SocialistWorker* – Mostafa Omar, a member of Egypt’s Revolutionary Socialists and journalist for Ahram Online, spoke with Lee Sustar about the dynamics of the movement and the prospects for the renewal of Egypt’s revolutionary movement.
Photo: Mosa’ab Elshami | SocialistWorker.org
What was the trigger for this latest crisis in Egypt?
The immediate trigger was an incident last Saturday, November 19, when the police went to break up a sit-in of no more than 100 people on the center traffic island of Tahrir Square. Most of them had been injured in the January 25 uprising that led to the overthrow of Mubarak.
The sit-in followed a big march the day before that was dominated by the Islamists, demanding that the Supreme Council hand over power to a civilian administration by the end of April 2012. The day went just fine.
But one Islamist leader, a conservative Salafist, called off his plan for a sit-in and left with his supporters, so just 100 people were there overnight. Police came the following morning and began brutalizing them, and ejected them from the square.
But thousands responded to this repression by coming to the square to reclaim it.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 