Cairo Military Crackdown

The Egyptian military want to maintain power, they want to snuff out the voice of protest on the streets of egypt

here is a visual summary of some of the bloodiest of those days



here are some of the latest accounts of the extents the army generals are willing to go

My new friend and hero

Updated: Few images of military attack on Tahrir square december 17 despite media blackout

First military attack on Tahrir square by @mostafasheshtawy



Army solider strip the shirt off a female protestor beat and abuse her



if you look closely you see the attack on her and what appears to be a young boy from another angle



One of the final livestreams of the military attack on Tahrir square



all live streams shut down in attempt for media blackout

Tents before


and after the attack



the field hospital in the middle of the square reportedly had the same plight

more raw footage of blatant military violence, live fire wounds on demonstrators



main road to Tahrir square closed off with a barricade and then later with a wall



Next military clear nearby squares





and chase protesters into the upper class nieghborhood of zamalek



later in the early afternoon



This report from aljazeera english was their last



soon thereafter





In his public address, the Ganzouri reiterates a promise he made when the military generals appointed him after the most recent massacre in Tahrir square end of November

"I said and I am still reiterating that we will never confront any peaceful demonstrations with any kind of violence, even the verbal kind," he said. "I am committed to this."

after seeing these images, judge for yourself

other reports of cameras confiscated, broken, journalists harassed and threatened by phone

thank you world for believing in our "democratic transition," this is why we don't go to vote. the generals overseeing this massacre oversee our elections

the reason we held the #occupycabinet sit-in at the parliament building was to protest the illegitimacy of the appointment of x-muburak era prime minister kamal ganzouri who justified all these attacks, calling to an end to military trials of civilians, calling for the trial of those carrying out these violent crimes

in an attempt to quash any resistance to the illegitimate military that is trying to snuff out a revolutionary spirit of a people suppressed and exploited for decades

around 6pm December 17th a massive march streams into Tahrir square in memory of Sheikh Effat, one of the demonstrators the military had murdered the day before.



and all this in light of yesterdays violent attacks, arrest, torture, murder of demonstrators

that all began with the kidnap and torture of one protester called Aboudi from the #occupycabinet sit-in



more videos here

Freedom Riders: Resisting apartheid

On the 15th of November, Palestinian activists from the West Bank boarded a segregated Israeli bus used by Israeli settlers to Jerusalem in an attempt to highlight the regime of discrimination on freedom of movement in place in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the fact that Palestinians cannot access Jerusalem freely. After boarding the bus without incidents, the bus was stopped at the Hizme checkpoint, where all the activists were arrested and violently forcibly removed from the bus.

In Egypt: Preparing for elections, torturing 17 year old Sayed

"The Law is outside itself" -Giorgio Agamben

Sunday, October 30, 2011
Statement of Solidarity: Alaa Abd El Fattah Boycotts Military Trials

We, the Campaign to End the Military Trials of Civilians, condemn in the strongest possible terms the imprisonment of prominent Egyptian activist and blogger, Alaa Abd el Fattah and the unjust and illegal system of military tribunals implemented by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) since becoming rulers of Egypt on January the 28th, 2011.


Today Alaa Abd El Fattah was summoned to the Military Prosecutor's office, accused of assaulting military personnel, stealing and destroying military weaponry and inciting violence against the military in the events of 9 October at Maspero. On questioning, Abd El Fattah declined to answer the prosecutor’s questions, stating that it is illegal and a clear conflict of interest for the military, as a party accused of a crime in the same events, to hold proceedings or adjudicate fairly. He was sent to detention pending further military investigation.

As of today we refuse to co-operate with the military prosecution of civilians and we call on all Egyptian citizens to stand with us.

At least 12,000 Egyptian civilians have been subjected to summary, covert military trials. The accused are often denied counsel, the opportunity to review evidence or examine witnesses; there are limited avenues of appeal. Eighteen death sentences have been handed down so far.

Abd El Fattah's targeting is only the latest example of the systematic targeting of journalists, media figures, bloggers and activists by SCAF.

Abd El Fattah is being held responsible for violence on October 9th, the night when the Army killed at least 28 peaceful protesters and injured several hundred more. Several respected human rights organisation have attested to this.

Furthermore, it is perverse that Mina Daniel is listed as the first name on the Military Prosecutor's list of the accused. Mina Daniel was killed by military gunfire on October 9th.


Abd El Fattah is now being held for fifteen days in prison by a body which has no legal authority to do so. The fifteen days can be renewed indefinitely. Twenty eight more people are in jail against the background of the same event. Mina Daniel and others have already paid with their lives.

We demand that Alaa Abd El Fattah be freed immediately, that military trials of civilians be stopped and all those sentenced thus far be released or, at least, retried before civilian courts. We support all of those who similarly refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the military prosecution.

This is not the new Egypt we have fought and died for.


For more information please visit Tahrir Diaries or contact us at nomiltrials@gmail.com

and some moving images:

من مؤتمر صحفي لاحداث ماسبيرو

Workers of the Ideal Factory go on Strike

one of the best videos on Egyptian workers I have seen in a long time by Dina Abdalla @indtvblog

Remarking January 25- A Series of Six

An event does not happen in a circle- more likely in a broken sphere. 

The wave of protest that lead to the January 25 Revolution did not start in Tahrir.
It occurred  in places, spaces, some of which were hidden, unspoken of, some darker than others. In every telling of histories there are silenced moments, yet every moment has its voice.
Detached and intertwined, these are six stories of the Egyptian "January 25 Revolution"- told by some of the silenced voices. Filmed violently. Collected and edited by Intifadat Intifadat. 



Cairo Intifada (6:00)

On January 28th 2011 hundreds of thousands of Egyptians went to the streets all across the country with one aim: to oust a political regime void of legitimacy. Cairo Intifada follows protestors in the Cairene neighborhood of Imbaba.



The Downfall of Mubarak (6:23)

On February 10th Hosni Mubarak makes one last TV appearance before the Egyptians successfully oust him from power the following day. Experience the transition.



These people are not leaving- Mahalla workers in the January 25 Revolution (6:47)

Since 2006 the 21,000 workers of the Mahalla Textile Company have been striking and protesting against the suppressive economic policies of the Egyptian regime. Without these actions the January 25 revolution may never have come about. On February 17th 2011 the workers are back on strike.



We were imprisoned in our clothes- The workers of Turah in the January 25 Revolution (6:54)

"My son, my niece, my cousin, my father - they're all in Midan Tahrir too. I am no different. The whole country is demanding their rights. I demand my rights too." said Abdalla one of the workers carrying out a weeks long sit-in in the neighborhood of Turah. The revolution in the factory space.



We Want Freedom- The Story of Mohamed Zaghloul (2:59)

On his way home from work Mohamed Zaghloul experiences a citizen's arrest. Members of a popular committee stop him, beat him and hand him over to the military police. There he is tortured and faced with up to a five year prison sentence.


We will not return to the era of slavery- Fighting the Anti-Strike Law (4:57)

On April 12, two months after the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces secretly pass a new decree outlawing all strikes, protests and sit-ins. The street and the workers react.

The trial outside the court المحاكمة برة المحكمة

ده مش الموضوع
this is not the issue



ده الموضوع
this is the issue

ام خالد- ام شهيد ثورة ٢٥ يناير
Om Khaled- the mother of a martyr of January 25 revolution


ام محمود- ام شهيد ٢٥ يناير
Om Mahmoud- the mother of a martyr of January 25 revolution


ابو محمد- اب شهيد ٢٥ يناير
Abu Mohamed- the father of a martyr of January 25 revolution


مصطفى مرسي، اب شهيد ثورة ٢٥ يناير
Mostafa Morsy- the father of a martyr of January 25 revolution


ابو موحاب، اب شهيد ثورة ٢٥ يناير
Abu Mohab- the father of a martyr of January 25 revolution


تارق، اخ شهيد ثورة ٢٥ يناير
Tariq- the brother of a martyr of January 25 revolution

Tahrir August 1st: Masquerading a Lost Legitimacy

At 2:16 in this clip you hear a crowd chanting, “al-geish wal shae'b, eed wahda” or “the army and people are one hand, united.” This is the absurd anthem that has rung throughout Cairo since military forces were deployed on Egypt's streets on January 28th. There is certainly a fetish among wide portions of the Egyptian public with the male machismo of the military, hence the cheering on of green mannequins’ phallic clasp of the gun facing the “dirty” demonstrators.

Read On

هو صندوق النقد الدولي بيعمل ايه في مصر؟

ايه هو صندوق النقد الدولي؟


حكومة أحمد نظيف و سياسات صندوق النقد الدولي


إيه علاقة سياسات صندوق النقد الدولي بثورة 25 يناير؟


ايه هدف صندوق النقد من تقديم القروض لمصر بعد ثورة ٢٥؟


هل يوجد بدائل لقرض صندوق النقد الدولي؟

pity the nation دولة تثير الشفقة

p.s. watch it full screen in hd

"The food crisis is the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model”
-Hugo Chavez

Since the late 70s the Egyptian government has started the country on a course to economic liberalization. This entails the rolling back of the government's responsibilities across all public sectors, the lowering of import tariffs and an increased drive for exports. One of the sectors hardest hit by these policies is Egyptian agriculture. Due to liberalization of land laws that the government implemented in 1999, land rent prices have gone through the roof as they are now determined by the "market" rather than fixed agreements between landowners and small farmers working the land. Prior to the introduction of this new law, the state played a role in protecting small farmers from landlessness. For generations families inhabiting and working small land plots had a certain right to the land they worked. Up until 1999, if landowners wanted to move farmers from their land and use the land otherwise, they had to pay the families half the land's value. When the Egyptian authorities implemented this new land law nearly one million farmers became landless and largely left their farming practices completely. Furthermore, government subsidies with the aim of supporting agricultural production by small farmers has nearly disappeared forcing small farmers to compete with an increasing number of agri-businesses in Egypt. The government is keen on increasing exports to their northern trade partners to gain profits in foreign currency. This has meant that the government sells arable desert land to entrepreneurs at extremely low prices, while going so far as to provide subsidies per exported ton on certain produce. These policies are jeopardizing the very existence of small farmers in Egypt while tying Egyptian food prices to international markets and decreasing the possibility for Egypt to maintain food self-sufficiency. 

In "Pity The Nation" we will meet traditional farmer, Hagg Desouki, in the village of Ghnama in Egypt's nile delta. We will hear from Hagg Desouki why he has changed the types of crops he once planted and how his farming practices have changed due to the Egyptian government's change in agricultural policies. We will follow Hagg Desouki as he picks his crop of green peppers and transports them to the local vegetable market for sale on local Egyptian markets. Certain vegetables are disappearing from these markets while prices according to government statistics have increased 45% in the past year. In contrast we will visit Dina Farms one of Egypt's foremost agri-businesses located on Egypt's intensely watered Western Sahara. At Dina Farms we will see the technology-intense and labor sparse ten thousand acre farm, which is a central player in the Egyptian authorities new agenda for export driven food industry. At Dina Farms Executive Tamer Hassan will explain the logic behind the farm's drive to export and its aim in industrializing farming. The water acquifers currently watering this agri-business will soon run out. A World Bank project intends to re-route water from the nile to the dry desert lands. Meanwhile, in the delta water for Egypt's small farmers is already insufficient. Guiding us through these drastic changes in Egypt's agricultural landscape will be Dr Habib Ayeb, an expert on sociological effects of changing agricultural policies in the region.   

If the Egyptian authorities' agricultural policies continue on their current course, food prices will continue to skyrocket, making life increasingly difficult for millions of Egypt's poor. Meanwhile, the likes of Hagg Desouki will eventually disappear from their land like hundreds of thousands of farmers already have in Egypt. An uprising in the industrial town of Mahalla al-Kobra in the summer of 2008 and the most recent uprising in Egypt are direct consequences of the food policies we encounter in "Pity The Nation."

the military and the people

forgive me for my silence.

I posted an article that ended like this 15 February:

"But as the Supreme Military Council seeks to re-impose "stability" by, for example, banning labour strikes, Egyptians must be alert to the alarm bells that are ringing. The military, which has played its hand with great care throughout the protests - winning the trust and respect of many of the demonstrators - receives an annual $1.3bn in aid from the US, the same country that has been pushing the implementation of the economic model that has been so damaging to Egyptians.

The demonstrators must not now be fooled into believing that overthrowing the face of a corrupt and repressive regime is sufficient. They must prevent the military from propping up an economic order that only benefits the few and can be maintained only through iron-fisted rule."

my position has not changed one bit since, this eye witness account of a military attack on demonstrators in tarhri square Friday night comfirms:



follow my links on the ongoing Egyptian intifada here

There is a strange silence in the air today...

it has finally sunk in that the egyptian military are not on the side of the people. egyptians are up against a military apparatus that is maintaining the status quo "system," by doing so we are confronting a global neo-liberal regime whereby the egyptian government would follow the instructions of the powerful: protect Israel, obey IMF and World Bank economic policies, maintain the egyptian working class as a sweat shop to allow for the comfort of our richer neighbors here and elsewhere.

This battle is far from over.

Laila El-Haddad: the Impact of Egypt's Uprising on Palestinians

The effects of Privatization أثر الخصخصة

view the rest of the set

read more of the story by Yassin Gaber

Mahalla workers strike for higher minimum wages and independent union

10 days later: Mubarak's Downfall رحيل مبارك

via @benthanaa

Egypt: some links

Though a couple weeks old, one of the best articles i have read on Egypt is by Nomi Prins: The Egyptian Uprising Is a Direct Response to Ruthless Global Capitalism

She writes,

"Citizens protesting in the streets from Greece to England, and more demonstrably, from Tunisia to Egypt, may be revolting for national reasons and against individual governments, but they share a common bond. They are revolting against a world that lines the pockets of rich deal-makers while sticking the tab to ordinary people. That bond is global."

Also worth reading are two articles focusing on the role of the military:

Nathan Brown's The Struggle to Define the Egyptian Revolution | The Middle East Channel

and Egypt’s army looks beyond Mubarak by Yezid Sayegh written before Mubarak's downfall but with good insight

Adam Hanieh, Egypt's Uprising

always worth reading: Adam Hanieh on Egypt's Uprising

neoliberalism has produced rapid growth rates but, simultaneously, it has led to worsening living standards for the majority of the population and the increased concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny minority (literally just a handful of families).
...
The highest ranks of Egypt's military should properly be considered as part of the capitalist class with significant economic interests that overlap with the state and private sector. Precisely because of the military's central role in sustaining U.S. power regionally, and its own stake in the reproduction of Egyptian capitalism, any belief that the Egyptian military is 'part of the people' or 'neutral and above politics' is a very dangerous illusion"

Bahrein

Egypt and the global economic order

Whether or not it has been directly articulated, the recent demonstrations on Egypt's streets are in large part a protest against crony-capitalism driven by the agenda of neo-colonial economic institutions. The protests are a denunciation of capitalism and the political suppression required to impose it.

read the rest of my latest article

seeking donations for the national democratic party تبرعات للحزب الوطني

seeking donations for the national democratic party تبرع للحزب الوطني from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

Cairo Intifada

Days of Anger from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

what i expect to happen in egypt

sorry this is rough. I will be back soon to edit. Heading out to tahrir now.


Friday night I witnessed the tanks roll into Tahrir square downtown Cairo on Friday night. To my amazement the crowds cheered. So for the most part the demonstrators are celebrating the military presence on the streets of Cairo. One demonstrator told me "the police protect us from our enemies, they won't do us any harm." Until last night demonstrators holding a permanent sit-in in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo were surrounded by a number of military tanks charing cigarettes and jokes with soldiers, while one soldier I saw joined the protestors for evening prayer.

This morning about 11am security officials stormed the Aljazeera office in downtown Cairo and closed the office. Two mobile phone carriers sent out messages that people should stay home to protect their homes from the looting. According to Aljazeera earlier today the protestors are no longer sitting on the tanks and there are reports that the military presence is spreading all over Cairo. Via @justimage the US embassy is calling on its citizens to leave Egypt, via Dutch journalist Dirk Wanrooj Heineken and Shell have evacuated their employees. @monasosh reports at 12:15 the military are tightening access for civilians to Tahrir Square. At 1pm the satellite carrier Nile Sat blocks Aljazeera Arabic from viewers in the Arab world. Choppers are increasingly flying over the skies of Cairo.

Despite the positive attitude of the people towards the army, there is no reason to believe that the military shares any interests with the common Egyptians on the street. The reason people are calling for change is that they are tired of economic policies of the Mubarak regime, they have had enough of police violence and a government that does not provide for its people. The faltering Egyptian regime's allies are interested only in what they term "stability" which means prosperity for a small class of Egyptian elites and upper middle class on the backs of the labor of the vast population. What this process entails is the selling off of Egyptian natural resources and enslaving of the Egyptian labor force working to next to nothing while food price go through the roof. The reason for this is the decisions made by the Egyptian policy makers in line with the logic of neo-liberal institutions like the World Bank and IMF, seated in the USA that primarily benefit the economies of the global North.

As we slowly approach sundown and the supposed recent daily curfew in Cairo I expect tonight will be different than the past few days. At some stage the military is going to stop acting as a mediating force and will try to take direct control. I have no illusions that they are acting as anything but a vessel for this sort of "stability" that the global North desires. In Egypt we are no longer in the age of military coups, it is not a question of who has the most influence within the military and what they can get away with, it is a matter of the interests of external forces are and these external forces are looking for the right partner within the current Egyptian regime. What does this mean on the ground? There will be harsh clashes between demonstrators against the military who will quickly switch sides. But the people will not let go easily. In the middle of all this there a lot of looting taking place especially in the suburbs. This has a mix of sources, many of the looters are police officers following orders to loot just like Fateh PA members did during Hamas' initial rule in the Gaza Strip. Other looters are petty criminals released from police stations, partly by the police themselves before they fled, also involved are opportunists who are simply hungry under the economic pressure of living under the circumstances existent in Egypt today.

All this to say, this mass mobilization of the Egyptian street is not without purpose. Rather, this is a powerful manifestation of the will of the people. As I walked the streets amongst protestors I was constantly amazed by the extreme attention protesters paid to parked cars and stores we passed by. The heart of this protest is a strong rejection of a tyrant, the rejection of classist economic policies and proof of the failure of neo-colonial capitalism everywhere.

January 29: Two Moments

game over Mubarak طلب الشارع: يسقط حسني مبارك from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

Egyptians welcome the army المصريين يرحبون قوات الجيش from tabulagaza on Vimeo.

My Images from Today and Yesterday

more

more soon

Egypt: What's Coming

Considering this jittery position of the powers that be,



(they provide their friends with these,)



and the jittery position of him,



i think our "allies" will put in place this guy



@bencnn
ElBaradei at airport says the point of no return has been reached must be peaceful change govt must stop using violence #Jan25 #Egypt
8:12pm January 27

whom "the people"



didn't elect.

This is maybe a tip toe better than what we have lived under for the past 30 years... but it is a continuation of Egypt's neo-liberal "reforms" a la mr. fayyad

... just a guess

and i dont like it.

Around here we need to start thinking about alternatives to the nation-state, because after all the "post-colonial moment is still colonial"

Ustream shut down, live feed of Cairo Tahrir protest moved here and then protest ends suddenly

latest from eye witnesses on the scene at 1am jan 26, state security move in to arrest thousands of protestors, phones are out, twitter, bambuser and ustream shut down.

Watch live video from cairowitness on Justin.tv

After police fire dozens of tear gas canisters into the crowds, all protestors disperse, arrests made

Live from Downtown January 25 Anti-government Protests

La hora de los hornos

something to watch

when there is nothing left to say