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Not according to these events, aka "The Friday of Retribution"...
"But in addition to outrage about police brutality, which most Egyptians had hoped was a thing of the past, there is growing dissatisfaction with the limited changes since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak."
Egypt: The Struggle Continues
Thousands of demonstrators filled expressing anger and determination rallied in Tahrir Square on Friday, July 1. Sharp clashes between youth on the one hand and police and regime thugs on the other on Tuesday and Wednesday June 28 and 29 were the immediate impetus for the demonstration. But in addition to outrage about police brutality, which most Egyptians had hoped was a thing of the past, there is growing dissatisfaction with the limited changes since the fall of former president Hosni Mubarak.
According to a group of youth who took a time out from returning tear gas canisters lobbed at them by the police on Wednesday morning, families of the “martyrs of the revolution,” who had been conducting a sit-down protest in front of the main government TV and radio headquarters in Cairo had gone to the Balloon Theater on the west bank of the Nile River on Tuesday evening to complain that they had not received compensation for their losses from the interim government and that some of those seriously injured did not have sufficient funds to pay for medications.
The families were attacked by thugs, a common phenomenon during the last years of the Mubarak regime. The aggrieved families then marched to the Ministry of Interior across the Nile River to lodge a complaint about this treatment. Once again, they were attacked by thugs. The crowd then moved to Tahrir Square, where clashes with police continued throughout the night and most of the next day. After 1,114 people were wounded, the army appeared and sealed off the street leading from Tahrir Square to the Ministry of Interior.
However, the pretense of the military’s neutrality whose purpose is simply to maintain order is wearing thin on some people. In response to the unusually repressive measures of the police, by the standards that have come to be acceptable in the post-Mubarak era, the Revolutionary Youth Coalition, the 6th of April Youth Movement, and several political parties called for a mass protest in Tahrir Square on Friday. These forces dubbed the protest “Friday of Retribution and Loyalty to the Martyrs.” Even the usually quiescent Muslim Brothers, who appear to have an understanding with the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to maintain “stability” and to limit the extent of social change, denounced the excessive force used by the police.
There were also demonstrations in the provincial capitals of Suez and Isma‘iliyya, which have been particularly active since the popular uprising of January-February.
I was concerned that the Egyptian struggle might have gone soft after the nominal ouster of Mubarak by the Egyptian military, but renewed struggles appear to be underway against the fundamental ruling establishment of Egypt, aka the Egyptian Military...which also happens to be a proxy of Washington in that country. Reports of recent "anti-American" posturings of the Egyptian Military have apparently failed to obscure this fact to the ordinary Egyptians and to deflect anger away from the military.
anguishofbeing Member # 16736
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Was there ever a revolution? I think most of the narratives surrounding this and other "Arab Springs" were just postmodern gibberish trying to sell the value of twitter and western liberal democratic ideas.
The Explorer Member # 14778
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^Hence, putting the term "revolution" in quotations. The popular struggle's character as an actual "revolution" remains to be seen. This notwithstanding, one has to concede that there is something revolutionary about the struggle from an Egyptian perspective, since it took literally decades for the Egyptian people to finally rise up against Mubarak in large numbers, and relentlessly demand for his removal in the face of violent suppression and intimidation. The continued uprisings against the post-Mubarak military rule in Egypt is an encouraging sign.
The Explorer Member # 14778
posted So the struggle continues...it appears the Egyptians really do mean business...
Friday prayers in Egypt erupt into angry protest at military rulers
Crowds in four cities try to 'reclaim' the revolution as they demand that the general running the country stand down
Friday 8 July 2011
Image link Image caption: Friday prayers in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Thousands took to the streets across Egypt to 'reclaim' the revolution. Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
Egypt's military junta is facing its biggest crisis of legitimacy, as tens of thousands of protesters took control of central Cairo and demonstrations against army rule erupted across the country.
In scenes reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak earlier this year, civilian-run popular committees commanded all entrances and exits to Tahrir Square, while government security forces were nowhere to be seen.
In a massive show of public anger at the slow pace of reform under military rulers, demonstrators chanted repeatedly for the ousting of the country's de facto ruler, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. They called on Egyptians to "reclaim" their revolution. Activists declared the start of an open-ended sit-in, vowing not to leave until post-Mubarak transition was put back in the hands of ordinary people.
...even after the ruling Egyptian military speaks of "reshuffling" the preexisting cabinet. The military is of course poised to use violent means to stamp out the civil unrest, as both it and elements of the Egyptian elite warn via certain unmistakable lingo...
Egypt protests not to end despite government promises of reforms
by Marwa Yahia
CAIRO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian government's vowing to radical cabinet reshuffle and interior minister's order to terminate the services of more than 600 police officers among other announced procedures did not calm down protests converging across the country on Friday.
Thousands of Egyptians rallied in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, the epic center of protests that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in February, in what they called "Final Warning" Friday to express their anger with the military rulers over the slow pace of reforms. They use all means to press Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to meet their demands, the top of which is immediate and public trial of the murderers behind the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that ousted Mubarak's regime.
The military warned against harming the country's interests amid a critical economic situation in Egypt. It will not allow anyone to jump over the legitimate authority or any sabotage targeting the state.
The army warned against violation or breaching the legitimacy and stressed necessary measures will be taken to the threats that face the country.
According to Ammar Aly Hassan, chief of Middle East Center for Political and Strategic Studies, neither terminating hundreds of officers and the reshuffle movement of more then 4,000 officers to be implemented on August 1, nor postponing the parliamentary elections and the government reshuffle will lead to an end of the demonstrations or the sit-ins in Egypt.
He added the Egyptian revolution's demands are specified and clear, and the political powers needs tangible steps with timetable for applying these demands but not the analgesics.
"The democratic political forces don't want to change the government for the sake of change, but they require speed in performance and in responding to peoples' ambitions and aspirations, not just changing the names and the persons," Hassan added.
Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf announced on Monday that a cabinet reshuffle will take place within one week. He assigned Interior Minister Masour Essawy to quickly restore the security and order in the streets, while urging the Supreme Council of Justice to make all the trials of the former regime figures in public. After long time of suffering and corruption, Egyptian people aspire changing trends, strategies and manners of the country's authorities in parallel with restructuring the Interior Ministry specifically. Hassan said the current government includes a great number of those belonging to Mubarak regime, including several cabinet ministers and governors who are not suitable for the current time, so Sharaf has to take the step of reshuffling the cabinet.
According to Fakhry El-Tahtawy, professor of political science in Cairo University, people will not give up protests or sit-ins to push the government and the military to work faster, and it seems that their means of imposing pressure are gaining results.
He added that to regain security, all the security agencies should practice their functions first, start to impose its influence by the assistance of the political forces and groups, arrest the prisons' fugitives, and seize the weapons spread in different regions of the country.
He expressed his expectations for the coming new elected government to achieve people's demands, and to enjoy the dynamic and speed movements not just waiting to make decision under pressure from the street.
Egyptian troops clashed Monday with a small group of protesters camping out in Cairo's Tahrir Square to press demands for faster change and justice for demonstrators killed in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
The clashes broke out after troops dismantled the protesters' tents on the square's median, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or arrests. Troops backed by armored vehicles and hundreds of riot police used clubs to clear the square after protesters ignored pleas over loudspeakers to leave. Military police fired shots in the air and protesters hurled rocks.
The operation brought an end to nearly a month of renewed daily protests in the central square that was the birthplace of the 18-day uprising that overthrew Mubarak in February.
Several hundred demonstrators had rebuilt the round-the-clock protest camp there on July 8 to renew the pressure on Egypt's transitional military rulers to swiftly bring Mubarak and other members of his regime to trial.
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Weaning power from the army is going to be as much of a problem post-revolution as pre. There is a problem, for instance, with civiliams being subjected to military trials... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqDhncFmKpY
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