Hossam el-Hamalawy
Cairo came under occupation yesterday, with Mubarak’s police dispersing downtown Cairo protesters, marking the second anniversary of the 6th of April 2008 intifada.
For continuous updates on the detainees, please follow @RamyRaoof and the Committee for the Defense of Protesters.
During the protest I heard this worker, talking to someone on the phone. I only managed to record the last bit in the conversation: “… have to have courage, awareness, and forget about fear. Listen to those respectable people, and make others listen to them too.”
Moments earlier, the worker, Ramadan Muhammad Morsi was telling his colleague on the other end of the line: “Listen to the chants. Tell the people back home not to be afraid. We are demonstrating here in Cairo and no one touched us.”
Hundreds of workers showed up for this protest on Saturday, not hundreds of thousands. But it was a very diverse crowd, in terms of sectors and geographical location. Each of those workers will go back home after the protest to tell their colleagues the same message Morsi had for his colleague: “Don’t be afraid. We demonstrated. We felt empowered. You can do it too.” I have no doubt the 1st of May protest will be bigger than the 3rd of April’s.