fund loan stipulations.

Furthermore, according to Stanford University historian Prof. Joel Beinin, “the Muslim Brothers embrace the same neoliberal policies favored by the Mubarak regime and, if anything, envision an even more expansive program of privatization of public assets.”

When I cited World Bank statistics claiming 40 percent of Egyptians live on two dollars a day, Mohammed, a thirty-two old Cairo physical therapist with two children, immediately interrupted me to say that it is “below two dollars a day now! Doctors working in a hospital like me, we must work three jobs with four or five extra shifts and even then I have to postpone paying all my bills to the last minute.”

His friend, Mahmoud, is also a doctor and agreed. “It is worse now. The rich are still rich but the poor are more poor. And, when John Kerry came to Egypt, he met with Morsi and other top leaders. He did not meet with poor people like us. The U.S. likes to support those in charge.”

Asked if people are getting tired from all the protests, Mohammed matter of factly responded that “we will not get tired because nothing has changed.”

Saber, the unemployed accountant, explained further: “We chose Morsi. We thought his religion would make him more compassionate and he would listen to us. But now after six months, it is worse. So we come back to Tahrir to make another revolution.” And he very consciously added in response to my questions about the government, the military and the parliament that “we must do this ourselves.”

Thus, the voices heard in Tahrir and in protests throughout the country demanding genuine democracy, real social justice and significant economic improvements hold more credibility among the majority of Egyptians than any of the institutions of power and it is this reality that keeps the rebellion growing.

But history also teaches us the hard lesson that state institutions representing old elite powers, no matter how unresponsive, can recover by disguising their goals and by making compromises with sections of their opposition whose economic interests are not so very different from their own.

Of course, this would mean once again that the majority of Egyptians would be left out in the cold.

As an alternative, a new Egypt can arise when the youth, unemployed, women and working class, sharing similar economic objectives, unite nationally in a new, mass political force that combines electoral and direct action mobilizations challenging the power of the elite to finally establish a democratic, just and economically prosperous society benefiting the majority.

The future of this great country will be determined by which social force, the bottom or the top, actually succeeds in filling the political void that so far has made Egypt’s revolution so unique and so powerful.

Carl Finamore is Machinist Lodge 1781 delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO. He just returned from his third visit to Egypt. He can be reached at local1781@yahoo.com

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

SO MUCH

Postby JackRiddler » Sat Jun 29, 2013 7:14 pm

GOING ON, AND WE'VE BEEN MISSING EGYPT!

Image
Tahrir, the Mother of All Squares. Friday night, being only the anticipation of today's (Sunday) protest of all secular forces to call on Morsi to resign or allow new elections. Fifteen million signatures gathered, according to movement. See excellent rundown and analysis by Sameh Naguib:


http://socialistworker.org/print/2013/0 ... n-in-egypt

COMMENT: SAMEH NAGUIB

The revolution and the counterrevolution

June 27, 2013
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

June 30 may be remembered as another turning point for the Egyptian Revolution. Opponents of President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood will take to the streets on the one-year anniversary of Morsi's first day in office to call on him to resign.

The June 30 mobilizations are the culmination of the "Tamarod" (Rebellion) petition campaign. Organizers say they have gathered more than 15 million signatures in support of a call for Morsi to resign--more than the number of votes Morsi received in the presidential election last year. Both sides expect that the June 30 demonstrations will be as big as any since the 2011 revolution that overthrew dictator Hosni Mubarak. Many activists fear that Morsi and the Brotherhood will try to provoke violence.

Sameh Naguib, a leading member of the Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt, wrote this article analyzing the political situation in Egypt in the wake of the Tamarod campaign, as the lead contribution for Socialist Notes, the re-launched political journal of the RS.

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

The Crisis of Brotherhood Rule

The Muslim Brotherhood came to power in a historical circumstance whose meaning it did not understand. For the Brotherhood imagined that the democracy of the ballot box was the goal for which the revolution had been undertaken. They did not understand the fundamental social and democratic content of this huge historical revolution.

Their compass was not oriented toward the revolutionary masses, but toward those with vested interests: Egypt's businessmen, the U.S. administration, the Gulf monarchies. They had been able to convince these groups that they were able to protect the same interests served by Mubarak's regime, while simultaneously satisfying the Egyptian people with a combination of false promises and empty religious slogans.

Consequently, they sought to empty the revolution of its content to guarantee the interests of those terrified by the revolution. But they quickly discovered that people who had revolted by the millions, removing the man at the pinnacle of power, would not accept this cooptation. Their false promises did nothing but increase popular anger and awareness of the Brotherhood's opportunism and hostility toward the revolution.

Two choices had laid before the Brotherhood, both of them bitter. The first was to arrive at some deal with the remnants of the old regime and the quasi-oppositionists among the liberals. The other was a close alliance with the Salafi groups, including those with residual roots in the Said [Upper Egypt] and among the slums of the cities.

From the beginning, the Brotherhood had already made big strides toward the first option, with unparalleled concessions to the military and security institutions, which were the heart of the former regime. But these institutions accepted the bargains on the basis of a faulty assessment of the Brotherhood's capability to coopt the people and drain revolutionary anger by manipulating the elections.

However, when they discovered the Brotherhood's incompetence, the rapid transformation of the national consciousness against the Brotherhood, the rapid collapse of the economy through a series of calamitous errors by the Brotherhood leadership, they began to rethink their bargain. This became apparent in the oscillations, contradictions and tension in the statements of the army leadership.

Thus, the alliance of the old regime remnants with the liberal organizations opposing the Brotherhood. The state of siege that the Brotherhood faces on a daily basis, has led to efforts at rapprochement with the Salafi groups and the use of escalating sectarian language, whether towards the Copts or the Shia, or in declaring all those who oppose them kafirs [apostates to Islam].

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Economic Crisis

Since the rise of Mohamed Morsi and the Brotherhood to power, they have implemented the same economic program as Gamal Mubarak and the policy committee prior to the revolution. It is a neoliberal program centered around market liberalization and an increasing assimilation into the global capitalist economy. These are the same policies that played a pivotal role in igniting the Egyptian revolution.

For these policies are not only violent attacks on the interests and the standard of living of the poor, to the advantage of the Muslim Brotherhood, feloul billionaires and military leaders. They represent the same demands from global financial institutions and the Gulf monarchies that Egypt accept implementation of policies further impoverishing the poor and enriching the wealthy.

It appears that Morsi, Shatir and the Brotherhood are oblivious to three facts that no rational person could fail to notice.

The first is that the revolution in the country has arisen from the hopes and expectations of millions of poor, workers and farmers for true social justice, to redistribute the wealth from big business to the people, and not the reverse.

The second fact is that the capitalist world has been suffering from the violence of its crises since the 1930s because of the same brutal capitalist policies, which are the idol that the Brotherhood leadership serves as if it were a Koranic text.

The third fact is that global capitalism, whether from the Gulf or from the West, will not invest in a morass like the Egyptian economy. It will not venture into a country whose very existence is still being shaken by the revolution, a revolution that is rocking the entire world, as we have seen recently in Turkey and Greece.

Global capitalism, under the leadership of American imperialism and its allies in the Gulf states, wants its revenge on the Egyptian people because of their great revolution, which has inspired and continues to inspire the poor of the world. It is this revolution that has established the 21st century as the century of the gravediggers of despotism and capitalist plundering. Their agents in this revenge are the Muslim Brotherhood and its failed representative Mohamed Morsi.

The series of conciliations, including the release of old regime figureheads from prison, stretches throughout the disaster of the Brotherhood administration. On the one hand, they have implemented the terms of the hostile Saudi-Qatari axis, which has played a prominent role in supporting the counterrevolution in Egypt by increasing debts. On the other hand, they need the assistance of the old regime's big men to cope with the crisis.

These policies have led the Egyptian economy to enter the most violent of its crises in decades. The budget deficit has reached 14 percent of gross domestic product, and the overall debt burden is 80 percent of the GDP. The Central Bank's foreign exchange reserves have collapsed from $32 billion to $13 billion. And nearly half of this remaining reserve consists of gold bullion not quickly liquidated.

The collapse of the Egyptian pound continues against the dollar, having decreased its value by 12 percent in the first half of this year. All of this has led to the rapid flight of both foreign and local capital, and the inability of the state to fulfill its national commitments. It has led to severe shortages in basic commodities, which are imported, of course, in foreign currencies--among them, vital goods such as various types of fuel and wheat. This constitutes a serious danger not only to workers, but to the capitalist class and its state.

These barbarous attacks on the living standards of the poor, which have begun in earnest, have ignited an unprecedented labor and protest movement that proposes confiscation of the wealth of the businessmen; nationalization of the big corporations, both foreign and domestic; the refusal to pay the interest and principal on foreign loans. These cannot but lead to the overthrow of not only Morsi and his Brotherhood, but the entirety of the capitalist state.

It is hard to imagine the degree to which the Egyptian state and the Brotherhood are isolated from reality. For amid all these crushing crises, the share of the military in the state budget has risen for the year 2013-14 to reach 31 billion Egyptian pounds--3.4 billion pounds more than the budget the year before. This is above and beyond American military aid, which is $1.4 billion, or almost 15 billion Egyptian pounds.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Labor Movement

Despite a months-long decline in political activity before the earthquake caused by the Tamarod (Rebellion) campaign and the preparations for June 30 demonstrations, the labor movement has continued to strike, occupy and demonstrate at rates that were the highest globally during the period from March to May, and still remain so. The current activity has given the labor movement new motivation of the greatest importance and possibility.

The labor movement has faced a number of challenges and paid a great price in its many battles, which have been of a defensive rather than offensive character. The first of these challenges was the violent capitalist attack on the movement, using the sticks of the thugs to break up occupations, using the weapon of closing the factories to apply pressure on workers on the one hand, while the depth of the economic crisis provided further pressure.

The second challenge has been the conflicts among the unions. Despite the unprecedented victory of establishing more than 1,000 independent workers unions, there have been broad disparities in the leadership and militancy of these unions. A rapid shift toward union bureaucratization, leaning toward conservatism, slow and gradual work, opposition to politicization, and the division of the movement into two competing federations has compounded the challenge.

This all comes in addition to the diligent work of the Brotherhood to revive the old trade union organization under joint control with the old regime remnants, in an attempt to besiege or assimilate the independent unions.

It is this that has given the coming popular political movement an exceptional opportunity for a qualitative shift in the labor movement.

All of this dictates our task: the forming of coordinating committees for labor action along sectoral, industry and geographical lines; the linking of partial demands and total demands; and the linking of economic demands with political demands. This is the urgent task for revolutionaries in the coming period.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Institution of the Military

The issue of the institution of the military and its relationship with the catastrophe of Muslim Brotherhood rule has resurfaced as the most pressing issue on the Egyptian political scene during the past months.

Among the increasing demands of liberal commentators and leaders, sometimes implied, other times hidden, is the necessity of military intervention to get rid of Brotherhood rule. This means nothing other than a demand for a military coup. There has been a flood of statements and articles regarding the independence, neutrality and patriotism of the institution of the military.

This flood has not ceased since the Sinai crisis, with the kidnapping of soldiers, the miracle of their release without military intervention, the lack of negotiations with the kidnappers and of course without their capture. It has continued up through the political theater surrounding the Ethiopian dam, with discourse on the necessity of a military solution, and finally through the surprise decision of the first constitutional court on the necessity of permitting the officers and soldiers of the armed forces to cast their votes in the elections. This was a decision opposed by both the Brotherhood and the liberals together, for this threatens not only to politicize the army, but to divide it.

Despite the assertions of the army leadership that it will not undertake any coup and its eternal assurances of neutrality and patriotism, it is still the hope of many liberal forces that the army will intervene to rescue the country from the nightmare of the Brotherhood, to exchange them for the ranks of the military. How the liberals love that military, which even until the past year was crushing the necks of Egyptian people and driving the counterrevolution. The military is still the impregnable wall standing in the way of the development of the Egyptian revolution and the achievement of its goals.

There are a number of facts that we must recall when regarding this comic scenario. First, the institution of the military is not a neutral institution, but the steel heart of the Egyptian capitalist state, the state of Mubarak and his remnants, the state of the big businessmen and behind them American imperialism. Second, the army is the mirror of society and will not be divided from this society, for its leadership is a fundamental part of the Egyptian ruling class in both its secular and Islamic wings.

As for the soldiers and officers in its ranks, they are farmers, workers and poor people. It is not in the interests of the leadership and army generals that the Egyptian revolution should be victorious, not only because that would mean, by necessity, judgments passed on their crimes against the Egyptian revolution. Also, and more importantly, their interests and power require them to be part of the counterrevolution. As for the rank and file, they have a direct interest in the implementation of the goals of the Egyptian revolution--for social justice, freedom and dignity--whether within the army or outside it.

Thirdly, the myth of the military protecting the people and the nation has no basis in truth. The connection of that institution with the American army, American interests and American weapons is what holds the allegiance of the leadership of this institution. There is no portion of this loyalty for the Egyptian people. This also means regionally the protection of Zionist and American national interests, and not the safety and security of the Egyptian people.

Additionally, we must remember that the military participates with the Muslim Brotherhood in ruling Egypt. For this was the bargain between them--a safe exit, a national security council, a secret budget without any democratic oversight and the continuation of military control over its economic empire, which comprises a significant portion of the Egyptian economy. Up to the present moment, this bargain remains in force.

The crisis for the military leadership is that the Muslim Brotherhood is not capable of executing its part in this bargain, which is the liquidation of the Egyptian revolution and the pacification of the populace. Sharing in this crisis is the American administration and some of the Gulf states.

The entry of army tanks and armored personnel carriers into Sinai is not for the goal of preventing terrorism or confronting the Zionist enemy, but for confronting the people of Sinai. They have revolted just like other oppressed and downtrodden Egyptians against the historic injustice of Cairo's rulers and the theft of their most basic rights of citizenship.

The differences that have arisen between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military are related to the failure of the Brotherhood to resolve the economic crisis and contain or crush the Egyptian revolution. They are related to the fear of the military leadership that the revolutionary tide will arrive among the ranks of its soldiers and officers.

This is what will finally happen if the Egyptian revolution is capable of perservering against the counterrevolution, which is composed of an alliance of the Muslim Brotherhood leadership, the military and the old regime remnants. The figureheads of the old regime have mostly been released from prison, honored and glorified, despite the fact that their hands are stained with the blood of our martyrs.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Front for the Salvation of the Muslim Brotherhood

Since the liberal opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood formed the National Salvation Front, the weakness of this opposition has quickly become apparent. It has assisted, first of all, in transforming the conflict into an identity issue between secular currents represented by the Front and Islamic currents represented by the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies among the Salafis. This has, of course, strengthened the position of the Muslim Brotherhood. Then the liberals gave another gift to the Brotherhood by allying themselves with remnants of the Mubarak regime, and with their unceasing demands for military intervention.

This is all in addition to the exceptional fragmentation and opportunism among the Front's leadership, some of which have gone to meet Brotherhood leaders, while others criticized, only to then meet with the same Brotherhood leaders in secret. This is simply the most recent of the farces in which the Egyptian bourgeois opposition and its hangers-on among the nationalists and leftists have specialized.

This vacillation of the liberals and the old regime remnants in opposing the Brotherhood comes from the fact that they, like the Muslim Brotherhood, don't want a deepening or continuation of the revolution. They only want a battle around division of power, not around the nature of power. They are ready, especially by means of the media, to mobilize the populace to oppose the Brotherhood, but they fear that this mobilization will lead to a new revolution which will overthrow both them and the Brotherhood at the same time. For this reason, they will continue to use the masses as leverage in negotiations with the Brotherhood or to motivate the army to intervene. But their fear of losing control to the broader movement remains their most important obsession.

Above and beyond this, they do not put forward any alternative economic scenario to the Muslim Brotherhood. It is the same capitalism, the same market policies, the same strategies of begging from the West and the Gulf and serving in their interests.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tamarod (Rebellion), June 30 and the Revolutionary Alternative

The Tamarod (Rebellion) campaign has emerged after a period of retreat in the revolutionary movement to ignite the fuse of that movement on a national level heretofore unseen. The genius of the name and the simplicity of the campaign quickly transformed it into a national movement in which millions have participated with their signatures.

Even more importantly, hundreds of thousands have participated in the process of gathering signatures. For a large percentage of these, it was their first time participating in the revolutionary process, which has increased the breadth and depth of the radicalization among the Egyptian masses. This is reflected in the tremendous preparations for the marches of June 30 and the establishment of coordinating committees in every governorate to prepare for that pivotal day. These comprise the beginning of a new battle among the battles of the Egyptian revolution.

As has been the case in all previous crises and revolutionary battles, the situation is complicated. All of the forces hostile to the Brotherhood participate in the Rebellion campaign and will participate in June 30. But these forces have different goals for this movement.

There are the remnants of the old regime, which have regained a large part of their confidence and cohesiveness as a result of the ludicrous release of the majority of their figureheads from jail with handfuls of dollars. They are more confident also because the liberal bourgeois opposition has given them new cover--to appear as if they were a legitimate branch of the secular democratic opposition against Brotherhood rule. Their goal within the movement is the complete return of the old regime, even if that means a new set of figureheads, and the complete victory of the counterrevolution as well as bloody retribution against the revolution and all who participated in it.

There is also the liberal bourgeois opposition as represented in the non-feloul parties of the Salvation Front, who naturally do not want the completion of the revolution, especially in relation to the goal of social justice. They only want to limit the influence of the Brotherhood and the Salafis and to share with them in ruling the country and in formulating its future. As for the popular movement, according to them it is only a way to apply pressure to negotiate and conclude bargains in the end.

As for the revolutionaries, the goal of their participation in the Rebellion campaign and in the battles that will begin on June 30 is to reclaim the revolution from the Islamists thieves.

This is not because they are Islamists, but because they have betrayed the revolution, rescued Mubarak's state and implemented the same oppressive capitalist policies, including complete subservience to American imperial interests and the big businessmen from the Mubarak period at the expense of the interests of the revolutionary Egyptian people and the blood of the martyrs. They have preserved the influence of the police and army generals and the state apparatus with the same degree of corruption and cronyism that they have always exemplified. Their goal remains limited: to dominate the apparatus and institutions of the state, with their leaders participating in holding power with the remnants of the previous regime at the pinnacles of these institutions and apparatuses, while their corrupt and repressive character is preserved.

Salvation from Brotherhood rule isn't, according to the revolutionaries, a goal in and of itself, but the removal of an obstacle on the way to completing the Egyptian revolution. It will not be completed without retribution for the martyrs and the injured of the Egyptian revolution via revolutionary courts passing judgment on the army and police officers, Mubarak's businessmen and their thugs, and via the destruction of the repressive, exploitative and predatory state which still stands.

Mohamed Morsi and his group still protect it to this day alongside their predecessors. The revolution will not be completed until the repressive state is replaced with a democratic nation that directly expresses the will of the masses of Egyptian workers, farmers and poor, a nation that achieves the goals of the revolution--freedom, dignity, social justice.

It is apparent, then, that what appears to be unity among these various parties on the goal of removing Mohamed Morsi conceals deep differences in goals and interests. It is not in the interests of the revolutionaries to blur or hide or postpone pointing out these differences, but rather to discriminate from the first moment between the enemies of the revolution and those who wish to complete it. This not only means complete independence within the movement from those opportunists and traitors, but also working to expose them and their true intentions to the people.

Some people imagine that a position like this will lead to weakness in the battle against Morsi and the crumbling of the forces against him. The opposite is true, for any leniency toward the feloul or the bourgeois opposition strengthens Morsi and does not weaken him. For among a section of the population, the Muslim Brotherhood is able to depict the battle as if it were a battle between the Brotherhood and the old regime remnants.

Therefore precision, clarity and independence regarding the old regime remnants and the traitors is a condition for victory over Morsi and the Brotherhood. As for opportunism and alliances between the old regime remnants and the bourgeois opposition, this will lead to nothing other than a loss of credibility for those who commit this crime and will strengthen the ability of the Brotherhood to remain in power.

The Rebellion campaign and the demonstrations and occupations of June 30 could evolve into the beginnings of the second Egyptian revolution. But it is incumbent upon us to learn from the lessons of the previous revolutionary waves.

Firstly, we need an independent political platform to gather all of the revolutionary forces and movements in a form independent from the old regime and the liberals in the National Salvation Front, as a clear political alternative to this miserable coalition.

Secondly, the labor movement and the popular movements must be at the heart of this new political front, for they have a direct interest not only in overthrowing Morsi, but in completing the revolution to its very end. This means that an alternative revolutionary front must transcend the secular-religious rivalry between the Muslim Brotherhood and the National Salvation Front. It must distinguish itself on the basis of its social alignment with the workers and the poor and their interests.

Third, retribution against those among the old regime, the military and the Muslim Brotherhood who have killed our martyrs must remain at the forefront of our priorities and our demands. For we cannot complete a revolution in the shadow of the release of the murderers of the counterrevolution, honored and glorified while the blood of our martyrs still stains their hands.

Fourth, it is necessary that we put forth a clearly defined program presented as an alternative at the level of the economy, society, politics and culture. For without winning the people to a clear convincing revolutionary alternative, when the question of program is raised by the Brotherhood and the Salafis on the one hand, and the old regime remnants and liberals on the other hand, we will not be capable of defeating the counterrevolution and completing our arduous revolutionary path.

Translation by Jess Martin

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

Published by the International Socialist Organization.
Material on this Web site is licensed by SocialistWorker.org, under a Creative Commons (by-nc-nd 3.0) [1] license, except for articles that are republished with permission. Readers are welcome to share and use material belonging to this site for non-commercial purposes, as long as they are attributed to the author and SocialistWorker.org.

[1] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0

We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: Live: Al Jazeera coverage of Egypt’s growing revolution

Postby JackRiddler » Mon Jul 01, 2013 5:15 pm

From the pictures yesterday's gatherings may have indeed been the largest protests in all history, with claims of 20 million participants.

This was just the warmup, on Friday:

Image

Sunday:

Image

Alexandria:
Image

Unbelievable, Cairo:
Image

***

Now I have no idea what's going on because the Army issued an ultimatum to Morsi that reads like a revolutionary statement, but though under new management they haven't of course stopped being the backbone of any Egyptian regime...




http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/read- ... -morsi.php

READ: The Full Text Of Egyptian Military’s Ultimatum To Morsi

ASSOCIATED PRESS JULY 1, 2013, 1:30 PM 202

CAIRO (AP) — The text of the Egyptian military statement issued Monday warning the armed forces will intervene if the demands of the people aren’t met in 48 hours.

___

“Egypt and the whole world witnessed yesterday demonstrations by the great people of Egypt expressing their opinion in an unprecedented, peaceful and civilized way.

Everyone saw the movement of the Egyptian people and heard their voices with the greatest respect and concern. It is necessary that the people receive a reply to their movement and the call from every party with any responsibility in the dangerous circumstances surrounding the nation.

As a main party in the considerations of the future and based on their patriotic and historic responsibilities to protect security and stability, the Armed Forces state the following:

— The Armed Forces will not be a party in the circles of politics or governance and are not willing to step out of the role defined for them by the basic ideals of democracy based on the will of the people.

— The national security of the state is exposed to extreme danger by the developments the nation is witnessing, and this places a responsibility on us, each according to his position, to act as is proper to avert these dangers. The armed forces sensed early on the dangers of the current situation and the demands the great people have at this time. Therefore, it previously set a deadline of a week for all political forces in the country to come to a consensus and get out of this crisis. However, the week has passed without any sign of an initiative. This is what led to the people coming out with determination and resolve, in their full freedom, in this glorious way, which inspired surprise, respect and attention at the domestic, regional and international levels.

— Wasting more time will only bring more division and conflict, which we have warned about and continue to warn about. The noble people have suffered and have found no one to treat them with kindness or sympathize with them. That puts a moral and psychological burden on the armed forces, which find it obligatory that everyone drop everything and embrace these proud people, which have shown they are ready to do the impossible if only they feels there is loyalty and dedication to them.

— The Armed Forces repeat their call for the people’s demands to be met and give everyone 48 hours as a last chance to shoulder the burden of the historic moment that is happening in the nation, which will not forgive or tolerate any party that is lax in shouldering its responsibility.

— The Armed Forces put everyone on notice that if the demands of the people are not realized in the given time period, it will be obliged by its patriotic and historic responsibilities and by its respect for the demands of the great Egyptian people to announce a road map for the future and the steps for overseeing its implementation, with participation of all patriotic and sincere parties and movements — including the youth, who set off the glorious revolution and continue to do so — without excluding anyone.

A salute of appreciation and pride to the sincere and loyal men of the Armed Forces, who have always borne and will continue to bear their patriotic responsibilities toward the great people of Egypt with determination, decisiveness and pride.

God save Egypt and its proud, great people.”


Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
We meet at the borders of our being, we dream something of each others reality. - Harvey of R.I.

To Justice my maker from on high did incline:
I am by virtue of its might divine,
The highest Wisdom and the first Love.

TopSecret WallSt. Iraq & more
User avatar
JackRiddler
 
Posts: 16007
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:59 pm
Location: New York City
Blog: View Blog (0)

PreviousNext

Return to General Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 161 guests