From Tahrir to Manhattan, and Vice Versa

Demonstrators have occupied the streets of Manhattan’s financial district, repeating the call: “This is Cairo, this is Tunisia! We are change, we are the rising sun!”

To those observing from afar, facets of the similarity — as well as facets of the contrast — between the Egyptian Spring and the American Spring appear provocative and remarkable, in spite of the great physical and cultural distances separating them. Whether in resemblance or in difference, it remains virtually certain that one of the two movements has not yet had the good fortune to be universally recognized as a revolution.

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Similarity #1: the common perception of both movements as popular uprisings, protest movements or as groundwork for revolution. The right-wing American writer Ann Coulter is responsible for one of the worst portrayals of the Manhattan demonstrators, describing them as nothing more than a mob uprising with poorly-defined objectives, similar to those who stormed the Bastille during the French Revolution. Others, including conservative titans of the right-wing such as Glenn Beck, have described the demonstrators as anarchists and dilettantes with ties to foreign agendas. They also characterized the protesters as unemployed people unable to find anything to keep themselves busy who therefore took to the streets to pass the time and have some fun — even though a number of them do not even want a job, on the grounds that they refuse to work for the businessmen who, like vampires, drink the blood of the hard-working poor.

These days, many of us here in Egypt hear voices, brought to us by satellite channels, of a variety that has become familiar, repulsive and disappointing — voices offering opinions resembling those put forth by fanatical elements of the American right-wing. These Egyptian voices have increased in volume along with the reawakening of anti-revolutionary and anti-change sentiment, the ongoing breakdown in governmental functionality, and the fact that the various “tribes” comprising the revolution seem to be having trouble arriving at a civilized level of cooperation.

Similarity #2: the widespread belief among citizens, around the time the two revolutions broke out, that the ruling regime preferred to rescue banks and real estate companies on the verge of bankruptcy rather than mend the economy and combat corruption to improve conditions for the greater part of the citizenry. President Bush introduced this attitude to the United States, and President Obama quickly perfected such a policy after coming to power. It has now been suggested that Obama was returning a favor to the business and financial sectors, which offered him great monetary contributions and favored him over his conservative Republican rivals. The total financial sector support for the Democratic candidate Obama exceeded $7.9 million, compared to $4.2 million for the representative of the right-wing Republican Party.

Similarity #3 : the media’s attitude toward both movements. Keith Olbermann, the well-known American television broadcaster, explains how a media blackout surrounded the activities of the masses participating in “Occupy Wall Street,” a blackout that was only lifted when police clashed with demonstrators who were deliberately disrupting traffic on one of New York’s most important bridges. Egypt’s revolutionary youth must recall how their hegemonic government media dealt with their movement in its early days, and how this treatment changed upon the first instance of police conflict when victims fell. Other commentators discuss how the slogan “peacefully, peacefully” — a slogan that inspired the organization of “Occupy Wall Street” and similar movements in Madrid, Lisbon and London, and is now inspiring residents of cities across the United States — is the selfsame motive behind the media’s failure to cover the revolutions in their initial stages.

Similarity #4: the attitudes adopted by government bureaucracy. In each case, the bureaucracies openly doubted that the revolutions would last very long, believing the rebels to be underprepared and lacking the required capabilities to manage the affairs of the country — or even the affairs of their own revolution. The bureaucracies operated upon this conviction, and continue to do so, although they went beyond merely waiting for failure to occur when they started cooperating with counter-revolutionary forces — supporters of the old regime in the case of the Arab Spring, right-wing conservative organizations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington and various European cities across the Atlantic.

Similarity #5: the choice made individually by each movement to not adhere strictly to the left-wing intellectually or organizationally. In an article in the Financial Times, John Gapper suggests that the revolutions have been well-run insofar as, were they to cling strictly to the left-wing, they would peter out more quickly and the government might never respond to any of their demands. I believe John Gapper’s observations are sharp and that it is significant for the Financial Times — of all publications — to be printing this. This is not to say I agree that this choice was intentional to the same extent as the Arab Spring’s decision to refrain from addressing questions of foreign policy during its formative days.

We have observed that leftist bodies did not immediately give their unqualified and enthusiastic blessing to the Arab revolutions nor to the Manhattan revolution. Although leftists did eventually solidify in their support, some continue to issue criticisms about the revolutions lacking specificity of goals and lacking well-defined shape. Debate still rages over the tendency of these revolutionary movements to use streets and public squares and parks (like Zuccotti Park in New York) as forums for decision-making. Some say this tactic reflects the nature of the modern age, as rebels organize their affairs via electronic means and then bring them pre-prepared to the parks and streets. Others claim it is unreasonable for us in Cairo and Sanaa and Homs and Hama and New York — even for those of us in modern Athens — to imitate the model of ancient Athens where all decisions were made en masse in the public squares.

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Among a wide array of similarities between these two revolutions or uprisings, the single greatest resemblance can be found in the reactions of the governing political classes — that which has already lost many of its constituents as a direct result of the launching of a revolution, and that which is now struggling, with sudden enthusiasm, to avoid the same fate. In each circumstance, the political class has attempted to use an assortment of tactics to quell protests, including the prompt acknowledgement of having made serious mistakes. This is what the American ruling class did, as the chairman of the Federal Reserve admitted to the magnitude of the failure of the American economy. President Obama then made successive remarks about the horror and hideousness of the economic crisis, attempting to foist some of the responsibility upon the Europeans, and the Senate rushed to announce its willingness to approve a tax increase upon those with an income in excess of one million dollars.

The political classes are aware that a rebellion may be exterminated in furtive fashion through accelerating the process of “politicizing” the rebels to shorten the period of revolution and arrive at the point where the rebels assume government responsibilities. To this end, they may also lure or entice individuals and organizations from outside the ranks of the revolution to advise and guide the rebels, breaking their ranks and demonstrating their innocence to the general public. What a strange picture — a picture in which the ruling class counsels the revolutionaries on finer policy points, state administration and matters of law and constitution, and even asks for their opinion and input on issues. But what kind of issues? Most are issues distant from the dreams of the ordinary people, the millions who remain unemployed, for whom the revolution has not yet fulfilled its promise of dignity and social justice. Many rebels have devoted themselves to the administration, altering the picture we have of this revolution. It is no longer so clear and simple. Now, the Manhattan revolutionaries have vowed to continue applying pressure until the ruling class responds to the workers’ demands, puts a stop to the influence of big business in government circles, and refrains from playing the role of security guarantor to rich and powerful companies while ignoring the exploitation of the weak and needy.

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Although I disagree with many of the opinions put forth by the journalist Thomas Friedman, I paused in great admiration before a paragraph in an article of his published by The New York Times. Commenting upon the mass movement to occupy Wall Street, Friedman says: “[T]he more I read the papers the more I’m convinced that ‘we the people’ are having an economic crisis and ‘you the politicians’ are having an election — and there is frighteningly little overlap between the two.”