Uprising in Egypt: the revolution is spreading!¶
Core Argument¶
In this chapter, Alan Woods provides a breathless, on-the-ground analysis of the Egyptian uprising of 25 January 2011, framing it as the inevitable spread of revolutionary contagion from Tunisia. The core argument is that the mass mobilisations, far from being a spontaneous or isolated outburst, represent the opening of a genuine revolutionary situation in the Arab world, driven by deep structural contradictions and a sudden loss of fear among the oppressed.
Woods grounds the uprising in the objective conditions of Egyptian society: nearly half of the 80 million population living on or below the UN poverty line of two dollars a day, poor education and healthcare, mass unemployment, and a deep-seated hatred of the Mubarak regime’s corruption and inequality. The Tunisian example, he argues, acted as a detonator, shattering the psychological barrier of submission. The self-immolation attempts in Egypt, the Facebook page dedicated to Khaled Said (a young man beaten to death by police), and the explicit chants of “Long Live a Free Tunisia” all demonstrate the direct transmission of revolutionary experience. The chapter draws heavily on eyewitness reports and press dispatches to convey the scale and mood of the protests: the initial hesitation of police, the breaking of cordons, the occupation of Tahrir Square, the use of water cannon and tear gas, and the defiant counter-attacks by demonstrators.
Woods’s analysis is explicitly Marxist in its insistence on the centrality of class forces. He identifies the key to the situation as the “powerful Egyptian proletariat,” citing the textile workers’ strikes in Mahala and the news of 20,000 workers on the streets there. The fraternisation between police and protesters—a police officer carried shoulder-high while shouting anti-government slogans—is presented as the decisive symptom of a regime whose repressive apparatus is cracking. The chapter is a polemic against any notion that the regime can stabilise itself through half-measures or that the movement lacks historical significance. Woods dismisses the government’s claim that the self-immolations were “personal issues” and warns against both a bloody crackdown and a managed transition to Mubarak’s son, arguing either would only deepen the crisis.
The narrative thrust is one of revolutionary optimism tempered by strategic caution. Woods acknowledges the absence of a revolutionary party and a clear plan, noting that the movement could go in different ways. Yet his conclusion is unequivocal: the genie is out of the bottle, the Arab revolution has begun, and the task of socialists worldwide is to mobilise in solidarity, demanding an end to repression and the break of all relations with the Mubarak regime. The chapter is a call to action, a piece of engaged revolutionary journalism written in the heat of events.