Egypt and Community Building

I meant to post this before Mubarak stepped down, while it was still written in present tense.  But here it is anyway.  A lot of my info came from radio reporting on KPFA and Al Jazeera, if my sources aren't directly cited.

(photo source and more photos here)

The uprising in Egypt reminds us that building community is at the heart of revolutionary movement.

During the last several weeks in Tahrir square, Egyptians for the first time felt like the country was theirs. People who've lived their entire life under the Mubarak regime for the first time felt alive - so alive that they were, and are, willing to die for the liberation of their people.

As I heard one radio commentator say, "Mass action jolts people out of feelings of individual powerlessness. It makes us realize that we have collective power."

Egyptian activists have been organizing demonstrations in Cairo and Tahrir square for years, but never saw more than a few thousand activists turn out. This time the timing was just right. The young organizers of Egypt witnessed their brothers and sisters in Tunisia oust, Ben Ali, the dictator oppressing them.  They strategized for days and organized protests through Facebook.  They made decoys to outmaneuver the police. When a critical mass of demonstrators filled the square, it spiraled and coalesced into an unstoppable movement.

The people's movement of Eygpt caught the imagination of the world. Inside that square, life blossomed where there was once endless despair. An Egyptian ex-pat living in the California told Hard Knock Radio at the Egypt Solidarity protest in San Francisco that things have been bad in Egypt for awhile, but people have been especially beaten-down in the last six to seven years. We're talking about a completely corrupt government. Mass unemployment across all sectors of society, especially the youth - including lawyers and other college graduates.  Rising food prices. Social services, including schools, that offer nothing. And to keep the people in check: severe and systematic police repression.

But on January 25th, things changed.

Entire community networks developed in the liberated land of Tahrir square and in public spaces across the Eqyptian nation. These ways of being were not just for survival, but material evidence of the people's ability to organize and govern themselves. The people of Egypt were shoving this material evident in their government's face, saying: "We do not need you. We can provide for ourselves. Indeed, we already are."

When the internet was shut down, the networks of communication and organization blossomed on the streets. They developed trash and recycling systems. Doctors roved the streets, providing medical care. Neighborhoods organized checkpoints to search each person entering, making sure they are not state police, Mubarak-thugs. Christians formed perimeters around Muslims when they needed to pray. Muslims formed perimeters around Christians when they needed to pray. Art, music, and poetry took over the streets into the night. People cooked food and distributed it to each other. Groups camped out in tent cities.  Kindergarten classes were held in the middle of the demonstrations.  A KFC was taken over and transformed into a clinic.  (Just look at this map.)  People organized federated councils to make collective decisions about next steps to take.

Women said for the first time they felt like public space was safe space.

This is the moment of revolution.  We'll see what happens, but for now, Egypt is in good hands: the hands of the Egyptians themselves.

It's a good reminder to reflect on our own lives. What networks and relationships are we building and strengthening in our own day-to-day lives?  For the strength of these networks are what sustain and move us when current status-quo systems rupture and new potential for freedom and community arises.