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

Sat Jul 16 18:35:40 CDT 2011

----- Original Message ----- 
From: John Reimann 
To: socialistdiscussion at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 6:18 PM
Subject: Re: [socialistdiscussion] report from Cairo

Actually, in response to Sonja, I don't get the impression that they dislike Americans at all. I think that whenever people rise up, and their consciousness rises with it, they tend to distinguiish between the American people and their government. Shat is strange to them is why an American would come and involve himself in the struggle here. I do think that Mossad has been active here, as it is throughout the region, and there is a feeling - correct, in my view - that there's not a great difference between Mossad and the CIA. And as I think I mentioned, there was the incident of a person who tried to pass himself off as a US reporter earlier in the revolution here and he created some real problems and it later turned out he was Israeli and probably not a reporter at all. So people are very aware of these dangers.

On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Julian Silverman <jsilverman at btinternet.com> wrote:

  I suppose there must be Americans are actually there trying to manipulate things off-stage to secure the 'right' government without having to actually invade......and there must be people spying on the popular movement looking for entry-points, points of support to deal with Bolshies etc...... 

  Sonja Engelhardt wrote: 

    I do understand that people don't like US Americans in the Middle East (they don't like them in Europe either), but I don't really get the "spy" thing. What do they think US Americans are spying for in Egypt? Good food? 
    I guess they are just in general suspicious about US Americans and what they will do to their country. "Will they invade us next?" must be on their mind all the time. Maybe that's the answer to my question...

    On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 12:02 PM, Julian Silverman <jsilverman at btinternet.com> wrote:

      very interesting. Did you connect up with the RMT/SWP guy whose phone number etc. I gave you: Kieran Crowe. He was on a trade union organised visit to Egypt and, though he warned that people would be suspicious,  said that he did have contacts among militant workers etc. I have invited him to our London meeting to listen to your report and make any comments...I haven't heard from him recently and I'm not sure whether to remind him about you.... Please let me know asap

      Cliff Willmeng wrote: 

              brilliant report john. it takes some real spine to be there in such a informal manner but is, at the same time, entirely important for socialists to have some contact onto the ground.. i will send your report around to some of the people i know around colorado who would be interested. 

              cliff

              --- On Sat, 7/16/11, John Reimann <1999wildcat at gmail.com> wrote:

                From: John Reimann <1999wildcat at gmail.com>
                Subject: [socialistdiscussion] report from Cairo
                To: "socialist discussion" <socialistdiscussion at yahoogroups.com>
                Date: Saturday, July 16, 2011, 1:26 PM

                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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-- 
"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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