[lbo-talk] Juan Cole: Why Egypt 2011 is not Iran 1979

Chuck Grimes c123grimes at att.net
Wed Feb 2 12:53:09 PST 2011


2. WHITE AND BLUE COLLAR WORKERS: These groups are among the primary instigators of the Egyptian uprising. The April 6 group of young labor activists first came to prominence when they supported strikes by textile factory workers in Mahalla al-Kubra and elsewhere for improved wages and work conditions. There have been more than 3,000 labor actions by Egyptian workers since 2004. The pro-labor youth activists have been among the major leaders of the uprising in the past week, and had pioneered the use of Facebook and Twitter for such purposes. (from Juan Cole)

----------

Another good article. I want to note, while I was watching AJE Saturday, they had a call from somebody in Mahalla, saying they `own' Mahalla, meaning they had taken it over and driven out the central security and police.

I had a brief flash, thinking the only people capable of taking over an industrial city would be unions, because their members run the infrastructure. So that illustrated the importance of unions in a revolution.

This note that the April 6th group is from young labor is really cool. It means they probably can't be compromised by the old guard who they have probably already had fights with.

I was just thinking besides protecting Tahrir, the other actions that need to happen is to have workers, union members in their cities and the capital begin to take over their own infrastructure. Communications, transportation, etc. so that the revolution can be consolidated beyond the reach of whatever is left of Mubarak and his circle of authority. In other words, replace the existing government with what amount to worker committees, under so representative coalition.

[Man this is breathless. In the side street next to national museum there is an intense battle going on. The pro-M forces have control of the same two buildings and roof tops. They have been throwing down masonry and buring materials down to keep the anti-M forces from moving forward. This was the same thing they were doing late this afternoon. They are also throwing them at the museum roof where it was reported the army was putting out the fires with water hoses. I was just listening to the minister of antiquities inside his museum denounce Mubarak, saying he wants to burn Egypt---meaning the museum...

I don't know how the anti-M forces can, but they must find a way to gain control of those buildings... so their forces can move the blockaid beyond them and the trucks just a few yards forward to block the source of petrol... and therefore protect the museum...]

CG



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list