The infatuation with social media seems, to me, simply that - infatuation, navel-gazing. All the facebooking and tweeting was useful, but inconsequential in comparison to the working class mobilizations both in last April's and this months' uprisings. They pale in comparison to the thousands of labor actions, strikes, politicization of the Egyptian working class in the last few years. Have we forgotten that the internet was shut down in Egypt for a week with almost no apparent effect on the uprising? Or forgotten the myriad ways the proletariat has held sway in all uprisings by its position in the production of capital? Why would we suddenly expect Egypt to defy the laws of political economy in force for 400 years?
-PF
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576135882356532702.html
On Jan. 25, the first day of protests, the organizers from the youth wings of Egypt's opposition movements created what appeared to be a spontaneous massing of residents of the slum of Bulaq al-Dakrour, on Cairo's western edge. These demonstrators weren't, as the popular narrative has held, educated youth who learned about protests on the Internet. They were instead poor residents who filled a maze of muddy, narrow alleyways, massed in front of a neighborhood candy store and caught security forces flatfooted.
That protest was anything but spontaneous. How the organizers pulled it off, when so many past efforts had failed, has had people scratching their heads since. [...]
The plotters say they knew that the demonstrations' success would depend on the participation of ordinary Egyptians in working-class districts like this one, where the Internet and Facebook aren't as widely used. *They distributed fliers around the city in the days leading up to the demonstration*, concentrating efforts on Bulaq al-Dakrour.
On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> :-)
>
> Good
>
> Carrol
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of Michael Pollak
> Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 9:17 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] A point against article on Egyptian social media
> starting things
>
>
> On Mon, 14 Feb 2011, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> > Perhaps a better point is to note what the Revolt of the Social Media has
> > brought to Egypt: The banning of unions and strikes.
>
> The latest update from al-Jazeera is that that's a rumor (brought to us
> via social media, e.g. tweet) that hasn't (yet) happened.
>
> Michael
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
-- Peter Fay