Breaking News: Statement of the Interim Demands of the Egyptian People

[C. Flower]

This statement has been issued by the voluntary group which has been working for the last 18 days in Tahrir Square to reflect the wishes of the Egyptian people. The group comprises members of the youth divisions of the Revolution and individual "wise men and women" of the movement experienced in law and in political policy. No members of the group represent any political party or creed. The group works within the committee structures which have evolved in Tahrir Square.

It has been issued to the press in Cairo in Arabic in the last hour: this translation provided by the Youth Division and by Group members.

The Statement has been provided to the High Military Council and a response is awaited.

STATEMENT IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE OF THE REVOLUTION (STATEMENT 3)

We are the People of Egypt. We have returned sovereignty over its land, its destiny and its resources back to us. The 25th January Revolution erupted as a civilian and popular revolution and with the sacrifices of its martyrs achieved success in abolishing the former corrupt system and removing its leaders. The Revolution must be continued as a peaceful revolution until victory in achieving all of its goals and decisions as follows:

1) Abolition of the Emergency Laws immediately

2) The immediate release of all political prisoners

3) Abolition of the present Constitution and its Amendments

4) The dissolution of both Houses of Parliament and of the Local Councils

5) The establishment of an interim Presidential Ruling Council that has 5 members - 1 member of the military and 4 independent and respected figures with popular support. All of these people will be barred from participation in the coming Presidential Elections.

6) Formation of an interim government to administer the country pending elections. The government shall be formed of independent national figures who don't belong to specific parties or movements. This interim government shall manage the affairs of the country and prepare for a general election at the end of the interim period which shall not exceed 9 months. No member of this interim government shall go forward for election in the general election.

7) Formation of an Establishing Council to draw up a new constitution which conforms to the most respected democratic constitutions internationally, in conformity with all international charters on Human Rights. The draft Constitution shall be put to a popular referendum within 3 months of formation of the Council.

8) Freedom to establish political parties operating on a civilian and peaceful basis without obstacles or conditions: parties may be established by presenting themselves as such.

9) Freedom of media and free information exchange.

10) Freedom to establish Trade Unions and non-governmental organisations.

11) Abolishing all military and exceptional Courts and all the laws and regulations that have been applied to civilians through these Courts.

12) We call upon the patriotic Egyptian army, the son of this great people, to protect the blood of its people and the security of the State in this great Revolution, to declare its full adoption of all the decisions and requirements of the Revolution and to stand totally with the Revolution.

[Spectabilis]

Thank you so much for letting us see this. It also confirms your statements about the discussions, the secular nature of the revolution and the existence of groupings and structures to support the democratic process to come, with any luck. Do you think this document is THE document or will there be many competing? I assume the latter.

I have seen comments here and elsewhere that use the phrase 'Facebook revolution' as if everything leapt off a computer screen a few weeks ago. There is an article in The Nation from January 31st which gives an account of the background and the role in recent years of the April 6th group and We are all Khaled Said. The Al Jazeera documentary on April 6th today supports this account.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158159/whos-behind-egypts-revolt"]


A second viewpoint is that this was an anarchist revolt. While I can see some features in what you have described of the organisation and structures this seems to me to underplay the role of other left groups.


“Anarchism in Egypt is not a big trend. You can find some anarchists but it's not a big trend yet. Anarchists in Egypt have joined both the protests and the popular committees to defend the streets from the thugs. Anarchists in Egypt put some hope in these councils. The anarchists' allies in Egypt are the Marxists, of course. We are not now at a time of ideological debate - the whole left is calling for unity and then argue about anything. The anarchists in Egypt are a part of the Egyptian left.”

Interview with Nidal Tahrir of the Black Flag group , a small group of anarcho-communists in Egypt, February 3rd 2011 http://nefac.net/node/2541

[C. Flower]

I've posted on the FB side of things in a post that you may have missed, and on the way that the Revolution developed.

It was led by the youth, not by any party political movement, or anarchists. Its well documented, nobody on the ground disputes it, and I've met a lot of people involved.
It then became a movement of all classes, as all the classes were at a dead end under Mubarak.

[Spectabilis]

Thanks Cactus. That confirms the impressions I am getting from web sources. I'll root out those earlier posts. Little did we know then what you were planning!

One question that is having some discussion is whether the assets of Mubarak and aides have been frozen and whether there is a legal requirement that would prevent such a thing. If items 3 and 4 above are implemented would an Interim Presidential Ruling Council have international recognition and responsibilities? The document does not call for the abolition of the judicial system, which Total Mayhem says must be functioning if the Swiss government were to act. They call only for military and exceptional courts to be abolished. It would be a damn shame if they take their ill-gotten gains off to some fancy haven as so many other dictators have been allowed to do. Those billions could do a lot of good for the people.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

What a powerful statement.

[Spectabilis]

It is, but re quangos, have a look at item 10: The freedom to establish trade unions and non-governmental organisations. A strong civil society is needed to mediate between the state and the individual.

[C. Flower]

I'm going to commit the crime of cross-posting part of what I just posted on the Arab Activism thread, because it responds directly to the Statement and explains some background. The Statement is a genuinely intended document, but in my personal opinion is not adequate to the situation in any way. The group that prepared the statement has some legitimacy in that includes the "youth divisions" who started the Revolution, but is was conspicously the older generation who appear to have been involved with developing the Statement and presenting it to the army.

All organisation on the Square is ad hoc, and unity has been built at the expense of clarity and coherence of different political agendas. So inevitably, when some people are satisfied with minimal change and others are not, there will be the probability of a sudden split, and that nobody will be ready to deal with it. Hopefully, this is just one stage of a process of political development that can be worked through. This remains to be seen.

The situation remains very dangerous, and all the gains that have been made could easily slip away. Sean, I'm convinced that there is a lot of merit in spontaneous, inventive responses to needs, but Tahrir has in some ways been a little utopia, operating in a bubble. This type of organisation is many times better than no organisation, but is no match for the State forces and for the political forces ranged against the Revolution from both inside Egypt and from the US. The "cell structure" that evolved spontaneously in the square has some advantages, but has led to the situation in which policy and tactical development, something that should have involved the widest numbers, falling into the hands of a largely self nominated group of middle class people.

The coalescence around the single demand of removing Mubarak has created a powerful unity, across the classes, but has not prepared people for the need to drive on very much further, to removing the regime and the system. The "Demands of the Egyptian People" statement I posted earlier is a tentative attempt by a group of professionals and middle class people at steering the army towards "permitting a democracy". A democracy created on that basis would hardly be a democracy at all, as there would be an implicit assumption that the army could withdraw permission at any time. A group asking for permission for a democracy is not going to get one.

A serious leadership would have called (not to the army but to the millions on the streets) for deepening the Revolution by occupations of factories and colleges and by also strengthening and developing the neighbourhood committees. It would not have framed its formative statement as a demand essentially directed at the army, but would have called on the working class and youth to bond together, and to call the army ranks to join them in taking the revolution on to the next stage of forming a civilian government.

The original youth leadership of the Revolution is undeniably brave and idealistic, but it is mainly of middle class youth who have choices in life and who have no 'political schooling' to be able to understand the role of the army as part of the State, or the US as an imperialist power skilled at using every trick in the book to maintain its territorial control - even more importantly they appear not to have yet learned that the working class, who have nothing to lose by Revolution, is the class with which they must ally themselves if they want to win.

You have to remember that the situation remains, in spite of the 15 million that were on the streets of Egypt only two days ago, that there are two tanks parked up in each entrance street into Tahrir Square, with its fully armed complement of troops and weaponry.

[C. Flower]

A second viewpoint is that this was an anarchist revolt. While I can see some features in what you have described of the organisation and structures this seems to me to underplay the role of other left groups.

“Anarchism in Egypt is not a big trend. You can find some anarchists but it's not a big trend yet. Anarchists in Egypt have joined both the protests and the popular committees to defend the streets from the thugs. Anarchists in Egypt put some hope in these councils. The anarchists' allies in Egypt are the Marxists, of course. We are not now at a time of ideological debate - the whole left is calling for unity and then argue about anything. The anarchists in Egypt are a part of the Egyptian left.”

Interview with Nidal Tahrir of the Black Flag group , a small group of anarcho-communists in Egypt, February 3rd 2011 http://nefac.net/node/2541

Imo it's the last time to abandon debate, as very little development of a political perspective and strategy is possible without debate. It's quite possible to make a principled agreement to act together, say on bringing down Mubarak, while reserving the right to carry on vigorous debate on everything else.

[C. Flower]

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165446.html

In spite of changes in the Government, the demands of the movement haven't been met.

The Army now proposes a very short time frame for drafting a new Constitution.

The two people mentioned on the panel would both be conservative figures.

Millions were out again today across Egypt demanding that the demands in the OP be implemented.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/168168.html

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces have instructed an eight-member panel of jurists and scholars to revise articles it sees fit to guarantee Egypt's democracy, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Sobhi Saleh, a panel member and former lawmaker from the Islamist opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said the armed forces want to hand over power as soon as possible and they want amendments to the constitution.

The committee will be chaired by Tareq el-Beshry, a respected former head of the Egyptian supreme constitutional court, the report added.

The panel “must finish its work in a period of no longer than 10 days after the date of this decision," and must also eliminate articles giving presidents unlimited terms in office, the army said in a statement.

"The council affirmed that it is not seeking power, the current situation was imposed on the armed forces and that they will not betray people's trust," the statement added.

Egypt's military took power on February 11, after President Hosni Mubarak resigned in a televised program due to a nationwide, 18-day series of popular protests that shook the country to its foundations.

The military rulers then suspended the constitution and dissolved the parliament. The army promised to oversee a six-month transition to democratic rule, urging the strikers to end pro-democracy protests and return to work.

This is while, thousands of Egyptian protesters are still demanding that the new military rulers hand over power to a civilian government as soon as possible.

[C. Flower]

There is strong opposition to the Draft Constitution and pressure has been put on from the supporters of the revolution to extend the time allowed to develop a new constitution.

The fact that the army's own position is illegal adds to the complications.
It's encouraging that they seem willing to listen to "the street", but in the meantime, children arrested when Tahrir Square was cleared last week have been sentenced to one year in detention.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCont...itutional.aspx

Well informed sources have confirmed that there is a strong trend within the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to hold back the constitutional amendment referendum planned for 19 March, after a number of prominent political voices positioned themselves to vote against the amendments. Commenting on this, a source from the Supreme Council said: “Our eyes are on the opinion of the street and the existing political forces in the interest of the country, and if this is the trend among the people, then there is no problem in delaying the referendum." He went on to add, however, "the Supreme Military Council wants to bring an end to its role in governance as soon as possible.”


A government source, who met with the military council to discuss parliamentary and presidency elections, told Ahram Online that “the council is now leaning, though as yet undecided, towards holding the presidential election first, before parliamentary elections, and that the president would take his oath of office before the head of the supreme constitutional court." The elected president, the source said, would then invite a Constituent Assembly to formulate a new Constitution, which in turn would be put to a referendum ahead of parliamentary elections. The source went on to point out that this position came out of a meeting between the military council and the prime minister.


In a poll conducted by the Egyptian cabinet's Information Support Center on Saturday, 59 per cent said they would reject the amendments. Commenting on this, the military source said that he expected more of these polls to resolve the issue finally in the next few days.


In a similar vein, Judge Hossam Mekawy, head of the South Cairo Court and one of the most prominent representatives of the Judicial Independence trend, told Ahram Online “the military council has one eye on the situation in the street and another on the opinion makers among the political and intellectual elite.”


Mekawy pointed out that a vote on the constitutional amendments introduced by a specially constituted committee would, in fact, prove faulty in legal terms. Such a referendum had no legal basis in the 1971 Constitution, which the military had suspended, but which would be revived in the event the amendments were approved by popular referendum, creating a legally anomalous situation. Furthermore, he pointed out, the amendments do not touch on the seeping presidential powers which the 1971 constitution grants the president, and there is no guarantee that a president elected in accordance with that constitution will want to relinquish such powers.


He continued, “there are more problems for the military council studying the process of holding a referendum and elections as the military council are not covered by any article in the 1971 Constitution. The term ‘suspension of the Constitution’ is a legal anomaly and the problem remains that the military council does not have the right to either call presidential or parliamentary elections or name a committee before the Constitution falls completely.”


Mekawy added that, in fact, "the military council overthrew the president, for there is no constitutional or legally binding text that says the president can hand over his powers to the military, which underlines that he was forced to do so.”