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After 18 days of protests, the most well-funded US-backed dictatorship has fallen and the people of Egypt, like their friends in Tunisia, are victorious. In this beautiful moment, Egyptians can also revel in the fact that their revolution, as in Tunisia, was one truly by and of the people. There was no political party leading the charge, no revolutionary vanguard agitating the masses and seizing power, and no charismatic politicians at the head of the crowd. In fact, the revolution was led by the thousands and sometimes millions of people in the streets who became actors in history over the past weeks.
The bottom-up nature of the protests in Egypt has been widely remarked in the international and US media, with reactions ranging from dismay to fascination. While much of the spotlight in the West tends to focus on the role of Twitter and Facebook, these were secondary to the people who were using them as some tools among many to overcome the Mubarak regime. The protests in Egypt were distinctly anarchist and anti-hierarchical in form, if not always in demand, as highlighted below:
- spontaneous protest with little or no planning
- acts of property destruction (police stations and party headquarters) were spontaneous and carried out en masse
- spontaneous strikes and resistance by workers in the last week of protests
- self-organization of protests and neighborhood defense
- women as leaders and protesters
- open discussions and consensus decision making about how to bring the regime down, what a new society would look like, etc. in Tahrir Square
- mutual aid - everything from Christians protecting Muslims from government thugs during prayer to sharing of food and knowledge in Tahrir Square
- the lack of any spokesperson, party or centralized leadership
This is a very exciting time in world history, and the meme of ‘leaderless revolution’ is now much more present within the consciousness of US media and political culture, a plus for those waging anti-hierarchical struggles here. What the future holds for Egypt is hard to tell at this point. A great battle has been won, but with the US-backed military in control declaring that they will for the time being maintain the crony government arranged by Mubarak protesters have vowed to defend the revolution.
In the words of Alice Cooper, stay hungry, Egypt!
