The EBRD is a bank that has nothing to do with development and everything to do with colonialism

Here some important words about the work of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development: While structural adjustment and market liberalisation were hugely beneficial for foreign corporations and wealthy Egyptians (in 2008 Egypt was named the top reformer in the World Bank’s Doing Business survey), it devastated Egypt's economy and induced outrageous social symptoms. The phenomenon of street children, for instance, began during the Mubarak era - children living on the streets, working at shining shoes, collecting garbage, begging, cleaning, parking cars, selling food, and highly vulnerable to being forced into a string of illicit activities. Western development banks are now lining up to re-enter Egypt or in the case of the EBRD, to enter Egypt and other north African countries in a highly ambitious extension of its founding mandate that saw it focusing purely on the central and eastern European states since its founding in 1991. An EBRD Technical Assessment, made public earlier this year, identifies the following operational themes to 'guide a potential engagement by the bank in Egypt': ... It's certainly easier to claim, as the bank's president Thomas Mirow regularly does, that parallels between post '89 central and eastern Europe and the Arab Spring leave the EBRD very well placed to intervene now in a different continent. Yet are there so many close parallels? ... the post-revolution mass privatisation drive that took place in eastern Europe has recently been strongly criticised by sociologists from the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. Their study - “Mass Privatization, State Capacity, and Economic Growth in Post-Communist Countries” - published in April this year claims to be the first to trace a “direct link” between the mass privatisation programs of the early 1990s and the “economic failure and corruption that followed.” ... Lawrence King, one of the study authors, commented on its release: “Rapid and extensive privatization is being promoted by some economists to resolve the current debt crisis in the West and to achieve reform in Middle Eastern and North African economies. This paper shows the most radical privatization in history failed the countries it was meant to help.” This text by Laila Iskander goes on here

these people change our world

watch and learn from worker strikes in egypt over the past months

Sealing the gates- Another massacre of the Egyptian people

I am always afraid to travel outside of Cairo these days because I don't want to be gone. I left for five days to screen two films at the Rotterdam film festival and once again the military junta organized a massacre in Egypt. This time in revenge against the Ultras football movement- clearly for the vital role they have and continue to play in the protests since January 25.

Leading up to the game the security did not search entering fans, eventually they stopped checking for tickets. After the match someone turned off the lights, someone sealed the gates to the ahly ultras in the stadium and a massacre followed. Security forces stood by far from the stadium and did nothing.

Here the marks:



no translation needed

In this interview two of the players of Al-Masry team- whose fans are said to have carried out the attack- confirm the massacre was organized by Egyptian security forces.

Here another video with the citizens of Port Said:



Here a detailed explanation of how the massacre was pre meditated (no subtitles yet):



We fight on.

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