Jasmine Revolution: Egypt, Part 1

By now, I imagine everyone has heard about Mubarak stepping down on Saturday. Of course, the Egypt uprising was inspired by the Tunisia uprising, contributing to a rise of Pan-Arab sentiments and similar actions in plenty of other countries. There's simply too much to cover in one post, so I'm going to focus on the Egypt situation in particular right now. The next posts will go into more depth about what's happening in countries such as Iran, Gabon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Syria, Kuwait, Uganda, etc., as well as the current situation on the ground in Egypt.

The word "zeitgeist" comes to mind. My partner described this as a great example of trans-cultural diffusion; she's far more qualified to go into the series of events in that context than I, so I'm trying to convince her to write something up to post here. Trust me when I say that if she does, it will be awesome. Join me in the persuasion; you'll be thankful that you did.

To understand what's gone down in Egypt, it's necessary to understand their recent cultural and political history. Christian Science Monitor posted a brief overview of Mubarak's legacy and AP has a breakdown of his final hours in office, the source of which is speculated to be a leak by military officials. Contrary to many reports, the Muslim Brotherhood is not a terrorist organization that orchestrated the uprising to instill their anti-American, freedom-hating regime to destroy apple pie or something. Mother Jones has a really in-depth article about their history, philosophy, and role in the uprising; this is definitely the most even-handed, intellectually honest discussion of them that I've seen thus far.

Their foreign policy is also of note, as is that of the U.S. and Israel. Zero Anthropology, a blog worth following, goes into the Clinton Doctrine of foreign relations, commenting on the sort of hands-off approach that works much better than the drum-beating, bomb-dropping, and arms-dealing kind of diplomacy that has been so common since Reagan. Foreign Policy Watch, another blog worth following, discusses the contents of a NYT article, speculated to be a leak from the Obama administration. Al Jazeera has a really solid op-ed from a self-described member of the "pro-Israel, pro-peace camp", in which the history of U.S./Israel and Egypt/Israel relations is parsed, along with interactions with Turkey and Jordan. He makes a connection that you're not likely to see in the mainstream U.S. "liberal media" that struck me as interesting:

"And then there is the latest fright word, the Muslim Brotherhood. You would never know it from Halevi, but the Brotherhood is non-violent, has always opposed al-Qaeda, and condemned 9/11 and other acts of international terrorism. 

Yes, they are an Islamic organization which would prefer an Egypt based on Islamic law, much as the Shas party - a significant part of Israel's ruling coalition - pushes for an Israel based on its extreme interpretation of Torah." (emphasis mine)

So far as how it all went down, there's a really interesting article over at Wall Street Journal discussing how the Jan. 25 event was motivated and orchestrated. The bit that stood out for me is the class issue; though it was mostly planned and kicked off by the middle class, they went about it in such a way to mobilize the working class, the response to which was (obviously) monumental. This was not a movement of Islamists, the bourgeoisie, or western meddling; Mubarak was brought down by the working class. In line with this, there's another bit of info that has been largely ignored by the mainstream U.S. "liberal media," which doesn't surprise me in the least ('cause I know the "liberal media" is a myth); it wasn't the protests that changed things, but the strikes. Sixteen days of mass protest saw the kind of empty promises from Mubarak that the Egyptian people knew well not to trust, but only two days of widespread strikes by entire industries ranging from petrochemicals to nursing preceded his resignation. Now, I'm not saying that it's entirely due to the strikes, but it sure as shit had a much more profound impact than the mainstream discourse is letting on. This is all discussed in likely one of the best Infoshop articles I have ever read. If you only click on one link, make it this one.

This is looking like a three-parter at the moment, possibly a four-parter. In the next post, I'll dig into the current situation in Egypt; what the military is doing, what difficulties are being faced on the ground, what the people are doing in the wake of regime change. As with this post, feel free to ask questions / put forth concerns in regards to issue at large, and I will do my best to incorporate them into the next post.