Egypt anti-government protests grow

[classicdish]

well yeah, there is the news competition, but you'd have thought there might be some kind of pressure on a response from No 10, some kind of change in diplomatic relations, some sense that it matters, even if isnt on the front page...

This is the press release: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...at-egypt-court-sentencing-528-people-to-death

 

[Sirena]

well yeah, there is the news competition, but you'd have thought there might be some kind of pressure on a response from No 10, some kind of change in diplomatic relations, some sense that it matters, even if isnt on the front page...

But isn't the current regime the one that we (Western regime-changers...) wanted?

 

[butchersapron]

Oh god, you supported Mubarak too in your paranoia did you?

These executions aren't going to happen, they're not intended to happen. It's only the start of the process. They are designed to make a political point to various groups - hence the gaps left open to appeal on the basis of what appear to be pretty transparent examples of legal incompetence on the part of the state and its prosecutors.

 

[Delroy Booth]

Oh god, you supported Mubarak too in your paranoia did you?

These executions aren't going to happen, they're not intended to happen. It's only the start of the process. They are designed to make a political point to various groups - hence the gaps left open to appeal on the basis of what appear to be pretty transparent examples of legal incompetence on the part of the state and its prosecutors.

The thing is though even if the executions don't happen (they probably won't) it's the political point they're making which is also very disturbing, it's a pretty strong way to send a message.

 

[butchersapron]

The thing is though even if the executions don't happen (they probably won't) it's the political point they're making which is also very disturbing, it's a pretty strong way to send a message.

It's a pretty bloody serious regime that's now busy tying up the lose ends before Sisi make the move to democratically elected president.

 

[butchersapron]

Here's the ongoing media re-enclosure:

Egyptian television celebrates mass death sentence

“I salute the fairness and justice of our judiciary in defiance of those killers, and all those who attack it. Egypt's judiciary is clean and fair,” he said.

Moussa slammed human rights organizations for attacking the judiciary, saying that their job is to defend the human rights of the Muslim Brotherhood while they forget about the people.

Responding to criticism of the death sentence being handed to hundreds in one go, he said, “May they be 10,000, 20,000, not 500. We are not sad, we are happy.”

This is the mesage direct from Sisi i believe:

“Today, we got justice, the justice that we want. We are tired of your violence. We will build the country despite your war.”

Badawy used heavily religious language in her show to slam the Muslim Brotherhood, saying that they can do what they want, but God is there to protect us.

“The state cannot meet violence with violence? What should it meet it with? A wedding procession? Ball gowns?”

 

[J Ed]

If the media is clearly being heavily censored again has organised labour lost its gains as well?

 

[butchersapron]

If the media is clearly being heavily censored again has organised labour lost its gains as well?

They're no being censored, they're falling into line without much pressure - without any need to to censor. As for labour - i don't know, and it depends on what you mean by gains i suppose. The strangle hold currently being applied cannot but have an effect now or in the next round of battles though.

 

[teqniq]

It's not so much censored as reflecting an opinion amongst a significant percentage of the populace who want nothing to do with the MB and wish them and their supporters all kinds of ill will. The army is riding on the crest of this whilst at the same time stirring it up even more and milking it for all it's worth. Losing out in all of this is the socialist/leftist movement as well who are seeing all the gains they made evaporating. This is the feeling I get from reading Twitter posts anyway, others may be able to offer a different perspective.

 

[teqniq]

If the media is clearly being heavily censored again has organised labour lost its gains as well?

Here is an article that may answer your question more specifically:

Police arrest Alexandria workers as strikes continue nationwide

Striking postal workers arrested as more than 50,000 employees of the state-owned postal services have been on strike across the country since Sunday, and have begun to be joined by other groups of workers.

Despite official attempts to bring an end to a wave of labor unrest that contributed to the downfall of Hazem al-Beblawi's government, a broad range of Egypt's labor workforce embarked on nationwide strikes on Tuesday.
Notable developments on Tuesday included the arrest of several striking postal workers in Alexandria, along with the beginning of a mass-resignation campaign by striking doctors. Doctors, dentists, pharmacists, postal workers, textile workers, custodial staff and others all staged walk-outs during the day.

Official attempts to quell the postal workers’ strike in Egypt’s second city led to the arrest of five independent union organizers. These arrests, however, served to widen the scope of the postal workers’ unrest on this, the third day of their strike....

...The postal chief had claimed workers were attempting to obstruct public postal services, instigate work stoppages, and that workers were affiliated to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which the state classified as a terrorist organization in December.

However, a number of local media has reported how families of the arrested strikers dismissed the claims of politicization or Brotherhood affiliation. The family members also denounced the police raids and arrests of workers from their homes.

I think i am right in saying that strikes on this scale during the Mubarak years were largely unheard of, so maybe the answer to your question is no, not all gains have been lost.

 

[butchersapron]

The stuff we don't hear about so much now (note the figures used are not from Carnegie but the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights):

Killed: A total of 3,143 Egyptians are estimated to have been killed in various acts of political violence between July 3, 2013, and January 31, 2014 (see figure 1). Of those deaths, at least 2,528 civilians were killed in political events such as protests and clashes. At least 60 police officers and soldiers were also killed in those incidents.

Add to this:

• Wounded: More than 17,000 Egyptians are estimated to have beenwounded in more than 1,100 demonstrations and clashes between July 3 and February 28.
• Detained: An estimated 18,977 Egyptians were arrested for reasons related to the country’s political turmoil between July 3 and December 31, including 16,387 detained during political events and another 2,590arrested as political leaders, primarily from the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist organizations (see figure 2). These figures are broadly in line with those reported by sources in the government. No more than one-quarter to one-third of these prisoners have been released, according to lawyers at the ECESR.

 

[butchersapron]

Plenty more upcoming mass trials:

Mass arrests and mass trials have become key tools in the country’s expanding “war on terrorism.” The same court in Minya is hearing another case, which will resume on April 28th, in which more than six hundred Islamists are charged with the murder of two policemen. On Wednesday, Egypt’s chief prosecutor announced two more mass trials, with a total of nine hundred and nineteen defendants. Many activists have been dragged from their homes to face spurious charges, and an unconstitutional law to ban protests has been passed. Journalists working for Al Jazeera English have been charged with membership in a terrorist organization and with fabricating news to blacken Egypt’s reputation; on Monday, they were once again denied bail.

 

[elbows]

A long piece on the BBC by a visiting professor at the department of war studies at Kings college. Focussing on Sisi there are large gaps, such as the masses and strikes, but its still an interesting read and somewhat answers the questions I had several years ago about military factions etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26188023

 

[butchersapron]

Ta for that. Short piece from Juan Cole here suggesting that in the medium term Sisi aims to replace US aid with middle east rent. Last line in the article very demoralising.

One theory of why it has taken so long for al-Sisi to declare his candidacy is that he was reluctant to run unless he had a firm promise of these massive sums of Gulf aid. The Arabic press says that he hopes to benefit from a UAE grant of billions for housing construction.

So my interpretation of al-Sisi is that he is running on a platform of bringing in major strategic rent from the Gulf. In essence, he is repeating the strategy of Anwar El Sadat of the early 1970s. Egypt had been dependent on Soviet aid. The Soviets had strictly instructed Abdel Nasser that he could not fire the first shot in any conflict with Israel in 1967, which military men like Sadat minded because it felt like neocolonialism. Sadat replaced Russian aid with Saudi aid and then from 1979 was rewarded for the Camp David Peace Accords with Israel by $2 billion a year from the US.

Just as Sadat initially replaced Russia with Saudi and other Gulf support, so al-Sisi is attempting to replace US aid with Gulf strategic rent.

 

[butchersapron]

1,044 protests in February

An average of 37 protests took place daily with three protests every two hours, according to the report. The most contentious day was 8 February, when 85 protests took place. On 10 February citizens organised 58 protests, and on 22 February they held 52 protests.

February protests were not focused on Fridays as was the trend during the second half of 2013 following the military backed ousting of Mohamed Morsi on 3 July, according to the report. Democracy Meter implied that this implies that the protesting factions are now diversified from just Muslim Brotherhood affiliates and sympathisers, to include doctors, workers, public servants, security sector, educational sector and others.

Democracy Meter reported that protests for social and economic demands reached 58%. The most prominent demand cited was for the payment of late or unpaid wages, with pressuring management to resign another common rally point.

Political demands reached 41.76%, the most prominent of which were anti-interim-government, calling for the release of detainees, and anti-terrorism.

I can't find a link to the democracy meter project. They do a report every month. I think Sisi has a lot of the protesters surrounded - socially at least. See the workers (union at least) in Kafr Sheikh immediately coming out for Sisi in as soon as he announced his presidential bid despite their own labour struggles with the regime. I think the hope of the ongoing struggles (that are only going to deepen - see Sisi's "I propose hard work and self-denial,") breaking out of its economic bounds and becoming a political unifying point across society now look hopelessly optimistic. It seems the general desire for a return to some from of stability - even authoritarian stability - that keeps the fundamentalists at bay (whether rhetorically or judicially) is in fact acting as the unifying point. And if the workers in Kafr Sheikh feel like that, then maybe people involved in union/labour struggles will be prepared to support a stability that has the potential to allow them to carry out those battles within some sort of widely recognised order.

 

[TomUS]

The Arab Spring has certainly had mixed results.

 

[elbows]

The Twitter hashtag, roughly translated from Arabic as "Vote for the Pimp," is being used on Facebook and Twitter in several languages to mock Sisi's announced plans to run in the presidential poll set down for April.

According to the tracking website, Keyhole, the hashtag achieved more than 100 million impressions within days of creation, and generated tens of thousands of messages on Twitter. Keyhole states that 23 percent of the hashtag's impressions came from outside Egypt.

"The power cuts four times a day, therefore #vote_for_the_pimp," read one of the tweets.

The word "pimp" is extremely offensive in Egyptian culture, but its use also mockingly references the North American meaning: showy, impressive, the boss of a gang.

It comes in response to pro-Sisi hashtags over the past months, including "I will vote for Sisi" and "Complete your good deed", reflecting the general's soaring popularity among many Egyptians.

The use of the phrase has also broken beyond the realms of the internet: Footage taken by activists during Friday rallies in Egypt shows protesters chanting "Vote for the pimp, a president for Egypt."

Graffiti has also appeared in Egypt carrying the phrase.

But calls were made by several talk-show hosts to condemn the campaign.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...ypt-internet-campaign-201433022548298607.html

 

[elbows]

Apparently also translates as bastard, opportunist and motherfucker.

 

[elbows]

Just catching up with the news that the MB are to be investigated in the UK.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/01/muslim-brotherhood-cricklewood-london

 

[elbows]

I remember how much I groaned when even the likes of the April 6th movement briefly supported the military coup against the MB. I thought they were suckers, despite the obvious reasons to oppose the MB, and I wonder if that thought crosses the minds of those who now sit in jail as a result of anti-protest laws?

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...ail-sentence-activists-20144712383039431.html

An Egyptian court has endorsed a three-year prison sentence handed to three prominent activists, rejecting their appeal against charges of breaching a controversial anti-protests law.

The verdict targets Ahmed Maher, Mohamed Adel and Ahmed Douma, co-founders of the April 6 opposition movement which played a large role in the 2011 revolt against Hosni Mubarak.

Sabahi has tried to make political capital out of it.

Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi called through his Twitter account on interim President Adli Mansour to "issue an immediate amnesty for the revolution's youth".

Sabbahi added that it is "not acceptable" that Egypt's "revolutionary youth be jailed because of an unjust law, while those who are corrupt and killed its youth are free due to incompetent laws".

 

[butchersapron]

How Egypt’s Rebel Movement Helped Pave The Way For A Sisi Presidency

For the first time, one of the five founders of the Tamarod, the movement that led the protests that ousted the Muslim Brotherhood last year, admits his movement was taking orders from the army. “We were naive, we were not responsible.”

It was, he realized later, the end of a process that began weeks earlier, in which the army and security officials slowly but steadily began exerting an influence over Tamarod, seizing upon the group’s reputation as a grassroots revolutionary movement to carry out their own schemes for Egypt.

“What they did, they did in our names because we let them,” said Doss, who admits he turned a blind eye for too long to what was happening behind the scenes at Tamarod. “The leaders of Tamarod let themselves be directed by others. They took orders from others.”

While the Tamarod movement has, in the past, been linked to Egypt’s interior ministry and its members have admitted in off-record interviews to taking phone calls from the army, never before has a member of Tamarod said that they were under the direct guidance of Egyptian army and intelligence officials. The accusations confirm the suspicions of many in Egypt that the group could not have enjoyed such widespread success without being helped along by senior Egyptian officials.

“How did we go from such a small thing, five guys trying to change Egypt, to the movement which brought tens of millions to the street to get rid of the Brotherhood? The answer is we didn’t. I understand now it wasn’t us, we were being used as the face of what something bigger than us wanted,” said Doss, who now has nothing to do with the Tamarod movement, or political life in Egypt. “We were naïve, and we were not responsible.”

Much much more - depressing stuff - at the link.

 

[yield]

Egyptian judge sentences 720 men to death
theguardian.com, Monday 28 April 2014

Lawyers and rights campaigners say rulings infringe basic law after defence unable to present case and witnesses not heard

 

[elbows]

So its not only blatant, brutal, disgusting and illegal, but it sounds like they are also casting a sloppily wide net. Mubarak supporters and others who were against the Brotherhood lumped in with MB supporters who were the obvious main target of this action.

I suppose its no surprise, given that even at 'the best of times' the regime barely bothered to pay much attention towards their own credibility.

As with the previous case where mass death sentences were dished out, expect the majority of them to be reduced to hideously long jail terms instead. Hardly much consolation.

 

[frogwoman]

https://tahriricn.wordpress.com/201...state-and-persecution-of-political-opponents/

Just read this, really interesting.

 

[elbows]

https://tahriricn.wordpress.com/201...state-and-persecution-of-political-opponents/

Just read this, really interesting.

Oh so in addition to some of their leadership being jailed, April 6th has been banned as an org.

Meanwhile blogger Bassem Sabry has died aged 31, quite possibly from a diabetes related balcony fall. I'm not sure if I was familiar with his work or not. Sounds like he was aligned with ElBaradeis al-Dostour party.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...er-bassem-sabry-dies-2014430122918774191.html

 

[elbows]

Sounds like Sabahi, the only presidential contender other than Sisi, gave his first campaign speech. I could do with finding an article that quotes the speech in more detail, but for now:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201404301469.html

Putting an end to terrorism, retribution for martyrs and the pursuit of economic self-sufficiency are the top priorities of Hamdeen Sabahi's electoral program for Egypt's upcoming presidential elections, Sabahi said in the opening speech for his campaign on Wednesday.

"The goals of the program we present today were put together by Egyptians in the squares of the revolution," Sabahi said in a televised press conference.

Still attempting to be the candidate of choice for those who backed the original revolution then. That idea lacks credibility more than it did last time he was after votes, since like many others he didn't make the appropriate stand against the military at the most crucial moments, and carries a share of blame for the current situation.

 

[teqniq]

Al-jazeera journalist El-Shamy who is being held without trial also on hunger strike and recently moved to solitary confinement:

 

[CNT36]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...nced-three-years-jail-201452183027703401.html

Mubarak, who faces a number of trial cases, including a retrial over the killing of protesters in the 2011 uprising, is currently residing in a military hospital in Cairo's upscale neighbourhood of Maadi.

The three accused, a long with other defendants, were found guilty of embezzeling an estimated $17.6m, that were meant to renovate presidential palaces, but were instead spent on upgrading the family's private properties.

The three were also fined $2.9m and ordered to reimburse the embezzeled amount to the state treasury, the AP news agency reported.

In June 2012, Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for involvement in the deaths of hundreds of people during the 18-day protests, but has challenged the verdict.

 

[elbows]

It seems fairly likely that whatever the present and final outcomes in the cases against Mubarak, his stated location will be one type of hospital or another until he eventually croaks.

So I'm tempted to think that the message any verdicts and sentences send are more important than what it will mean for the man himself.

 

[elbows]

Sounds like Sabahi said pretty predictable things in his campaign. Promising to get rid of the protests law on day one of his term, won't deal with the MB, and the usual economic stuff that much of the press won't dwell on.

Also:

Commenting on the results of the expat vote which ended on Monday -- wherein El-Sisi's overwhelming 95.5% share of the ballots dealt Sabahi a hard blow -- the Nasserist candidate said "These results do not necessarily reflect the internal voting trend."

Sabahi was sure to remind that the final results of the 2012 presidential elections' first round had placed him third in the race despite his having come in fifth in the expat poll.

He also expressed that his hopes for a higher turnout were dashed, as he had expected a larger number of expats to vote, given the facilitations granted by the Presidential Electoral Commission – which included doing away with prior registration on voters' lists, as had been stipulated in previous elections.

At the end of the article there is some stuff about an interviewer getting him to talk about what role he might accept in government if defeated. Leading to crap non-denials about accepting the role of Prime Minister under certain circumstances.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCon...ptians-will-feel-instant-change-if-I-am-.aspx