From Libya to Wisconsin

  Today Libya's protesters have changed categories, according to the NY Times, from protesters to "rebels" and they are clashing with loyal forces.  Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Wisconsin are on fire. Rebels, teachers, rank-and-file, and pension holders vs. Libya's loyal forces, state republicans, billionaire brothers, and a governor are having it out. Maybe Wisconsin will follow Libya's led and change category...

infoshop.org on the case: On Wisconsin!

STATEMENT

On Wisconsin! First of May Anarchist Alliance statement

On Wisconsin!
For Mass Actions, Occupations & a General Strike!
Spread the Struggle! Power to the People!
For over a week now, in response to the draconian anti-labor proposals of the Republican Governor, the people of Wisconsin have rose up in the hundreds of thousands in militant and creative fashion in defense of public workers and the unions. The Capitol in Madison has been occupied. The surrounding area has seen a sea of demonstrators. Teachers across the state have gone on unofficial strike and high school students have walked-out in support. Rallies of hundreds and thousands have occurred all over the state. This week support rallies will happen all over the country.
This movement - directly inspired, it must be said, by the heroic people of Egypt and the Middle East - with its contagious energy, determination, humor, and optimism has taken everyone by surprise. The politicians, bosses, unions, and media were all unprepared for the wave that has crashed ashore. But this upsurge is at a crossroads and must push forward defiantly or risk being co-opted or crushed leaving us with yet another heroic defeat or false “victory” to lament for years to come.
Instead of defeat, we can move forward. We support the popular call promoted by the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.) revolutionary union and others for a state-wide General Strike. This should include public and private sectors, union and non-unionized sectors, students and unemployed. As other communities and sectors of the working-class step forward to join the struggle they must be free to raise their own specific concerns and demands. The movement must be open to “speakers from the floor”. We must resist any pressure to reduce the movement to a small number of lowest common-denominator demands that favor relatively privileged layers and that the system finds acceptable. This movement must not be satisfied with a return to the status quo but formulate demands of our own for what the people actually need.
Build General Strike Committees in the unions and workplaces, in the schools, on the Reservations, in the prisons, and in every local urban and rural community!
The Governor has the votes he needs in the state Legislature to pass the measures that will strip collective bargaining rights from most public employees, ban strikes, and implement deep cuts to workers’ pay, benefits and pensions. The Democrats move to leave the state and prevent quorum can be seen as a clever political ploy – or more realistically - as a means to give the ruling class (the corporate and political elite) time to reassess and regroup in the wake of this social explosion. In any case the Democratic Party is in no way an ally of working people and oppressed communities. The Democrats are participating in social cuts in states all across the county and at the Federal level. Next door in Minnesota, even the very liberal Governor there is proposing severe cuts to Health and Human services.
Similarly we cannot expect an effective way forward from the bureaucracy of the unions. Their entire strategy revolves around having “friends” in high places, only seriously mobilizing their membership to mark ballots every several years. They could not lead a militant movement if they wanted to - they have not led a serious struggle for generations. Yet all their political capital rests on their ability to channel workers dissatisfaction. Already they have begun trying to assert their control over the spontaneous movement at the Capitol, by taking down signs deemed inappropriate (for instance “Walk like an Egyptian”) and stepping up the “marshalling” of the crowds.
There is a real risk that the union bureaucracy and the Democrats will try and present a “compromise” of severe cuts minus the collective bargaining roll-back. “Don’t take away our right to negotiate how deep we let you cut our pay and benefits” is pathetic but they are already starting to sound out this approach. We must be prepared to defy this and explain the danger to the bulk of the movement who so far see the Democrats and union tops only in a positive light.
If, in the likelihood that the efforts toward mass strikes become bottled up inside the union structures, we must push ahead with whatever means of mass direct action we can muster. Mass demonstrations; more unofficial strikes and high school walk-outs; occupations of campuses and State facilities, Republican and Democratic Party headquarters, corporate supporters of the Governor, etc. We must come out of this struggle with a network of working-class activists willing to organize/participate in mass direct action.
Finally since in many ways the wave that started this whole thing came from the Middle East, lets end there as well: The United States spends billions and billions of tax dollars on military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, huge military presence in Kuwait, Bahrain and in the surrounding seas, support for the apartheid Israeli state, and dictatorships and monarchies across the region. The National Guard that the Governor has threatened to deploy against the workers of Wisconsin has spent many months guarding the Empire over there. All this to control the people and resources of the Middle East for the same global capitalist system that is attacking us here in Wisconsin and killing our planet.
We cannot have an honest discussion about budgets, deficits, or resources without addressing the costs of Empire – both financially and morally. Our movement must defend the self-determination of the working people across the Middle East and help them dissolve the Empire of Capital that benefits no one but the rich elite.
Solidarity!
First of May Anarchist Alliance
m1aa@riseup.net
February 21, 2011

Boring logistical stuff

I sent this out as an email too, but just in case someone isn't getting to their inbox very often, I'm posting it here too.

I was scheduling stuff into my planner last night and I don't think I'm the only one who has a ton of stuff going on right now! I'm stoked on all of it but I am wondering how folks would feel about meeting bi-weekly instead of weekly. I'm thinking maybe if it's not a weekly thing, people would have more room to make time for it?

I'm totally fine with weekly meetings, as it's generally not been too hard for me to make most of them, but what do y'all think?

And, hey, come see me at Fishbones this weekend.

Army Tries to Clear Tahrir (Liberation) Square.

Egyptian Army Tries to Clear Tahrir Sqare. 

As the army attempts to take control over the transition people in Egypt are skeptical and remain in Tahrir Square.  Now that the military has assumed power it is wanting to clear the streets to legitimize its own power, oh the contradictions and a crude attempt to prove itself...nothing to see here, we are in control everything is ok, go back to your homes type of logic.  The military seems to be more concerned with appearance than substance and change of any kind.

The people remain!

Protester Ashraf Ahmed said the military could tear down his tent, but that he was not going to leave "because so much still needs to be done. They haven't implemented anything yet.''


"If the army does not fulfil our demands, our uprising and its measures will return stronger."

Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi (on the left, sitting with Mubarak and I am assuming an American general or type of officer) is now the highest figurehead in Egypt's government and the military supreme council.

Protests, strikes, and actions across Egypt continue today in the wake of Mubarak stepping down.  Feb 13th, live Al Jazeera blog

Tahrir Square

Eye on Algeria

Al Jazeera Reports: Eye on Alegria, Pro-democracy demonstrators, inspired by the Egyptian revolution, ignore official ban and march in the capital Algiers.

Algerian security forces and pro-democracy protesters have clashed in the capital, Algiers, amid demonstrations inspired by the revolution in Egypt.
Heavily outnumbered by riot police, at least 2,000 protesters were able to overcome a security cordon enforced around the city's May First Square on Saturday, joining other demonstrators calling for reform.
Earlier, thousands of police in riot gear were in position to stop the demonstrations that could mimic the uprising which forced out Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's long-serving president.
Security forces closed all entrances to Algiers and arrested hundreds of protesters, sources told Al Jazeera.
Elias Filali, an Algerian blogger and activist, said human rights activists and syndicate members were among those arrested at the scene of the protests.
"I'm right in the middle of the march," he told Al Jazeera. "People are being arrested and are heavily guarded by the police."
Officials banned Saturday's opposition march but protesters were determined to see it through.
Peaceful protests
Filali said the demonstrators were determined to remain peaceful, but he claimed that the police "want the crowd to go violent and then get them portrayed as a violent crowd".
Protesters are demanding greater democratic freedoms, a change of government and more jobs.

Earlier, police also charged at demonstrators and arrested 10 people outside the Algiers offices of the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), as they celebrated Mubarak's downfall, Said Sadi, RCD leader, told the AFP news agency.
"It wasn't even an organised demonstration. It was spontaneous. It was an explosion of joy," he said.
Mubarak's resignation on Friday, and last month's overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's president for 23 years, have electrified the Arab world.
Many are left wondering which country could be next in a region where a flammable mix of authoritarian rule and popular anger are the norm.
"The timing is absolutely perfect. [Mubarak's departure] couldn't have come at a better time," Filali told Al Jazeera in the run-up to the protests.
"This is a police state, just like the Egyptian regime [was]."
Filali said Algeria's government was "corrupt to the bone, based on electoral fraud, and repression".
"There is a lot of discontent among young people ... the country is badly managed by a corrupt regime that does not want to listen".
Police on alert
Said Sadi, the RCD leader, had said earlier that he expected around 10,000 more police officers to reinforce the 20,000 who blocked the last demonstration on January 22, when five people were killed and more than 800 others hurt.
Police presence is routine in Algeria to counter the threat of attacks by al-Qaeda fighters. But Filali called the heavy police presence in the capital on Saturday "unbelievable".
At May First Square, the starting point for the planned march, there were around 40 police vans, jeeps and buses lined up, Filali said.
At several road junctions, the police had parked small military-style armoured vehicles which are rarely seen in the city. Police standing outside a fuel station, about 2km from the square, were wearing anti-riot body armour.
The latest rally is being organised by the National Co-ordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD), a three-week-old umbrella group of opposition parties, civil society movements and unofficial unions inspired by the mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt.
Demonstrators have been protesting over the last few months against unemployment, high food costs, poor housing and corruption - similar issues that fuelled uprisings in other north African nations.
Earlier this month, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria's president, said he would lift emergency powers, address unemployment and allow democratic marches to take place in the country, in a bid to stave off unrest.
"The regime is frightened," Filali said. "And the presence of 30,000 police officers in the capital gives you an idea of how frightened the regime [is] of its people."
Wider implications
Widespread unrest in Algeria could have implications for the world economy because it is a major oil and gas exporter, but many analysts say an Egypt-style revolt is unlikely as the government can use its energy wealth to placate most grievances.
Meanwhile, in a statement, Amnesty International, the London-based rights group, said "Algerians must be allowed to express themselves freely and hold peaceful protests in Algiers and elsewhere".
"We urge the Algerian authorities not to respond to these demands by using excessive force".
The government said it refused permission for the rally for public order reasons, not because it is trying to stifle dissent. It said it is working hard to create jobs, build new homes and improve public services.
Other Arab countries have also felt the ripples from the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.
Jordan's King Abdullah replaced his prime minister after protests.
In Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh promised opponents he would not seek a new term as president.
The Bahraini government has also made several concessions in recent weeks, including promising higher social spending. Activists there have called for protests on February 14, the tenth anniversary of Bahrain's constitution.

MUBARAK STEPS DOWN!

Now it gets complicated...

 

LONG LIVE TAHRIR (LIBERATION) SQUARE! 

Here is an article from US News detailing Mubarak's wealth and how he amassed his riches during his 30 year reign.  Though this piece does not have enough analysis to even enjoy during a bathroom break it does have some facts...blah.

How Hosni Mubarak Got So Rich

There are no Mubaraks on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, but there sure ought to be.
The mounting pressure from 18 days of historic protests finally drove Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from office, after three decades as his nation's iron-fisted ruler. But over that time, Mubarak amassed a fortune that should finance a pretty comfortable retirement. The British Guardian newspaper cites Middle Eastern sources placing the wealth of Mubarak and his family at somewhere between $40 billion and $70 billion. That's a pretty good pension for government work. The world's richest man--Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim--is worth about $54 billion, by comparison. Bill Gates is close behind, with a net worth of about $53 billion.

Mubarak, of course, was a military man, not a businessman. But running a country with a suspended constitution for 30 years generates certain perks, and Mubarak was in a position to take a slice of virtually every significant business deal in the country, from development projects throughout the Nile basin to transit projects on the Suez Canal, which is a conduit for about 4 percent of the world's oil shipments. "There was no accountability, no need for transparency," says Prof. Amaney Jamal of Princeton University. "He was able to reach into the economic sphere and benefit from monopolies, bribery fees, red-tape fees, and nepotism. It was guaranteed profit."
Had the typical Egyptian enjoyed a morsel of that, Mubarak might still be in power. But Egypt, despite a cadre of well-educated young people, has struggled as an economic backwater. The nation's GDP per capita is just $6,200, according to the CIA--one-seventh what it is in the United States. That output ranks 136th in the world, even though Egypt ranks 16th in population. Mubarak had been working on a set of economic reforms, but they stalled during the global recession. The chronic lack of jobs and upward mobility was perhaps the biggest factor driving millions of enraged Egyptian youths into the streets, demanding change.


Estimates of Mubarak's wealth will probably be hard to verify, if not impossible (one reason dictators tend not to make it onto Forbes's annual list). His money is certainly not sitting in an Egyptian vault, waiting to be counted. And his delayed exit may have allowed Mubarak time to move money around and hide significant parts of his fortune. The Swiss government has said it is temporarily freezing any assets in Swiss banks that could be linked to Mubarak, an uncharacteristically aggressive move for the secretive banking nation. But that doesn't mean the money will ever be returned to the Egyptian people, and it may even find its way to Mubarak eventually. Other Mubarak funds are reportedly sitting in British banks, and Mubarak was no doubt wily enough to squire away some cash in unlikely places. Plus, an eventual exile deal could allow Mubarak to retain some of his wealth, no questions asked, as long as he and his family leave Egypt and make no further bids for power.

Epic skimming is a common privilege of Middle Eastern despots, and Mubarak and his two sons, Gamal and Alaa, were a bit less conspicuous than some of the Saudi princes and other Middle Eastern royals seen partying from time to time on the French Riviera or other hotspots. The family does reportedly own posh estates in London, New York, and Beverly Hills, plus a number of properties around the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, where Mubarak reportedly went after resigning the presidency.
Mubarak also spread the wealth far and wide in Egyptian power circles--another Middle Eastern tradition--one reason he incurred the kind of loyalty that allowed him to rule for a remarkable three decades. Top Army officials were almost certainly on his payroll, which might help explain why the Army eased him out in the end--allowing a kind of in-country exile--instead of hounding him out of Egypt or imprisoning him once it was clear the tide had turned against him for good.


 That money trail, in fact, will help determine whether Egypt becomes a more prosperous, democratic country, or continues to muddle along as an economic basket case. Even though he's out of power, Mubarak may still be able to influence the Army officials running the country, through the financial connections that made them all wealthy. And if not Mubarak, the next leader may be poised to start lining his pockets the same way Mubarak did. For Egypt to have a more effective, transparent economy, all of that will have to be cleaned up. There are probably a lot of people in Cairo who have been checking their bank balances lately.
 How Hosni Mubarak Got So Rich

For Wednesday 2/16

I linked the Laura Mulvey article to the Texts sidebar on this blog. Don't forget, we're meeting at 8 pm at Erin's house. If you don't know where that is, get up with someone else in the group. I'll be bringing something to share, likely gluten-free, vegan, and full of sugar.

"A Cheshire Cat is smiling down on Suleiman’s tea party."

Hey, I hope no one minds that I just linked my existing blogger acct to this blog.
This is another pretty good article about the demographic makeup of the Egyptian resistance.

Insurrection in North Africa: the story so far

(Tunisia and much more)
Insurrection in North Africa: the story so far

In the latest development in the rapidly escalating situation in North Africa, the Tunisian President has been forced out of power, a new government formed and a state of emergency declared in the face of what can only be described as a working class rebellion.

At the time of writing, a “national unity” government has been formed and security forces have attempted to crack down on the movement while the concessions such as the release of political prisoners are offered. Nonetheless, the demonstrations continue.
(NB - Events are developing at a rapid pace, and updates on the following can be found on this thread in the libcom forums, which has been indespensible in providing information for what follows.)
The international response to the uprising stands in stark contrast to that which greeted the 'green' demonstrations in Iran, in the case of Iran, we saw deafening condemnation, with Tunisia, deafening silence. The US, which condemned the Iranian government in the strongest terms for the repression it unleashed, has said that it “is not taking sides” between the government and protesters being shot in the streets. Clearly, demands for democracy and human rights do not apply to dictatorships aligned with the US. Britain has condemned the Tunisian protesters for their 'violence', joining official enemy Col Muammar Gaddafi in expressing their shared contempt for ordinary people taking their lives into their own hands through collective action.
Confiscation of vegetables
The immediate catalyst which initiated events was the attempted suicide of Mohammed Bouazizi on the 18th December. The 26 year old university graduate, who had doused himself with petrol and set himself alight in the city of Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia, would succumb to his injuries in the following month (but not before a cynical visit to his hospital bed by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali). Bouazizi's self-immolation in front of a government building was a desperate protest which summed up the dire prospects facing young people in Tunisia. Unable to find work, he had sold vegetables on the street illegally. The confiscation of his produce by the police had been the last straw.
Tunisia, frequently held up by interested Western governments as a model of stability in the Arab world, is racked by unemployment, inflation in the price of essentials, and widespread corruption. Unemployment is as high as 25% in many areas. It is particularly acute amongst university graduates – a situation repeated in neighbouring countries such as Morocco and Algeria, which has also been affected by unrest.
Protests and strikes are uncommon, and a previous wave of strikes and demonstrations over unemployment, housing, education and health in 2008 in the city of Gafsa in the South-West was met with heavy repression. Protesters and strikers were murdered, and many – including journalists covering events – were jailed arbitrarily as “ringleaders”. The state acted swiftly to prevent working class unrest spreading nationally, which has now materialised three years later. Repression has continued unabated since, but the brutality of the response to current events has only hardened the resolve of those involved.
Rapid escalation
Bouazizi's suicide led to a snowballing wave of protests and strike action which has yet to break. Riots broke out that day in Sidi Bouzid, which has served as the epicentre and spiritual home of the movement, with cars being destroyed and battles being fought with lines of police. They would go on to seal off the town in a failed attempt to prevent the uprising spreading to the rest of the country. A rough, and necessarily incomplete timeline follows:
21st December – Riots in the central Tunisian town of Menzel Bouzaiene. Police guns and teargas are met with molotov cocktails. At least one demonstrator is shot by police.
24th December - Demonstrators in Menzel Bouzaiene burn down offices of the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally party, a national guard post and destroy three police cars and a railway locomotive.1 They set up barricades outside the police station. Mohamed Ammari, 18 is killed by police. Chawki Belhoussine El Hadri, 44, would later die of injuries received from the police.
25th December – Protests reach Tunis, held in solidarity with the uprising in Sidi Bouzid.
26th December – A second, larger protest is held in Tunis. It is attacked by police using truncheons, and throwing stones.2 The police response is overseen by the Minister of the Interior in person. The injured are prevented from reaching hospital by the police. Clashes last for a couple of hours.
27th December – 1,000 rally in Tunis.
28th December – Security forces attack a rally organised by the Tunisian federation of labour unions in Gafsa, the site of large-scale struggle three years earlier and a centre for the mining industry.
-300 lawyers protest in Tunis, with at least two arrests. One of the arrested lawyers is tortured in custody.
-High school teacher's union demonstrates outside the ministry of education.
29th December & 30th December – Police break up demonstration in Monastir.
Protest in Sbikha is attacked by police.
-Demonstration in Chebba broken up, at least one demonstrator hospitalised.
31st December – Police shoot demonstrators in Bouziane, one protestor, an unemployed graduate, is killed.
3rd of January
-Clashes with police in the towns of Tela, Sfax, and Om Laarais.
-Student demonstration in lycée de Gronbalya, Tunis.
-Hackers take down several government websites, apparently in response to repression of attempts to report on the strikes and demonstrations.
-Demonstrators in Cairo declare their solidarity with the uprising in Tunisia.
4th January – Demonstrations are reported in Thala, 250 Kilometres west of Tunis, leading to clashes with police. Initiated by students from the four main colleges in the town, the protest draws in the unemployed. After it is attacked with tear gas, police besiege the colleges with the students and teachers still inside.
-Students demonstrate without interference in Sidi Bouzid.
-A sit-in is held in the Prep Institute of Civil Engineering by students in Tunis.
5th January – Education strike in Sfax reported on Facebook, apparently having begun at an earlier date.3
More demonstrations in Tunis.
-Protesting students attacked with rubber bullets and tear gas in Sousse.
-Armoured vehicles deployed in Thala, homes and markets raided.
6th January – Lawyers stage national strike.
8th January – More protests in Tala, close to the Algerian border. Police massacre 6 demonstrators.
-Fierce rioting in the Regueb, Thala et Kasserine areas, a brutal police crackdown leads to 35 deaths, as reported by the International Federation for Human Rights 4
9th January – Two demonstrators, Chihab Alibi and Youssef Fitour are shot dead by police in Miknassi.
12th January – General strike in Sfax, on the Mediterranean coast, called by the Tunisian Workers' Union. Large numbers of protesters gather in the centre of the town.
14th January – State of emergency declared, gathering of more than three people banned. Tanks deployed.
- Tens of thousands fill Habib Bourguiba Avenue in Tunis.
Ben Ali promises elections within 6 months, then flees the country, finding refuge in Saudi Arabia. Tunisia's prime minister takes control.
15th January – Prisoners rise up in two jails, leading to the deaths of 42 people in a prison in Monastir. In Mahdia soldiers kill 5 prisoners.
17th January - “National unity government” formed, various old regime figures are joined by those from the opposition. It is headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi, and promises to free political prisoners, ease restrictions on the press and hold new elections. Nonetheless, the protests continue.
-French photographer killed by Tunisian Police.
-Official death toll is put at 78.
-Protests continue, police fire on protesters and deploy teargas in Tunis.
A regional conflagration?
One of the most significant aspects of the uprising thus far has been the speed with which it has transcended national boundaries, as people in neighbouring countries drew lessons from one another. We know of demonstrations in various parts of Algeria, there have been reports of protests in Libya, and self-immolation protests have taken place in Egypt and Morocco.
Algeria
Demonstrations have erupted in neighbouring Algeria, with the immediate cause appearing to be the spike in the price of many essentials of 20-30% at the end of the year. More long-term issues are, like in Tunisia, unemployment (above 20% amongst the under-30s), and the lack of housing, which is an acute problem in urban areas.
29th December – Demonstrations in the Algiers suburb of Les Palmiers over the lack and quality of housing. Police attack the demonstration, arresting 29. 52 police are reported to have been injured in the fighting, as residents set up burning barricades and threw molotov cocktails.
3rd January – Tipaza hit by protests, roads blocked.
5th January – Barricades set in the Bab el Oued area of Algiers, police station stoned.
Roads blocked with tree trunks and burning barricades in the city of Oran
6th & 7th January – Two nights of rioting in Algeria, pitched battles in Algiers with demonstrators setting burning barricades and fighting police with fireworks, molotov cocktails and machetes. Police intensify repression.
7th January – Riots break out in Annaba, battles with police continue all night. A government office is ransacked. The attempts of Imams to quell the uprising by calling for “calm” during Friday prayers fail.
8th January – Two killed by police during riots – one in Ain Lahdjel, claimed by police to have been shot during an attack on a police station. The second was killed after being shot in the head with a tear gas canister in Bou Smail. A third death was announced as the result of a fire in a hotel.
Fresh protests in Kabylie.
17th January – Four self-immolation protests reported.
Information on the events in Algeria in mainstream sources has been limited since the week beginning 10th January; it is unclear whether this represents a demobilisation of protests or intensifying police repression.
Libya
Demonstrations over housing and standard of living issues have been reported in Libya. Much of this information has been disseminated over the internet via Facebook, Youtube and Twitter, and much has been simply rumoured due to the tight control over information in the country.
Protests erupted on the 14th of January over housing issues in various cities and continued for several days. On the 15th of January hundreds staged a mass squat of 800 vacant lots in Bani Walid in protest against the chronic lack of housing. Likewise 600 are reported to have occupied a residential development in Benghazi. Videos posted on Youtube showed demonstrations in Bidaa, Darna and Sabhaa. The police appear to be attempting to prevent the situation escalating along lines similar to Tunisia by avoiding large, violent crackdowns.
A working class uprising – how far will it go?
The fundamental class nature of the protests in North Africa is undeniable. In Tunisia, Algeria and Libya a generation of proletarianised youngsters have led mass protests, the immediate reason for which has been their desperate standard of living in countries which support a wealthy and transparently self-interested ruling class, less schooled in the modern techniques of bourgeois self-justification than their Western counterparts. The same issues are repeated in countries across the region. We will attempt a brief and preliminary survey of the class aspects of events here; again due to restrictions on information and rapidly developing events this survey is necessarily incomplete.
Expropriations
The uprisings in Tunisia and Algeria have involved the expropriation of goods from supermarkets, shops and warehouses during mass demonstrations. This is to be expected ; one of the immediate catalysts for the uprisings was the cost of essentials rising rapidly, with scarcity compounded by security forces shutting down the country. Moreover, during situations where working class people are becoming aware of their own power, respect for the nicities of commodity exchange evaporates, especially when money (or the lack of it) limits their access to the essentials of life. Such expropriations are a feature of all proletarian uprisings, as is the line on "violent looters" spun to justify brutal crackdowns.
Strikes – or the lack of them
Information on the extent to which strikes have formed part of the movement in North Africa is limited. We know of strikes by teachers in solidarity with protesting students. Likewise there have been calls for general strikes led by 'professional' workers such as lawyers, but it is unclear whether they were attended by workers more widely. We can say the same of the general strike called in Sfax - until more information is made available, it is hard to say to what extent it was observed. We know of strikes in the mining town of Gafsa, but again the scale of participation in these strikes is unclear. We do not know to what extent people have participated in organised strikes, or simply not gone to work due to the unrest on the streets. Lockouts after the state of emergency was declared would have precluded many strikes.
Obviously the unemployed and students who have formed the bulk of protesters on the streets do not have labour to withdraw in the same way as workers. Demonstrations, blockades and riots all can form part of class struggle, and can advance it by disrupting the economy and drawing lines of confrontation. Radicalisation by police truncheons can often push confrontation with the state further, and draw more people into events by making the role of the state in maintaining order through violence clear. However, all major uprisings have involved mass strike action, and the mass strike is a means by which the common interest of proletarians as working class and their power to cripple capital by expropriating the means of life from it can become clear. The direction and scale of the insurrection is likely to be determined by the extent to which strike action spreads through the economy.
Part of the explanation of our limited knowledge of strikes could be the focus of the media on street protests and the 'political' dimension presented by the calls to oust the current government. Strikes taking place in parallel may not be deemed newsworthy. On the other hand, it may be that there has not been generalised strike action. The role of tourism in Tunisia's economy, employing significant numbers of workers (half of the workforce is employed in the service sector) is not enough to account for this – industry such as manufacturing, mining and the oil industry accounts for a third of the workforce. This is the classic terrain for mass strikes of the kind that has been a feature of all historic working class uprisings, and this would have a significant effect in a major oil and minerals exporter such as Tunisia.
On the other hand it is important to bear in mind the effect a drop in tourism revenues can have in a country like Tunisa – a few global headlines about rioting can lead to the paralysis of a major section of the economy. Ben Ali called on rioters to stop due to fears about the decline in tourism, and was clear and vocal about this. Nonetheless, a generalised strike movement would be vital in broadening a specifically class consciousness, widening the movement and radicalising the situation.
Not a revolution – yet.
The media has been quick to label events in Tunisia a 'revolution', and the name ' the Jasmine revolution' has been rapidly applied to bring it in line with a range of other political revolutions which ushered in new governments (usually pro-US) in various countries. Such events are only 'revolutions' in a political sense, with one government replacing another. Tunisa has not yet seen a true revolution, as the rule of capital and the fundamental balance of power between classes in the country has not yet changed. Such a possibility would require the working class of the region to draw lessons from the radical display of their own power which has unfolded over the past weeks. Given that the fundamental issues - unemployment, high prices and poor housing cannot be solved by decree by governments even if they wanted to, it is unlikely that we will see the status quo return in North Africa any time soon.

Roots of Egyptian Revolutionary Moment

Egypt Info.

INFO:

Al-Jazeera Blog

Al-Jazeera

We are all Khaled Said

Neoliberalism is Denial.

 For the past dozen days Egyptians have revolted against a 30 year old dictatorship, headed by a decrepit old man, left over from the Cold War era.  Mubarak's regime, another long list of US foreign policy blunders going down in flames and again as all over the world "the people" are the cause! 

For the first time a revolt of this magnitude is happening before my/our eyes and the people who are participating are speaking loudly and clearly regarding as to why they occupying Tahrir (Liberation) Square. Regardless their loud voices and the Egyptians' own reasons, and there are a many reasons, the voices of opinion and authority on the big three: freedom, democracy, and capitalism keep repeating the same old fears and mantras in hoping that their facade does not come crashing down and expose their historically repeated hypocritical rhetoric of freedom, democracy, and capitalism.  The biggest insult was recently published in a Time magazine special report, Revolution: "How Democracy can Work in the Middle East" by the arrogant Fareed Zakaria.  As he dabbles in realpolitik and simultaneously romanticizes the Egyptian protests, he makes loud rhetorical statements about a transition to free-market democracy as if a transition to free-market democracy is some profound statement and not a stale and tired old concept that got Egypt and the rest of us in this position to begin with.  It truly confuses me that individuals who are perceived as smart individuals, movers and shakers, and contemporary intellectuals who are in the know are continuously making excuses and adding the word crony in front of capitalism to explain away the problem rather than actually look at the conditions produced to insure that exchange-value maintains its hold on global production and politics.  Atleast Zakaria is smart enough to not buy into the fear mongering brought on by Islamophobia or the ranting of the right who just want to unleash war on anyone and everyone.  Either way both the liberal and extreme-right just want to explain away the economic causes of revolt. 

With Egypt it is so hard for anyone within the Obama administration or on CNN to blatantly lie to us all and themselves regarding why Egypt is important for "us" and potentially a problem for the free-market.  Democracy is only productive and authentic as long as it elects a pro-business political machine which will then dictate to citizens through violence, marginalization, or spectacular commodities (alienation).  Even with the New York Times their articles contain an amount of worry with the possibility of Egyptians doing something that does not exactly fit within the greater plan capitalism has for the Arab World.

Today with strikes happening in Egypt, protests, and the continued occupation/liberation of Tahrir Square a Free Egypt has risen, an embryonic commune, but the free-market forces are starting to circle over the square in hopes of failure either bloody defeat or a spectacular parliamentary failure of representation and social poverty.

To hell with Zakaria's wet dreams of democratic capitalism...

To hell with glenn beck's fear of  a Muslim caliphate...

Long Live Tahrir Liberation Square!

West Backs Gradual Egyptian Transition. (Who do the Egyptians back?)

 

(Read between the lines and these articles become quite amazing!)
 
This article is by Kareem Fahim, Mark Landler and Anthony Shadid.


CAIRO — The United States and leading European nations on Saturday threw their weight behind Egypt’s vice president, Omar Suleiman, backing his attempt to defuse a popular uprising without immediately removing President Hosni Mubarak from power.
American officials said Mr. Suleiman had promised them an “orderly transition” that would include constitutional reform and outreach to opposition groups.

“That takes some time,” Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton said, speaking at a Munich security conference. “There are certain things that have to be done in order to prepare.”
But the formal endorsement came as Mr. Suleiman appeared to reject the protesters’ main demands, including the immediate resignation of Mr. Mubarak and the dismantling of a political system built around one-party rule, according to leaders of a small, officially authorized opposition party who spoke with Mr. Suleiman on Saturday.

Nor has Mr. Suleiman, a former general, former intelligence chief and Mr. Mubarak’s longtime confidant, yet reached out to the leaders designated by the protesters to negotiate with the government, opposition groups said.

Instead of loosening its grip, the existing government appeared to be consolidating its power: The prime minister said police forces were returning to the streets, and an army general urged protesters to scale back their occupation of Tahrir Square.
Protesters interpreted the simultaneous moves by the Western leaders and Mr. Suleiman as a rebuff to their demands for an end to the dictatorship led for almost three decades by Mr. Mubarak, a pivotal American ally and pillar of the existing order in the Middle East.
Just days after President Obama demanded publicly that change in Egypt must begin right away, many in the streets accused the Obama administration of sacrificing concrete steps toward genuine change in favor of a familiar stability.

“America doesn’t understand,” said Ibrahim Mustafa, 42, who was waiting to enter Tahrir Square. “The people know it is supporting an illegitimate regime.”

Leaders of the Egyptian opposition and rank-and-file protesters have steadfastly rejected any negotiations with Mr. Suleiman until after the ouster of Mr. Mubarak, arguing that moving toward democracy will require ridding the country of not only its dictator but also his rubber-stamp Parliament and a Constitution designed for one-party rule.

On Saturday, Mr. Mubarak’s party announced a shake-up that removed its old guard, including his son Gamal, from the party’s leadership while installing younger, more reform-minded figures. But such gestures were quickly dismissed as cosmetic by analysts and opposition figures.
Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Suleiman “are trying to kill what has happened and to contain and abort the revolution,” said Hassan Nafaa, a political science professor at Cairo University. “They want to continue to manage the country like they did while making some concessions.”

Mrs. Clinton’s message, echoed by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, and reinforced in a flurry of calls by President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to Egyptian and regional leaders, appears to reflect an attempt at balancing calls for systemic change with some semblance of legal order and stability.

Mrs. Clinton said Mr. Mubarak, having taken himself and Gamal out of the September elections, was already effectively sidelined. She emphasized the need for Egypt to reform its Constitution to make a vote credible. “That is what the government has said it is trying to do,” she said.
She also stressed the dangers of holding elections without adequate preparation. “Revolutions have overthrown dictators in the name of democracy, only to see the process hijacked by new autocrats who use violence, deception and rigged elections to stay in power,” she said.

Her emphasis on a deliberate process was repeated by Mrs. Merkel and Mr. Cameron. Mrs. Merkel mentioned her past as a democracy activist in East Germany, recalling the impatience of protesters after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, to immediately join democratic West Germany. But the process took a year, and it was time well spent, she said.
“There will be a change in Egypt,” Mrs. Merkel said, “but clearly, the change has to be shaped in a way that it is a peaceful, a sensible way forward.”
Mrs. Clinton highlighted fears about deteriorating security inside Egypt, noting the explosion at a gas pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula, and uncorroborated news reports of an earlier assassination attempt on Mr. Suleiman.

American officials did not confirm that an assassination attempt had taken place. But Mrs. Clinton referred to reports of the attempt and said it “certainly brings into sharp relief the challenges we are facing as we navigate through this period.”

In a statement, the Egyptian government said there had been no assassination attempt, but added that on Jan. 28 a car in Mr. Suleiman’s motorcade was struck by a bullet fired by “criminal elements.”
At the same Munich meeting on Saturday, Frank G. Wisner, the former ambassador President Obama sent to Cairo to negotiate with Mr. Mubarak, appeared to take an even softer line on the existing government, saying that the United States should not rush to push Mr. Mubarak out the door. He said Mr. Mubarak had a critical role to play through the end of his presidential term in September.

“You need to get a national consensus around the preconditions of the next step forward, and the president must stay in office in order to steer those changes through,” Mr. Wisner said.
The administration later said Mr. Wisner’s comments did not reflect official policy. “The views he expressed today are his own. He did not coordinate his comments with the U.S. government,” said Philip J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman.

White House officials said Friday that they were privately pushing Mr. Suleiman to sideline Mr. Mubarak and eliminate his executive role well before the September elections.
But the mixed signals fueled concerns in Egypt that the administration, which has tried to juggle endorsement of change and continued order, had effectively turned its back on the core demands of those involved in the protest movement.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate who has been chosen to negotiate on behalf of the protesters and other opposition groups, said the American-backed plan for a gradual transition with Mr. Mubarak remaining in power was a nonstarter. “I do not think it’s adequate,” he said in an interview. “I’m not talking about myself. It’s not adequate for the people.
“Mubarak needs to go,” he said. “It has become an emotional issue. They need to see his back, there’s no question about it.”

Protesters also said that Western worries about security and orderly transitions sounded remarkably like Mr. Mubarak’s age-old excuses for postponing change. And they said they had waited long enough.
“We don’t want Omar Suleiman to take Mubarak’s place. We are not O.K. with this regime at all,” said Omar el-Shawy, a young online activist. “We want a president who is a civilian.”
There were few indications that Mr. Suleiman and other officials were making much progress in addressing concerns of opposition groups.

Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, the secretary general of the opposition Wafd Party, said that in a meeting with Mr. Suleiman on Saturday, the vice president told him that Mr. Mubarak’s leaving early “was out of the question.” He also ruled out any transfer of Mr. Mubarak’s responsibilities.
Mr. Abdel-Nour said that he brought up the possibility of repealing Egypt’s emergency law, which allows the authorities to arrest people without charges. According to Mr. Abdel-Nour, Mr. Suleiman responded: “At a time like this?”

Negotiations between Mr. Suleiman and a group of self-appointed “wise men” who are acting as intermediaries between the vice president and the protesters, and trying to find a way around limits on succession in the Constitution, did not advance significantly.
Amr Hamzawy, one of the intermediaries, said the negotiations were “gaining traction,” but added that his group did not meet with Mr. Suleiman on Saturday. The intermediaries, whose efforts have received the tacit encouragement of Western governments, have forwarded a plan that would see Mr. Mubarak transfer his powers to Mr. Suleiman and perhaps move to his home in Sharm el-Sheik or embark on one of his annual medical leaves to Germany.

In Tahrir Square, meanwhile, the military tightened its cordon around the protesters by reinforcing security checks at all the entrances. An army officer, Brig. Gen. Hassan al-Rawaini, negotiated with protesters outside a barricade near the Egyptian Museum, urging them to bring down the fortifications, allow traffic to return and move their protest to the heart of Tahrir Square.


In contrast to the pitched clashes of just days ago, General Rawaini offered a microphone to protesters so that they could air their complaints. He tried to reason, kissing some on the head and pinching others’ cheeks. Occasionally, he winked.

Eventually, he and his soldiers moved past the makeshift barricade, knocking part of it down, though protesters quickly put back up the sheets of corrugated tin, barrels, metal rebar and parts of fences. He then toured an area strewn with rocks from the clashes and incinerated vehicles that served as barricades. Some protesters thought he was preparing for the army to enter and began forming human chains across the streets. Others chanted “Peaceful!” and formed a bodyguard around the general.

“He wants to tear down these barricades, so that the tanks can come through!” shouted Sayyid Eid, a 20-year-old protester, as he tried to block his way.
“We’re going to die here!” yelled Magdi Abdel-Rahman, another protester.
“Listen to him! Listen to him!” others shouted back.
Tempers cooled and General Rawaini made a leisurely stroll to a makeshift health clinic, then visited knots of protesters across the square with a retinue of soldiers.
“We’re trying to remove the barricades and return the streets to normal,” General Rawaini said. “If you want to protest, you can go back to the square.”
A protester shouted back, “General, we’re not going to walk away from here until Hosni Mubarak leaves!”

NY Times article West Backs Egyptian Transition.

Egypt Update, “There are no leaders at all.”

"“Right now, it’s all here, protecting Tahrir Square,” said Hisham Kassem, a veteran activist and publisher, who kept a wary eye on barricades built with corrugated tin, wrecked cars and trucks, barrels, buckets filed with sand and metal railing torn from the curb. “We keep it tonight, and tomorrow the whole country is going to come out.” 

"Protesters accused government supporters of trying to block them from delivering supplies to the square, but boxes of water, bananas, yogurt and medicine still made it in. The Internet was working. Volunteers swept the streets, pushing piles of rocks to the curb that looked like bluffs of snow. Doctors staffed first-aid clinics, near graffiti that read, “We are writing the history of a free Egypt,” and men frisked people entering for weapons. " 


"Lobna Elshoky and Nora Abusamra, both 25, swept trash into a plastic bag. “We also brought food and water,” Ms. Abusamra said.
A dentist from Aswan, Mohamed Mustafa, traveled 600 miles to be at the antigovernment protest. “I was expecting to find the Wafd were the leaders, or the Brotherhood were the leaders,” he said, speaking of two of Egypt’s best-known opposition movements. But what he found was far better, he said. “There are no leaders at all.”

" The only real leaders seem to be the young people who have returned to the barricades, again and again, for days now."

“We don’t need a leader,” said one of them, Amira Magdy, 22. “This system is beautiful.”  

“We want the young people to be the ones to form a negotiating committee.”  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
New York Times articles on Egyptian Insurrection/Revolt:
Chaos in the Streets, Anthony Shadid. (An article that addresses the defense of "Free Egypt", Liberation Square, street battles, and autonomy).

Some Fear a Street Movement’s Leaderless Status May Become a Liability, (We Dont). 
(Doctors, construction workers, young, old, poor, professionals, etc... give present the world with both physical and verbal examples and reasons on the merits of autonomy and politicizing your everyday life.)

 Interactive map on The Battle for Liberation Square (Tahrir Square).

Rebel Press: Opposition Says Mubarak Must Go.

Yes We Can (dictate who will rule Egypt).

  Egypt protests: Hillary Clinton signals US backing for Omar Suleiman

US secretary of state stresses need for orderly transition headed by vice-president

The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton today signalled how far the US has swung its support behind vice-president Omar Suleiman and the transition process he is leading in Egypt.
Clinton was speaking at a security conference in Munich today, where the watchword on Egypt was the need for orderly transition.
In her most striking remarks, the US secretary of state said:

"There are forces at work in any society, particularly one that is facing these kind of challenges, that will try to derail or overtake the process to pursue their own agenda, which is why I think it's important to follow the transition process announced by the Egyptian government, actually headed by vice-president Omar Suleiman."

She was presumably referring ito Suleiman's leadership of the transition rather than the government, but US officials have told their European colleagues that they view Suleiman as increasingly in control.
Clinton went on to say the transition should be transparent and inclusive, while setting out "concrete steps", moving towards orderly elections in September. She listed with approval the steps the Egyptian government had taken so far.
"President Mubarak has announced he will not stand for re-election nor will his son … He has given a clear message to his government to lead and support this process of transition," Clinton said.
"That is what the government has said it is trying to do, that is what we are supporting, and hope to see it move as orderly but as expeditiously as possible under the circumstances."
David Cameron and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, speaking at the same conference, echoed the call for an orderly transition and cautioned against early elections.
But Cameron denied there was a trade-off between the speed of reform and stability.
"There is no stability in Egypt. We need change, reform and transition to get stability," the prime minister said. "The longer that is put off, the more likely we are to get an Egypt that we wouldn't welcome."
British officials said they were encouraged by the developments of the past 24 hours, pointing to the role of the army in preventing attacks on the demonstrators and the opening of a dialogue between Suleiman and opposition groups.
"It does have to be led by the Egyptian government but we do need a road map," one official said.
Julian Borger in Munich 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/05/hillary-clinton-omar-suleiman-egypt

It's not radical Islam that worries the US – it's independence

The nature of any regime it backs in the Arab world is secondary to control. Subjects are ignored until they break their chains

'The Arab world is on fire," al-Jazeera reported last week, while throughout the region, western allies "are quickly losing their influence". The shock wave was set in motion by the dramatic uprising in Tunisia that drove out a western-backed dictator, with reverberations especially in Egypt, where demonstrators overwhelmed a dictator's brutal police.
Observers compared it to the toppling of Russian domains in 1989, but there are important differences. Crucially, no Mikhail Gorbachev exists among the great powers that support the Arab dictators. Rather, Washington and its allies keep to the well-established principle that democracy is acceptable only insofar as it conforms to strategic and economic objectives: fine in enemy territory (up to a point), but not in our backyard, please, unless properly tamed.

One 1989 comparison has some validity: Romania, where Washington maintained its support for Nicolae Ceausescu, the most vicious of the east European dictators, until the allegiance became untenable. Then Washington hailed his overthrow while the past was erased. That is a standard pattern: Ferdinand Marcos, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Chun Doo-hwan, Suharto and many other useful gangsters. It may be under way in the case of Hosni Mubarak, along with routine efforts to try to ensure a successor regime will not veer far from the approved path. The current hope appears to be Mubarak loyalist General Omar Suleiman, just named Egypt's vice-president. Suleiman, the longtime head of the intelligence services, is despised by the rebelling public almost as much as the dictator himself.

A common refrain among pundits is that fear of radical Islam requires (reluctant) opposition to democracy on pragmatic grounds. While not without some merit, the formulation is misleading. The general threat has always been independence. The US and its allies have regularly supported radical Islamists, sometimes to prevent the threat of secular nationalism.

A familiar example is Saudi Arabia, the ideological centre of radical Islam (and of Islamic terror). Another in a long list is Zia ul-Haq, the most brutal of Pakistan's dictators and President Reagan's favorite, who carried out a programme of radical Islamisation (with Saudi funding).
"The traditional argument put forward in and out of the Arab world is that there is nothing wrong, everything is under control," says Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian official and now director of Middle East research for the Carnegie Endowment. "With this line of thinking, entrenched forces argue that opponents and outsiders calling for reform are exaggerating the conditions on the ground."

Therefore the public can be dismissed. The doctrine traces far back and generalises worldwide, to US home territory as well. In the event of unrest, tactical shifts may be necessary, but always with an eye to reasserting control.

The vibrant democracy movement in Tunisia was directed against "a police state, with little freedom of expression or association, and serious human rights problems", ruled by a dictator whose family was hated for their venality. So said US ambassador Robert Godec in a July 2009 cable released by WikiLeaks.
Therefore to some observers the WikiLeaks "documents should create a comforting feeling among the American public that officials aren't asleep at the switch" – indeed, that the cables are so supportive of US policies that it is almost as if Obama is leaking them himself (or so Jacob Heilbrunn writes in The National Interest.)

"America should give Assange a medal," says a headline in the Financial Times, where Gideon Rachman writes: "America's foreign policy comes across as principled, intelligent and pragmatic … the public position taken by the US on any given issue is usually the private position as well."
In this view, WikiLeaks undermines "conspiracy theorists" who question the noble motives Washington proclaims.

Godec's cable supports these judgments – at least if we look no further. If we do,, as foreign policy analyst Stephen Zunes reports in Foreign Policy in Focus, we find that, with Godec's information in hand, Washington provided $12m in military aid to Tunisia. As it happens, Tunisia was one of only five foreign beneficiaries: Israel (routinely); the two Middle East dictatorships Egypt and Jordan; and Colombia, which has long had the worst human-rights record and the most US military aid in the hemisphere.

Heilbrunn's exhibit A is Arab support for US policies targeting Iran, revealed by leaked cables. Rachman too seizes on this example, as did the media generally, hailing these encouraging revelations. The reactions illustrate how profound is the contempt for democracy in the educated culture.
Unmentioned is what the population thinks – easily discovered. According to polls released by the Brookings Institution in August, some Arabs agree with Washington and western commentators that Iran is a threat: 10%. In contrast, they regard the US and Israel as the major threats (77%; 88%).
Arab opinion is so hostile to Washington's policies that a majority (57%) think regional security would be enhanced if Iran had nuclear weapons. Still, "there is nothing wrong, everything is under control" (as Muasher describes the prevailing fantasy). The dictators support us. Their subjects can be ignored – unless they break their chains, and then policy must be adjusted.

Other leaks also appear to lend support to the enthusiastic judgments about Washington's nobility. In July 2009, Hugo Llorens, U.S. ambassador to Honduras, informed Washington of an embassy investigation of "legal and constitutional issues surrounding the 28 June forced removal of President Manuel 'Mel' Zelaya."
The embassy concluded that "there is no doubt that the military, supreme court and national congress conspired on 28 June in what constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup against the executive branch". Very admirable, except that President Obama proceeded to break with almost all of Latin America and Europe by supporting the coup regime and dismissing subsequent atrocities.
Perhaps the most remarkable WikiLeaks revelations have to do with Pakistan, reviewed by foreign policy analyst Fred Branfman in Truthdig.

The cables reveal that the US embassy is well aware that Washington's war in Afghanistan and Pakistan not only intensifies rampant anti-Americanism but also "risks destabilising the Pakistani state" and even raises a threat of the ultimate nightmare: that nuclear weapons might fall into the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Again, the revelations "should create a comforting feeling … that officials are not asleep at the switch" (Heilbrunn's words) – while Washington marches stalwartly toward disaster.

© 2011 Noam Chomsky
Its not radical islam that worries the US--its independence, the guardian uk by N.Chomsky 

The Coming Insurrection (Even Glenn Beck agrees).

    

Live Update of  Protests:

Live wire feed updates

The Guardian (probably the only mainstream newspaper paper worth a damn). 

NY TIMES: Allies and Foes Clash

And dont forget about Tunisia, 

General Info: North Africa is going up in flames and here is some info.

Tunisia: Insurrection in North Africa , Libcom on Tunisia 

Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, ALL of Northen Africa?!

Class warfare and riotous revolt is happening and World leaders are at a loss! Sec. Clinton went from arrogantly supporting the Egyptian regime on friday of last week and claiming that the government was "stable" to stating there needs to be a smooth and peaceful transition which mets the Egyptian people's needs.

I am no mind reader but I am willing to wager that Sec. Clinton thinks that smooth, peaceful, and democratic transition means a democratic spectacular election which reaffirms the democratic neoliberal class relations which continuously produce these ruptures in the first place.  These "masters of the universe" are unable to look upon Egypt as anything but an opportunity. 

In the US leaders, pundits, and wacky hockey moms from Alaska are basically calling for the same thing, law and order.  Rachel Maddow recently pointed out that John Bolton, former UN ambassador under Bush Jr. thought that the ruptures in Egypt was a great reason to bomb Iran.  Some Fox News idiot somehow thought it was actually possible for Sarah Palin to gather up the US military forces and invade Egypt. 


But the best for last, Glenn Beck and his chalkboard (crystal ball) declared that The Coming Insurrection  is upon us!  Is Glenn Beck actually part of the Invisible Committee because for the past year and half he constantly holds the book up, talks about it, and shows us riot porn from all over the world. Conspiracy is everywhere!  

It is always strategic to read, listen, and watch what the liberals, conservatives, and the paranoid right have to say regarding events and moments because their reactions will usually point you in the right direction, as far away from them and closer to "the people", the multitude, and the action. 

The New York Times recently produced a decent article regarding the breakout of class war in Cairo and quoted Ayman Adbel Al, 43, a civil engineer inspecting the damage with his two teenage sons, blamed Mr. Mubarak, arguing that he had allowed the growing class divisions in Egyptian society to build up for years until they exploded last week.  

“I can say that I am well off, but I hate it, too. It is not humanitarian,” he said, showing a picture of himself with his family at the protests Saturday. The only people who wanted Mr. Mubarak to stay in power, he argued, were rich people “afraid for their money.”

What is happening all over North Africa today feels historically similar to the early the 1950/60s anti-colonial struggles as well as to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in the 70s.  The similarities are both inspiring and cautionary if compared to the Iranian situation where students, workers, and clerics united to oust the western backed dictator of Iran which then resulted in the jailing and violent suppression of workers and students, as the Ayatollah rose to power on the backs of popular revolt (dont take my word for it though, I am only vaguely familiar with the Iranian revolt, plus an Iranian exile told me all about it on the bus once).  The events in Egypt and North Africa will unfold and I am assuming that the people's will willcontinue no matter what concessions are offered by the Spectacle. 

Libcom.org has offered up some good articles:

Egypt at the Tipping Point?

Egypt Unrest