This time, we are not silent, and we will get all our rights.

November 29, 2011 8:35 PM

Protesters vs. Supreme Council of Armed Forces Tahrir Square: "For five straight days, nearly 120 continuous hours, thousands of protesters, most of them young men and women, did battle with security forces. Police used live ammunition, rubber bullets, shotgun cartridges, and an astonishing amount of tear gas. Protesters fought back mostly with rocks and sometimes Molotov cocktails."

"The more they kill us, the more we multiply. And that has always been the story of this revolution. So, obviously, the front lines have been - I mean it’s funny - tear gas, it’s almost like it has a natural kind of - what’s the word? You kind of develop immunity to it. Not immunity in terms of your lungs, but you develop immunity of spirit. It’s made to break you. But what it does is gradually make you more furious to the point that there is nothing that will stop you. This revolution has always been about bodies. When you know there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands behind you, you don’t stop. People fight for as long as they can. They die, they go to hospitals, they lose their eyes and there are others behind them. It’s a matter of - it’s how, kind of, consensus expresses itself as a movement. And essentially, your heart takes over your body. It takes over your mind. We’re fighting for things far bigger than this." - protester Khalid Abdallah

posted by jcrcarter (39 comments total)

Egypt imports 21 tons of tear gas from the US, port staff refuses to sign for it.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:43 PM on November 29, 2011 [13 favorites]

Port workers in Suez refuse to receive initial seven ton shipment as the interior ministry looks to restock after firing tear gas at protesters in Egypt for six days last week.

[...]

Employees say the container ship Danica, carrying seven tons of tear-gas canisters made by the American company Combined Systems, has already arrived at the port, with two similar shipments from the same company expected to arrive within the week.
posted by rtha at 8:44 PM on November 29, 2011 [4 favorites]

Ha. Preview fail! Owe you a coke.
posted by rtha at 8:45 PM on November 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

"...you develop immunity of spirit. It’s made to break you. But what it does is gradually make you more furious to the point that there is nothing that will stop you."

Some times I just want to say "Fuck everything!", and it's times that I hear people say words like these that bring me back.
posted by JackarypQQ at 8:48 PM on November 29, 2011 [8 favorites]

I wish they'd called the protestors to come destroy it though.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:48 PM on November 29, 2011

Heh, just seems like something you might need to be careful about how you dispose it safely.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:50 PM on November 29, 2011

Speaking of tear gas and Democracy Now!, one of the early proponents and developers of tear gas usage for law enforcement was on today, and deplored its use on non-violent protestors.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:50 PM on November 29, 2011

"About $34 billion of the [US] aid to Egypt [since 1981] has come in the form of grants that Congress requires Egypt to spend on American military hardware, according to statistics from the Congressional Research Service." - Boston Globe. Your tax dollars at work!
posted by jcrcarter at 8:50 PM on November 29, 2011 [3 favorites]

I wish they'd called the protestors to come destroy it though.

Or somehow redirect it back to Combined Systems.

Ballistically.
posted by notyou at 8:53 PM on November 29, 2011 [3 favorites]

A few of us are working on organizing a direct action against Combined Systems in Jamestown, PA. If anything actually happens, I'll keep you guys in the loop.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 8:57 PM on November 29, 2011 [23 favorites]

Muslim brotherhood cut a deal
posted by kuatto at 9:04 PM on November 29, 2011

But the Egypt protesters don't have any demands, are mostly homeless and are just a bunch of hippies anyway.
posted by JHarris at 9:08 PM on November 29, 2011 [19 favorites]

I think they could probably make a leader of that Khalid Abdallah chap.
posted by jimmythefish at 9:19 PM on November 29, 2011

Anybody know if there's a way to find out more about the port at Wilmington that this shipment went from, and if perhaps dockworkers in the US can join in this action in solidarity?
posted by symbioid at 9:39 PM on November 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

Employees say the container ship Danica, carrying seven tons of tear-gas canisters made by the American company Combined Systems, has already arrived at the port, with two similar shipments from the same company expected to arrive within the week.

Here are a few residences that OWS folks might want to show up at; these two are the "Investment Partners" at Combined Systems. Frankly, the names of every senior player within these companies should be outed; and, the same should be done for all institutions that contribute to financial ruin, war, and other kinds of pestilence. Shame the motherfuckers!
posted by Vibrissae at 9:42 PM on November 29, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm not really clear on why everyone in this thread is talking about Occupy Wall Street.
posted by Hoopo at 9:54 PM on November 29, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'd like to just take this opportunity to say: When newspapers or police refer to "rubber bullets", they are NOT rubber bullets- they're plastic-coated steel bullets.

Let's not do the powers of evil's PR work for them, OK?
posted by dunkadunc at 9:56 PM on November 29, 2011 [7 favorites]

I'm not really clear on why everyone in this thread is talking about Occupy Wall Street.

There are a lot of parallels. The grassroots seizing of a space. The overreaction by authorities. The fact that Egypt has justified its violence by pointing to how New York responded to Occupy. The use of social media.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 10:01 PM on November 29, 2011 [5 favorites]

There are a lot of parallels. The grassroots seizing of a space. The overreaction by authorities. The fact that Egypt has justified its violence by pointing to how New York responded to Occupy. The use of social media.

Oh this is some good bullshit right here. The overreaction by authorities? There is no comparison. None at all. One is a revolution where people fighting for their country against a military occupation and are being shot at with live rounds and being killed in good numbers daily. You might as well continue by drawing a comparison between the siege of Stalingrad and Burningman. Both involved people, and fire! And water was, like, hard to find unless you knew someone.
posted by jimmythefish at 10:15 PM on November 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

I want to know more about this Siege of Burningman.
posted by delmoi at 10:18 PM on November 29, 2011 [6 favorites]

Question: Do the people have a right to occupy a public square and protest for prolonged periods of time?

Answer Egypt: No.
Answer USA: No.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:19 PM on November 29, 2011 [3 favorites]

[removed a big OWS derail, let's try to keep this about Egypt if possible]
posted by mathowie at 10:20 PM on November 29, 2011 [7 favorites]

global revolution: kind of a derail people.
posted by Shit Parade at 10:32 PM on November 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh this is some good bullshit right here. The overreaction by authorities? There is no comparison. None at all.

If there are as many protesters on Wall Street as there are in Tahrir Square you can bet your sweet ass the live ammo will come out. I expect the U.S. reaction to demonstrations of this scale to be far more bloody than any you'll see in the Egypt.
posted by clarknova at 10:33 PM on November 29, 2011

let's try to keep this about Egypt if possible
posted by Wolof at 10:40 PM on November 29, 2011

let's try to keep this about Egypt if possible

Isn't it all relevant though? Aren't they all connected or am I missing something?
posted by Malice at 10:45 PM on November 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

If you want to discuss the deletion, please use the contact form or take it to Metatalk.
posted by taz at 10:49 PM on November 29, 2011 [1 favorite]

What's especially stunning is that there are multiple reports of some security forces deliberately targeting protestors' eyes.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:30 PM on November 29, 2011

I'd rather discuss American influence in Egypt. Besides the billions in aid, let us not forget about the border they share with israel. “The assumption is that it is going to be a more radical Islamist Middle East.’’

Israel is facing the biggest erosion of its strategic environment since its founding.

Let's also not forget Egypt also shares a border with Palestine which the Egyptian people overwhelming want open. The border town is Rafah. Since the Arab Spring it has been opened under certain constraints. Of course Israel is busy in Rafah.
posted by Shit Parade at 11:32 PM on November 29, 2011

Freedom Manual : Tear Gas (Check out section 4 on who should expect nasty side effects)
posted by jeffburdges at 11:48 PM on November 29, 2011 [2 favorites]

So after the election we will have a strongly Muslim, elected, civil government, working beneath a autocratic, sectarian, military government?
posted by psycho-alchemy at 11:56 PM on November 29, 2011

You could dump em' right back in the ocean pretty easily, furiousxgeorge. Imagine the lulz if Fox hosted Tea party officials criticizing the Cairo Tear party.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:00 AM on November 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

"When CS is metabolized, cyanide can be detected in human tissue."
posted by jeffburdges at 12:06 AM on November 30, 2011

What an incredibly brave and impressive bunch of people these protestors are...
posted by lucien_reeve at 3:03 AM on November 30, 2011

I'm old enough to remember when brave protesters got rid of the Shah. How we cheered!

Be careful what you wish for.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:08 AM on November 30, 2011 [2 favorites]

Be careful what you wish for.

I wish for the Egyptians to have self-determination. If they want to vote in fundamentalists, that is up to them. You can wish for them to stay under the boot of a strongman if you want.
posted by goethean at 5:49 AM on November 30, 2011 [9 favorites]

Be careful what you wish for.

I love this kind of "realpolitik" approach to people demanding, you know, a constitution that doesn't give their country's military an escape clause. I'll wish for that just fine, thanks.

And, of course, the alternative is to support the authorities firing into unarmed crowds.

So yeah, I don't see any "realpolitik" reason to be careful of what I wish to happen in Egypt.
posted by mediareport at 6:08 AM on November 30, 2011 [6 favorites]

Anybody know if there's a way to find out more about the port at Wilmington that this shipment went from, and if perhaps dockworkers in the US can join in this action in solidarity?

My guess is that it's probably not likely that the dockworkers in the US would get involved but anything is possible, especially now. I did hear that the Occupy Oakland protesters expressed solidarity with the longshoremen at the Port of Oakland a few weeks ago when they were marching on the port, but I don't know what if any level of reciprocity there was.

Here's the Port of Wilmington website. It looks like the stevedores there are employed by DRS or Murphy Marine Services, and are union members of the International Longshoreman's Association, locals 1694, 1694-1, 1883, or 1884.
posted by Balonious Assault at 7:06 AM on November 30, 2011

You might find U.S. dockworkers more interested in getting involved if the company is BAE :

Hero Marine Sues Defense Giant After Sniper Scope Fight
posted by jeffburdges at 7:50 AM on November 30, 2011 [4 favorites]