Down with the Egyptian state!

"Down with the military and Al-Sissi!  Down with the remnants of the Mubarak regime and business elite! Down with the State and all power to autonomous communities!  Long live the Egyptian revolution!"

This is the powerful and defiant message put out by Egyptian anarchists in the face of the horrific repression being inflicted on the people by the new military regime - the latest local incarnation of the same inhuman power-hungry entity.

Here is the full statement from Tahrir-ICN:

The events of the past couple of days are the latest step in a sequence of events by which the military can consolidate its hold on power, aim towards the death of the revolution and a return to a military/police state.

The authoritarian regime of the Muslim Brotherhood had to go. But what has replaced it is the true face of the military in Egypt – no less authoritarian, no less fascist and for sure more difficult to depose.

The massacre carried out by the army against pro-Morsi supporters in Nadha Square and Raba’a has left around 500 killed and up to 3000 injured (Ministry of Health figures- the reality is likely much higher).

It was a pre-orchestrated act of state terrorism. It’s aim is to divide the people and push the Muslim Brotherhood to create more militia’s to revenge and protect themselves. This in turn will enable the army to label all Islamists as terrorists and produce an “internal enemy” in the country which will allow the army to keep the military regime in an ongoing state of emergency.

They go after the Muslim Brotherhood today, but they will come after anyone who dares to criticize them tomorrow. Already the army has declared a state of emergency for one month, giving the police and military exceptional powers, and a curfew has been declared in many provinces for the same amount of time from 7pm to 6am. This gives the army a free hand to crack down on dissent.

It is a return to the days before the revolution, where emergency law had been in place since 1967 and it provided the framework for wide-spread repression and denial of freedoms.

The character of the new regime is clear. Just a few days ago 18 new governors were appointed, the majority of which hail from the ranks of the army/police or even remnants of the Mubarak regime.

There has also been an ongoing attack on workers who continue to strike for their rights (such as the recent army attack and arrest of steel workers on strike in Suez). The military regime is also hunting for revolutionary activists, journalists have been beaten and arrested, foreigners have been threatened against being witness to events.

Both local and global media has told half truths and built narratives supportive of a political agenda. The counter-revolution is in full flow and it knows how to break the unity of the people in its effort to divide and conquer.

In the past two days there has been a rise in sectarian reprisals, with up to 50 churches and christian institutions attacked. The army and police were not seen protecting these buildings of the Christian community.

It is in the interest of both army and the Muslim Brotherhood to stoke tensions and create fear and hatred in the people. They will fight for their control of the State as people’s blood fills the streets.

We condemn the massacres at Raba’a and Nadha Square, the attacks on workers, activists and journalists, the manipulation of the people by those who vie to power, and sectarian attacks. For the revolution to continue the people must remain united in their opposition to the abuses and tyranny of power, against whoever it is directed.

Down with the military and Al-Sissi!  Down with the remnants of the Mubarak regime and business elite! Down with the State and all power to autonomous communities!  Long live the Egyptian revolution!

Cairo: "We want the downfall of the System!"

 

“We want the downfall of the System!”

That was the message from radicals on the streets of Cairo this week as the Morsi regime tottered towards today's collapse.

From Istanbul to Rio de Janeiro, from Santiago to Manama, the battle against neoliberalism is one and the same.

Nobody expects it to be easily won – there will always be yet another phoney saviour lined up in the political wings to ensure it’s “business as usual” in the corridors of power.

But the numbers and the anger on the streets all over the world in the last few weeks will have had the elite shaking in their boots in fear of what is to come. People power on this scale is something they can neither control nor ignore, as Morsi found out to his cost.

In an online statement this week, some “Comrades from Cairo” outlined how the neoliberal agenda is the common factor among the regimes currently facing popular uprisings.

They explained: “In Egypt, the Brotherhood only adds a religious veneer to the process, while the logic of a localized neo-liberalism crushes the people.

“In Turkey a strategy of aggressive private-sector growth, likewise translates into authoritarian rule, the same logic of police brutality as the primary weapon to oppress opposition and any attempts to envision alternatives.

“In Brazil a government rooted in a revolutionary legitimacy has proven that its past is only a mask it wears while it partners with the same capitalist order in exploiting people and nature alike.

“These recent struggles share in the fight of much older constant battles of the Kurds and the indigenous peoples of Latin America. For decades, the Turkish and Brazilian governments have tried but failed to wipe out these movements’ struggle for life.

“Their resistance to state repression was the precursor to the new wave of protests that have spread across Turkey and Brazil. We see an urgency in recognizing the depth in each other’s struggles and seek out forms of rebellion to spread into new spaces, neighborhoods and communities.

“Our struggles share a potential to oppose the global regime of nation states. In crisis as in prosperity, the state — in Egypt under the rule of Mubarak, the Military Junta or the Muslim Brotherhood — continues to dispossess and disenfranchise in order to preserve and expand the wealth and privilege of those in power.

“None of us are fighting in isolation. We face common enemies from Bahrain, Brazil and Bosnia, Chile, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Tunisia, Sudan, the Western Sahara and Egypt. And the list goes on.

“Everywhere they call us thugs, vandals, looters and terrorists. We are fighting more than economic exploitation, naked police violence or an illegitimate legal system. It is not rights or reformed citizenship that we fight for.

“We oppose the nation-state as a centralized tool of repression, that enables a local elite to suck the life out of us and global powers to retain their dominion over our everyday lives.

“The two work in unison with bullets and broadcasts and everything in between. We are not advocating to unify or equate our various battles, but it is the same structure of authority and power that we have to fight, dismantle, and bring down. Together, our struggle is stronger.

“We want the downfall of the System.”

#June30 - time for a second revolution in Egypt!

 

EGYPT will once again take centre stage in the dramatic global uprising against neoliberal tyranny this weekend.

Opponents of the US-backed Morsi regime will be taking to the streets on Sunday #June30 to call for a second revolution - a year after the increasingly unpopular and despotic leader came to power.

There were already chaotic scenes in Alexandria on Friday, as revolutionaries were attacked by government supporters, with reports of at least one death and many injured.

The Muslim Brotherhood in the coastal city was also said to have been set on fire (see photo) - previously such attacks have been claimed by Egypt's thriving anarchist Black Bloc movement.

Rumours were also circulating on the internet that the regime was planning to shut down Egyptian TV channels over the weekend in a desperate bid to retain power, reminiscent of the final days of the Mubarak regime.

Officials have already ordered the arrest of a talk show host and demanded a TV station be shut down for "inciting mutiny in the army and for insulting the armed forces and the police".

One live feed from Egypt on Sunday is being offered here, starting 6am Cairo time.

Black Bloc take to the streets of Cairo

AN EGYPTIAN anarchist movement has emerged on the streets with a wave of firebombings and street fights.

The new wave of revolt is also sweeping through other Arab countries, with anarchist groups in Tunisia, Morocco, Syria and elsewhere.

Anarchists have been present in Egypt before, during, and after the revolution, but until today, they have yet to organize a mass grouping under the banner of anarchism, explains blogger Ryan Harvey.

The Ultras of Egypt’s football clubs have for years been associated with anarchist ideas and actions, and they are widely credited with having initiated the level militancy that brought down the Mubarak government in February of 2011.

This week anarchism left the graffitied walls, small conversations, and online forums of Egypt, and came to life in Cairo, declaring itself a new force in the ongoing social revolution sparked two years ago with multiple firebombings against Muslim Brotherhood offices. Later, the government shut down the “Black Blocairo” and “Egyptian Black Bloc” Facebook pages, but they were soon re-launched.

“Wait for our next attacks as we respond to the closing of our official page…” they posted in a statement posted online (translated below).

On Thursday the black bloc made its first mass-appearance in Tahrir Square, and, shortly after, firebombed the Shura Council (Egyptian Parliament), tore down a section of the protest-barrier walls leading from Tahrir Square, and, with others, engaged in fighting against security forces.

These statements and actions are in preparation for tomorrow’s second anniversary of the revolution, and for what some are calling “a whole new level” or protest in Egypt.

Anarchism and the black bloc concept has grown in recent months across Egypt, Stemming from various anarchist grouping/circles that coalesced during the revolutionary period. A massive distrust among the youth of all political parties, a sharp critique of the role of religion within governance, and the inspiration of anarchist resistance around the world (largely symbolized by the late-2008 revolt in Greece) have helped it catalyze.

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Below is the statement of Black Blocairo in regards to the removal of their websites, their firebombing attacks against government offices, and their calls for revolt:

“Yesterday and after we finished our event, we met some of the revolutionary movements and we decided to unite together in our next attacks, hence we did our first two attacks, as we told you yesterday:

1- Setting fire to Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) online office.

2- Setting fire in the Ikhwan office in Al-Manial street in Cairo.

 And we announced our revolution since today in Al-Tahrir Square untill Egypt and it’s people get their rights back! Life, Freedom and social justice!

Black Blocairo, The Hooligans

Wait for our next attacks as we respond to the closing of our official page…”

f

EGYPTIAN ANARCHIST LINKS:

Revolution Black Bloc (Egyptian anarchist page)

Black Blocairo (Black Blocairo’s new page)

Black Bloc Egypt

d

OTHER ARAB ANARCHIST LINKS:

Anarchists of Arabs  (Arab anarchist page)

Moroccan Black Bloc

 Anarchists in Lebanon

Tunisian Anarchist Movement

Tunisian Anarchist Organization

Tunisian Anarchist

Syrian Anarcha Feminist Movement

Syrian Anarchists

Tahrir ICN (English European solidarity page)

Fourth day of battles in Egypt

FIGHTING in the streets of Egypt continued on Sunday for the fourth day in a row.

There were reports of live ammunition and unlabelled canisters of tear gas being used against rebels in Cairo.

Plain-clothes police were also said to be attacking and abducting opponents of the SCAF regime.

In the days since the football stadium massacre at Port Said, more and more witnesses have come forward to confirm state involvement in the deaths, raising hatred of the military rulers to new levels.

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Police kill two - Egypt update and video

POLICE have shot dead at least two protesters in Suez, as Egyptians continue to rise up against the SCAF military junta.

Hundreds have been injured in Cairo, where this video was shot, and people have also taken to the streets in other cities including Alexandria and Port Said.

Increasingly, people are waking up to the fact that the murderous regime in Cairo is just a franchise of the same system which owns Washington, Paris and London.

Shahira Abouellail commented on Twitter: "I wonder how long its gonna take us to realize we are fighting a world order, not just our government." 

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Wall comes down as protests grow

THE WALL came down in Cairo on Thurday night as anti-regime protesters broke through a massive stone blockade in Mohamed Mahmoud Street with a makeshift battering ram.

Ongoing clashes with police have been taking place in the capital all day, as Egyptians respond to the deaths of  nearly 80 football fans at Port Said.

Growing numbers of them believe the hand of the state can be seen behind the horrific events.

Crowds were reported to be shouting: "This was not a sports accident, this was a military massacre!"

Writes Mohamed El Dahshan: "It doesn't add up. Port Said's Masry soccer team won 3-1 against its long-time rival Ahly. In Port Said. It was a tough victory, one that Masry won with the support of its fans. The logical question would be, then, 'Why would the Masry fans attack the minority of Ahly fans among them?'

"From there on, the questions just don't stop. 'Why did neither the governor of Port Said nor its security chief attend a game they both normally attend?' asked parliamentarian Mohamed Abou Hamed on live television.. 'Why were security forces barely present despite knowing that the long rivalry between the two teams had a potential for violence?'

"On the streets and on the web, blame is put squarely on the police. Once again it failed miserably, as it has for the past year. Blame is also being put on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the SCAF, as the head of the executive branch."

This was not just the feeling in Cairo - Port Said residents are also adamant that the violence at Wednesday’s  match there was caused by infiltrators, not hardcore local football fans.

A handful of supporters of the Masry Football Club, which beat Cairo’s leading team Ahly 3-1 before the violence began, told Egypt Independent on Thursday that what happened the day before was the premeditated work of infiltrators taking advantage of an intentional security vacuum. 

They pointed out that the gate between the stands and the pitch was left open, while at the same time the exit to the area where Ahly fans were sitting was kept closed.

At least 71 people died and more than 300 were injured in the violence Wednesday night.

Thousands of people gathered outside the Port Said governor’s headquarters by late afternoon, chanting, “Port Said is innocent!” and “This is the truth,” blaming security forces for the deadly violence.

“This is a conspiracy. We wouldn’t do this to our brothers,” said Mohamed Abdel Fattah, standing outside of the governor’s office. “The Ahly supporters were predominantly from Port Said. My brother was one of them. Port Said is sad today; all residents of the city are sad and feel as if their own relatives have died.”

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Egyptians angry at deaths of rebel fans

ANGER is growing in Egypt about the state's role in the deaths of almost 80 people at a football match.

Security forces clearly stood by and watched the murderous attack on fans known as Ultras who have been at the foreront of resistance to the SCAF military regime.

Football supporters and their families are planning to march on Thursday February 2 from the Al Ahly Club to the Ministry of Interior, reports Nagoul1 on Twitter. 

He adds: "The Port Said Incident will not pass lightly. Expect some serious development in the next couple of days."

Writes blogger Dimak Hatib: "Let me refresh your memory. It was on the 2 February 2011, one year ago. Tahrir Square was attacked by thugs on camels, horses and donkeys, which came all the way from the Pyramids, about 17 kilometers away. 

"These clashes that lasted for hours and hours, being watched live on TV all over the world, came to be known as the Camel Battle. It was an unforgettable day in Egypt's 18 days of protests that ended up with toppling Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011.

"One year later, at a football stadium in the city of Port Said, chaos breaks after a football match and somehow violence ends up with a death toll of almost 80 people and almost 300 injured!

 

"So many Ultras are dead. Suprisingly - or may be not surprisingly - from Al Ahly football club. Al Ahly Ultras have been among the most vocal and most active revolutionaries.

"As the news travelled around the world about those Ultras being killed and injured, many probably thought : oh this was just another hooligans fight! 

 

"But in Egypt conspiracy theories and accusations grew louder and louder on TV stations and social media. 

 

"Let's not forget that Egyptians have had quite an eventful week since 25 January 2012 when more people than ever before turned up at Tahrir Square. 

 

"That was followed by a major bank robbery, clashes between protesters and Muslim Brotherhood supporters outside parliament, continued sit-in outside State TV, etc.

"In the beginning of this video (above) you can see clearly how security forces stood by watching while violence was breaking at the stadium. 

"Such footage coupled with countless accounts by witnesses with details of how things turned ugly only came to emphasise people's doubts that the ultras may have been tragetted.

"Whether or not that is true, the damage is already done.

"As the train from Port Said arrived at Cairo Station after 3am, carrying some of the Ultras, inlcuding injured ones, their family members and friends were waiting to see who would come out of the train, alive. Some did come out, safe and sound. Others came out injured. But some did not make it! It was a very emotional moment.

"And.. thousands were gathered at the station. 

"The chanting was becoming louder and clearer:

"Either we get their rights, or we die like them"

"Down with the Military Rule"

"The People Want to Execute the Field Mashall"

"Ambulances took the injured to hospitals while the Ultras marched on to Tahrir Square, a square they know very well, a square where they have survived many battles before and are ready for any new ones to come. 

"It was yet another unforgettable day and an unforgettable - sleepless - night in Egyptians' long struggle for freedom."

Anniversary protest in Tahrir Square

THOUSANDS of Egyptians are gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square today to mark the anniversary of the January 25 revolution.

And amidst all the pride and celebration is anger that despite all the efforts made and lives lost, the country is still essentially ruled by the same elite.

The SCAF military junta has promised to step down once a president is in place in June, but there is little reason to think it will voluntarily step away from political control.

The brutality it has deployed against protesters in the last few months has been horribly reminiscent of the Mubarak regime that the revolution famously toppled.

Commented journalist rurned blogger Dima Khatib on Twitter: "A year has passed since #Jan25 with 945 people dead, more than 6,400 injured and not one police officer was sentenced. #Egypt”

A live blog of today's Tahrir protest is being  run by Aljazeera  and you can also follow the #jan25 hashtag on Twitter to see how events develop.

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Tuesday - dawn raid on Tahrir Square

EGYPTIAN police and soldiers fired weapons and used batons and teargas for a fifth day on Tuesday in the latest security operation to clear Cairo's central Tahrir Square of opponents of army rule.

The sound of heavy gunfire rang out across the square as armed security forces charged hundreds of protesters attempting to hold their ground, activists and a Reuters witness said.

"Hundreds of state security forces and the army entered the square and began firing heavily. They chased protesters and burned anything in their way, including medical supplies and blankets," protester Ismail said by telephone.

Before the latest security charge, protesters had been trying to tear down a brick wall the army had put up to block access to parliament, which is located beside the square.

A security source told Reuters some protesters wanted to remove the wall in order to reach parliament and destroy it.

Medical sources have said 13 people have been killed since Friday, but the protesters say the latest attack produced more casualties. "Some of those who fell had gunshot wounds to the legs," Ismail said.

Hundreds more were wounded and scores have been detained in attempts to disperse protests in and around Tahrir Square, hub of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February.

Anger has been inflamed by brutal attacks on protesters at the weekend, including one on a young woman whose clothes were partly torn off, captured on video for the world to see.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC, Robin Wright, a senior fellow at the US Institute of Peace, said the SCAF regime was now effectively a military junta preventing the country from moving forward and the protests were taking on the form of a real revolution.

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Tahrir video sparks outrage

THIS astonishing video has appeared online showing the horrific extent of the Egyptian army's attack on Tahrir Square.

No comment is necessary.

Unsurprisingly, outraged Egyptians have been back on the streets today.

Reports AFP: "Clashes between Egyptian troops and protesters rocked central Cairo Sunday in a third straight day of violence that has left 10 people dead and damaged a world-famous historic library.

"Some 500 people have also been wounded in the street battles outside parliament and the government's offices where protesters have been demanding an end to military rule.

"The clashes erupted Friday overshadowing the count from the second phase of the first parliamentary elections since president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February.

"Demonstrators hurled stones and pieces of metal over a concrete wall erected by troops on a wide avenue leading from Tahrir Square to the seat of government, AFP journalists reported.

"Outrage flared on Sunday as furious protesters brandished the frontpage of a local paper showing military police clubbing a veiled woman after having ripped her clothes to reveal her bra.

"In the picture and YouTube footage of the incident, the woman is sprawled on the ground, helmeted troops towering over her, one is seen kicking her, and later she appears unconscious, her stomach bared and her bra showing.

"Other pictures circulating on social media networks that have enraged protesters include one of a military policeman looming over a sobbing elderly lady with his truncheon."

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Videos - brutal Egyptian army attacks Tahrir Square

THE stormtroopers of the global neoliberal order today moved into Tahrir Square, the cradle of the international pro-democracy uprising.

Protesters were shot in the streets and brutally beaten, while tents were smashed up and set on fire as the supposed friends of the Egyptian revolution showed themselves for what they always were.

Unbelievably, the attack took place during the call to prayer, as can be heard on the video footage.

Posts on the #tahrir hashtag on Twitter tell of "atrocities everywhere".

"We can't allow this to continue, it's so very wrong," says one comment.

Pleas another: "We need people...battle at kasr al ainy".

"No difference btw Israeli army attacking Palestinians who throw rocks and the Egyptian army attacking its own people," someone else points out. 

Another reveals: "Doctors are hiding severely wounded patients in the bathrooms so police and army won't find them."
 
One video shows soldiers attacking a middle aged woman offering no resistance whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Kamal al-Ganzouri, prime minister under the SCAF regime, has had the barefaced audacity to describe the protests in Cairo as a "counter-revolution".

More updates later.
 


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'Era of naked force' - frontline video from Egypt

 "WE HAVE now entered the era of naked force".

That was the view expressed by former New York Times correspondent  Chris Hedges, as this video was released showing a week of rebellion and repression on the front line in Egypt, with police clearly seen shooting at protesters against the neoliberal-backed SCAF military regime.

Hedges wrote in an article called This is What Revolution Looks Like: "The historian Crane Brinton in his book 'Anatomy of a Revolution' laid out the common route to revolution.

"The preconditions for successful revolution, Brinton argued, are discontent that affects nearly all social classes, widespread feelings of entrapment and despair, unfulfilled expectations, a unified solidarity in opposition to a tiny power elite, a refusal by scholars and thinkers to continue to defend the actions of the ruling class, an inability of government to respond to the basic needs of citizens, a steady loss of will within the power elite itself and defections from the inner circle, a crippling isolation that leaves the power elite without any allies or outside support and, finally, a financial crisis.

"Our corporate elite, as far as Brinton was concerned, has amply fulfilled these preconditions. But it is Brinton’s next observation that is most worth remembering. Revolutions always begin, he wrote, by making impossible demands that if the government met would mean the end of the old configurations of power.

"The second stage, the one we have entered now, is the unsuccessful attempt by the power elite to quell the unrest and discontent through physical acts of repression.

"I have seen my share of revolts, insurgencies and revolutions, from the guerrilla conflicts in the 1980s in Central America to the civil wars in Algeria, the Sudan and Yemen, to the Palestinian uprising to the revolutions in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania as well as the wars in the former Yugoslavia. George Orwell wrote that all tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but that once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force. We have now entered the era of naked force.

"The vast million-person bureaucracy of the internal security and surveillance state will not be used to stop terrorism but to try and stop us."

Today, Friday, was expected to see massive crowds turn out to call for the immediate end to SCAF rule.

Updates at EA World View.

Live streaming from RT.

Egyptian lesson for global revolutionaries

POTENTIAL revolutionaries across the world should watch carefully what is happening in Egypt at the moment.

This is what happens if you get anywhere near threatening the grip on power of the global capitalist system.

First of all they ignore you, then they mock you, spy on you, infiltrate you, kettle you, prosecute you, intimidate you, threaten you, lie about you, beat you up.

If all that fails, they may trick you into thinking you have won - as they seem to have done in Egypt earlier this year.

When you see through it all and refuse to lie down, they will start shooting you (as they do in this video).  

And still you have to keep fighting, like the heroes of Cairo, because otherwise you are condemning your children, their children and their children afterwards to lives of slavery.

Gunfire in Cairo - raw video

 

ASTONISHING video footage is emerging from Cairo, where protesters are braving toxic chemical gases and even live bullets as they fight to protect democracy and the revolution.

Huge numbers gathered in Tahrir Square on Tuesday, with adjacent side streets filled with what was virtually civil war, as the state attacked opponents of the SCAF military regime.

A televised speech by Mohamed Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, did nothing to halt the mood of rebellion, with its echoes of Mubarak's final days.

The mood of the protesters today can be seen in these messages appearing on Twitter under the hashtag of the revolution, #jan25: 

This is different than #Jan25 somehow. Less chanting/signs and more battle-like. Its not a protest anymore, it's a revolution. #tahrir

a friend who never supported #jan25: "I support tahrir. Today I can say tahrir is only true & honest thing in #egypt" it made me cry...

 

Today is the happiest for me sice #jan25 ,today my fiancee joins the revolution and we are going to #tahrir hand in hand :)

 

2,000,000+ now in #tahrir, I guess that didn't even happen in #jan25 days !! #Egypt #noSCAF

 

Dear US Government, We don't hate you because we hate your freedom. We hate you because you hate our freedom. #Tahrir #Egypt #Jan25

US cops 'inspired Egyptian brutality'

SCENES of violent American police smashing up the Occupy Wall Street protest camp in New York inspired Egyptian state forces in their attack on the Tahrir Square occupation.

This is the shocking revelation picked up from Egyptian state TV by the Russia Today news channel.

It reports that an anchor for the broadcaster referred to the "fantastically efficient police response to the Occupy Wall Street movement in America" and  added: "We saw the firm stance the US took against OWS people (and the German government against green protesters) to secure the state" .

It is clear that US support for the army regime consistst of more than just theoretical inspiration, with chemicals used to attack protesters being supplied from America.

Despite the vicious attack by police and army, the encampment in the centre of the Cairo remains in place and on Tuesday a new series of demonstrations are expected as momentum grows for a Second Revolution in Egypt to sweep aside the SCAF military council. 

13 killed in new battle of Tahrir

 

COURAGEOUS revolutionaries continue to battle the SCAF military regime in Egypt.

The BBC is reporting that at least 13 protesters have been killed by the authorities in Cairo over the weekend.

It says: "Security forces launched a major assault to clear the square on Sunday, but protesters returned within an hour."

One Egyptian commenting on Twitter said: "I am out of words. Egyptian army is murdering Egyptian civilians. That's our worst living nightmare."

Said another: "This is the longest battle we've ever fought ever since #Jan25, and by far the most critical."

New revolution ignites in Egypt - video

A NEW revolutionary wave is sweeping Egypt, as people take to the streets to oppose the SCAF 'temporary' military regime.

Reports The New York Times: "A police action to roust a few hundred protesters out of Tahrir Square on Saturday instead drew thousands of people from across Egyptian society into the streets, where the violence continued on Sunday.

"The confrontations were the most violent manifestation so far of growing anger at the military-led interim government.
 
"In a battle reminiscent of the clashes that led to the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak nine months ago, a mass of protesters converged on Tahrir Square, fled before an onslaught of riot police officers firing tear gas and rubber bullets, and then surged back to retake and hold the square through the early hours of Sunday.

"State media reported Saturday night that more than 700 people had been injured, including 40 riot police, and at least one civilian died of a gunshot wound.

"Protesters operated a makeshift field hospital in small mosque near the square, where doctors said Sunday morning that they had treated at least 400 people for serious injuries and hundreds more who suffered from tear gas. The smell of gas was still heavy around the square.

"The clashes continued Sunday through midday as a crowd of perhaps a few hundred who stayed in the square through the night swelled back to thousands.

"Though demonstrators occupied the square unmolested, a battalion of young men that filled a city block was charging against a wall of police, who fired tear gas to defend the headquarters of the interior ministry.

"Witnesses said the battle had pushed back and forth through the night.'I saw the revolution being slain so I had to come,' said Ahmed Hamza, 41, a lawyer, watching the fray. Like many in the square, he vowed to stay until the ruling military council committed to a swift exit from power but also said he feared the generals welcomed the chaos as pretext to cancel elections. 'Today there will be violence,' he predicted, awaiting new moves to clear the square."

50,000 demand democracy in Egypt

PRESSURE is building in Egypt for a second revolution to rid the country of the SCAF military regime.

A massive demonstration of 50,000 people was held on Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, in which protesters from all backgrounds came together to demand the democracy they thought they had won in January this year.

But a stark reminder of how little some things have changed came after the rally with the arrival of riot police to dismantle tents and force the remaining people out of the area.

The scenes also have huge resonance with the attacks on Occupy camps in the USA, making it even clearer that we are witnessing the same system oppressing the same people - all across the world.

Reports Aljazeera: "Friday's protest drew political parties and religious movements of different stripes, though the loudest voices in the square came from Islamists, including hardline Salafis and the comparatively moderate Muslim Brotherhood.

"Liberal, leftist and Islamist parties and groups such as the April 6 Movement, founded in solidarity with labour protests, participated in the rally. Islamists joined with their call to put an end to military trials of civilians, which have led to the incarceration of thousands in proceedings described by human rights activists as opaque and unfair."

It quoted Anan Zuhairi, a 26-year-old doctor, as saying she was not with any party or political movement but that she joined the protest because 'nothing has been resolved since the revolution.

"'Nothing we revolted for has happened. Emergency law is still not canceled. People are being taken out of their homes. Our demands have remained the same except they've become more," she said. "We just want democracy and freedom. The people with opinions are all in prisons."

Tahrir revolt comes to London

AN EGYPTIAN connection to the Occupy London protest in Britain has been identified by the Almasry Alyoum website.

It writes: "Around 3000 people flooded the square outside St. Paul’s on Saturday, partaking in a day of coordinated global protests.

"Tens of thousands marched in cities across the world, from New York to Rome, under the collective banner 'We are the 99 percent' – against government austerity, corporate greed and an unjust economic system.

"Occupy Wall Street and the Spanish Indignados (Indignants) are widely credited as an inspiration for these protests, but Egypt and the Arab Spring also had a presence in London’s occupation.

"A street sign that renamed the area "Tahrir Square" was erected early on in the day, a banner declaring "The IMF is our global Mubarak" hung from one man’s tent, and a handful of Egyptian protesters carried signs critical of Egypt’s current military rulers."