Journalist, blogger and activist Hossam el-Hamalawy passionately urges his fellow Egyptians to make their social and political revolution into an economic one. —ARK
The Guardian:
But the main part of any revolution has to be socio-economic emancipation for the citizens of a country; if you want to eliminate corruption or stop vote-buying then you have to give people decent salaries, make them aware of their rights and not leave them in dire economic need. A middle-class activist can return to his executive job after they think the revolution is over, but a public transport worker who has spent 20 years in service and is getting paid only 189 Egyptian pounds a month – you can’t ask this guy to go back to work and tell his starving kids at home that everything will be sorted out once we have a civilian government in the future.
So this is phase two of the revolution, the phase of socio-economic change. What we need to do now is take Tahrir to the factories, the universities, the workplaces. In every single institution in this country there is a mini-Mubarak who needs to be overthrown. In every institution there are figures from the old state security regime who need to be overthrown. These guys are the counter-revolution. Maybe the counter-revolution isn’t clearly organised with a specific command structure, but you have to assume that everyone who belonged to the old regime and enjoyed privileges under it is going to try to defend those privileges, and much of the malaise you see around you in Egypt today is down to that.
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After the American Revolution, many people thought George Washington should be King. Their concept of democracy was in its infancy - there was no “role model”. At least, today, their are various blueprints around.
And some countries, so inured to dictatorial rule, just don’t know how to let the people rule. Russia is prime example.
It takes time to change regimes, to install one mind-set (where all was decided by someone up above) and understand you are mostly “on your own” when it comes to decision-making necessary to run a shop-floor or a public transport system.
It Americans a good 6 years from th end of the Revolutionary War to the obtain a viable Constitution - so let’s presume that others will take just, at least, just as long.
We’ve got a lot to learn ourselves, especially about participative democracy. Only 48% of the electorate bothered to get themselves into a voting both in the mid-terms. We’ve become complacent about the political process, but oh do we love to bitch-in-a-blog.
P.S.—Many of the specifics of how to proceed after the original protests are spelled out in details based on past experiences, in Gene Sharp’s “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” online at Albert Einstein Institute.com.
The one thing understandably missing from the mostly-nonviolent Egyptian uprising is, of course, long-term planning ahead of time for nonviolent reconstruction—what to do to achieve it, and how to organize to achieve it. Like all common people in the world who are deprived of civil rights, or allow themselves to be deprived of civil rights, they lack the organizational know-how that would have accrued, had they had a chance to personally participate in their own governance.
Yet even though some of us may know the significance of preparation for future improvements, in general and in specific, very few will take the time and care to actually get together and lay out intelligent plans and methods for achieving the real victory that comes after the preliminary victory gained by massive nonviolent protest.
It is necessary to learn to look farther ahead than two or three weeks, months or years. If not, the best that can be done is to be aware of the problems and of how to work toward the answers, issue by issue, place by place, day by day. And hold true to
higher values than servitude and abuse.
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By Lafayette, May 22, 2011 at 8:45 pm Link to this comment
After the American Revolution, many people thought George Washington should be King. Their concept of democracy was in its infancy - there was no “role model”. At least, today, their are various blueprints around.
And some countries, so inured to dictatorial rule, just don’t know how to let the people rule. Russia is prime example.
It takes time to change regimes, to install one mind-set (where all was decided by someone up above) and understand you are mostly “on your own” when it comes to decision-making necessary to run a shop-floor or a public transport system.
It Americans a good 6 years from th end of the Revolutionary War to the obtain a viable Constitution - so let’s presume that others will take just, at least, just as long.
We’ve got a lot to learn ourselves, especially about participative democracy. Only 48% of the electorate bothered to get themselves into a voting both in the mid-terms. We’ve become complacent about the political process, but oh do we love to bitch-in-a-blog.
Report thisBy gerard, May 22, 2011 at 2:56 pm Link to this comment
P.S.—Many of the specifics of how to proceed after the original protests are spelled out in details based on past experiences, in Gene Sharp’s “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” online at Albert Einstein Institute.com.
Report thisBy gerard, May 22, 2011 at 1:16 pm Link to this comment
The one thing understandably missing from the mostly-nonviolent Egyptian uprising is, of course, long-term planning ahead of time for nonviolent reconstruction—what to do to achieve it, and how to organize to achieve it. Like all common people in the world who are deprived of civil rights, or allow themselves to be deprived of civil rights, they lack the organizational know-how that would have accrued, had they had a chance to personally participate in their own governance.
Yet even though some of us may know the significance of preparation for future improvements, in general and in specific, very few will take the time and care to actually get together and lay out intelligent plans and methods for achieving the real victory that comes after the preliminary victory gained by massive nonviolent protest.
It is necessary to learn to look farther ahead than two or three weeks, months or years. If not, the best that can be done is to be aware of the problems and of how to work toward the answers, issue by issue, place by place, day by day. And hold true to
Report thishigher values than servitude and abuse.