Fresh protests break out in Egypt

• Posted on 07.1.11
• By Muriel Kane
• Categories: Activism, Featured

Strikes and protests are breaking out again in Egypt, with over a thousand people being injured in violent clashes on Friday, amid fears that the achievements of last winter’s revolution could be lost.

The protesters are concerned that the interim military government seems to be increasing its control, possibly with the encouragement of the United States. Reforms are not being put through, many of former President Hosni Mubarak’s cronies still hold power, and even the trial of the hated former interior minister has been adjourned.

“People are not getting what they thought they were getting [but] we’re not hearing anything about it in the corporate news,” journalist Afshin Rattansi told Russia Today. “It’s as if that revolution’s done and dusted and the Egyption people are fine.”

Rattansi noted that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, the CEO of General Electric, and the head of Coca Cola Middle East are currently all in Cairo. “I wonder what they’re talking about,” he mused.

“At least the Egyptian government, such as it is, did refuse the IMF $3 billion loan,” Rattansi noted, “which would have been in return for mass privatization and all the things that many of those protesters that we saw in Tahrir Square earlier in the year would not have wanted, particularly the loss of sovereignty.”

“The Obama administration is now in talks with the Muslim Brotherhood,” he added, “causing some tensions now with Israel. The Obama administration obviously thinks that by going over and talking to the Muslim Brotherhood they can stave off more demonstrations that would overthrow what is in power at the moment.”

“The people of Egypt are not going to forgive the United States or its allies anytime soon for years of misery caused by their proxy government,” Rattansi concluded.