Tag Archives: revolution

International, U.S.

Lessons for the Occupy Movement from the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution: #1; Peaceful Protest does not Work!!!

“We will not be silenced! Whether you’re a Christian, Muslim or Atheist you will get back your goddamn rights!  We will have our rights, one way or another! We will never be silent!”-Egyptian revolutionary

Peaceful protest does not work.  If you take certain U.S. university Political Science courses on revolutionary countries, or history of terrorism courses, you’ll learn of studies that show that peaceful protests always fail.  Most of these U.S. university courses are aimed at students who want to be public administrators, or law enforcers.  Why?  Because the courses teach them how to keep “the people” down!

“I am six months pregnant! I’m ready to die with my child so Egypt would live!”-Egyptian Revolutionary

Was the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution peaceful?  Hell no!  Not only were the police, and pro-Mubarak thugs, violent, but protestors finally fought back. Egyptian protestors used rocks, sticks, trash can lids and even their own bodies, to fight against guns and bombs.

If you want proof just watch videos of the Battle for Qasr al-Nil Bridge, in which police hit protestors with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons, even when they were praying, and then repeatedly rammed their armored vans into the crowds.  Watch the violent reaction of the protestors, attacking the armored vans with their bare hands, lifeless bodies being carried away, finally taking the Bridge!

If that’s not enough, watch the many videos from Tahrir Square, in which protestors and police (backed up by pro-Mubarak thugs), spent days in a back and forth of violence!

I watched the January Revolution from day one, many days not getting any sleep because I did not want to miss anything (and I was in communication with some revolutionaries via the internet).  Despite the myth that it was peaceful, it was not.  The protestors definitely started out peaceful, and that’s just what those in power want.

Studies have shown that those in power will violently suppress even the most peaceful protests, because it works!  If they get resistance, they will increase the violence they use on the protestors.  However, the same studies show that the power elite have a short window of time to successfully put down a revolution.  If protestors can withstand the violent crackdown, and even fight back, it will weaken the power elite.  The longer the people can resist attempts by elites to put them down, the weaker the elites get!

As the elites grow weak that is not the time to back off and make concessions. Again, that’s what the elites want. The Egyptians pushed and pushed, and the elites (well, Mubarak anyway) finally fell.

The peaceful U.S. Civil Rights protests of the early 1960s is not what got the Civil Rights laws passed.  It was the violent revolutions of black Americans before and after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, that forced the white Americans to give in!

Research the insurgencies (race riots) in Watts 1965, Jersey City 1964, Elizabeth 1964, New York/Harlem/Rochester 1964, Dixmoor/Chicago 1964, Philadelphia 1964, Cleveland 1966, Benton Harbor 1966 (put down by Mitt Romney’s father George Romney), Tampa 1967, Buffalo 1967, Newark 1967, Detroit 1967, Plainfield 1967, Cairo 1967, Washington DC 1968, Baltimore 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Chicago 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Kansas City 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Louisville 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination).  It was those violent uprisings, and others into the early 1970s, which scared the crap out of the white power elite, and they caved and passed Civil Rights laws.  Also, research the creation of the Black Panthers and MOVE.

And don’t get me started on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he was no peace lover!  He just knew how to manipulate.  The Hindus presented themselves to the British as obedient sheep, to the point of doing nothing while the Red Coats beat, shot and stabbed them.  Yet the Hindus were attacking Muslims, provoking Muslims to fight, and then the Hindus would tell the British ‘you see you can’t trust those violent Muslims, give us control of India’.

By the way look what happened to Gandhi’s peace loving wife; assassinated by her own body guards after she ordered the killing of Muslims and the destruction of a Sikh temple!

When I was taking video/film production classes at Allan Hancock College, in Santa Maria, California (back in the early 1990s), I attended a journalism seminar.  At the seminar I listened to a lecture by a retired lobbyist.  The guy spent a couple of decades lobbying elected officials at the state capitol in Sacramento.  He said: “The only way you get action out of elected officials is with money or violence.”

He went on to explain that in his years at the state capitol the only time the politicians truly listened to “the people” was when they had money to offer, or were rioting in the street!  He stressed that those people who peacefully demonstrated were essentially blown off by the elected officials.

Most elitist politicians rationalize that if an issue isn’t bad enough to get people causing violence in the street, then it must not be an issue at all!

“I would rather die with pride than live without it!”-slogan used by Egyptian Revolutionaries

The point is, peaceful protest is a myth created by the power elite to fool the masses.  The only time real change is ever made in societies is through violence.  By the way, that’s how the United States of America came into being!

More to follow…..

International, U.S.

Occupy America! Some facts about Revolutions the leaderless Wall Street occupiers, and Tea Partiers, need to know

The following is a brief on research I did on how Revolutions actually work, because they don’t follow the predictions of Karl Marx; that revolutions are led by the lower classes.  Three authors were read: Crane Brinton, James C. Davies and Ted Gurr.

James C. Davies (creator of the J-curve theory of revolutions) compared the theories of Karl Marx and A. de Tocqueville, with the Dorr Rebellion,  1917 Russian Revolution and 1952 Egyptian Revolution.

Davies found that economically motivated revolutions come after a relatively long time of decline for the middle and upper classes (the poor are too destitute to do anything about their situation).  In other words, it’s like a frog in a boiling pot of water; it takes awhile before the middle and upper classes realize they’re being screwed over.

Davies also discovered that if economic times are bad enough no revolution will take place, because everyone is too busy fending for themselves.  In other words if the middle and upper classes wait too long, they won’t have the strength to fight the elites.

Ted Gurr (Why Men Rebel) found that civil strife is affected by many factors, including economic deprivation and how the society views its leaders/government.

Gurr found that societies with a history of recurring civil strife are most likely to continue with such problems in the future.  Here in the United States the main problem is that too many citizens put too much faith in their ‘authorities’; from organized religion, to Corporate America and their government (at all levels/local/state/federal).  The irony is that the United States was founded on rebellion against authority (something that has been forgotten by many U.S. citizens).

Gurr also found that the success, or failure, of a revolution depends on how much support (from the general population and from outside the country) it gets.

One way the government/Corporate America can snuff out domestic support is to control the media coverage of such revolutions.  In fact our government (along with the British) has also used the media to create false revolutions (false flag ops) in other countries: The 1953 coup in Iran is a prime example.

Another proof of support for revolutions comes from the 1776 U.S. Revolution. If it wasn’t for the occasional raids into the southern Colonies by the Spanish, and the blockade of the British navy by the French navy, there would be no United States.

Crane Brinton (The Anatomy of Revolution) applied the scientific method in studying the 1641 English Revolution, 1776 U.S. Revolution (American War of Independence), the 1789 French Revolution and the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Brinton found that those revolutions were actually started by middle and upper class leaders.  The poor had little to do with it. The motivation of the middle and upper classes were economic: They were living in circumstances that were threatening to take away the economic gains they, and their predecessors had made, for the benefit of the elites.

Some beginning signs of Revolution: Austerity acts; tax increases/cuts to social programs.  Tax revolts.  Mobilization of Revolutionaries.  Ineffectual government reforms/accommodations.  Government repression.

Revolutionaries tend to be better leaders, organizers and motivators, than the establishment, but Brinton has warnings for Revolutionaries: Usually what happens is moderates take control of government but end up running things the same as before.  Then extremists take over, and things can get nasty, like a “reign of terror”.  Extremists can take advantage of “mob mentality” resulting in social terror that is presented as being democratic. Eventually extremists turn on each other, leading to dictatorships.  (Also, read Orwell’s Animal Farm. There’s also a cartoon version, but it’s not really for the kids ’cause it follows the book closely.)

So, these three researchers discovered that it’s not the poor who lead revolutions, it is the middle and upper classes.  The middle and upper classes revolt because their economically unstable governments (and now unstable Corporate America as well) put pressure on the more stable public, which causes the public to feel threatened and creates, at the very least, the perception that their economic prosperity (or even the chance of ever achieving prosperity) is finished.

Occupy America: Steve Jobs’ secret to success; Live Life your way

Occupy America: Federal Reserve boss blames Wall Street

International

World War 3: Egyptian commandos rescue 6 Israelis, Israel says revolution is “blow to peace”

An unnamed Israeli official says the attack on Israel’s embassy in Egypt is a “grave violation” of diplomatic norms and a “blow to peaceful relations”.

The official says six Israelis were trapped inside the embassy but that Egyptian commandos rescued them.

All Egyptian police have been called to duty, all planned vacations have been cancelled.

International, U.S.

World War 3: Clinton demands Egypt protect Israeli embassy, Israel demands the United States defend Israeli embassy

Reports from Washington DC:  Hillary Clinton has called the Egyptian Foreign Minister to remind him of Egypt’s duty to obey the Vienna Convention.  That convention relates to the protection of diplomatic buildings.

Also, Leon Panetta has talked the Israeli Defense Minister, who has demanded the United States defend the Israeli embassy in Egypt.

International, U.S.

World War 3: At 4:00 am More than 520 Egyptians wounded

Live video, 04:00 Egyptian time, shows police vans trying to run over “Correcting the Path” protestors, in another live video it looks like protestors have riot police backed into a corner.

Police admit they are using live bullets.

Health officials say more than 520 people wounded.  Most of the wounded coming from the areas around the Security Police HQ, and the now former Israeli embassy.

Many protestors say nothing had changed after the downfall of Mubarak, the pro-U.S. military government continued the same policies.

 

International

World War 3: Obama demands Egypt’s military government protect Israeli embassy, Egyptian government calls emergency meeting

The new Egyptian revolution “Correcting the Path” started after it was revealed the Pro-U.S. military government would remain in power, even after so called democratic elections in the future.

U.S. President Barack Obama, has demanded the Egyptian military government protect the Israeli embassy, but live video shows that’s too late.

Egyptian military government has declared a state of emergency for all of Egypt, and called an emergency meeting of officials.

International

World War 3: Egyptian “Correcting the Path” Revolution spreading

Around the Israeli embassy Egyptian security vehicles are on fire.

The Correcting the Path revolution is demanding an end to the pro-U.S. military government!  Also, Egyptians want all government and university officials connected to the pro-U.S. Murbarak regime to be fired!  Egyptians want a minimum wage for all people, and a maximum wage for government and corporate officials!  They want an end to the military trials of civilians!

Can the people of the United States learn anything from this?

 

International, Opinion, U.S.

English Queen rips off British taxpayers

“It does highlight the fact that the Palace was trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes last week.”-Graham Smith, anti-monarchy organization know as  ‘Republic’.

Despite the belief, in the U.S., that the Royal Family in the United Kingdom are just figure heads, the Royal Family commands true Royal Power, and it’s the British taxpayers that pay for it.

The Queen of England is just a figure head when it comes to the larger Commonwealth, but in the United Kingdom she reigns supreme: She is the Governor of the Church of England and Scotland.  She is the Head of the Armed Forces.  She opens every yearly session of Parliament by dictating the agenda.  She is the one who signs new laws, not the Prime Minister.

Now the part of the British Parliament, know as the House of Commons (representing the non-lorded class of people), has just released a financial study of the taxes paid to the Royal Family in the past year.  They discovered that the Queen ripped off British taxpayers by at least 4 million pounds ($6 million).

Last week the Royal Family officially stated that they got only 32.1 million pounds, but it turns out they actually got 36.2 million pounds ($52 million).  On top of that the House of Commons investigation (conducted by the Commons Library) revealed other expenses, paid by taxpayers, that were not accounted for by the Royal Family.

Last year’s estimated cost of the Royal Family, to the British taxpayers, was about 202 million pounds ($326 million).  The Royal Family gets taxpayer money from several programs called Grants.  The biggest one is called the Sovereign Grant, and is guaranteed never to decrease.

People of the United States should realize what the Royal Family is doing now is basically what the Royal Family did to push the American colonies to declare independence in 1776, leading to the Revolutionary War.  Back then King George 3rd was ripping off the American colonies by making them pay taxes with no representation, and no return benefit  (just like our grand U.S. government is doing to us now).