CAIRO
A number of people I’ve spoken with in Cairo observe that the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak is twinned with another achievement: the liberation of tongues. The rambunctious spirit is far from new here but the uprising is said to have accelerated back-talking, outspokenness, demonstrative exuberance in both public and private places.
One expression of this spirit: Egyptian unions continue in revolt. They get much less media attention than the Facebooking, Tweeting young. But without the striking workers, Mubarak’s regime would not have collapsed. The unions, still active, now worry about a draft cabinet bill that would fine organizers of protests (sit-ins are mentioned specifically) that “lead to obstructing work at one of the state’s institutions, public authorities or private and public workplaces.” Organizers of violent protests that involve sabotage, harm to “national unity or social peace, cause public disorder, damage or occupy public or private property” can be imprisoned for at least a year and fined even more. Said the central labor council:
the Egyptian governments after the revolution failed to understand the labor movement and instead took an arrogant stance.
The deputy prime minister felt impelled to announce that the draft bill would not affect peaceful protests. Stay tuned.
For days now, state TV employees have been picketing headquarters along the Nile, demanding not only wage increases but the resignation of corrupt officials. Troops in battle dress, with armored personnel carriers, guard the building and keep the demonstrators on the other side of the boulevard. Armies tend to know the value of controlling television at volatile moments.
This spirit of talk-back—the pulse of democracy—transcends politics. Children are said to speak up to their parents. University students question more and defer less. At Cairo University, in the words of the solid, independent, English-language Daily News Egypt, students have been
demanding the ouster of the dean of the mass communication department whom they accused of being part of the old regime.
At the German University of Cairo, students protested last week when 26 students were expelled for striking in favor of the founding of a student union.
There’s a buzz of anxiety about what’s coming next. The chief question in play: What will the Muslim Brotherhood do? Share power with the military, whose stamp of approval was renewed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in Cairo this week? Splinter? Evolve? Harden? Take seriously the coalition with other parties it is proposing for forthcoming parliamentary elections?
Several groups rallied yesterday in Tahrir Square—but not to exaggerate, hundreds gathered, not thousands. There were calls for rapid prosecutions of Hosni Mubarak, his son Gamal, and the former Interior Minister. There were Libyans denouncing Qaddafi. According to Daily News Egypt, there were even 30 Palestinians who are married to Egyptian women and have been deprived of rights for their children.
I heard a woman jawing at an army officer in the crowd, railing at length against Mubarak while he tried to talk her down. A student from India wanted to know why, if Mubarak had been so awful, she and people like her had supported him for so long. The woman did not relent.
