Photos Archives — Page 237 of 273

Solidarity with Mahalla in SF

Posted on 18/04/200805/02/2021 By 3arabawy

We had a demo today in front of the Egyptian Consulate in San Francisco, to protest the killings in Mahalla and to demand the release of the detainees.

We stood in front of the Consulate for probably an hour and half, with banners in Arabic, Chinese, English and Spanish… We shouted in Arabic and English slogans against Hosni, Gamal, Alaa and Suzi… We also chanted in support of Mahalla, Cairo, Egypt, the detainees, workers, activists…

Two plainclothes security guys from the consulate came out, and took the letter we had. We demanded to either go in and meet the consul himself, or he should come out. The cowards refused, and said they will only allow one person in. We said that’s fine, as long as they allow the press inside also, so as to record whatever was gonna happen, but they refused and ran inside.

So anyways, we continued chanting outside against the Egyptian police butchers. We also chanted calling for the release of detained bloggers.

Thanks to all the comrades who showed up today in front of the consulate for solidarity.. I’m personally very grateful you came, and I can assure you the people back home in Egypt need to see there are human beings in other parts of the world who know what’s going on and who are sympathetic. This boosts our morale, and makes us feel we are not alone in this fight. Dictators are the same everywhere whether they are in the Arab World or the fucking White House. They are from the same breed or species that do not have consideration for anyone or anything but themselves and their pockets. We need to unite against them.

UPDATE: James Buck has some more photos of today’s protest on his flickr account, while my friend Jason has some suggestions for chants in future demos:

Mokhabarat (Mubarak) can’t you see
Mahalla will be free

Mokhabarrat can’t you see
You must set the people (workers, bloggers) free
Mokhabarrat don’t you know
Mubarak has got to go.

Call Mubarak right away,
We are here and here to stay

Yallah Mahalla
El obrero va ganar
Vamos pa’lante
Hasta triunfar

When the workers go on strike,
They deserve their human rights

Up with the people, yeah yeah
Down with Mubarak, boom boom

Mahalla eeeh Mahalla, Mahalla eeeh Mahalla
La macana no nos (los) para, la macana no nos para eeeh Mahalla
Él que lucha hoy – ganará mañana

Keep exposing Hosni and his gang in all languages.

UPDATE: Jack blogs the protest here.

‘The Invisible Nation’

Posted on 17/04/200803/03/2021 By 3arabawy

An art installation by Salvadoran-born artist, Victor Cartagena, at Galeria de la Raza. Info on the (Israel and US-backed) Dirty War in El Salvador is available here.

Mahalla is not alone! لن نترك المحلة تواجه القمع وحدها – زيارة إلى المحلة لفك الحصار

Posted on 10/04/200805/02/2021 By 3arabawy

Activists in Cairo are organizing a trip, Friday morning, in solidarity with the citizen of Mahalla, in an effort to break the police siege on the Nile Delta town. More details here.

Fellow journalists, bloggers, please join in and bring along your digital cameras.. We cannot be satisfied only with spreading the word, we need to spread the “image” too. The latter speaks more powerfully than 1000 words. My belief and faith in Mahalla, though built slowly over a decade of my involvement with the socialist movement, was only affirmed when I “saw” these photos with my own eyes! Reading about Mahalla in action was something, but “seeing” it was totally different (and of course it would have been something else if I was physically present there, which unfortunately I wasn’t). And for the past day, I’ve been shivering with adrenaline filling my body each time I see this:

Mahalla citizens smash Mubarak's poster, 7 April 2008, Photo taken by Nasser Nouri

or that:

These images have to reach all the people we know inside and outside of Egypt.. Images play a central role in unleashing and furthering the radicalization of the masses, and it’s no wonder that our cameras are usually the first target of Mubarak’s pigs.

Whatever videos you take, go ahead and upload them to ~~The Hub,~~ YouTube, or whatever other video uploading services (and there are tons of them now).

Also please upload whatever photos you take to Flickr (which is the one I’m most familiar with) or any other website you deem user-friendly. Just put them online somewhere and email me the link. I appreciate those who generously email me photos they take, but I’ll be happier if you yourselves start uploading them to the net.