Letters from Egypt

February 16^th

A DAY IN TAHRIR SQUARE

An element used by the masses as an expression was to settle tents, as symbol to occupy the square.  In Tahrir Square, hundred of militants spend night and day there. Each tent symbolizes and represents some element of the revolution, specially the martyrs. Many of the martyrs are remember with their graves settle in the square itself.

In downtown it is possible to see the gallows reserved to the marshal Tantawi, the current chief of the Egyptian government and the entire military junta.
The fighters who are in the square know a lot of information, numbers and details which are not known at world level. But in the square people know very well that Mubarak was hosted in Sham el Sheikh (a touristic place full of luxury), where he was supposed to be in hospital. It was told that even the food he ate was brought from Egypt. This makes a general disappointment to the fighters.
The people in the square knew the wealth that the military junta had and the bad management of that.  The immense majority of the workers and people need to work for 12 hours and some extra hours in order to get 20 Egyptian liras a day (this is close to 3 dollars, 15 Argentinean pesos). This money is enough for one person expenses. Therefore, the wages are not enough to maintain the family.
In fact, the situation is so desperate that many Egyptians are looking for work in Libya.  Meanwhile the Egyptians see the Libyans as rich, as they were used as labor force by the Khadafy bosses. They feel the brotherhood and solidarity with Syria and obviously Palestine.

Egyptian masses in Tahrir Square

Another thing that is being told in the square is the control that the army has in the economy.  They control the textile factories, the arable land, gas, oil and the entire foreign commerce; this is the main things of the economy. It was in this way since Nasser and it continues. Their budget is a State secret; the top secret kept here. It is assigned by the governor, who is always part of the army and/or is under his order (Nasser, Sadat, Mubarak and Tantawi, all army Generals). Whoever assumes as “civil government” after the transition, will be under the army.
Demonstrations are organized from one day to the other, through social networks. Otherwise repression forces go beforehand and militarize the field. There are groups advocated to the diffusion role, via facebook. This immediately reaches all fighters and they fill the streets by thousands. Recently, there was a demonstration of 9000 people for the memory of the fallen of the football match massacre. The flag used in the march was the Ahly one (the popular team, which fans were attacked).
While people continue in the square, they haven’t unified their forces to all the revolutionary sectors, as their leaders remain split and this doesn’t let them see the perspective of their own power.

Letter of workers from Tahrir Square