Protesters in Tahrir Square, on Friday, denouncing deputy PM Yehya el-Gamal, the remnants of the National Democratic Party and the governors, calling for the dissolution of the regime’s Local Municipalities, Mubarak’s regime’s main artery of corruption…
Suez was dubbed as Egypt’s Sidi Bouzid during the 18 day uprising. The city witnessed some of the bloodiest crackdowns by the police, and also some of the fiercest resistance by the protesters. In the video above, shot on the Friday of Anger, January 28, the revolutionaries in Suez after storming the police stations and confiscating the rifles, are using them to fight back the police.
One of the biggest myths invented by the media, tied to this whole Gene Sharp business: the Egyptian revolution was “peaceful.” I’m afraid it wasn’t. The revolution (like any other revolution) witnessed violence by the security forces that led to the killing of at least 846 protesters.
But the people did not sit silent and take this violence with smiles and flowers. We fought back. We fought back the police and Mubarak’s thugs with rocks, Molotov cocktails, sticks, swords and knives. The police stations which were stormed almost in every single neighborhood on the Friday of Anger–that was not the work of “criminals” as the regime and some middle class activists are trying to propagate. Protesters, ordinary citizens, did that.
Egyptians understand well what a police station is for. Every family has a member who got abused, tortured or humiliated by the local police force in his/her neighborhood. And I’m not even talking here about the State Security Police torture factories. I’m talking about the “ordinary police.”
Other symbols of power and corruption were attacked by the protesters and torched down during the uprising. Revolutionary violence is never random. Those buildings torched down or looted largely belonged to Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.
In a number of provinces like in N Sinai and Suez, arms were seized by protesters who used them back against the police to defend themselves. State Security Police office in Rafah and Arish, for example, were blown up using RPGs, hand grenades and automatic rifles, while gas pipelines heading to Jordan and Israel were attacked.
Am I condemning this violence? Totally not. Every single revolution in history witnessed its share of violence. The violence always starts on the hands of the state, not the people. The people are forced to pick up arms or whatever they can put their hands on to protect themselves.
May all our martyrs rest in peace. Their blood will not go in vain. Revolution continues…
UPDATE: Minutes after I published this posting, the gas pipelines in N Sinai that exports to Israel have been reportedly come under new attack. I’m still looking up info.
UPDATE: Here is a report from the BBC, while Ash-Shrouq has posted a video of the explosion…
Protesters, on Wednesday afternoon, denounce Mostafa el-Fiqqi in front of the Arab League headquarters in downtown Cairo…
Video of Mostafa el-Fiqqi before the revolution defending the extension of the emergency law, the draconian legal framework Mubarak used to justify repression, torture, kidnapping and detention of activists all throughout his reign…
This is NOT the man Egypt should nominate for the Arab League secretary general post…
Mostafa el-Fiqqi, former NDP, diplomat and Mubarak’s secretary of information has reinvented himself as a revolutionary as soon as Mubarak stepped down. Fiqqi won his 2005 parliamentary seat in Damanhour in a completely rigged vote (I covered the elections in his constituency on that year and I’m witness to the irregularities that happened) and was the one of the regime’s biggest propagandists in dealing with media outlets. In the video above, Fiqqi is praising Sameh Fahmy, the former Petroleum Minister who oversaw the under-priced gas deals with Israel, and who had to resign after the revolution under the pressure of labor strikes in the gas/oil sector.
Fiqqi was also kicked out by the revolutionaries in Tahrir when he tried to visit the square on 10 February, one day before stepped down (as seen in the video above). Hence, it came as a shock for me and many others that this NDP man who praises Israel’s normalizers and who was a cornerstone in Mubarak’s foreign policy, would be Revolutionary Egypt’s candidate for the secretary general of Arab League post.
Please join the activists in their protest on Wednesday 20 April, 2 pm, in front of the Arab League to denounce the Fiqqi’s candidacy…
The Higher Administrative Court in Cairo ordered the dissolution of the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the liquidation of its assets, with the funds to be returned to the state. That’s really great news. But now former NDP politicians should not be allowed to resume their political activities under any other name.
Fathi Sorrour, the longest serving parliament speaker in the Arab World, one of the cornerstones of Mubarak’s corrupt regime, and NDP old guard, taken to prison, while citizens shout accusing him of corruption and theft.
Citizens gathered in front of the Justice Ministry cheering, as NDP gangster and one of Mubarak’s loyal old guards Safwat el-Sherif taken to prison…
AUC students denounce State Security General Ashraf Kamal and NDP member Mohamed Dabbour who is in charge of monitoring and censoring the student activities.
Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist from Cairo
hossam [at] arabawy [dot] org
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