Posts Tagged ‘Students’

Egypt’s 1968: The revival of street politics

Egypt – 1968

Above is Chapter IV of the MA Thesis I wrote 10 years ago, when studying at the American University in Cairo’s Political Science department. This chapter discusses the revival of the student movement following the 1967 defeat. Of course reading it today I wish if I would have edited some parts, changed the lingo here and there, and added more resources and info I’ve been learning over the past years… But in general I still think the thesis stands, and could help shed some light on this critical period in the history of the left in Egypt…

Detained farmers, workers, students released following protests

Farmers and activists held a rally outside the General Prosecutor’s Office at the High Court in Cairo, in protest at the detention of ten protesters – five farmers, three auto workers, two Azhar students – during a demonstration last Wednesday. Bail for the detainees had been set at LE10,000 per person, but after this rally lawyers announced that all ten would be released without bail.

Police crackdown on labor protests continues

After the International Labor Organization rewarded Essam Sharaf‘s cabinet by removing Egypt’s name from its black list, the government continues its crackdown on the labor movement. Police is trying to smash the Bani Sueif Cement workers strike, detaining three workers and tearing down the tents set up by the strikers. And in Cairo, the public prosecutor has ordered 10 protesters (five farmers, three auto workers and two students) to remain in police custody for 15 days, following their arrest last Wednesday during their sit ins in downtown Cairo.

Police cracks down on workers, students, farmers, urban poor شرطة عصام شرف تفض بالقوة اعتصامات العمال والطلبة والفلاحين وفقراء المدن بالقاهرة

On orders from Essam Sharaf’s cabinet, Central Security Forces troops suspended by force yesterday protests by Awqaf farmers, auto workers around the parliament, smashed student protesters in front of the ministry of higher education, and dispersed urban poor protesters demanding housing in front of Maspero.

UPDATE: Comrade Per blogs about Egypt’s neoliberal counter-revolution…

VIDEO – Chile police clash with student protesters

VIDEO – Damanhour Nursing Institute students demonstrate وقفة لطلاب معهد التمريض بدمنهور أمام وزارة التعليم العالي

In front of the Ministry of Higher Education…

AUC and student activism

The Sound of Student Struggle by sarrahsworld

SS General Hisham el-Dafrawi لواء أمن دولة هشام الدفراوي

From SS Officers

One of the photos I found on the Nasr City SS DVDs, was that of General Hisham el-Dafrawi, the infamous director of the dissolved agency’s “Students Bureau” who made his career out of tormenting student activists.

Rights lawyer Gamal Eid, of the ANHRI, during his student activism days at Ain Shams University in the late ’80s, came in contact with Dafrawi when the latter was still a junior SS officer:

الرائد ، ثم المقدم !!!! وحتى اصبح اللواء هشام الدفراوي أو : الظالم المبتسم
هو الاتخن بين ضباط أمن الدولة ، وأكثرهم ضحكا وابتساما و … وحشية.
مسئول عن مكتب طلاب جامعة عين شمس في الثمانينات ، وكان المسئول والمخطط لواقعة الاعتداء على الطلاب اليساريين والناصريين في سجن أبو زعبل خلال الانتفاضة الفلسطينية الأولى 1987، على يد الجماعات الإسلامية !
26طالب يساري وناصري ، يطلق عليهم نحو 280إسلامي متشدد في السجن وتصوير الواقعة انها مشادة بين سجناء!
نظرا لقدرته الفذة على القمع وتلفيق القضايا ، تدرج حتى أصبح مسئول مكتب الطلاب في جهاز مباحث امن الدولة.
ومنذ تولي مكتب الطلاب المركزي ، بدئنا نشهد عمليات تلفيق القضايا الجنائية ” ضرب ، سرقة ، أداب … الخ” للطلاب اليساريين خاصة بجامعة عين شمس والقاهرة.
فضلا عن إهدار وتزوير كل الانتخابات الطلابية ، سواء عبر الضرب والحرمان أو الاعتقالات للطلاب المعارضين.
هشام الدفراوي لا يزال حرا !!

From an SS Major in charge of Ain Shams University in the 1980s, Dafrawi ascended the ranks quickly to become the general in directing the “Students Bureau.” He oversaw the rigging of student union elections, arrests, beatings and torture of student activists, Gamal Eid wrote me.

Dafrawi also, according to Gamal Eid, orchestrated the assault on 26 leftist and Nasserist students in Tora prison, on the hands of Islamist prisoners in 1987. The students were detained part of a crackdown on the solidarity movement with the Palestinian intifada. The incident was portrayed as some riot or scuffle between prisoners, but Eid asserts it was Dafrawi who persuaded the Islamist militant prisoners to attack “those leftists.” Dafrawi, moreover, enjoyed framing leftist student activists in Ain Shams and Cairo universities in criminal cases, according to Eid.

Dafrawi’s name was also mentioned in a corruption case related to the education ministry. He was among police officers, including General Ahmad el-Azzazi, who received financial rewards from then Education Minister Ahmad Zaki Badr, allocated from the education ministry’s budget, after they helped put down protests by the ministry’s civil servants on 16 January 2011, roughly one week before the outbreak of the revolution. Why not? Dafrawi and Badr, it seems were good friends, and were even hanging out at Amr Diab’s concerts!

So where is Dafrawi today? Is he part of the newly founded National Security Bureau (NSB)? Is he still commanding those SS-turned-NSB who will continue spying on students in Cairo University and elsewhere?

In all cases, according to Eid of the ANHRI, Dafrawi has not been put on trial and remains a free man. And this is not acceptable.

Protest against Israel’s embassy in Cairo

On Wednesday around 300 students, largely from Cairo University, held a march and a protest in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

To be honest, it was very weird marching without the Central Security Forces being around or cracking down. At some point when we were standing in front of the Israeli embassy I had to pinch myself, to make sure I’m not dreaming. The last time I took part in an attempt to storm that embassy was in 2002. We were brutally crushed by the police on that day, and I was injured in the back and foot.

Over the following years, there were several attempts by activists to hold protests there, but the closest one could get was the Nahdet Masr statue in the square (half a km away?), before risking live ammunition.

And here were we were on Wednesday, standing over the destroyed Police Special Forces station that used to protect the embassy, right in front of the building. It felt liberating, even when the protest was small.

And in related (fantastic, thrilling) news…

Egyptian FM tells Al-Jazeera that preparations are already underway to permanently open Rafah border crossing, which would allow goods and people in and out of Gaza with no Israeli supervision.

BOOK – The Student Movement and National Politics in Egypt

The Student Movement and National Politics in Egypt

A book by Ahmed Abdallah Rozza…