For the past two decades socialist and opposition groups in Egypt, including the Muslim Brotherhood, have suffered fierce repression.
Thousands of people took to Trafalgar Square in central London today, Saturday, the day after Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak finally stepped down. People sang, chanted and danced to celebrate the fact that Egypt’s 30-year old dictatorship was over.
At the start of the protests some asked: how could the Egyptian people even dream to take on the strongest, oldest, most brutal state in the Arab world?
Dictators are the last to understand the people when they wake up.
All up and down the Edgware Road the protest grew on Friday evening. Cars and buses honked, some with Egyptian flags. Staff and customers poured out of shops, cafes and restaurants to join this utterly jubilant crowd. There were smiles everywhere.
'Egyptians have put a page in the history books Sameh, an Egyptian socialist, spoke to Socialist Worker from Cairo on Friday evening:
Mohammed, a Tunisian socialist living in Britain, spoke to Socialist Worker minutes after Mubarak announced he was standing down:
The tyrant has fallen. Mubarak has gone. Israel’s man, imperialism man, the US’s man, the World Bank’s man, has been deposed. Mubarak has been swept away by one of the greatest mass movements in history.
When Omer Suleiman, Egypt’s now ex vice president, spoke on Friday he said two things: Mubarak is going and the army is taking over. It is not yet clear what this means.
TUNISIA: Ben Ali ruled Tunisia from 1987 until brought down by a mass uprising on 14 JanuaryEGYPT: Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt for 30 years. He was toppled on 11 February.JORDAN: King Abdullah has ruled since 1999. The regime is a staunch ally of the US. Protests swept Jordan after the Tunisian revolution, and as a result the King swore in a new government. But it is headed by former general Marouf Bakhit—a puppet of the regime.YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ruled since 1978.
Teachers at Chestnut Grove school in Wandsworth, south London, are set to strike on Wednesday of next week against plans to transform the school into an academy.
