CounterVortex

REVOLUTIONARY EGYPT

The Worst of Times, the Best of Times…

by Matt Meyer, New Clear Vision

There is a reason why so many internationalists have had hard times writing clearly about Egypt since the end of June 2013. There is a reason why in English the words “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” resonates so. The cultural chasms and the political complexity of Egypt’s ongoing revolutionary moments will not lend themselves easily to short statements or translated sound bites… but we remain distant from, or dispassionate about these events at our own grave peril. Nothing less than our collective, twenty-first century understandings of such terms as “democracy,” “revolution,” and “violence/nonviolence” are being forged on the streets of Egypt today.

HISTORY REWRITTEN

Egypt’s Battle Over Narratives

by Ahmed Kadry, openDemocracy

CAIRO — Egypt has been blown in various different political and ideological directions for over two and a half years. Yet, despite these tumultuous changes in its ever-complicated political paradigm, the date of January 25 2011 seemed forever immune to whatever was happening in the present, the undisputed start date of Egypt’s glorious, peaceful revolution—until now.

The ouster of President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 sent events in Egypt into overdrive, and for the first time, the narrative of the January 25 Revolution finds itself under suspicion. The revolution was revered as a demographically inclusive movement against tyranny and corruption—against continued nepotism and social injustice—a refusal to allow Egypt to continue to be governed as if it were one man’s personal fiefdom.

Yet, for the first time, under the auspices of General Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the head of Egypt’s military and the country’s most powerful man, the narrative on January 25 has begun to be mixed in with the restrictive and biased binaries that currently plague Egyptian politics and its domestic life alike.

Continue ReadingHISTORY REWRITTEN

MILITARY SEEKS EGYPTIAN THERMIDOR

by Kevin Anderson, International Marxist Humanists

On August 14, 2013, Egypt’s military-police apparatus stormed two largely peaceful encampments of the Muslim Brotherhood, using live ammunition and armed bulldozers to kill thousands and injure many thousands more. On that horrific day, the entire revolutionary process that began in 2011 reached a crisis point, one that held the possibility of its unraveling in the face of outright counter-revolution.

The military’s desire to move the country back toward the iron dictatorship of the Mubarak era was troubling enough, but what made August 14 a tragedy in the deepest sense was that they seemed, at least for the moment, to enjoy the support not only of Mubarak loyalists, but also many elements of the revolutionary and democratic movements that traced their origin to the non-Islamist wings of the 2011 revolution. This was especially true of Egyptian liberals.

ROAD WARS OF COLOMBIAN AMAZONIA

Indigenous People Protest Highway Through Ancestral Territory

from Preorg.org

Young people in the Valle de Sibundoy, Colombia, are campaigning against a road to Brazil that cuts through their territory, including an ancient pathway used by their ancestors.

“Our worry as indigenous people is that this project was not agreed with the people. There was no prior consultation, they don’t have our permission. This is our ancestral territory and they are bringing disequilibrium,” said Carlos Jamioy, of the Camentsa people of the Valle de Sibundoy, Putumayo.

The valley in southern Colombia is home to two closely allied indigenous groups, the Inga and Camentsa. Their traditional territory was granted to them in an old colonial title no longer recognized by the government. Now the Colombian government is building a road through their territory, from San Francisco to Mocoa, as part of a transport route to Brazil.

“They are making the road in a place where our ancestors walked, in a sacred path. It was a path we used to exchange goods with other peoples. We would share thought, identity, work, education,” said Carlos.

MEXICO’S DRUG WAR PRISON BOOM

Indigenous Oaxacan Political Prisoners in Private Facilities

by Kristin Bricker and Santiago Navarro, Upside Down World

After spending nearly 17 years in the same prison cell just outside of Oaxaca City, seven indigenous Loxicha political prisoners were transferred in June—twice. The transfers, which enraged and frightened their families and supporters, were part of a nationwide shuffle of existing prisoners to fill beds at newly opened facilities that were financed by Mexican and United States drug war money.

The prisoners, Agustín Luna Valencia, Eleuterio Hernández Garcia, Fortino Enriquez Hernández, Justino Hernández José, Abraham Garcia Ramirez, Zacarias Pascual Garcia López, and Alvaro Sebastián Ramirez, are Zapotec indigenous men from Oaxaca's Loxicha region, one of the state's poorest and most marginalized. The seven Loxichas are accused of participating in the Aug. 29, 1996, Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) uprising in la Crucecita, Oaxaca, in which 11 government agents were killed. The indigenous men say they were tortured into signing hundreds of pages of blank paper that were later filled in with confessions. The Loxichas were convicted of murder (of the federal agents), terrorism, and conspiracy, and they were sentenced to up to 31 years in prison.

EGYPT: REVOLUTIONARIES PUSH OUT ISLAMISTS

But Face Another Round of Military Rule

by Kevin Anderson, International Marxist Humanists

June 30, 2013 saw the largest revolutionary popular mobilization in Egyptian history. On that day, up to 17 million people took to the streets across the country to demand the resignation of the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohammed Morsi. (This mass outpouring surpassed even those during the 2011 revolution that toppled the Mubarak regime.) Two days later, on July 2, the Egyptian military deposed Morsi, with General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi claiming to have carried out the people’s will, and, as the military did in 2011, promising democracy and free elections.

The fact that these events unseated a president elected just over a year ago worried many democracy supporters, whether liberal or socialist. But most seemed to conclude that revolutions are inherently “illegal,” and that the popular will of a mobilized people trumped a narrow victory at the ballot box and an Islamist constitution that had been rammed down the throats of the citizens.

Continue ReadingEGYPT: REVOLUTIONARIES PUSH OUT ISLAMISTS

EGYPT: A PEOPLE’S REVOLUTION

Not a Crisis or a Coup

by Nawal El Saadawi, IslamiCommentary

Every revolution in history has had its counter-revolution. Most recently, internal and external forces allied, as they did in Egypt, to abort the January 2011 revolution.

But the Muslim Brotherhood failed to abort this latest revolution on June 30, 2013, and they will continue to fail because those who have rebelled against them have learned the lessons of the past. Their consciousness has deepened with organization and unity.

Thirty-four million youth, men, and women went out into the streets and squares. They were determined to topple the religious government, under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as stand up to all who supported the Brotherhood, at home and abroad .

MONSANTO FACES OPPOSITION IN PUERTO RICO

by Carmelo Ruiz Marrero, World War 4 Report

Agricultural biotech corporate giant Monsanto pretty much has had its way in Puerto Rico since it first set up seed breeding operations in the island in 1983. But the last few months have seen a hailstorm of bad publicity and protests against the corporation’s local activities.

On June 11, Monsanto Caribe, the company’s local affiliate, refused to testify at a Puerto Rico Senate hearing on proposed seed legislation, bill PS 624.

“Monsanto does not produce, sell [or] offer…basic or certified seed with the purpose of planting in Puerto Rico,” argued company representative Eric Torres-Collazo in a letter to the Senate agriculture committee explaining the decision not to testify. Technically true, since all the seed this and other biotech companies produce in Puerto Rico is for export. But committee chair Ramón Ruiz-Nieves has not accepted Monsanto’s argument, pointing out that the company receives substantial subsidies from the local agriculture department and it is registered with the PR government as a bona fide farmer. Ruiz-Nieves informed the press that he intends to summon Monsanto again.

ANARCHISM IN EGYPT

An Interview from Tahrir Square

by Joshua Stephens, Waging Nonviolence

I met Mohammed Hassan Aazab earlier this year over tea at a table of young anarchists in downtown Cairo. The anniversary of the revolution had just passed with massive protests and the emergence of a Western-style black bloc that appeared to have little to do with anarchists in the city. At the time, much of the ongoing grassroots organizing was against sexual violence—in particular, the mob sexual assaults that have become synonymous with any large gathering in Tahrir. The trauma of such violence carried out against protesters was apparent in our conversation. In fact, Aazab told me that he was done with protests and politics, and had resigned himself to the dysfunction of day-to-day life in Egypt.

Then came June 30. Crowds reportedly as large as 33 million took to the streets to call for the Muslim Brotherhood to step down from power, just a year after Mohammed Morsi took office. In the pre-dawn moments of July 1, as Aazab’s phone battery dwindled steadily, I reconnected with him to chat a bit about his return to resistance.

BRAZIL: PRIVATE TRANSIT, PUBLIC PROTESTS

by Euan Gibb, Socialist Project

São Paulo has some of the worst traffic in the world. Workers’ daily commutes can be over two hours—one way—without ever leaving the city. Rain or traffic accidents can easily increase a commute to over four hours. Streets become so congested during peak hours of traffic that the local news stations report on the length of kilometers of stopped cars and trucks on the highways entering the city. There are permanent signs mounted beside these highways with lights that can be turned on and off indicating that “traffic is stopped in front.” São Paulo has the highest per capita density of private helicopters in the world. Those with serious money in this extremely rich and unequal city choose the option to literally fly over the traffic jams.

People traffic can be equally awful. Despite an extensive underground metro and many bus lines (with 60 kilometers of dedicated lanes, diesel, bio diesel, and electrified buses, double and even triple length articulated buses) in São Paulo, buses and subways fill to the point of internal pressure. Line-ups to get on the subway can be as long as two hours while buses that are filled beyond capacity roar past line-ups of passengers standing at the bus stop.

IS MEXICO FAILING TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS?

Anabel Hernández Thinks So, and Fears for Her Life

by Jason McGahan, Vice

Anabel Hernández is one of the most decorated journalists in Mexico, and currently reports for the weekly news magazine Proceso and the online magazine Reporte Indigo. She’s been on the radar of the most powerful corrupt law enforcement officials in the country since at least 2008, when she published her first expose on Genaro García Luna, the head of Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI and then-president Felipe Calderón’s right-hand man in the drug war. She revealed he owned lavish homes and vast amounts of property that far exceeded what could be bought with the salary of a humble public servant. She followed that up, in 2010, with Los Senores del Narco, a 588-page history of the Mexican drug mafia that exposed, in exhaustive detail, the crimes of García Luna and his inner circle of corrupt officials. (That book is being translated into English by Verso Press and will be available in September under the title Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers.) Sources in the federal police warned her soon afterward that Mexico’s top cop was plotting to have her murdered and make it look like an accident.

IN GUATEMALA, A LONG ROAD TO JUSTICE

by Marta Molina, Waging Nonviolence

On May 20, Guatemala’s Constitutional Court overturned the historic guilty verdict of the nation’s former military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who had been convicted of committing genocide and crimes against humanity during his short reign from 1982 to 1983. The Constitutional Court’s decision annulled Montt’s 80-year prison sentence and ordered that the final weeks of the case be retried. At 86 years old, Ríos Montt was the first former head of state in Latin America to be sentenced for genocide by his own country.

In response, human rights organizations across Latin America organized actions protesting the sentence annulment, supporting the victims of genocide and condemning legal impunity. In Guatemala, an estimated 5,000 people marched through the capital on May 24. Simultaneous actions occurred in front of the Guatemalan embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mexico City, Mexico; Managua, Nicaragua; Lima, Peru; Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula in Honduras. Additional protests occurred in El Salvador and Costa Rica.