The Antisocial Socialist

It was supposed to be a vigil for the maybe 150, maybe 300, maybe more, people killed in the Egyptian protests. Instead, the sadness turned to celebration with the news of Mubarak's resignation. There were the requisite speeches and moments of silence, but also music and dancing and people hugging and handing out candy. Despite the freezing weather (fortunately, frandroid brought tea!) I wouldn't have wanted to miss this.



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P.S. Douchebag traitor Bob Rae was there, mugging for the cameras. Yes, the guy who said: “As Egypt transitions towards democracy, it is essential that stability be maintained through respect for their international obligations .....” because God knows Arabs can't be trusted with freedom and it needs to be qualified with "stability." I tried to get some folks fired up to confront him, but we couldn't find the exact quote to throw in his face in front of the cameras.

Try to imagine a situation where two million people gather in your city to protest something. Try to imagine this happening in theoretically a democracy, where the army and police are unlikely to open fire on the demonstrators, and where the government might at least pretend to listen to the demands.

Two million people are in Cairo's Tahrir Square, with around 8 million people protesting across the country. This, despite the fact that 150 people have already been killed. And whatever our government and the U.S. government says, Egypt's no democracy (though the military has said that it won't fire on the demonstrators).


[Photo of the massive amount of people gathered in Cairo. See those tiny things? Each of those tiny things is a person.]

It's amazing to see this happen. Al Jazeera has the most reliable coverage, including a video that shows the sheer scale of the demos.

If you haven't seen it, check out laura.fo by LJ's slit. imagines has an excellent links round-up here and here.

Access Now is helping Egyptians circumvent firewalls, and you can go here to find out how to run a Tor bridge. (Thanks smhwpf and secretsoflife!)

Via eumelia, an anonymous personal account from Cairo:

We are a generation not raised on a culture of confrontation; we have had fear built into us since we were born. We are a generation whose intellectuals have been terrorized by the ruling regime, taught to conform and obey. Now is the time to learn the rules of the game.

Via Lenin's Tomb: the U.S. State Department says that Egypt is not ready for democracy, but Biden says that Mubarak is not a dictator. (WHAT?)

I think Egypt is, uh, ready for democracy:


Lots and lots of protesters, demanding democracy.

More ready than we are, anyway.

Here, have a primer.

If you're in Toronto, there's a demo in solidarity with the people of Egypt and Tunisia tomorrow at 1 in Dundas Square.