[Peace-discuss] Fw: [socialistdiscussion] report from Cairo

[David Johnson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: John Reimann 
To: socialist discussion 
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 1:26 PM
Subject: [socialistdiscussion] report from Cairo


  

Today, I went to Tahrir Square to look for a guy who was going to go with me to see a union leader. However, as soon as I entered the main tent area, this guy came up to me and said, “You are American? Welcome!” and we started to talk. Within 5 minutes there was a crowd of some 20 people, mostly young, standing around, peppering me with comments and questions.




One of the first things they wanted to know was about Israel. We talked a lot about that issue. They made it clear that they were not against the Jewish people, but Zionism was a different matter. There was one guy who as a strong Muslim – maybe a fundamentalist to an extent. (He told me he hoped one day I would read the Koran. I thanked him and also told him that I hoped one day he would read the Communist Manifesto. That drew a good laugh.) Anyway, this guy and a friend of his gave me a long lecture about how Zionists control Wall St. and control the US government, how the UN Security Council veto rule was set up for Israel, etc. My position was that there is nothing that the US government has done in the Middle East that it hasn't done elsewhere. I pointed to the series of coups it helped organize in Latin America. Look at its history – from defending the enslavement of Africans, the slaughter of the Indians, the machine gunning of striking US workers, etc.




People asked me about Obama. I think when he came here and said “Salaam Aleikum”, that made a big impression and people liked him a lot. But my position is that the difference between him and Bush is like that between a pickpocket and a mugger. In this connection, we talked a lot about conditions in the US – the unemployment, the homeless, the health care situation, etc.




I also met some slightly older workers and they were telling me about the strikes here, starting in 2004, against privatization. These strikes were really the spark of the present revolution, and it was a general strike on February 9 that was what brought Mubarak down.




At one point, a general who evidently is pretty popular - a member of the ruling military council – tried to speak from one of the stages set up here. It seems there was a division of opinion, with the most vocal elements shouting him down. He went from stage to stage, trying to get to speak. Finally, we left that scene, and I don't know whether he got to speak or not, but we heard a rumor that one young person hit him. I have no idea whether that is actually true or not.




Later, I was walking around with a few people and ran into one group where a middle aged woman was one of the most vocal figures. She was clearly very well educated and spoke nearly perfect English. Her position was that for me to be there, I should have gone to the US embassy and had them contact the Egyptian government so that I could be there on official business. Otherwise, I could be a spy or some sort of trouble maker. I said that anybody who went through the US embassy – they would be the ones who could not be trusted. However, she was so persistent that both I and the person I was with thought it better for me to leave for the time.




That's why I'm back early and have the energy to write this report.



-- 
"Poems don't belong to those who write them; they belong to those who need them" - from movie "Il Postino"
Check out:
http://www.iww.org/en/blog/1411
http://worldwidesocialist.net/blog/


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