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Jun
5
2011

  • 1. The Egyptian revolution was not sudden or unexpected, but was the culmination of more than a decade of popular struggle.  This activism began in 2000 with the formation of the Popular Committee for the Support of the Palestinian Intifada and evolved through different movements like Kifaya and the April 6th Youth.  (As per Rabab El-Mahdi, Dina Shehata, and others).
     
     
     2. It was not merely a "Facebook" revolution, or one of young activists.  It was the participation of Egypt's subaltern- lower class segments of society who are excluded from power structures and are certainly not plugged into the internet- that truly boosted the revolution's momentum.  These people contributed important revolutionary know-how to protests, for example tactics in dealing with the riot police.  Also, it was workers strikes that pushed collective action over the edge, cornering Mubarak. Famous activist/blogger Hossam El Hamalawy commented that he actually finds terms like Facebook or Twitter revolution insulting, as it diminishes Egyptians' activism on the ground.
     
     
     3. The revolution was not peaceful.  Protestors fired RPGs at a police station in the Northern Sinai and burned others to the ground.  Hossam El Hamalawy explained that though Egyptians chanted "silmiyya," meaning "peaceful," they didn't really mean it... simultaneously, they were throwing rocks and molotov cocktails at the police.  In Hamalawy's words, "This was not a dinner party.  It was not an AUC lecture.  People died." 
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