A call for international solidarity with protests in Egypt
MENA Solidarity Network (Solidarity with workers in the Middle East)
The Arab Spring hangs in balance, as protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and in other cities in Egypt battle the riot police of the ruling Egyptian military junta.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are braving tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannon and live ammunition in demonstrations against the ruling military council in Egypt.
Despite promising elections, (which are being continually put back), Mubarak’s generals are demanding that the military have power above any elected civilian authority. Meanwhile protesters are still being tried in military courts and torture by the military and police is still routine.
By late on 20 November there were an estimated 100,000 in Tahrir Square according to eyewitness accounts and thousands protesting in every major city in Egypt. Their demands are clear: the downfall of Marshal Tantawi and Mubarak’s generals. As of Sunday 5 people at least had been killed and around 1000 injured.
The Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions issued a call on Saturday 19 November to its 1.4 million members in affiliated unions to join the protests in Tahrir.
Our brothers and sisters in Egypt inspired us all with their courage over the past ten months. Without them, would we have seen the Occupy movement? How would our own struggles against austerity and cuts look without the model of the Egyptian revolution, and the knowledge that ordinary people can change the world?
If the Arab Spring is crushed in Egypt…..
……the military rulers of Syria will be strengthened in their slaughter of unarmed protesters.
If the Arab Spring is crushed in Egypt…….
…….. it will be major setback for the Arab Spring throughout the Middle East!
If the Arab Spring is crushed in the Middle East……
……. this will remove a major brake on the West’s move to war against Iran.
If the Arab Spring is crushed in the Middle East, major conflagration with Iran will be inevitable, as the US and Israel’s invasion plans can only succeed with the support of compliant Western backed right wing regimes retaining power in the Middle East.
If the Arab Spring is crushed in Egypt, the movement for democracy and against tyranny and war and recession, throughout the world, will suffer a major setback.
Responding to appeals from Egyptian activists, Middle East and North Africa, Solidarity in Britain is forwarding the following call for international solidarity action to the whole world. Please respond immediately.
Tahrir has inspired a wave of movements around the world. We must not let it go down to defeat!
If you are organising a protest or a picket, particularly if you can mobilise support from the trade union movement in solidarity with the call from the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions, please let us know.
Email menasolidarity@gmail.com.
MENA will list as many protests as they can.
Send pictures and they will publish them too.
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