Nobody in Egypt has ever seen so many people in one place. The idea of marching seems to have been dropped as all the streets around the square are packed full of people. The atmosphere is generally joyous, but with intermittent cries of mourning for the dead of the past week.
— phoned in from Tahrir square, 5:15pm
source: From Tahrir Square | http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?p=241
source: http://buildingapowerfulleft.org
On today’s first installment of Building A Powerful Left in the United States: We start out with Dolores Huerta, and talk about her initiative to Weave Movements Together – which certainly sounds like a good strategy to build a left.
Anthony Arnove provides some historical perspective. Arnove worked closely with the late historian Howard Zinn on the book”Voices of a People’s History of the United States.”
We then speak to Stephen Duncombe, a professor of media studies at NYU. While we must learn from history, we must also recognize what is unique about the moment we’re in now, and one aspect of that is a media landscape that evolves seemingly at breakneck speed, week by week.
Then we talk to Bill Fletcher Jr., and start to get into the brass tacks of what a powerful Left could look like, how it might be organized, and what ideas may animate that.
Lastly, we’ll hear from Stanley Aronowitz, a man who has devoted his long career into looking at the Left in the United States, and we’ll hear him focus on certain central points that he feels need to be addressed as the Left revitalizes itself in the present.
Listen:
The last remaining internet connection in Cairo (the one we have been using to update this blog) has just been shut down (11pm Egyptian time). Sources say all the mobile phone lines will again be cut off tonight.
But despite the media blackout a million man march has been organized for 9am tomorrow morning, from Tahrir square to the presidential palace.
Spirits remain high, everyone knows that the time of this regime is over.
– Phoned in from Cairo, 11:10pm.
source: Tomorrow we will march on the palace | http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?p=3
Another night spent out in the streets as one man clings to power even if it is to the detriment of several million. The world watches, silently, waiting for the tyrant to bring those people to their knees so that their lives don’t risk being disrupted.
The night was pleasant, even though reports of gun fire and danger were delivered consistently throughout the night. The early hours of the evening seemed like the middle of the night, a scene very uncharacteristic of Cairo where heavy traffic doesn’t stop till an hour or two past midnight. The atmosphere is very communal, young men and old around camp fires, others playing football in the blocked off street. The streets are ours minus the menacing cars that were always stuck in traffic. It was like going to a cafe to meet people without the service.
In the distance, gun shots could be heard and rumors of ongoing battles and such. Still, the people armed with sticks and stones prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.
People stuck together and worked together. Some went to protest, others guarded the neighborhood. There’s no one on our side but ourselves. The whole regime is against us without sympathy for the rights we ask for. The police are certainly the most venomous, but there are others. The army so far has not harmed the people, which is something people may have expected anyway from a treacherous ruler. The people look thankfully upon the army for doing its job, something which all other government bodies have failed to do for years and years. But the army still follows the order of one man who puts his interests above all others. I’ve wondered how so much control can be exerted over honorable men without question.
The internet is still amiss, and it will not be up again till the revolution is quelled. The US continues its hypocrisy with very weak responses to a villainous regime. The people, like prisoners out of control, are being herded in, intimidated and conspired against.
I always thought this revolution was about loyalties. The turning of loyalty is key to victory. Some people will choose to betray their brethren to serve a dictator, others will betray the dictator to serve their brethren. Some people will betray their values, others may find them.
That’s the funny thing about people, they’re unpredictable, some of them anyway. Who knows what a person wants, and why they want it, but those who find themselves wanting a better future for their children will give people what’s rightfully theirs.
source: Gun Shots and Coffee | http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?p=155
After 5 days of unprecedented popular dissent in Egypt, protestors are still on the main square in downtown Cairo demanding the resignation of President Mubarak and his entire government, and saying they will not settle for anything less. After 30 years of brutal police oppression the people have finally risen and do not seem to be backing down.
Downtown Cairo was an incredible scene tonight. Tahrir Square was filled with 1000s of protestors, some of whom erected tents on the square’s grassy central island. Roads leading off the square were filled with people strolling about streets empty of traffic, filled with anti-regime graffiti. The road next to the Interior Ministry was a warzone of burnt out cars and smashed windows. Above all there was a sense of joy, of freedom and the possibility of change.
source: Sunday night in Cairo | http://www.occupiedlondon.org/cairo/?p=143