Monday 6 June 2011

What does the future hold for Egypt after El Makhloo3?

The discovery that Egyptians no longer refer to Mubarak by his name, was telling. He's become the unmentionable referred to as El Makhloo3 (the Ousted). A young Egyptian communist who I met at yesterday's final day of the Solidarity with Arab Revolutions leftist conference explained to me: Mubarak is more hated than Pinochet and Ceausescu. But what does the future hold for Egypt after the hated ousted one?


I learnt at the conference that the socialist movement aims to overthrow the imperialist neoliberal structures of the region to create a fairer society. Three days of conceptual discussions took place around this theme, that I found inspiring, but I would have also liked to have left the conference with a set of practical solutions. Solutions that could engage the street around the socialist aims of social justice.


It seems to me the key advantage that the Muslim Brotherhood has over the leftist movement of Egypt is  its ability to reach out to the man or woman of the street. That and of course the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood owns the emotional religious higher ground. I left the conference feeling energised on the one hand, but more pessimistic about the September elections. 


I filmed around 5 hours. I got carried away. Today's and tomorrow's task: edit a sequence that represents the conference in the best achievable way. I'll aim for a 2-3 minute sequence. What a chore. If I continue at this rate, I'll have finished all my tape stock within a week. But I can't blame myself. There's so much going on here.

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