Solidarity with the Egyptian People
We are witnessing a very rare thing this week. The people of Egypt are rising up in a grassroots democratic revolution on the heels of a simliar revolution in Tunisia. Other democratic revolts are occuring all over the Middle East in conservative traditionalist largely Muslim countries that are just the kinds of places where western news media and a cavalcade of experts are fond of telling us such things can't possibly happen. Naturally, I disagree. In fact, I think such revolts are inevitable. Just take any population of rational human beings and allow a small oligarchy to sell off the products of their labor and the riches of their land to multinational corporations for a few decades - all the while staying in power by propping up a brutal dictatorial government with military support from imperial powers like the United States - and see how they react when pushed past the breaking point. In general, people in such situations react by doing just what the Egyptians are now doing. Getting out in the streets in huge numbers. And refusing to go home until their dictator abdicates, and their oligarchy accedes to a democratic government.
It will be a messy process. And the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak isn't going down without a very nasty fight - as the events of the last couple of days have shown. But clearly, Bostonians that share the Egyptian's love of democracy need to join local Egyptian expats and Egyptian-Americans in the streets here to show solidarity with the Egyptian revolution. Our job - and the job of all supportive Americans - is to demand that the US government freeze all but genuinely humanitarian aid to Egypt until there has been a peaceful transfer of power. Once a democratic government is in power, the US can show its support for the Egyptian people by increasing humanitarian aid and limiting military aid to a bare minimum.
So that's my simple message this week. If you hear about demonstrations in support of the Egyptian revolution, join them. If you hear about various humanitarian campaigns in support of the Egyptian people, do whatever you can to help out. If you are afforded a chance to sign a petition or make a phone call to pressure the Obama administration to do the right thing, do that, too. The American government has helped prop up the Mubarak regime for 30 years; so the least we can do is to do our part to bring that regime down. We're with you all the way here at Open Media Boston.
The other thing I can say to fellow Americans about this situation is to pay attention to how this revolution plays out. Watch the millions of outraged people in the streets. Watch the reaction of their government - especially how it puts thugs and assassins in the midst of huge rallies to maim and kill ... and attempts to sow enough fear to slow the movement down. Watch what the army does. Watch how other nations react, and what the multinationals do. Pay careful attention to all of this human drama. And file away the information you learn. Because one never knows when it's going to come in handy. When Americans will finally get pushed too far by our own oligarchs, or some super bad government leaders, or an even worse economy than we have now, and decide to take to the streets for social justice in vast numbers ourselves.
I, for one, have never believed the idea that Americans are too dumbed down by decades of TV and the internet and video games to look after our own best interests as human beings. I think it's simply a fact that enough people haven't been angry enough to push hard for real change. And I think people are all too aware that mass movements for democracy can go terribly awry and make things worse than they were to begin with. So caution is an understandable watchword. But there are limits to reasonable people's patience, and some of those limits have been crossed in the last couple of years. It remains to be seen whether things will get better or worse here in the near future, but the more people who are aware of what a democratic revolution looks like - and are prepared to emulate it when called upon to do so - the better.
That's it for now. I send my best wishes to all Egyptians fighting for their freedom. May you awake one morning soon in a free Egypt.
