[OccupyComms] Cairo Open Letter reply

[Mikifus]

Thanks for your words to both of you. Let's continue this process.

By the way, as always, I'll put my list of the interntional medias to
coordinate the movement:
http://acampadabcninternacional.wordpress.com/2011/09/29/invitation-to-join-the-take-the-square-network/

2012/6/10 Manuel <manuel at whiteflag.info>

> Glad to hear your words, Philp****
>
> I am striving for the human community already many years. I have achieved
> little and it is difficult for me just to be heard, but I am satisfied with
> every little progress in this direction because I truly think every effort
> towards this aims is worth. I think it is a way of thinking rather simple,
> therefore I think that it might turn up as a big stream one day soon.****
>
> In this regard I appeal to such talented people here as Ternura, Mikifus,
> Carolina..…I am sure they are able to move this forwards. (I have
> researched it, studied the main languages and cultures in the world but I
> am not good with new communication technologies).****
>
> Best wishes to all****
>
> Manuel****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Philip Rizk [mailto:rizkphilip at googlemail.com]
> *Sent:* domingo, 10 de junio de 2012 16:14
> *To:* Manuel
> *Cc:* 917-arts-and-culture at googlegroups.com; Ternura Rojas; Karem Irene
> Said; Mark Barrett; pan at lists.takethesquare.net;
> occupycomms at email-lists.org; mikifus kimifus; carolina
> *Subject:* RE: Cairo Open Letter reply****
>
> ** **
>
> Thank you very much for your message Manuel. I agree with how close our
> battles lie. I was just in Berlin where though I was very disappointed with
> the co optation of political movements and ideas I think we could make the
> most of connecting with people to expand the networks we are a part of.
> Some members of the indignados were supposed to be on our panel (mosireen
> video collective) but did not show up. I will hopefully be back in Berlin
> at the end of July but the bottom line is to connect, to share and
> coordinate strategies because the more we see our battles as sharing front
> lines the stronger we are
> Philip ****
>
> On Jun 5, 2012 4:48 PM, "Manuel" <manuel at whiteflag.info> wrote:****
>
> Hi Karem and Philp,****
>
> I am Manuel. I wanted to answer to your letter from Cairo (I feel Egypt
> close, I lived there in 1992 and 1993). It seems that Mark puts us in
> contact, but he has not sent it to you. So, I am doing it now. ****
>
> I know Carolina, Ternura and Mikifus have received it through the squares
> list, but I keep them posted. I noticed and appreciate Mikifus attention.
> ****
>
> In this letter you will see what I am striving for already many years,
> travelling to many countries, always working on this, and any cooperation
> proposal in this regard will get my full support.****
>
> Best wishes to all.****
>
> Manuel****
>
>  ****
>
> Some considerations about our movement Arab Spring, Occupy, 15M:****
>
>  ****
>
> 1.      We all are very concerned about what is going on in Syria.
> Ceasefire****
>
> has ended, horrible crimes will go on.****
>
> It seems that the opposition to Assad regime put together again the****
>
> interests of Al Qaeda and the CIA because the regime there is a close ally
> ****
>
> to Russia. Russia has there the only military base outside its territory.*
> ***
>
> 2.      We see also what is going on in Egypt as an outcome of the Arab***
> *
>
> Spring. Elections have taken place and the two candidates for presidency**
> **
>
> are: one, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and the other one the heirs of
> ****
>
> the former president Mubarak and also a general. I remember you that the**
> **
>
> Muslim Brotherhood were outlawed when they killed the previous President**
> **
>
> Anwar El Sadat after he signed peace with Israel. Then they were supposed*
> ***
>
> the authors of a number of tourists and Christian Copts killings in the***
> *
>
> nineties.****
>
> 3.      We have seen what has happened in Libya as a result of the Arab***
> *
>
> Spring.****
>
> 4.      We have seen also what has happened in Bahrain as a result of the*
> ***
>
> Arab Spring too. There the mostly Shia demonstrators claiming against the*
> ***
>
> Sunni power were quelled by Saudi troops trained by UK. In Bahrain, as****
>
> opposite to Syria, is the EEUU who docks its fleet for the Pacific there.*
> ***
>
>  ****
>
> Our movement, 15M, Occupy, Arab Spring, here and there, everywhere claims*
> ***
>
> for more democracy and against capitalism.****
>
>  ****
>
> Democracy, first of all, is a system successfully created in Greece upon**
> **
>
> slavery. And the same goes for Rome.  Modern democracy is stable only in**
> **
>
> rich countries, where also immigrants without rights occupy the lowest part
> ****
>
> of society.****
>
>  ****
>
> In not so rich countries, democracy leads to religious parties taking
> power,****
>
> as in the whole Arab world. In the nineties, when the FIS, Islamic Front of
> ****
>
> Salvation, won in Algeria by more than 90%, the West supported a military*
> ***
>
> coup.****
>
>  ****
>
> In other countries, not so rich countries, democracy leads to semi****
>
> dictatorial systems or populist regimes as in Latin America and maybe in**
> **
>
> Russia, Asia and Africa.****
>
> Indeed, if democracy is “free” enough, poor people will use state power,**
> **
>
> through a party, to redistribute country wealth even if they need to****
>
> expropriate from the rich people. This might be also our movement case****
>
> claiming against capitalism….(I know pretty well that succor those in need
> ****
>
> is urgent....and I am for it too) but I do not think it is a way OUT.****
>
>  ****
>
> This is life….No need to add that “democracy is the lesser evil, etc.” Or,
> ****
>
> what we have is not "real democracy". I am talking about facing our problem
> ****
>
> (human related), not about making politics (state related). And in the same
> ****
>
> way, am using intelligence here, not ideology..****
>
>  ****
>
> Therefore “more” democracy might have some sense, but it is not the way
> out,****
>
> nor it is fighting against capitalism because this is also the way to see*
> ***
>
> things from inside of our state but disregarding the state context which
> has****
>
> to compete (As China's case, a communist country, show us).****
>
> We have to open our eyes as human, Egyptians, Germans, Americans, Syrians,
> ****
>
> Chinese, Spanish, Brazilians…. we are all the same because what is
> important****
>
> is to be human, no nationals, as we can understand each other, work
> together****
>
> and we can put ourselves in other people shoes –this is the key to a****
>
> solution, our common sense. Common sense valid not for the 99% (it actually
> ****
>
> goes to 50% & 50%, especially if -state- violence is used) but for the
> 100%.****
>
>  ****
>
> Let’s face reality now. I am not especially familiar with Syria domestic**
> **
>
> problems, but I understand it that way: Every country has internal
> problems,****
>
> divisions. That division might be a question of races, faiths, beliefs,***
> *
>
> clans, tribes, classes or just, what it is never missed rich and poor****
>
> people. And of course, one of those parts (to be more stable the rich) is
> in****
>
> power, while the others are in the “opposition” (usually as a result of a*
> ***
>
> previous war) and therefore submitted to state power (force) controlled by
> ****
>
> the first one. I think in Syria a number of factors, I guess mainly the***
> *
>
> invasion to Iraq and other related developments, has facilitated border***
> *
>
> leaking and illegal weapons have been successfully introduced in the****
>
> country, because in every state only the state is allowed to have them.
> This****
>
> is all. There is not much to talk about who is right or who is wrong or to
> ****
>
> talk about justice (all that is ideology again). The thing is that there is
> ****
>
> already a FRONT there, same as happened in Libya and this is also a safe**
> **
>
> haven for foreign intervention/help. (Not so safe as Russia is there to***
> *
>
> check maybe, or not as safe as it was in Libya´s case)****
>
>  ****
>
> Now, what is the cause of human disaster? The cause of human disaster is**
> **
>
> that we live grouped in armed units called states, and we have to be this*
> ***
>
> way to exist in front of the other states (there is not democracy there
> were****
>
> an army requires a hierarchy. This is what is going on in Egypt now) This*
> ***
>
> means that a part has to control on the army, other forces and is in power,
> ****
>
> while the other parts have to submit because for a country or armed unit to
> ****
>
> exist among the 200 armed units in the world it has do so, as other****
>
> countries are also organized this way to compete or exist.****
>
>  ****
>
> Only if we see it, we can look and find a way OUT of this misery. And this
> ****
>
> way out is a call for the human community, which is achieved through global
> ****
>
> common and total disarmament (process), as armies are against each other,*
> ***
>
> together it will be easy to disarm. In this way, humans will live and to**
> **
>
> work together as EQUALS because hierarchy is no longer needed. While we***
> *
>
> still need each other as we cannot survive each one on our own.****
>
>  ****
>
> This is: we are free, no violence nobody is enforcing nobody, but it does*
> ***
>
> not mean chaos, but on the contrary, unity, human community, because we all
> ****
>
> actually live spiritually and materially together.****
>
>  ****
>
> (I have tried to tell you many times that if we are not living spiritually
> ****
>
> and materially together already is because we are prevented by the simple*
> ***
>
> existence of the weapon in nature which has conditioned our agenda or****
>
> history generating the armed units as our way of organizing. I insist once
> ****
>
> more; think about a weapon as experiencing its existence –not as an idea)*
> ***
>
>  ****
>
> I hope our movement can play the role as cell and light of the human****
>
> community and I am calling for you to work on that purpose.****
>
>  ****
>
> Best wishes.****
>
> Manuel****
>
>  ****
>
> *From:* Mark Barrett [mailto:marknbarrett at googlemail.com]
> *Sent:* martes, 05 de junio de 2012 13:58
> *To:* Karem Irene Said
> *Cc:* rizkphilip at googlemail.com; mikifus kimifus; carolina; Ternura
> Rojas; Manuel
> *Subject:* Re: Cairo Open Letter****
>
>  ****
>
> Hello Philip and Karem****
>
>  ****
>
> Thanks for putting us in touch Karem :)****
>
>  ****
>
> I am ccing Mikifus, Manuel, Carolina and Ternura from Spain so you can all
> say hello and connect you to the global square. Also I know Manuel wanted
> to send a message to you so here is the link up. Also, Philip and Karem do
> consider blogging direct (anonyously if you prefer) to
> peoplesassemblies.org about the situation in Egypt. Happy to set you (and
> anyone else in the movements) with an account.     ****
>
>  ****
>
> In solidarity!****
>
>  ****
>
> Mark****
>
> On 3 June 2012 00:21, Karem Irene Said <ksaid at stanford.edu> wrote:****
>
> Hi Mark,****
>
>  ****
>
> Thanks so much for posting the letter! I have included Philip here, one of
> the Comrades from Cairo, so you two can be in touch. Hope it's alright that
> I didn't Reply All.****
>
>  ****
>
> All the best,****
>
> Karem****
> ------------------------------
>
> *From: *"Mark Barrett" <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>
> *To: *"occupyus" <occupyus at googlegroups.com>,
> 917-arts-and-culture at googlegroups.com, pan at lists.takethesquare.net
> *Cc: *"occupylondon" <occupylondon at groupspaces.com>,
> democracyvillage at googlegroups.com, "<occupycomms at email-lists.org>" <
> occupycomms at email-lists.org>
> *Sent: *Saturday, June 2, 2012 2:43:55 AM
> *Subject: *Cairo Open Letter****
>
>
>
> Posted at http://www.peoplesassemblies.org/2012/06/open-letter-from-cairo/
> and
>
> http://acampadabcninternacional.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/egypts-elections-under-military-rule-join-our-resistance-to-the-counter-revolution-by-comrades-from-cairo/
> >
> > 2012/6/1 <marknbarrett at googlemail.com>
> >>
> >> Received at PAN this evening, am in process of getting more info on it -
> >>
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> I would like to pass along an open letter sent by Comrades from Cairo,
> >> which explains  the counter-revolutionary strategies at work in Egypt's
> >> upcoming presidential runoff:
> >>
> >> Egypt’s elections under military rule: Join our resistance to the
> >> counter-revolution
> >>
> >> To you at whose side we struggle,
> >> From the beginning of the Egyptian revolution, the powers that be have
> >> launched a vicious counter-revolution to contain our struggle and
> subsume it
> >> by drowning the people’s voices in a process of meaningless, piecemeal
> >> political reforms. This process aimed at deflecting the path of
> revolution
> >> and the Egyptian people’s demands for "bread, freedom and social
> justice."
> >>
> >> Only 18 days into our revolution, and since we forced Mubarak out of
> >> power, the discourse of the political classes and the infrastructure of
> the
> >> elites, including both state and private media, continues to privilege
> >> discussions of rotating Ministers, cabinet reshuffles, referendums,
> >> committees, constitutions and most glaringly, parliamentary and now
> >> presidential elections.
> >>
> >> Our choice from the very beginning was to reject in their entirety the
> >> regime's attempts to drag the people’s revolution into a farcical
> dialogue
> >> with the counter-revolution shrouded in the discourse of a "democratic
> >> process" which neither promotes the demands of the revolution nor
> represents
> >> any substantial, real democracy. Thus our revolution continues, and must
> >> continue.
> >>
> >> Egyptians now find themselves in a vulnerable moment. Official political
> >> discourse would have the world believe that the technologies of
> democracy
> >> presently spell a choice between ‘two evils’. These are: Ahmed Shafiq,
> who
> >> guarantees the consolidation of the outgoing regime and its return with
> a
> >> vengeance, openly promising a criminal assault on the revolution under
> the
> >> fascist spectres of ‘security’ and ‘stability’, and the false promise of
> >> protection for religious minorities (against whom the regime
> systematically
> >> stages assault and isolation as part of its
> >> fear-mongering campaigns); and Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the
> Muslim
> >> Brotherhood whom we are expected to imagine might ‘save’ us from the
> ‘old
> >> regime’ through the myths of cultural renaissance - all while
> consolidating
> >> its financial stronghold and the regional capitalist hegemony that
> fosters
> >> and depends on it for a climate of rampant exploitation of Egypt’s
> people
> >> and their resources. This consolidation, we are certain, will be
> accompanied
> >> by the subsequent
> >> marshalling of the military apparatus to protect the emboldened ruling
> >> class of the Muslim Brotherhood from the wrath and revolt of its
> victims:
> >> the multitude whom the leaders of the organization have historically
> fought
> >> by condemning and outlawing our struggles for livelihood, dignity and
> >> equality.
> >>
> >> According to election officials, most voters themselves (75%) have
> chosen
> >> neither Shafiq nor Morsi in the first round of elections. We refuse to
> >> recognize the choice of “lesser of two evils” when these evils
> masquerade in
> >> equal measure for the same regime. We believe there is another choice.
> And
> >> in times where perceived common sense is as far from the truth as can
> be, we
> >> find the need to speak out once again.
> >>
> >> We perceive the affair of presidential elections in Egypt as an attempt
> by
> >> the as yet prevailing military junta and its counter-revolutionary
> forces to
> >> garner international legitimacy to cement the existing regime and
> deliver
> >> more lethal blows to the Egyptian revolution. We ask you to join us in
> >> resisting the logic of this process that seeks to further entrench the
> >> counter-revolution.
> >>
> >> Our struggle does not exist in isolation from yours. What is revolution,
> >> but the immediate and uncompromising rejection of the status quo: of
> >> militarized power, exploitation, class stratification, and relentless
> police
> >> violence—just to name
> >> a few of the most basic and cancerous features of society in the present
> >> moment. These structural realities are not unique to Egypt or the
> Egyptian
> >> revolution. In both the South and the North communities resist what we
> are
> >> meant to accept without questioning, rising up against the narrow
> realist
> >> perspective that tells us that democracy is merely choosing the lesser
> of
> >> ‘two evils’, and that the election of either represents a choice in
> >> government rather than what it is: an affirmation of the only government
> >> that exists - that of unbridled, repressive and dehumanizing
> >> capitalist relations. We stand in solidarity with the masses of
> precarious
> >> and endangered people who have chosen to defend their being from an
> >> aggressive global system that is in crisis; indeed, a sputtering system
> >> that, in its twilight hours, reaches for unprecedented levels of
> >> surveillance, militarization and violence to quell our insurrections.
> >>
> >> We must make clear that despite the fact of the international political
> >> establishment’s praise of the ‘democratic’ nature of the first round of
> the
> >> Egyptian presidential elections, we strongly and categorically reject
> the
> >> outcome of these elections for they do not represent the desires of the
> >> Egyptian people that fought in the January 25th Revolution.
> >>
> >> Furthermore, we categorically reject the elections themselves in
> >> principle, for the following reasons:
> >>
> >> 1- Even by the standards of the deceased and irrelevant systems of
> >> representation that once
> >> existed in the Global North, no ‘free and fair elections’ can take place
> >> under the supervision
> >> of a power-hungry military junta, vying relentlessly for continued
> >> political domination and the protection of their vast economic empire,
> so
> >> relentlessly, indeed, that no constitution exists to define the powers
> of
> >> any presidency. How can we tolerate a military dictatorship’s
> supervision of
> >> any political process when thousands of Egyptians continue to languish
> in
> >> the dungeons of military prison after undergoing arbitrary arrest,
> campaigns
> >> of systematic torture, and exceptional military tribunals.
> >>
> >> 2- The abuse of law in favor of the power mongering of the ruling
> military
> >> generals: in order to run the junta's preferred candidate, former Prime
> >> Minister Ahmed Shafiq, the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission has
> >> simply and blatantly disregarded the law of political exclusion recently
> >> passed in order to ban the candidacy of any members of Mubarak’s regime
> from
> >> running in the presidential elections.
> >>
> >> 3- The absurdity of unlimited power concentrated in the hands of an
> >> electoral commission made up of central figures from the Mubarak era
> who are
> >> meant to supervise a ‘democratic’ process.
> >>
> >> 4- The vague programs marketed by the most strongly backed candidates
> fly
> >> in the face of the values and object of the revolution, the very reason
> why
> >> we are even having these elections today and the cause for which over a
> >> thousand martyrs gave their lives: "bread, freedom and social justice."
> >> If these elections take place and are internationally recognized the
> >> regime will have received the world’s stamp of approval to make void
> >> everything the revolution stands for. If these elections are to pass
> while
> >> we remain silent, we believe the coming regime will license itself to
> hunt
> >> us down, lock us up and torture us in an attempt to quell all forms of
> >> resistance to its very raison d'être.
> >>
> >> We continue on our revolutionary path committed to resisting military
> rule
> >> and putting an end to military tribunals for civilians and the release
> of
> >> all detainees in military prisons. We continue to struggle in the
> workplace,
> >> in schools and universities and with popular committees in our
> >> neighborhoods. But our fight is as much against the governments and
> systems
> >> supporting the regime that suppresses us. We are determined to audit
> loan
> >> agreements that did and continue to occur between international
> financial
> >> institutions or foreign governments with a regime that
> >> claims to represent us while thriving from exploiting and repressing us.
> >> We call on you to join us in our struggle against the reinforcements of
> the
> >> counter-revolution. How will you stand in solidarity with us? If we are
> >> under attack, you are also under attack for our battle is a global one
> >> against the forces that seek our obedience and suppression.
> >>
> >> We stand with the ongoing revolution, a revolution that will only be
> >> realized by the strength, community and persistence of the people; not
> >> through a poisonous referendum for military rule.
> >>
> >> Comrades from Cairo
> >>
> >****
>
>  ****
>
>
>
>
> --
> Apathy is Dead !
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarider/5254770064/#/photos/solarider/5254770064/lightbox/
> ****
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://www.email-lists.org/pipermail/occupycomms/attachments/20120611/b5f3341a/attachment-0001.html>