Outlawing The January 25 Revolution (VIDEO)

[19 November 2013, on Mohamed Mohamoud Street, protesters gather to demonstrate against Ministry of Interior and repeat demands of January 25 Revolution. The banner showing pictures of former presidents and officials reads: \"Killers and their accomplices\". Image originally posted to Flickr by Hossam el-Hamalawy] [19 November 2013, on Mohamed Mohamoud Street, protesters gather to demonstrate against Ministry of Interior and repeat demands of January 25 Revolution. The banner showing pictures of former presidents and officials reads: \"Killers and their accomplices\". Image originally posted to Flickr by Hossam el-Hamalawy]

Outlawing The January 25 Revolution (VIDEO)

By : Mosireen

This new video from the Mosireen collective discusses and condemns the inclusion of military trials for civilians in Egypt’s draft constitution, due to be put to a referendum in January 2014. The video highlights the police’s violent response to a protest organized by the “No to Military Trials” campaign in Cairo on 26 November. Juxtaposing old and new footage, it places this crackdown in the context of previous attempts to restrict freedom of assembly and labor rights in Egypt, whether under the leadership of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (2011-2), the presidency of Mohamed Morsi (2012-3), or indeed under the emergency laws of Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011). 

Oct 20, 2013 Lebanon
VOMENA By :
VOMENA

The People Want: An Interview with Gilbert Achcar

As we are nearing the third anniversary of the Tunisian uprising, which ignited historic upheavals in the Arab world, Professor Gilbert Achcar investigates the social and economic roots of the social explosions in his new book, The People Want: A Radical Exploration of The Arab Uprising. The title of Achcar’s book is based on a slogan that first emerged in Tunisia. It echoes two famous lines by Tunisian poet Abul-Qacem al-Shebbi (1903-34)

If the people want life some day, fate will surely grant their wish

Their Shackles will surely be shattered and their nigh surely vanish

He writes, “ the very fact that the revolutionary wave that arose in Tunisia has swept through the entire Arabic-speaking region shows that its causes are not confined to a mere political dimension. They run deeper. If socioeconomic factors are at the very heart of the Arab uprising, it follows that there are still radical changes to come, which may well bring in their wake new episodes of revolution and counter-revolution.” So what are the major, social and economic factors through which we can understand the dramatic events in the Middle East and North Africa? Have counter-revolutionary forces succeeded in derailing the democratic aspirations of the people? In this interview, Vomena’s Khalil Bendib speaks with professor Achcar about his new book, The People Want: A Radical Exploration if The Arab Uprising.