Egypt: Thinking about tactics for overthrowing despots

Exhilaration from watching Egypt's so-far-successful revolution continues to grip me. As a friend wrote this afternoon: "I've been riveted by events there..." A blog commenter was moved to come up with a new word for what we're seeing:

... in time, sufficient numbers will do a "Tungypt". There, I just created a new word / noun. A Tungypt: where the people finally assemble, and through daily protests force the government to create a government for the people, of the people, and by the people.

Nobody knows how this will play out over time, whether in a flowering of democracy or in dashed hopes. Egyptians will fight that out. But even now we can begin to look at the tactical level, the nuts and bolts of protest, and try to learn something.

I was struck to hear Robert Malley pointing out on NPR on Friday afternoon soon after Mubarak "resigned" that "both opposition activists and the regimes across the region are already looking at Egyptian events and adjusting their tactics to take these events into account." [Paraphrase; can't find a transcript.] Yes, all sides are looking for lessons.

I encountered the following attempt to draw tactical lessons in comments on a Professor Stephen Walt survey of the Egyptian and regional situation. The poster uses the name "Belisariusorb." I have no idea who this might be or where these points originated. My comments -- derived from a distant past in student movements and years of organizing since -- follow each item in italics.

Decalogue for People-Power Revolutionaries

1. Don’t have a visible spokesperson or committee to speak in public for the revolution. A beast with one head can be beheaded, by assassination, arrest or smear. A many-headed creature cannot be killed.

But can a many-headed creature find its way? Maybe, for a while, in very simple circumstances. but without trusted leaders, how will most people know whether to stay or go (for example) when the going gets tough? Having visible leaders sets some people up to be picked off, but lack of visible leadership can create opportunities for infiltration and confusion.

2. Keep your aims and demands simple and don’t have too many. The more stated demands you have, the easier it is for the regime to satisfy some of them and split off support. Justice must be the first demand.

Yes. Simple broad demands are unifying; laundry lists are meaningless and boring. Appeal to broadly shared values.

3. Use ridicule, satire and contempt as your primary weapons. This has a two-fold effect -- tyrants are extremely vulnerable to embarrassment, and are unsettled by disrespectful attitudes; and at the same time a sense of humour will make you much more attractive to the outside world.

Yes, but using humor is not a spectator sport; make satire, don't just watch Jon Stewart!

4. Your principal strategy is to make the regime uncomfortable. Anything -- from striptease protests to pirate videos to simply violating existing etiquette and forms of address -- is valid here. Think big in your aims and think “small and many” in your actions.

I like the second part better than the first. The youth of the US in the 1960s broke taboos so successfully that the society has never retrieved either prudery or gravitas. But we sure didn't get a revolution. On the other hand, many small actions are great because you don't know what will work until you try it.

5. All despotic regimes have a state TV station -- that is the principal target. Cut the cables and power lines, jam it with radio signals if you can, blockade it to stop staff getting in.

Egyptian protesters never achieved this. State TV carried on -- until it became the vehicle for announcing that Mubarak was history. Does TV matter as much as it once did in the internet/twitter/cellphone era? We don't know yet.

I agree with this from TechCrunch: "The people of Egypt made use of what means they had available, just as every oppressed people has in history. Twitter and Facebook are indeed useful tools, but they are not tools of revolution — at least, no more than Paul Revere’s horse was. People are the tools of revolution, whether their dissent is spread by whisper, by letter, by Facebook, or by some means we haven’t yet imagined. "

6. All despotic regimes have nations that back them or trade weapons with them -- the public in those countries will be guilty about participating in your oppression. You must also target them with letters to newspapers in those countries, telephone interviews, blog comments, and all other media.

I like this. Soften up the enablers of tyranny! Recruit allies where you can.

7. Don’t attack or storm any regime positions -- swarm around them. Never harm anyone. Isolate anyone in your movement who urges violence, don’t allow them to act in your name.

Non-violence is essential -- not because you think it a moral imperative, though you may think so -- but because the other side always has more guns and you've got to find a way to take the struggle off the terrain of who has the bigger stick.

8. Don’t act in the darkness -- dictators love the night. Try to coordinate all events in the full daylight so that the videocameras can record any repressive or violent action.

Or make sure you bring floodlights and generators!

9. Find out which officers command the platoons and companies on the front lines, and try to find family members of those officers who will stand with them in the protest. Also sergeants and private soldiers if possible. This reinforces the idea that the army are the people, and discourages any violent response from the soldiers.

One of the most frightening aspects of the current US is that the military is becoming a society apart from civilian life. If we're serious about future progress here, we'll try to keep lines of communication with the soldiers open.

10. Believe no promises from the authorities. Ever. Even the most democratic of politicians lie to save their positions, and a despot will lie more grandly and more readily than any other.

Yes. Listen -- then test and verify.

Photo: Flickr: darkroom productions.