After 18 days of protest, the people of Egypt have managed to force the resignation of their military dictator of 30 years, Hosni Mubarak.
Picture credit: BBC News
Of course, it’s still too early to say right now at the time of writing how this will pan out, but so far the signs are at least positive; the caretaker military administration have promised open elections as soon as practicable, they’ve promised to abide by all the existing treaties which are in effect (which is hopefully a good sign for the Israel-Palestine process), they after all chose not to suppress the protests in the first place, and, following Tunisia’s starting of what might prove to be a Middle East domino effect, protests are now starting in Algeria.
But what can we learn ourselves from the events of the last three weeks?
Most of all, we learn perhaps the most important thing, that (broadly) peaceful protest, even in the face of a 30-year oppressive regime, can work – that ultimately, even when the regime is backed up by tanks, helicopter gunships, and fighter jets, the people really do reign supreme; if the people can be arsed. When a million people turned up to march on parliament in 2003 intent on stopping our government from going to war in Iraq, we turned up, we shouted at the bricks and waved our banners, and we went home. Subsequent protests about various issues in Britain have had similar effects – a lot of people have turned up, shouted, waved flags, thrown bricks, and buggered off home. In contrast, in Egypt a million people turned up in Tahrir Square and stayed there. They stayed there and refused to go home until their demands were met – and they knew that their demands were righteous, and those who could have stopped the protests in a stroke, the army, also knew their demands were righteous. Rather than act as agents of the oppressive state, the army remembered what their first and overriding priority is – to defend the nation. The People held their nerve, and The People ultimately won.
We also learn that effective protests are ones which are owned by The People, not by professional agitators. The message for us in the UK is clear – Socialist Worker, you’re not welcome. Whenever you and your crowd turn up to a protest, all you do is poison it. You have no interest in creating a fair and just society, your sole interest is in replacing one unfair and unjust system with another unfair and unjust system. Whenever you and your ilk turn up to a protest, you’re there with violence and mayhem as the goal, not the means of last resort. It’s because of the likes of you that modern protests are accompanied by an equally obnoxious response by those tasked to police them. So go home, and don’t come back until you’re prepared to camp out in the cold for three weeks.
What can our government (and by that I do not restrict myself to those who happen to be living in Downing Street this week) learn from the Egyptian protest?
How might they respond to a three week occupation of Trafalgar Square by a million people?
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