by Judith Orr in Cairo
It seemed like the whole of Egypt was on the streets.
Over a million people marched in Cairo on Tuesday. The city was one unstoppable mass of humanity.
You could hardly move. Everyone was smiling and greeting each other. It is a day no one will ever forget.
And it wasn’t just Cairo. In Suez more than 500,000 marched. There was another 500,000 in Alexandria, 250,000 in Mansoura, Arish and Mahalla.
Protesters were in the streets in every single city and town in Egypt. Some say four million were out all over the country.
What started with the public suicide of a young, desperate man in Tunisia has become a mass revolution in the Arab world’s most populous nation.
Who says change is not possible? Who says ordinary people can’t take control of their own lives?
Nothing has been able to stop this movement. Hundreds have died. Many of their family and friends were there, holding pictures of the dead.
But there is no going back.
Welcome to Egypt!
In Cairo the shops are running low on food. But among the tens of thousands in Tahrir Square, no one has gone hungry.
Moving through the crush, you are constantly offered food. “Welcome to Egypt,” people say. “Welcome to the Egyptian revolution.”
Words can hardly describe their joy, energy and determination.
This whole great city of 20 million people has turned every street corner into a base of resistance.
Even more than bringing down Mubarak is possible. On the streets of Cairo the people making their own revolution are not only changing the world but themselves.
I meet Amer, who tells me, “Our issue is not money, poverty or security. Our issue is freedom. Our issue is the system.”
The revolt has the potential to challenge the very basis of that system.
All the world is looking to Egypt. This is what a revolution looks like. It is a glorious sight.
http://socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=23775
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