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Mashrabeyyas, the window screens typical of older Egyptian buildings, served many functions: they embellished buildings, cooled the air and, significantly, protected privacy.
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"It is commonly said that no one saw these [Arab] revolutions coming."
But that's not quite right. A lot of people, and certainly most Egyptians, predicted revolution but, as Marc Lynch says in his introduction to Revolution in the Arab World, "warnings fell on deaf ears precisely because the predictions never seemed to come to pass."
Experts explained that the grip of the military-security complex was too powerful for activists and that state control of the economy prevented the growth of independent power centers.
So when the revolutions did come "the power and success of the protests...took everyone by surprise--not least the protestors themselves."
What were the activists' secrets of success?
Leaders of Egypt's Leaderless Revolution
 Ahmed Maher, engineer and founder of April 6. Says that his generation, unlike ones before, have no "allegiance to anything but change." |
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 Asmaa Mahfouz, an outspoken founder of April 6. She is currently awaiting charges against her by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)
Original Photo:Eslam Elhdary
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 Mohamed Adel, young blogger and activists trained with Serbs in 21st century revolutionary techniques then trained Egyptians. |
 Khaled Said was arrested by police in Alexandria on a tip that he was going to put video on the web showing police in a drug .... |
 Wael Ghonim, Egyptian and Google executive created webpage, We are all Khaled Said that ignited outrage across the country. |
 Ramy Raoof, wrote guide on how to use mobile phones to alert lawyers to arrest of dissidents. |
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 Bassem Samir, arranged video/audio training for activists.
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 Mohamed ElBaradei, highly regarded as an Egyptian Nobel Prize winner, spoke unequivocably in support of the activists. Now candidate for president. |
 Naguib Sawiris, telecom magnate, called for new government. Now candidate for president. |
 Media. Above all al-Jazeera which found means of getting the news out in spite of government attempts to silence communications. |
Egyptians had been practising for a revolution. "...since 1998 there has been a rising wave of strikes, sit-ins, demonstrations and other actions by workers..." See our Protest index.
Then, on April 6, 2008, a bunch of young, connected activists calling themselves the April 6 Youth Movement (April 6) called for a protest in sympathy with the workers. Successful in drawing a crowd and getting the government's attention, it disappointed organizers because it became chaotic: 3 people were killed, hundreds arrested.
In 2009, April 6 called for a national strike, which caused hope, chatter and somewhat quieter streets, but it failed to take off.
Being disappointed by the protests, 20 year-old blogger and A6Y activist, Mohamed Adel applied to the Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS) in Serbia. The young Serbs, having successfully ousted Slobodan Milsovic in 1990s, were sharing their 21st century revolutionary skills with activitists in other countries.
The underlying idea was to "turn a cynical, passive, fearful public into activists."
By 2011, they had trained activists from 50 countries.
In its one week course, CANVAS stresses unity, discipline and planning - "tactics that are basic to any military campain but are usually ignored by nonviolent revolutionaries." They adopted the clenched fist as a logo, invented street theatre pranks, memorized escape routes, provoked arrests and used them to their advantage. When someone was released from jail, a crowd showed up, cheering.
"People who had once thought of themselves as victims began to think of themselves as heroes"
Adel returned to Egypt to conduct mini-workshops in Egypt "stressing unity, nonviolent discipline, the importance of clear goals." Meanwhile, April 6 continued to organize protests, waiting for one to catch on.
Then came the brutal murder of Khaled Said by the police, the story of which travelled rapidly among April 6's growing group of followers, ultimately estimated to reach somewhere between 70 and 100 thousand.
Wael Ghonim, an Egyptian working in an excutive position for Google, harnessed the shock on his Facebook page We are all Khaled Said.
April 6 called for another demonstration January 25th, a holiday to honor Egypt's police. This time, following CANVAS strategy, groups gathered in a number of places around the city and only began their march to Tahrir Square when they had critical masses, thus making it far more difficult for the police to drive them away.
A 26-page pamphlet, "How to Protest Intelligently," circulated through the crowds. Authored anonymously, it proposed CANVAS-like tactics:
Take over government buildings
Win over police and Army
Protect fellow protestors
Carry roses
Chant positive slogans
Gather in your own neighborhood
Keep your protest site clean
Carry a handkerchief and lemon to protect yourself from teargas.
Egyptians added their own touches, of course, silly hats and witty banners. Jokes from the square circulated from household to household, boosting the people's pride and confidence. By then, the people no longer thought of themselves as victims; they were activists.
The moment ... people are fearless with the police
and hugging the military, you have lost your main pillars."
Srdja Popovic, CANVAS founder.
Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian nobel prize winner, estimated that 12 million Egyptians (out of about 80 million) took part in the revolt.
Anticipating the government's shutdown of communications, activists probed for workarounds. They..."consulted with Italian anarchist party activists for advice on how to use 'ghostservers.' which bound Internet searches to nonexistent servers to confuse any online monitoring..."
Ramy Raoof, an online media expert, prepared a guide on how protesters could use mobile phones and Twitter to pass on information to lawyers when protesters where arrested. As a result, the arrested got out of jail fast: thus avoiding torture and inspiring the ranks. He figured out how to use international phone lines to text when the government pulled the plug.
Bassem Samir took a small group to a workshop led by US journalists from magazines like Time and documentary filmakers. They learned basic camera operation, steady shooting and how to use audio recorders. Working witha Kenyan NGO, Ushahidi, he secured training for activists on capturing raw video, reporting audio with mobile phones and building content with the material.
With Samir coordinating, a group of journalists travelled to cities across Egypt for four day sessions to train activists. They learned about mapping tools, plotted good locations for photography, role-played the realities of working in a violent, confusing environment, practised handing off flash cards at frequest intervals and organized to send in waves of photographers.
A real life test came with the November 2010 elections. They captured men "frantically filling out stacks of ballots in rows and stuffing them into boxes to be counted." and released images to YouTube and television. Viewers, having long suspected this activity, laughed merciliessly and loud at the outing of the government.
The final test was, of course, in the Tahrir Square days; ones the activist/reporters passed with flying colors.
Since Mubarak, unlike authoritarian leaders in oil rich states, couldn't depend on the natural resources to provide the wealth required for sustained power. his regime turned to a tightly contolled liberalization strategy - privatizing state owned enterprises (with big rewards for friends), encouraged private foreign investment, upgraded trade and business regulations to the standard required by international business; invested in the dramatic growth of high tech.
As a result, it created a new class of "superwealthy entrepreneurs," who did not necessarily support the regime. While not an organizer, Naguib Sawiris, telecom magnate listed in Forbes 1000 Richest people, called on Hosni Mubarak to step down and new government to be formed. In April, 2011 he stepped down from his role as chairman in order to focus on social and political work.
True, Al-Jazeera contributed to the buildup of Egyptian frustration by its reality-based reporting in Egypt-not to mention its live coverage of the Tunisian revolution.
But it also fed the revolution while it was happening. "Al Jazeera's powerful images of angry crowds and bloody morgues undermined the Egyptian regime's self-serving arguments and stood in sharp contrast to the state-run TV channels...". If they faltered in their conviction about the reliability of government information, demonstrators merely had to compare television stations.
The media in general delivered practical support. When the government tried to shut down al-Jazeera by dropping its satellite transmission, at least 10 other Arabic language TV stations picked up the feed.
"They just volunteered...they were not paid.."
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