This massacre that took place in Port Said tonight is only one scene in this ongoing play conducted, directed and executed by SCAF, our present day Pharaohs.

Suez was dubbed as Egypt’s Sidi Bouzid during the 18 day uprising. The city witnessed some of the bloodiest crackdowns by the police, and also some of the fiercest resistance by the protesters. In the video above, shot on the Friday of Anger, January 28, the revolutionaries in Suez after storming the police stations and confiscating the rifles, are using them to fight back the police.

One of the biggest myths invented by the media, tied to this whole Gene Sharp business: the Egyptian revolution was “peaceful.” I’m afraid it wasn’t. The revolution (like any other revolution) witnessed violence by the security forces that led to the killing of at least 846 protesters.

But the people did not sit silent and take this violence with smiles and flowers. We fought back. We fought back the police and Mubarak’s thugs with rocks, Molotov cocktails, sticks, swords and knives. The police stations which were stormed almost in every single neighborhood on the Friday of Anger–that was not the work of “criminals” as the regime and some middle class activists are trying to propagate. Protesters, ordinary citizens, did that.

Egyptians understand well what a police station is for. Every family has a member who got abused, tortured or humiliated by the local police force in his/her neighborhood. And I’m not even talking here about the State Security Police torture factories. I’m talking about the “ordinary police.”

Other symbols of power and corruption were attacked by the protesters and torched down during the uprising. Revolutionary violence is never random. Those buildings torched down or looted largely belonged to Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.

In a number of provinces like in N Sinai and Suez, arms were seized by protesters who used them back against the police to defend themselves. State Security Police office in Rafah and Arish, for example, were blown up using RPGs, hand grenades and automatic rifles, while gas pipelines heading to Jordan and Israel were attacked.

Am I condemning this violence? Totally not. Every single revolution in history witnessed its share of violence. The violence always starts on the hands of the state, not the people. The people are forced to pick up arms or whatever they can put their hands on to protect themselves.

May all our martyrs rest in peace. Their blood will not go in vain. Revolution continues.

UPDATE: Minutes after I published this posting, the gas pipelines in N Sinai that exports to Israel have been reportedly come under new attack. I’m still looking up info.

UPDATE: Here is a report from the BBC, while Shorouk has posted a video of the explosion:

Two officers, 15 soldiers and dozens of citizens were injured in the clashes. The government has U-turned, and canceled its demolishing order.

In other developments, thousands of miners in the Upper Egyptian province of El-Minya have cut the freeway, demonstrating against the Governor.

UPDATE: Here is a report by Reuters:

Thousands of quarry workers clash with Egypt police
CAIRO, July 16 (Reuters) – Several people were injured after thousands of quarry workers and owners clashed with police in Egypt on Thursday in the central province of al-Minya, security sources and witnesses said.
The protesters marched into al-Minya city and blocked a bridge spanning the Nile and connecting the east and west of the city, in protest against a decision by the authorities to impose new duties on quarried rock, security sources said.
Police used teargas to disperse the crowd, but the protesters stoned police.
Reports of the number injured varied. One security source said at least eight riot police had been wounded, and 17 protesters were suffering the effects of teargas inhalation.
The website of the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm said the government had imposed duties of 40 Egyptian pounds ($7.17) per tonne of quarried stone, leading some quarries to shut down and lay off their laborers.
Protesters said they had resorted to the demonstration because petitions to various officials had been ignored and some quarries had been shut for more than two weeks, according to the website.
Labour unrest has become common in Egypt, usually over pay, and often in privatised companies. Even professional groups such as doctors, pharmacists and lawyers have stopped work or threatened strikes over pay.

UPDATE: A Central Security Forces soldier has died from injuries sustained in the clashes with the miners, Al-Masry Al-Youm reports.

مصرع جندي أمن مركزي في اشتباكات مع عمال المحاجر في المنيا #egyworkers

— المصري اليوم (@AlMasryAlYoum) July 16, 2009

UPDATE: Police source tells Reuters 48 protesters were detained.