Unethical oil

Today, "cog in the Conservative machine" Alykhan Velshi relaunched his website "ethical oil", with a series of ridiculous posters. Based on Ezra Levant's tar sands book by the same name, the posters take aim at "the world's bastards" (Iran, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan). As Velshi argues "When you’re filling up the tank, I think you’re indirectly funding them and their pet projects." The "ethical oil" argument counterposes "foreign oil" with Canada's tar sands--claiming that the latter promotes the environment, human rights, peace and democracy. Below are alternative posters to expose the myth of "ethical oil" and argue that a green economy free of the tar sands is the only viable future for the planet and its people.

ENVIRONMENT

Counterposing tar sands oil with other oil is a false dichotomy. The oil economy in general is leading the world to catastrophic climate change, and the tar sands is accelerating this process. According to Greenpeace,

"The tar sands cover an area of land the size of England, which has been divided up and leased to the world’s biggest oil companies...The tar sands use more water every day than a city of two million people and consume enough natural gas to heat six million Canadian homes. Until the oil boom, the tar sands were too expensive to be economically viable. But our global addiction to oil has us scraping the bottom of the barrel. The tar sands generate 40 million tonnes of CO2 per year, more than all the cars in Canada combined...As the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, the tar sands are the main reason Canada continues to block meaningful global climate regulations. The Canadian government ignores the warnings of the scientific community by aiming for abysmal targets that will leave us at nearly double the science-based target that we need to meet to keep the increase in global temperature below 2 C and avoid catastrophic climate change."

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS

The claim that tar sands promotes indigenous rights has been exposed by indigenous people themselves, who are leading the fight against tar sands. According to the Indigenous Environmental Network,

"Indigenous peoples (known as First Nations) in Canada are taking the lead to stop the largest industrial project on Mother Earth: the Tar Sands Gigaproject...The cultural heritage, land, ecosystems and human health of First Nation communities including the Mikisew Cree First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort McMurray First Nation, Fort McKay Cree Nation, Beaver Lake Cree First Nation Chipewyan Prairie First Nation, and the Metis, are being sacrificed for oil money in what has been termed a “slow industrial genocide”. Infrastructure projects linked to the tar sands expansion such as the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline, threaten First Nation communities in British Columbia, Canada and American Indian communities throughout the United States. Community resistance is growing and Indigenous peoples throughout North America have mounted substantive challenges to tar sands expansion."

PEACE

The actions of the Harper government make the false dichotomy of "conflict oil" vs "ethical oil" obvious. As opposition Harper wanted Canada to join the oil war in Iraq, and as Prime Minister has persecuted US Iraq War resisters (with Velshi an eager participant) for trying to be ethical soldiers refusing to fight for conflict oil. While promoting the tar sands, Harper has extended the oil war in Afghanistan three times, already once extended his oil war in Libya (where NATO intervention is designed to undermine the Arab spring that threatens to overthrow all the Western-backed "bastards"), and plans on wasting billions on oil-dependent fighter jets to participate in further conflicts over foreign oil.

WORKER'S RIGHTS

The claim that tar sands production supports worker's rights ignores the experience of workers themselves. Last year a tar sands workers was fired for blogging about the conditions at Fort McMurray:

"We have options for bagged lunches to take to work that includes stale vegetables that are sometimes unwashed (and occasionally are rotten/slimy), green fruit, sandwiches so high in salt it would terrify you, and a selection of donuts/cookies/cupcakes that would make Tim Horton's pale in comparison...All the vents are connected together so that if one person gets sick you are almost guaranteed to get it as well, the only answer is to stuff your vents with towels and live with stuffy stale air. It is not uncommon to have dozens of people ill, and there are occasional outbreaks of flu or cold that can affect hundreds at a time...There is no viable complaint procedure, no responsible person to notify of low quality or dangerous conditions, as camp patrons we are almost entirely helpless and at the whim of these people and they know it. This only reinforces the general resentment (or forced acceptance) of these conditions."

DEMOCRACY

The simplistic and racist dichotomy between inherent Western democracy and inherent Middle East dictatorship ignores Western arms sales to dictatorships, Western political support for dictators (from Paul Martin's support for Libyan dictator Muamaar Gaddafi, to Harper's support for Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak), and Western oil companies profiting from dictatorships (like Canada's Suncor operating in Libya and Syria, as well the tar sands). Meanwhile the Harper government has ignored majority support for a green economy, highlighted last year by Greenpeace's banner drop from Parliament. According to a poll last year,

"over 70 percent of Canadians support redirecting of military spending toward efforts that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the idea of a World Climate and Justice Tribunal to judge and penalize countries and corporations whose actions have contributed climate change. Over 80 percent of Canadians believe the Canadian government should invest in “green jobs” and transition programmes for workers and communities negatively affected by a shift off of fossil fuels."

Despite attempts to greenwash the tar sands, the majority of people support a truly green economy--and movements uniting indigenous groups, environmentalists, the labour movement and the anti-war movement are working to bring for this democratic and green future to life. 

Myths and facts about the Muslim prayer space

There’s growing hysteria against the prayer space for Muslim students at the Valley Park Middle School in Toronto. It’s claimed that it gives special treatment to Muslims, undermines public education and imposes sexism on society, and that we should support a supposedly broad-based multifaith coalition that opposes it. But this is based on a series of myths.

MYTH: the prayer space gives special treatment to Muslims and undermines secularism

FACT: the prayer spaces promotes secularism by providing equal access to public education

According to Toronto District School Board Education (TDSB) Director Chris Spence: “As a public school board, we have a responsibility and an obligation to accommodate faith needs.” With its weekends and vacations, the school calendar already accommodates students who pray on Saturday or Sunday, and those who observe Easter and Christmas. Furthermore, as Omar Qayum, a TDSB teacher pointed out,

“At my school we have Christian invocations every year during our Remembrance Day assemblies and during the Christmas holidays through carols- nobody complains! Furthermore, some schools partake in Hanukah, Diwali and Kwanza to honour their Jewish, Hindu and African-American students.”

The prayer space for Muslim students ensures that they are not excluded and forced to choose between their education and their faith. Rather than demanding the canceling of Friday classes or having Muslim students miss class, the Friday prayer space ensures no disruption to non-Muslim students while promoting access to education for Muslim students. This is the essence of secularism: equal access to public services irrespective of religion.

Banning prayer spaces undermines this principle, and there’s a history of such discrimination towards Muslims. As an article in the Ottawa Citizen reminds us:

“It's the same as the flap about civil arbitration back in 2005. For more than a decade, the government of Ontario had a system that permitted Orthodox Christians and Jews to settle family disputes according to their faith's rules provided the outcome did not violate generally applicable laws and principles. Not controversial in the least. Then a handful of Muslims asked to do the same, there was a mighty backlash, and the government scrapped the whole system.”

MYTH: the prayer space undermines public education

FACT: opposition to the prayer space is scapegoating Muslims for government cuts

The Toronto Sun claimed, that “the taxpayers are funding religious schools after all. Or at least one that we know of. If it’s not stopped now who knows where this will end up or how much it will cost.”

Firstly, taxpayers are not funding a separate Muslim prayer space, it is happening in the existing school cafeteria, organized and paid for by the local Muslim community. Secondly, we know of many religious schools that receive public funding: Catholic schools, which segregate boys and girls not only in separate prayer spaces but in separate schools.

Most importantly, the erosion of quality public education is not because of accommodation to religious minorities. Prayer spaces have not reduced education budgets and extra-curricular activities, or increased class sizes, budget cuts have. It’s no coincidence that minorities are being scapegoated in times of economic crisis and austerity measures. Britain’s conservative government is imposing massive cuts to jobs and services, including the tripling of university tuition. At the same time it’s blaming “multiculturalism” and giving confidence to extremist groups like the English Defense League who target Muslims.

MYTH: the prayer space is imposing segregation on education and society

FACT: Muslims are being scapegoated for segretation that pervades society and all its institutions

The hysteria against the prayer space gives the impression that girls and women would be liberated were it not for an optional weekly half hour Muslim prayer at one school. But segregation of the sexes exists in all religions—including the segregation of menstruating women in some orthodox Jewish communities. As Aisha Sherazi, a formal principal wrote recently, “Growing up in a Hindu family, men and women always sat separately…It is up to the Muslim community to have a debate about whether they want to have mixed prayer or not.” But the islamophobic campaign against the prayer space does not open up space for this debate, it closes it.

Furthermore the campaign suggests segregation is isolated to Muslim prayer space. But throughout society women face segregation—in pay, reproductive choice, media images that shame their bodies, and levels of violence. Campaigns in Western countries against Muslims are scapegoating them for these far broader forms of segregation, while denying that Muslim women have any agency in their own lives. In France where less than 25% of MPs are women, the government has claimed to liberate women by banning those who wear niqab from public space.

In Canada the federal Harper government refuses to investigate missing and murdered Aboriginal women, purged funding from women’s groups, imposed a maternal health plan that denies reproductive choice, and told women's groups to "shut the fuck up". As women are segregated into lower socio-economic status, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's massive proposal of cuts will disproportionately hurt those who rely on city services--from bus routes to dental care. Why aren’t the groups up in arms over prayer space organizing protests against these policies of segregation affecting far broader population?

MYTH: a broad multi-faith coalition opposes the prayer space

FACT:  a small number of fringe groups with a history of Islamophobia oppose the prayer space

Far from being a large multi-faith opposition, the main organized opposition to the prayer space are fringe political groups with a history of Islamophobia: the Jewish Defense League (an extremist Zionist group), the Christian Heritage Party (a fringe right-wing party that calls for a moratorium on immigration from Muslim countries, and that opposes women’s choice), the Canadian Hindu Advocacy (a Hindu nationalist group whose spokesperson claimed that Islamic civilization had contributed “less to human advancement than a pack of donkeys”) and the Muslim Canadian Congress (a small group whose spokeperson Tarek Fatah has become a media darling for supporting campaigns against religious accommodation for Muslims).

It’s obvious that what unites these groups is not their love of public education or their commitment to women’s rights, but their Islamophobia. Despite their fringe numbers and beliefs, the media has helped them spark a hysterical reaction against an optional weekly half hour of prayer that doesn’t interfere with non-Muslims and which allow Muslim students to better integrate into public school—but which like all religions and most of society has some form of segregation. These groups are trying to import the politics of David Cameron and the English Defense League, paying lip service to women’s rights and public education as an excuse to whip up Islamophobia, providing a scapegoat to economic crisis and austerity.

The bombs in Afghanistan have landed in Norway

A decade of Islamophobia to justify the war in Afghanistan is now spreading violence to the West. Right-wing Islamophobe Anders Behring Breivik has killed 91 people in Norway, through the explosion of a bomb near the Prime Minister's building and a shooting spree in a youth camp organized by the Workers’ Youth League.

     The initial response by international media was to blame Muslims. But when the alleged perpetrator turned out to be a blond-hair, blue-eyed Norwegian Christian nationalist, some are now denying there’s any context whatsoever for the killing. As a Norwegian official said, "It seems it's not Islamic-terror related. This seems like a madman's work." 

     But Breiviks was not driven by "madness", he was driven by right-wing Islamophobic politics. From 1997 to 2007 he was a member of the xenophobic "Progress Party". Since that time police chief Sveinung Sponheim describe his internet postings as having “some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views”, and others have pointed out his an admirer of prominent anti-Muslim individuals and organizations like Geert Wilders and the English Defense League.

ISLAMOPHOBIA

     Islamophobia existed well before the terror attacks of 9/11. After the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 (orchestrated by Gulf War veteran and right-wing extremist Timothy McVeigh), the media blamed Muslims, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee documented death threats against Muslims and vandalism of mosques. But for the past decade there has been a surge in Islamophobia to scapegoat populations at home and justify wars abroad.

     The Western countries with Islamophobic policies overlaps with those occupying Afghanistan: from the US (which incarcerated Muslims without trial in Guantanamo Bay), to Canada (which has rounded up Muslim men and pressured them to admit to terrorism, while Muslim Canadians have been abandoned abroad, and media have amplified fringe-group campaigns against prayer spaces), to France (which is banning girls who wear hijab from school, and women who wear niqab from public space), to Norway.

     The website Islamophobia-watch has documented anti-Muslim racism around the world, which in Norway includes:

-2006: the Directorate for Primary and Secondary Education of Norway banned girls and women wearing niqab form school

 -2007: anti-immigration politicians in Bergen threatened to use pigs feet to chase praying Muslims out of a public square.

-2009: the Norwegian government tried to ban female police officers from wearing the hijab

-April 2011: attempts were made to set up a Norwegian Defense League—modeled on the English Defense League--with a demonstration was called against the “Islamic occupation of Noway”. While only 10-15 Islamophobes turned up, up to 1000 people attended a counter-demonstration

-May 2011: a school in Bergen had to be evacuated when a national newspaper received a message threatening “A massacre at Gimle school Bergen. Everyone that stands in the way will die, especially Muslims”

     But police have refused to see Islamophobia as a threat. “It’s surprising, because the Norwegian police have long said that the right wing extremist community was under control,” said Hegghammer, of the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment.

FIGHT POVERTY, RACISM AND MILITARISM

     As Martin Luther King famously said:

demo against the Norwegian Defense League, April 2011

“The bombs in Vietnam explode at home. They destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America. If we reversed investments and gave the armed forces the anti-poverty budget, the generals could be forgiven if they walked off the battlefield in disgust. Poverty, urban problems and social progress generally are ignored when the guns of war become a national obsession.”

     The horrific crimes of Anders Behring Breivik have exposed the consequences of war and Islamophobia, which are intensifying in the economic crisis. To counter this we must follow the words of King: 

"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism."

The Egyptian revolution: phase two

My previous post looked at the first phase of the Egyptian revolution, and the struggles that led up to it, which has won significant political reforms--from the removal of Mubarak, to the promise of free and fair elections, to the partial opening of the Rafah border, to partial freedom of speech and assembly. But basic political reforms are not complete, and the social and economic demands tied to them have not been met. This is phase two of the Egyptian revolution.


UNFINISHED REVOLUTION

Ganzeer's poster, "The Freedom mask"

     Despite the removal of Mubarak, his regime is still intact: the emergency laws and military trials of civilians are still in effect; police cracked down on demonstrators on Nakba Day and beat a bus driver to death in June; the regime arrested journalist Rasha Azab and interrogated journalist and activist Hossam el-Hamalawy; the regime censored murals commemorating martyrs and arrested the street artist Ganzeer (for his poster that says "New! The Freedom Mask! Greetings from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to dear Egyptians. Now available for an unlimited time").
     Like the decade of struggle leading up the revolution, these political questions are part and parcel of social and economic demands. Workers are demanding a minimum wage of 1200 Egyptian pounds ($200). Women demonstrated in Tahrir on International Women’s Day for government-funded child care, an end to discrimination in hiring and promotions, and an end to sexual harrassment and violence against women. Peasants have began reclaiming the land. This week families of martyrs demanding justice joined a sit-in by homeless people demanding housing. 

     But these demands challenge the military regime and the corporations that support them, which persists despite Mubarak’s overthrow. As a striking doctor said, “Every percentage point for increasing health care will come from the budget of the Ministry of Interior and other parts of the oppressive machine.” The same economic crisis that contributed to the revolution is driving a deeper wedge between political reforms gained and the social and economic demands that have yet to be met. The stock market even panicked at a raise in the minimum wage to 700 pounds.

COUNTER-REVOLUTION

British PM concluding weapon sales to Egypt's regime

     The Arab spring is a huge threat to Western imperialism in the region, and the counter-revolution is taking a variety of forms: direct military intervention in Libya, indirect intervention through Saudi Arabia in Bahrain, and a combination of weapons sales and  “financial aid” in Egypt. But with the Eurozone in crisis, the funds are relatively small for such a large and strategic country as Egypt, and the government was just forced to reject the loan--citing the "pressure of public opinion". Meanwhile the internal counter-revolution in Egypt is based on a combination of co-opting and attacking the revolution.

     While corporations and the regime are claiming the mantle of the revolution—on murals and posters—they are attacking the strength and unity on which the revolution depends. One of the first acts of the military regime after the fall of Mubarak was to ban strikes that helped drive him from power, and since then it has broken up sit-ins, and harassed union activists in education and transportation. It has also overseen attacks on the International Women’s Day March--including subjecting women to virginity tests--and the burning of a Coptic church.

     The regime has accused striking doctors—who earn less tan $3/day of being traitors to the revolution, while the state-controlled trade unions have accused the independent trade unions of being "counter-revolutionary among the workers". Just as Stalin’s counter-revolution used the language of socialism, so the military regime in Egypt is using the language of revolution in an attempt to undermine the movement for change. The leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood is complicit with the military regime in its quest for power, using religious language to call off demonstrations. But many of its membership, particularly the youth, were radicalized by the revolution and continue to demonstrate.

WORKERS

     In this context workers struggles are key to counter divisions and push the revolution forward. As Hossam El-Hamalawy wrote last month in The Guardian,

May Day in Tahrir: "Workers of Egypt, unite"

“Many are disappointed with Egypt's progress – me less so because I never had high expectations from an army takeover. But two things have changed in Egypt in the past 100 days which give me hope, and both relate to the fact that the revolution is unfinished. The first is that mass strikes are continuing. The second is that workers have taken the step of establishing independent trade unions, which I believe are the silver bullet for any dictatorship.

Attempts are already under way by middle-class activists to place limits on this revolution and ensure it remains only within the realm of formal political institutions. But the main part of any revolution has to be socio-economic emancipation for the citizens of a country. So this is phase two of the revolution, the phase of socio-economic change. What we need to do now is take Tahrir to the factories, the universities, the workplaces. In every single institution in this country there is a mini-Mubarak who needs to be overthrown. In every institution there are figures from the old state security regime who need to be overthrown.”

     In neighbourhoods, the Popular Committees to Defend the Revolution have continued to advocate for better services and to remove corrupt officials. In workplaces, more than 150 independent unions have formed since the fall of Mubarak—from textile and aluminum workers, to postal and hospital workers, and even workers who issue marriage licences. In March, doctors organized national strikes demanding better wages for all workers, the removal of corrupt officials, and an increase in the health budget from 3 to 15% of GDP. On March 25 an independent union uniting all hospital workers was launched in Cairo, and 3 days later the hospital director resigned. In April postal workers from across Egypt met to organize an independent union. According to Adil Hisham, a postal worker,

“Alongside supporting workers’ demands, we’ll be working on setting up our independent union as quickly as possible. … Now is the time for workers in Egypt to set up independent organisations to defend themselves from the bosses’ attacks, and to unite their demands in the wake of the victory of the revolution which opened the door to all workers to get organised and speak with one voice.”

May Day poster in Tahrir Square

     On May Day, the Egyptian Federation of Independent Unions mobilized the first national public demonstration for workers in over 60 years, and a Democratic Workers Party was launched to represent workers demands—from raising the minimum wage to 1200LE, removing corrupt managers renationalization of privatized industries, and ending Egypt’s ties with Israel. 

    In the first week of June there were strikes or protests by flight attendants, petro workers, subway workers, and Parliament workers, while a pharmacists union formed. Meanwhile, protesters marked the anniversary of the death of Khaled Said by chanting outside the Interior Ministry and spray-painting his face all over the notorious building--while vans full of riot police watched passively. For the past two weeks Suez Canal workers have been on strike. This week hundreds of British trade unionists sent a solidarity message, demanding the Egyptian regime respect the right to strike and protest, and the British government stop selling weapons used to suppress strikes and protests.

ARAB SPRING, WORLD SPRING
     The Egyptian revolution is inspiring people all over the world. Shortly after the fall of Mubarak workers in Wisconsin occupied the capital building, inspired by the Egyptian revolution and received solidarity messages from Egypt. Then Tahrir arrived in Madrid as tens of thousands occupied the main square against austerity. In Canada, Parliamentary page Brigette DePape interrupted the throne speech calling for an Arab spring in Canada. 
     Though our conditions are different, we too have been inspired by Palestinian resistance and mobilized against the Iraq War; we too are mobilizing against police indifference and injustice, from the missing and murdered aboriginal women to the mass arrests at the G20; we too have lived through a generation of neoliberal policies, and are facing an austerity agenda; we too are facing attacks on our trade unions, but are starting to fight back. 

     That’s why we need to learn more from the Egyptian revolution. As an Egyptian activist said recently, "If you're inspired by our Arab revolutions, do as we did. You need one, I know you need one. And we need you to do one. It's not just an Arab spring, it's a world spring."

The Egyptian revolution: phase one

This week marks 5 months since the start of the Egyptian revolution on January 25. Though Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper compared the liberation movement of 80 million people to toothpaste, most of us have been incredibly inspired by one of the most significant developments in our generation. While the media have stopped reporting on it, there was a renewed debate when Parliamentary page Brigette Depape held up a “Stop Harper” sign during the throne speech, and called for an Arab Spring in Canada. She was falsely accused of equating conditions in Canada and in Egypt, and for even suggesting that we have anything to learn from Arab spring since we already have parliamentary democracy. I think we have a tremendous amount to learn from the Egyptian revolution (and so do Egyptian activists) and was fortunate to visit Cairo to learn.

     This blog entry will focus on the first phase of the Egyptian revolution--the 18 days that shook the world, ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak, and won political reforms--and the struggles that led up to it. The next entry will look at phase two of the Egyptian revolution, which seeks to extend these reforms and connect them with longstanding social and economic demands.

 

PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION

     Egypt is the largest country in the Arab world and has been used, along with Saudi Arabia and Israel, to enforce US imperialism in the region. For 30 years the people of Egypt lived under the repressive Western-backed regime of Mubarak, who has used a vicious state apparatus to enforce neo-liberal policies keeping more than 40% living on less than $2/day. This view of Cairo--where a few nice hotels overlook a vast expanse of slums--provides the context for the Egyptian revolution. While it has been presented as a spontaneous event organized on social media on January 25, it is the product of a decade of struggle for political, economic and social reforms.

      In 2000 the second Palestinian intifada provided inspiration to resist imperialism. In 2003 Tahrir Square was briefly occupied as part of the international protests against the Iraq War. In 2005 the Kifayah movement emerged to speak out against the Mubarak dictatorship. In 2006 strike waves emerged, starting with women textile workers of Mahalla.

     Independent trade unions have been at the heart of movements against repressive regimes—from the Solidarity movement in Poland to the overthrow of Apartheid in South Africa, and began forming in the lead up to the Egyptian revolution. Since 1957 Egyptian workers have been ruled by the state-controlled General Federation of Trade Unions, which undermines their ability to fight, but this began to change after Mahalla. As Egyptian journalist and activist Hossam El-Hamalawy said in a videotaped speech in 2008, 

Mahalla strike

"Mahalla showed us the hope...If Egypt falls the entire Middle East is going to fall. We have the biggest working class in the region with a long and militant history of industrial struggle, and we are very optimistic about the developments in the future...We hope in the near future that we're going to witness the revolution."

In 2007 there were more than 500 strikes in Egypt, including the property tax collectors who struck for 3 months--including an 11-day sit in by 5000 women and men in downtown Cairo--and won a significant wage increase. The democratically elected strike committee became a permanent structure, forming the first independent trade union, and in July 2010 the Independent Teacher’s Syndicate was formed.

     Meanwhile global food prices rose dramatically from 2006 to 2008, and since then the great recession has worsened unemployment especially for youth. When the Mahalla workers planned a strike on April 6 2008, there was solidarity from youth who formed the April 6 Youth Movement, advocating for free speech and democracy. In June 2010 the brutal killing of Khaled Said prompted a surge in opposition to police brutality. In November 2010 rigged elections increased resentment over the most basic lack of democracy. On December 17 Tunisian university student Mohamed Bouazizi triggered an uprising; when Tunisian workers organized a general strike, the dictator Ben Ali was driven from power on January 14.

     So the fusion of a decade of political and economic struggles—sharpened by the economic crisis and inspired by the Tunisian revolution—led to the first phase of the Egyptian revolution, beginning January 25.

PHASE ONE

Christians protecting Muslims praying in Tahrir Square

     Social media certainly played a role in the beginning of the uprising, as the video by April 6 Youth Movement leader Asmaa Mahfouz—calling on people to go to Tahrir Square—went viral. But with mass poverty and illiteracy, many Egyptians have neither the resources nor the ability to navigate social media, and the mobile phones and the internet were shut down on Janary 26-7. Yet the uprising intensified through traditional mobilizing techniques in the streets and mosques. People went through their buildings and streets calling to their neighbours to join them, and when churches were closed on Friday many Coptic Christians went to mosques to hear about the mobilizing—analogous to the way churches were used in the American Civil Rights Movement as organizing bases. One of the workers at our hotel described hearing thousands of people outside, and when he went into the streets he was carried by a wave into Tahrir Square.

     The revolution was a combination of spontaneity and self-organization. Having failed to quell the revolution by shutting down social media, the regime tried to create panic by shutting down the banks and businesses, and sending plain clothes police to attack the demonstrators. But popular committees formed to organize security, sanitation, childcare, literacy and health care in Tahrir Square. On January 30 the Egyptian Federation of  Independent Unions was launched in Tahrir Square, uniting 14 unions.

     Women played leading roles in the revolution—from the workers struggles that preceded it, to the youth like Asmaa Mahfouz, to the countless protesters--and unity was built between Muslims and Christians. On Friday February 4 Christians protected Muslims for Friday prayers, and Muslims reciprocated the solidarity during Sunday Mass. And while the cameras were on Tahrir, the workers were taking the revolution to the factories. This followed the pattern of the Tunisian revolution, where workers were not the first organized force but were the most decisive by the role through the use of mass strikes, as El-Hamalawy documented:

“All classes in Egypt took part in the uprising. Mubarak managed to alienate all social classes in society. In Tahrir Square, you found sons and daughters of the Egyptian elite, together with the workers, middle-class citizens and the urban poor. But remember that it's only when the mass strikes started on Wednesday that the regime started crumbling and the army had to force Mubarak to resign because the system was about to collapse...

From the first day of the January 25 uprising, the working class has been taking part in the protests. However, the workers were at first taking part as "demonstrators" and not necessarily as "workers" – meaning, they were not moving independently. The government had brought the economy to halt, not the protesters, with their curfews, and by shutting down the banks and businesses. It was a capitalist strike, aimed at terrorising the Egyptian people. Only when the government tried to bring the country back to "normal" on 8 February did the workers return to their factories, discuss the current situation and start to organise en masse, moving as an independent block…

Suez Canal workers strike February 9

On Saturday I started receiving news that thousands of public transport workers were staging protests in el-Gabal el-Ahmar. The temporary workers at Helwan Steel Mills are also protesting. The railway technicians continue to bring trains to a halt. Thousands of workers at the el-Hawamdiya sugar factory are protesting and oil workers announced a strike on Sunday over work conditions. Nearly every single sector in the Egyptian economy has witnessed either strikes or mass protests. Even sections of the police have joined in.”

On February 11 Mubarak was forced to step down. 
     The first phase of the Egyptian revolution has won significant political reforms--from the promise of fair elections, to the partial opening of the Rafah border, to partial freedom of assembly and speech that are obvious on the walls and streets of Cairo. But these political reforms are not complete nor guaranteed, nor do they represent the full demands. The revolution is continuing as a battle between those trying to restrict the gains to minor political reforms, and those trying to deepen the revolution to achieve the social and economic demands that have been at the heart of the revolution and the struggles that preceded it. The next blog entry will look at this, the second phase of the Egyptian revolution.

The revolution will be painted: Cairo street art

A blossoming of street art on the streets of Cairo celebrates the first phase of the Egyptian revolution. But as corporations and the military regime attempt to co-opt and undermine it, graffiti is also reflecting efforts to continue the revolution.

     This mural recently appeared in Cairo a few blocks away from Tahrir Square. On a wall scarred by street fights--punctured with bullet holes and charred by molatov cocktails--a piano has emerged. This is reminiscent of a slogan that appeared on the walls of Paris during the uprising in May '68--"Sous les pavés, la plage." (Under the paving stones, the beach.)--and speaks to the spirit of collective optimism of the Egyptian revolution, which toppled a tyrant and is creatively reclaiming the streets. 

     There is also more direct celebrations, like this one in Tahrir Square: "Enjoy the revolution". On the left hand side in faint letters is another message, "long live freedom". This graffiti is not only a celebration but an act of ongoing resistance. As street artist Ganzeer explained, "Creating graffiti involves taking ownership of the streets, just like we did during the uprising. And so of course it's political, and illegal." The wall has also become a place to mobilize for further protests continuing the demands of revolution: it includes posters mobilizing for May Day demonstration for workers rights, and rallies in solidarity with Palestine.

     The revolution is not simply about a ballot box--as Egyptian activists recently explained in a video--but is about justice, dignity, fair wages, accessible healthcare, and other socioeconomic issues. This is obvious from the new walls of Cairo, where one of the most popular signs on the street art is not the ballot box but the fist--a sign of united struggle against injustice. The fist appears on many walls of Cairo--from a stencil showing a red fist (including a cross and a crescent on the fingers) smashing a tank, to a poster for May Day protests--reflecting the strength of the revolution, from the unity built betweem Muslims and Christians, to the emergence of strikes that finally drove Mubarak from power and that are continuing to push the revolution forward.

WILL THE REVOLUTION BE CO-OPTED?

     But the military regime and corporations are trying to limit the scope of the revolution to the political reforms that have been won, divorcing them from the social and economic demands that were part and parcel of the revolution and that continue to be raised. The regime is attacking the strength of the revolution--banning strikes and demonstrations, and overseeing attacks on a women's rights march and the burning of a Coptic church--yet still claiming the mantle of revolution. While the May Day poster was recently taken down from Tahrir Square, the Egyptian tourism industry has taken up the fist to promote itself. Meanwhile corporations are making use of the revolutionary spirit to market themselves: a mural showing demonstrations rising out of Egypt's flag has been replicated by a Kleenex company.

      The ongoing revolution--a battle between the regime and the corporations they serve on the one hand, and ordinary Egyptians on the other--is reflected on the walls of Cairo over the memory of those who died in the uprising. A mural commemorating the martyr Islam Raafat was erased by the government, prompting outrage over censorship  and a remake of the mural (the photo to the right is the second version).
     The same regime that is censoring street art depictions of martyrs (which show them as vibrant and active participants in the revolution) has plastered Cairo with posters and stickers depicting Tantawi, head of the military regime, claiming to honour the martyrs (depicted as passive victims, while ignoring that it was the military regime that killed them). This reflects broader attempts by the regime to co-opt the revolution: the military regime has claimed that Egyptian doctors are traitors to the revolution by striking for better health care, while the state controlled unions have labeled the emergence of independent trade unions as "the counter-revolution among the workers". Just as Stalin's counter-revolution used the language of socialism, so the military regime in Egypt is using the language and symbolism of revolution in an attempt to reverse the new movement for change.

PERMANENT REVOLUTION

     It's in this context that the work of street artists like Ganzeer is so powerful. He has criticized the "mindless nationalism" of some graffiti, and instead used street art to expose the regime and continue the revolution. One of his largest works of street art, under the 6 October Bridge (location of a key point during the uprising when protesters successfully fought back police and joined Tahrir Square), shows a military tank heading towards an Egyptian cyclist carrying a breadbasket. The soldier in the tank has his visor down, a sign of imminent confrontation, while the breadbasket looks like a city full of people. This mural challenges the myth that the people and the army are one, and raises questions over the future of the Egyptian revolution as these two forces--the people and the military regime--face a collision course.

     Ganzeer has also been much more direct in criticizing the regime, with this mural--"the people want to bring down regime lovers". The work (see the original here) features Mubarak arm in arm with Tantawi, the culture minister, and future presidential candidate Amr Moussa--a visual depiction of the continuity of the Mubarak regime that the revolution has yet to change. No sooner had this appeared that it was defaced. Ganzeer was also arrested after putting up posters depicting someone blindfolded and gagged with the words, "New..the Freedom Mask! Greetings from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to the beloved people. Now available in the market for an unlimited time".
     While the regime is trying to undermine the revolution, the fact that it must present itself as the defender of the revolution is a sign of weakness. Its caution was on display June 6, on the anniversary of the killing of Khaled Said: when demonstrators covered the Interior Ministry (where the regime tortures dissidents) with stencil's of Khaled's face and even posed for pictures, half a dozen vans full of riot police passively looked on.
     Street art, reflecting the political freedoms won during the first phase of the revolution, is raising people's confidence for the second phase. As Egyptian journalist and activist Hossam El-Hamalawy wrote in The Guardian,

"This is phase two of the revolution, the phase of socio-economic change. What we need to do now is take Tahrir to the factories, the universities, the workplaces. In every single institution in this country there is a mini-Mubarak who needs to be overthrown." 

ACT NOW to support Egyptian hospital workers

Poster for Egyptian doctors' strike

The Egyptian healthcare system only receives 3.5% of GDP. Doctors work under state-controlled unions led by corrupt officials with ties to the Mubarak regime, which have prevented them from advocating for better healthcare and working conditions. Most Egyptian doctors work in public hospitals or charity clinics, working up to 100 hours/week for less than $3/day—forcing many to look for other work or leave the country. But the Egyptian revolution has united doctors with other hospital workers in a movement for change. 
            On June 4, 2011 I had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Mohamed Shafiq in Cairo, Egypt. He is a member of the Higher Strike Committee of the Doctors’ Strike. As he explains in the interview transcript below, Egyptian doctors joined the revolution in Tahrir Square, and through the process became politicized. In May they organize two national strikes—demanding an end to corruption in the Health Ministry, a fair wage structure for all workers in Egypt, hospital security, and an increase in the budget for the Ministry of Health. Egyptian doctors are also uniting with other hospitals workers—nurses, porters, and technicians—in independent trade unions to push for better healthcare and working conditions, and this new model is starting to spread. On June 10 they will march to Tahrir Square.

But the military regime is trying to undermine the doctor strikes and the independent trade unions to divide the movement for change, restricting the Egyptian revolution to political reforms and preventing the social and economic demands that are at the heart of it. Now is a key time to support Egyptian doctors and the emergence of independent hospital trade unions, and their united efforts to improve health care for all Egyptians, working conditions for all hospital workers, and wages for all workers.

Act now to support Egyptian hospital workers:

1) Send solidarity messages to canada.egypt.solidarity@gmail.com. Messages will be translated, compiled and sent to hospital workers, and those received by Thursday night will be sent by Friday when they return to Tahrir Square

2) Ask your trade union or community organization to do the same

3) For updates from Canadians building solidarity with Egyptian workers visit the facebook group “Solidarity with Egyptian trade unions”:http://on.fb.me/j7z5Eo

4) For updates on international solidarity, visit the Solidarity with Middle East and North African Workers Network at http://menasolidaritynetwork.com

5) To read the transcript of the interview with Dr. Mohamed Shafiq, read below

Can you describe the role of physicians during the Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square?

The physicians were the only profession that joined Tahrir Square in a collective way. We were not just protesters, we made six field hospitals in Tahrir Square and joined the revolution from day one until the removal of Mubarak. We joined in a way that were helping the protesters, healing the wounds, the casualties we were removing from Tahrir Square to other hospitals. Some of our friends in the general hospitals were protecting them. In the field hospitals we managed to keep all the protesters in the field safe who suffered form high blood pressure, from diabetes, any kind of disease we received them and gave them medication. We had many contributions and donations form people all over Egypt and continued our work until the step down of Mubarak.

Can you describe the impact of the revolution on the physicians?

The impact is just revolutionary. Doctors used to study a lot of time. We spend most of our time in hospitals, we don’t get in contact with reality that much, but it was out duty. There were many casualties of our citizens in Tahrir Square, and associations decided rapidly that we would help to save our citizens. What we saw while healing the protesters was a revolutionary experience.

I will give one that I had myself. There was this protester who was killed by a sniper bullet in the head, so we searched for his mobile and checked for his brother. So we called him and he came to receive his body. The very next day his brother came to the field hospital with an injury of the skull. So I asked him, you received your brother just yesterday, you are married, you have children. He said, really I didn’t care about politics, I don’t know about Mubarak, but I know that my brother was right and he died for this cause and I will continue to raise this cause myself. And he mended his skull and went back to join the protests.

So we had many, many, many experiences. We saw people who lost an eye and then they go back and fight. We saw people, he received his son—this is story a friend told me—the father came to take the body of his dead son, and after two or three days he came back for his second son. So the experience we have taken was shocking, just revolutionary.

You recently organized strikes. Can you talk about the strikes and their demands, both in terms of physicians and for the broader healthcare system?

This is the first strike to be in the Egyptian country [national strike] ever. We started in our syndicate on the 25^th of March and we had some demands due to our revolutionary experience. Our demands were democratic and social demands. The first was the removal of the Minister of Health, which is a prominent figure of the NDP [Mubarak’s party]. He was the director of a hospital which we saw with our own eyes was carrying rocks to join those who attacked us and our brothers in Tahrir. We wanted to remove him because he cannot be in a revolutionary government. We also wanted to remove all the corrupt figures in the Ministry of Health who conducted an organized corruption of the Ministry of Health and the health of poor Egyptians during the reign of Mubarak.

Our second demand is a just and fair wage structure for all the workers of Egypt, physicians included. Our third was to provide security in hospitals because we work with no security whatsoever. Our fourth and most important demand was to increase the budget of the Ministry of Health from 3.5% of the total budget to 15% of the total budget, which is our main fight now because we think what is happening in Egypt is some sort of tragedy or comedy, I don’t know which.

We have no supplies in hospitals, we have nothing to offer, the health care service is ridiculous. People are dying because we don’t have a bed in the ICU. They don’t have the price to buy medicine. And we are just pretending as if we are giving real services. This is something that we have protested against several years before, but now we are raising our voice.

So after the ignorance from the government we decided to make a partial strike which would only be for the outpatient clinic, not the ICU or Emergency or emergency surgery. And we did it twice, on the 10^th of May and the 17^th of May. And in spite of all the prosecution from the ministry, from the government, it included 85% of all hospitals and health care centres in Egypt. We have several experiences, that in the strike day we greeted the patients with chocolates and juice, and tried to explain why we are not seeing them today and they should come tomorrow because we want to improve the services given to them, that the medicine that is given to them is poor quality and that we won’t accept this injustice anymore. Because the victims we have seen in Tahrir Square have given us a message. They died for this cause.

Can you talk about the challenge of building solidarity form physicians to the revolution and other causes, and the challenge of building solidarity amongst other groups for physicians?

This is the main issue because we are now facing many difficulties. We have been fought by the regime. We have been portrayed as traitors for the revolution, striking against the benefits of the patients and their rights to receive medication and treatment, which is very ridiculous our demands our demands is in the heart for those patients. But you know the media is very powerful, the mass media is a very powerful weapon and is used against us. So we are trying to reach out more for the people.

We are trying to make contacts with our colleagues, other healthcare providers. There are strict divisions between physicians, nurses, porters, technicians. We are trying now to break all these limitations. The independent trade unions starting in every hospital is a good start, and we are just beginning. On the 10^th of June, this month, we are preparing to launch a march to Tahrir Square with doctors and other healthcare providers, and we are trying to call for all the medical forces, civil society and of course our patients to join us in Tahrir Square.

Because the coming budget is still the same, it’s still 3.5%. Still for Egyptian citizen health is not cared for. But all they [the military regime] care for is security and police forces. So we are trying to change, otherwise nothing we’ve done will be benefit for the normal citizen, who does not care about elections or constitution, but he cares about getting a decent meal and decent healthcare service.

Can you talk about your new independent trade union and the relationship between different hospital workers?

            There was a complete separation between the physicians, nurses, technicians. Everybody had his role. Don't cooperate or chat, even though we work for long hours together. So the idea that we work together to fight for the same rights is a bit bizarre. It just started after the revolution, it is spreading by the minute.

             In our trade union we had a good experience. What we did is make the consultant, the specialist physicians sit at the same table as the porters and the nurses and the technicians. And we decided that we vote how we would manage our hospital. We voted to kick out our old hospital manager and to elect a new one. And we voted, everyone of the profession had only a single vote. And we fought that those who humiliate the workers, the porters, would be expelled from the union. And we fought and won this fight. We have changed our manager and we have elected the one that everybody selected. Not only the doctor, everyone selected the new manager. And we have a union that now runs that hospital how it should be run, and decides what to do with the money we have.

We no more have a manager who just orders and we obey. No more have a consultant who shouts at the nurse or shouts at the porter or a manual worker. This spirit, which I find the most inspiring, is one of the most refreshing experiences I’ve had. I’ve been to Tahrir Square for 18 days, but I have never felt as the first day that the council met, where the gynecological consultant, the head of the department sat, and behind him was a manual worker, and they were debating how the money of the hospital should be spent. This is a feeling I have never had before, and this is what we have in our hospital, and I hope we transfer this to different hospitals.

We have now about six independent trade unions in hospitals in Egypt, and we have about 700 or 800 hospitals in Egypt. What we are trying to do now is transfer this experience to every hospital in Egypt. It is already taking place and already arguments are going in every hospital on how things should be run, how to deal with the shortage of supplies, how to deal with the escape of doctors from shifts because we are not paid, how to deal with the corrupt old managers, how to deal with officials and deputes of the managers and the managers who are taking thousands of Egyptian pounds while we are taking pennies, how to decrease what they are taking and increase what we are taking. That’s why we pushed in the syndicate for a minimum and a maximum wage, and for a wage structure not only for doctors and nurses and healthcare providers but for all the workers of Egypt.

What can people outside Egypt do to support Egyptian hospital workers?

This interview is a start. We are trying to reverse the bad propaganda that is made against us in the doctors strike in Egypt. We are trying to reverse this picture. We are trying to reach the most backwards sections of the Egyptian population—which is agitated by this propaganda, which in turn agitate some of our colleagues—to call for a complete strike. Not a partial strike but a complete strike, which of course we can after it gain all our rights in a couple of hours, but of course there will be many victims, our own citizens, and we are against this utterly. And so what you can do, and every union and health care provider in the world, is to give us letters of solidarity, come to us with Tahrir Square on the 10^th of June, if it’s possible. Whatever support we can have will be beneficial.