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October 28, 2011 in Opinion
Occupy’s voice of experience
The winds of change are blowing across the globe. What triggers such change, and when it will strike, are things no one can predict.
On Jan. 18, a courageous young woman in Egypt took a dangerous step. Asmaa Mahfouz was 25 years old, part of the April 6 Youth Movement, with thousands of young people engaging online in debate on the future of their country. They formed in 2008 to demonstrate solidarity with workers in the industrial city of Mahalla, Egypt. Then, in December 2010, a young man in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire to protest the frustration of a generation. His death sparked the uprising in Tunisia that toppled the long-reigning dictator President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Similar acts of protest spread to Egypt, where at least four men attempted self-immolation. One, Ahmed Hashem el-Sayed, of Alexandria, died. Asmaa Mahfouz was outraged and posted a video online, staring directly into the camera, her head covered, but not her face. She identified herself and called for people to join her on Jan. 25 in Tahrir Square. She said (translated from Arabic): “I’m making this video to give you one simple message: We want to go down to Tahrir Square on January 25th. If we still have honor and want to live in dignity on this land, we have to go down on January 25th. We’ll go down and demand our rights, our fundamental human rights. … I won’t even talk about any political rights. We just want our human rights and nothing else. This entire government is corrupt – a corrupt president and a corrupt security force. These self-immolators were not afraid of death but were afraid of security forces. Can you imagine that?”
Nine months later, Asmaa Mahfouz was giving a teach-in at Occupy Wall Street. Standing on steps above the crowd Monday night, she had a huge smile on her face as she looked out on a sea of faces. After she finished, I asked her what gave her strength. She answered with characteristic humility, speaking English: “I can’t believe it when I saw a million people join in the Tahrir Square. I’m not more brave, because I saw my colleagues, Egyptian, were going towards the policemen, when they just pushing us, and they died for all of us. So they are the ones who are really brave and really strong. … I saw people, really, died in front of me, because they were protecting me and protecting others. So, they were the most brave, bravest men.”
I asked how it felt to be in the United States, which had for so long supported the Mubarak regime in Egypt. She replied: “While they giving money and power and support to Mubarak regime, our people, Egyptian people, can success against all of this, against the U.S. power. So, the power to the people, not for the U.S. bullets or bombs or money or anything. The power to the people. So that I am here to be in solidarity and support the Wall Street Occupy protesters, to say them ‘the power to the people,’ and to keep it on and on, and they will success in the end.”
The Egyptian revolution has not been without consequences for her. Last August, she was arrested by the Egyptian military. As my colleague Sharif Abdel Kouddous reported from Cairo, Asmaa sent two controversial tweets that prompted the arrest by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the military government that has ruled Egypt since Mubarak’s fall.
Her arrest provoked a worldwide response, with groups ranging from the Muslim Brotherhood to Amnesty International condemning it. She was released, but, as Sharif noted at the time, Asmaa was only one of 12,000 civilians arrested since the revolution.
The arrests are happening here in the U.S. now, at many of the protest sites across the country. As Asmaa was preparing to head back to Egypt, hundreds of riot police descended on Occupy Oakland, firing beanbag rounds and tear gas. The University of New Mexico is threatening to evict the encampment there, which is called “(Un)occupy Albuquerque” to highlight that the land there is occupied native land.
Asmaa Mahfouz is running for a seat in the Egyptian Parliament, and maybe someday, she says, the presidency. When I asked her what she had to say to President Barack Obama, who had given his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, she replied: “You promised the people that you are the change and ‘yes, we can.’ So we are here from the Wall Street Occupy, and we are saying the same word: ‘yes, we can.’ We can make the freedom, and we can get our freedom, even if it’s from you.”
Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column. Amy Goodman is the radio host of “Democracy Now!”
Trudy Rubin: Egyptians say no to Islamists 
ChefGus/ John Olsen on October 28 at 5:37 a.m.
900 plus cities in 80 plus different countries… and that is just the one’s we know about… Stick to Gandhi and Dr King’s methodology… Oakland is but the tip of the Iceberg when it comes to the “power structure’s” ability and skill and equipment to harm the citizenry.. I had flash backs to Bull Conner and the Fire Hoses and Vicious German Dogs attacking defenseless Freedom Riders…. the Tipping Point is here…. Stay peaceful, and the truth of our militarized police will become very evident… and then change will occur… John
valleyman on October 28 at 8:32 a.m.
@John: I’m sorry but this is far from a rising tide. It’s full of folks who are advocating for things they don’t even understand. They have been shown to be in large numbers anti-Semitic, and as of yesterday in New York, apparently against feeding homeless people - hiring their own guards to keep the less fortunate out of their food lines.
Yes, this is a group of folks who is out to change the world alright - one selfish, anti-Semitic, poor person food-depriving, “we are the 99%” chant at a time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Y9CARUwio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=NWwK5TBcoUY
**Just look at some of the other videos on here about this stuff… I won’t link because of the vile language used, but it’s more of the same**
Citizen on October 28 at 11:34 a.m.
Two very insane people do not represent the Occupy movement, no matter how you might try to paint it in guilt by association.
ManleyPointer on October 28 at 11:36 a.m.
OWS has been endorsed by both the Nazi Party and the Communist Party. What more do we need to know? People are known by the company they keep.
valleyman on October 28 at 11:42 a.m.
@Citizen: How does it feel now that the shoe is on the other foot? Seems the Left now has their version of the Tea Party the Right gets view with a microscope.
Small group? Do you not here the shouts of support for those nuts being yelled by the assembled masses?
tobiasg on October 28 at 3:19 p.m.
It must really bother you righties that the little guys are standing up for themselves.
valleyman on October 28 at 4:20 p.m.
Why would it bother people on the right at all tobiasg? I’m just pointing out the hilarity of the hypocrisy…
It was not ok for the Tea Party to get together and protest the government, but it’s ok for the Occupiers to get together and protest against corporations.
It was not ok for the Tea Party to campaign against Democrats and the president - they were/are called racists… but it’s ok for the Occupiers to say anti-Semitic things, deny food to the homeless, and call for the destruction of capitalism in favor of something between Marxism and Fascism?
Yeah… makes total sense…
valleyman on October 28 at 4:21 p.m.
Besides,,, You lefties want to align yourselves with this, be my guest… It’s a giant anchor that’s going to do you more harm than good.
richard on October 28 at 4:24 p.m.
OCW is made up of anti-Semites, avowed communists, professional protesters, nazies, sychophants, union thugs, whiny little brats who believe they are entitled, etc, all of whom are anti-American.
And it is all being paid for by George Soros and his organizations, SEIU leaders who are planning on violence when the time is right.
Elite media - Brian Williams, Diana Sawyer, and others - are all ‘awe-struck’ by how fast and far-flung this “movement” has reached. Diane Sawyer reported to us that it has reached a “1000 nations.!” Ha, ha, ha. They praise their “patriotism” for taking part in the American tradition of protest. They report on these protesters just like they reported on Barack Obama when he was a candidate; with the utmost respect and admiration. All just a few years after these same elites denounced the Tea Party as racist, astro-turf extremists. They all but declare that the tea partiers are un-American and that their “mob-actions” have nothing to do with protesting.
What hypocrisy and duplicity. But that is the essential framework of the American left.
richard on October 28 at 4:25 p.m.
You got that right Valleyman!!
tobiasg on October 28 at 5:50 p.m.
Valleyman, nobody said the tea party couldn’t do what they did, many of us saw them as misguided and being used by the right through fear.
Occupy shouldn’t be about parties but the right has their agenda and Occupy clashes with that, so many who vote republican do not understand.
richard on October 28 at 8:38 p.m.
tobiasg -
You cannot provide one piece of evidence that the tea party accepted any money from anyone, despite all the lies on the left and especially in the leftist media.
There is, however, much evidence that George Soros, the dispicable Move.On and the SEIU thuggish union leaders have funded the Wall street occupiers with money as well as “street soldiers”.
And as I mentioned earlier, mainstream media has reported nothing but favorable “news” about OWS, a direct reversal of how it reported on the tea party.
If income disparity is the number one issue in this country, then media bias is the number 2 problem, as the entirety of our media outlets - save for a few - have been propping up the left for decades now resulting in Democrats being elected even though this nation is decidedly conservative by a margin of nearly 2 toi 1.
I just heard one of the commentators on MSNBC interviewing some Democratic operatives talking about Herman Cain. The MSNBC employed commentator asked the question, “can Herman Cain even spell Iraq”. He is being targeted by every network, most every major newspaper as they want to destroy him.
It is more than just cynical - it is dispicable - that these news outlets employ the same reproters and commentators who label every conservative who questions Obama’s policies, as racist.
But you don’t hear one word - not from jesse or reverend Al - not anyone on MSNBC or CNN ever raise a question that the cynical jokes and disparaging of Cain could be considered racist. It doesn’t even cross their minds.
The left is full of duplicitous and hypocritical scoundrels.
tobiasg on October 29 at 12:10 p.m.
Richard. Nowhere did I say that the baggers were funded by anyone…even though the Koch brothers and Murdoch helped them out considerably.
Pay attention…or keep believing what you’re fed to believe.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on October 30 at 6:59 a.m.
Valley man … and others.. i was made a little angry by the news yesterday, that these organized people were not “feeding” the homeless and the “hangers on”… guess it is the human condition that if one “has” one lives in fear….. which drives the greed… that created all this anyway…..
I am sure there IS some political co opting going on, and the “movements’ around the world are organized on some level… but would point out the viet nam war protests were started and fomented by such people…. until the regular citizenry finally woke to the fact of the futility and folly of spending our country life blood in men and women and resources on WAR…….
So my view is that these will continue… as did the arab spring… and none of us can predict what will come of it… hopefully no violence… like the stuff in oakland.
I lived on Capitol Hill during the WTO “riots” and the “riotous” folks were punks from gangs… and came at night to loot and pillage……
Any crowd, when it goes south is not a place any sane person wants to be… the reptilian brain takes over.. and the cops today are so much better armed and trained and tough than those in 68 in seattle…. and the WTO… i’d guess there are a lot of armed civilians …. thus a tragedy could well occur….j