I watched the January 2011 Egyptian Revolution from day one.  It did not start with cyberspace, and it did not end with cyberspace.  Rather cyberspace was only a briefly used tool of the Revolutionaries.

“I don’t think the Revolution ever happened in cyberspace…They need physical space, they need public space. Tahrir Square provided that.”-Nezar AlSayyad, Center of Middle East Studies, University of California at Berkeley

The fact that Revolutions need public space is the true reason why local and state governments, in the United Police States of America, are now passing laws that’re making it illegal to gather in public spaces!

On December 9, 2011, the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, created a law that is not only aimed at preventing public gatherings, but is being called “a particularly egregious attack on the homeless”.

On January 24, 2012, Charlotte, North Carolina, passed a “no camping” on city property law.  Even if you’re not camping the law includes things that allow police to have you removed, or arrested, anyway.

On February 21, 2012, the state of Idaho created a law that specifically targets the Occupy movement.  It has extended anti-gathering laws (no demonstrations can last longer than four hours, which only proves what I said in part one) to the state property the Occupy Boise movement is currently using.

The small, and ignorant, Occupy Boise movement has until 17:00 February 27 to clear out.

I say the Occupy Idaho movement is ignorant, because of what they said in a PBS Newshour interview: “I will take it elsewhere. There are a lot of us who recognize that this movement is more important than the place we’re staying.”-Daniel Grad, Occupy Boise, December 8, 2011

In fact, the Occupy Boise movement told local Idaho PBS reporters that they specifically chose the land (land that until now was exempt from the four hour limit law) so as to not cause legal problems!

FAIL!  There’s a saying in the world of business, “location, location, location”!   If there is no need to Occupy land, then what was the point of Egyptian Revolutionaries fighting so hard to control Tahrir Square?

Back to cyberspace.  In Egypt twitter and facebook and other social media tools were not the instigators of the Revolution.  Those tools only became important as Egyptians in one city realized, through their communications, that they were not alone, that Egyptians in other cities were also rebelling.  So cyberspace became a way of communication after the fact.

Even so, as I was watching the live broadcasts, the Egyptian government shut down many cell phone towers, and internet providers (with the help of a U.S. telecommunications company).   Did that stop the Revolution?  Hell no!

Revolutionaries turned to old fashioned land line phones, short wave radios, even the ancient task of running messages by foot.  Some reports said they had taken over radio stations, even broke into police stations to steal the police radios.

But while this proves that cyberspace is not critical, it does prove that communications are critical.

In the military, communications does not refer to just being able to talk or relay messages.  It refers to the ability to keep your forces fed and armed.  (specifically its called: Lines of Communication, called such because supplies tended to follow the same route that hand carried messages, and telegraph lines, did)

The Egyptian Revolutionaries not only took and held land (sometimes losing it, but retaking it later), they kept their Occupiers fed, and they rotated fresh Occupiers in, while the tired Occupiers went out to get rest.  They, without really thinking about it, kept “lines of communication” open to the land they were Occupying.

This is important, because one of the riot control maneuvers used nowadays is called “Kettling”.  This is a way of hemming in protestors, to cut them off from their lines of communication (even though most protestors don’t even know about such things as lines of communication).

The lesson is that you must not rely on high technology, you must Occupy the land, and you must keep your “lines of communication” open!

By the Way, Occupy Boise is appealing to the Federal Court, on the grounds the new Idaho law violates the rights to freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

LESSONS FOR THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT FROM THE EGYPTIAN JANUARY 2011 REVOLUTION: #1; PEACEFUL PROTEST DOES NOT WORK!!!