While the jubilant celebrations in Tahrir Square (‘a complete eruption of humanity’, reports The Guardian’s Jack Shenker) leave us with an indelible image of the revolutionary fervor with which the Egyptian people resisted a decades-old regime these past three weeks, and the first steps towards a political revolution are now in-the-making, it is important to bear in mind that the first revolution on the streets of Egypt was a social one. It is hard not to look back and weep at the strength and dignity of the human spirit – whether it be the image of the ‘human chain’ Coptic Christians formed around Muslim demonstrators during morning prayers last Friday, the day following the pro-Mubarak thugs’ violent response to the peaceful demonstrations, or the image of Egyptian demonstrators sleeping on the tracks of Army tanks, risking their bodies to prevent the Army’s potential violent response, or the image of Muslim worshippers rising from evening prayers after hearing that a partial victory had been won and Mubarak had been forced to step down – understanding that a social transformation took place, one in which the people of Egypt recognized their power and withstood the regime’s waiting game. Instead of falling under the burden of a collapsed economy and a two-week-plus stasis, in which Mubarak remained defiant (and delusional) to the end, the Egyptian demonstrators turned up the volume, increased the numbers, and forced what started as protest to end as revolution.
More importantly, the Egyptian people threatened the regime to its core, as Egypt’s conscript Army and dissatisfied officer corps started to dissent from the ranks of the Army and join the people of Egypt across the barricades and in the heart of Tahrir Square. Such actions hint at a collapsed regime, a sign that the fall of Mubarak will not be the last stone removed from the Egyptian state’s apparatus. The people of Egypt were remarkably clear in their demands, despite the fact that no real public leaders emerged as the face of the movement to articulate them aloud to the rest of the world. That is to the advantage of the Egyptian revolution, for now those demands will need to be met: the fate of the revolution does not sit at the seat of one man, but rather is spread amongst the sisters and brothers, the mothers and fathers, the daughters and sons, who comprise the Egyptian people. This was, at heart, a true social transformation, and the remnants of the regime will not be able to steal it away from the people. From a long distance, I stand shoulder to shoulder with the Egyptian revolutionaries and praise them for showing the rest of us the depths of human resolve.
