Many of us saw this coming. The responsibility of this is indeed on the shoulders of the ruling junta, but also on those of the reformists and revisionists who have betrayed the revolution by accepting the rule of the military coup, and by abandoning their comrades still struggling on the streets against that fascist infamy. I am saying this to you in no uncertain terms: You have betrayed them and the revolution. Your collaboration with the military and lack of ideological clarity have fueled and provided cover for this attack and for all the attacks that we know have never stopped since the military took power against the true revolutionary voices inside Egypt.
NOTE:
Dear Egyptian Comrades:
We presently have no cohesive way of attaining timely news analysis from Egypt in English from the revolutionary forces still struggling there. This is a major handicap for those of us working in solidarity from outside. We need to work this out organizationally. It has become a real problem to rely on single activists that are being arrested or attacked and then need to lie low for a while or are being disappeared.
99% of all news about the situation is coming out of fairly reactionary mainstream sources. We are struggling to decipher and navigate through those. That is way too unreliable and not desirable for the role of internationalist solidarity workers. In addition, those main media services can pull the plug whenver they want or shift the framing at will to suit their own interests. We NEED a regular revolutionary news analysis source coming out of Egypt daily in order to continue to be effective in our solidarity information disseminating work.
Speaking of. This is where we had to go to get the news story for the assault. Note how they cover the initial military presence at the square. We know that what the army has intended to do, time and time again when they come in firing in the air, is to scare the demonstrators and their supporters away. They did this before and the harden revolutionaries know this and stay put, thus the follow up violence.
This type of reporting almost makes it seem as if somehow there were two separate conflicting army orders being executed...There were not! They were there to evacuate the square and beat the shit of those who resisted. Also, giving credence to the notion that these were not state supported thugs, but angry local businessman is ludicrous. The businesses around the square have done exceptionally well over the last few weeks and the occupation was not interrupting traffic. I also doubt they would've spontaneously self-organize in their hundreds into a fire thrower and machete wielding mob! overall not a bad article, but we can't keep coming here for these type of critical news.
From Ahram online:
The Egyptian Army started evacuating Tahrir Square of protesters
following days of sit-ins. "Without any notice the army started
attacking us, distorting our camp and forcing us to leave the place,"
says Rasha Azab, one of the protesters.
Earlier this noon hundreds of thugs approached the square, chanting "The people demand the evacuation of the square," and started throwing stones at the protesters who responded with stones in defence
"In the first attack, the army interfered at a late stage to separate the two groups after the situation became very serious," says Ismail Abdel Fattah. "They used tear gas and fired bullets to the air to keep the thugs away," he added. "But later thugs and the army attacked us."
For the past few days the army has been calling on protesters to evacuate the square, but the protesters insisted on staying until all the demands of the 25 January Egyptian Revolution are fulfilled. Today the army forced the situation.
Those described by protesters as "thugs" claim otherwise. Many of them say they are workers in shops downtown and other places who think that the sit-in was affecting their business. At least 25 were wounded and at least two armored vehicles were seen moving towards the square to restore calm.
Tens of protestors have been arrested on both sides through the day, but it is still to be seen if the army will press charges against them.
Earlier this noon hundreds of thugs approached the square, chanting "The people demand the evacuation of the square," and started throwing stones at the protesters who responded with stones in defence
"In the first attack, the army interfered at a late stage to separate the two groups after the situation became very serious," says Ismail Abdel Fattah. "They used tear gas and fired bullets to the air to keep the thugs away," he added. "But later thugs and the army attacked us."
For the past few days the army has been calling on protesters to evacuate the square, but the protesters insisted on staying until all the demands of the 25 January Egyptian Revolution are fulfilled. Today the army forced the situation.
Those described by protesters as "thugs" claim otherwise. Many of them say they are workers in shops downtown and other places who think that the sit-in was affecting their business. At least 25 were wounded and at least two armored vehicles were seen moving towards the square to restore calm.
Tens of protestors have been arrested on both sides through the day, but it is still to be seen if the army will press charges against them.
Not very good quality, but you can get a sense of what went down. Watch the army on the first video form a protecting cordon between the people on the streets and the thugs attacking the camp. The cordon is not stopping the attack but clearly preventing people from intervening.
Street level video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eQCP2oUcPg8#at=18
