Sure Daily Kos 4 and cute kittens are exciting, but lets not forget those risking their lives to finally bring freedoms to a region that seems perpetually mired in oppression. Of course there is the latest Egypt & Region Mothership #23, but here is a gathering of information on protests happening across the Arab world....
First I cannot recommend enough Democracy Now's Amy Goodman discussion of the revolution in Egypt and its ramifications. Check out Meteor Blades post on the subject too.
A succinct diary by MrHinkyDink 25 Bahman - Iran Protests draws attention to the revived Green Movement in Iran:
Thousands of security officers were deployed in Tehran today to stop separate groups of demonstrators, rallying throughout the city, from converging on the central Azadi Square, Al Jazeera said. Mir Hossein Mousavi, a candidate beaten by Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential election who then backed mass protests against the result, has had his phone lines cut and police vehicles blocking his street in the past two days, opposition website Kaleme said....
While Iran’s state television broadcast historical footage from the Islamic revolution intercut with scenes from the Cairo protests, opposition leaders saw an opportunity to renew their attack on Ahmadinejad and Khamenei. They applied to hold a rally today “to express solidarity with the people’s movement in the region against their oppressive regimes.”
Iran’s judiciary warned that such a demonstration would be seen as a “political act” requiring counter-measures by authorities. Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi, another leader of the 2009 protests, have underlined a parallel between the Egyptian uprising and the one they led....
Iranians confront economic hardships, including rising prices and unemployment, resembling those that helped spark uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
Since the government started phasing out subsidies two months ago, gasoline prices have surged sevenfold. Utilities and basic food products such as wheat, rice and sugar are also included in the five-year program. The inflation rate was 10.8 percent in the 12 months through January.
“The economic fallout from the recent subsidy reductions is yet to be fully felt by the population,” said Robert Powell, an analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in New York. “Arguably, it is this rather than the revolt in North Africa that could precipitate any future mass protests.”
Youth unemployment rose to 25 percent in the Iranian calendar year ending last March, from 23 percent the year before, according to the country’s Statistics Center. Overall unemployment was 11.9 percent in 2009....
Wow 25% unemployment amongst the restless youth, surely that's a recipe for unrest.
Aljazeera has more on the protests happening in Tehran :
Thousands protesters marched on Monday on Enghelab and Azadi streets [which connect and create a straight path through the city centre], with a heavy presence in Enghelab Square and Vali-Asr Street.
Quoting witnesses, the AP news wire reported that least three protesters injured by bullets were taken to a hospital in central Tehran, while dozens more were hospitalised because of severe wounds as a result of being beaten.
Protesters burn a picture of the late Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Hoseyni Khamenei. The demonstrators can be heard to chant "Mubarak, Ben Ali, now it's Seyyed Ali's turn."
Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Tehran, confirmed reports that security forces used tear gas, pepper spray and batons against the protesters.
As with other foreign media, she was prohibited by government order to witness the demonstrations.
Jabbari said that she had received reports that up to 10,000 security personnel had been deployed to prevent protesters from gathering at Azadi Square, where the marches, originating from various points in Tehran, were expected to converge....
Monday's marches were organised as a one-day event and it is unclear if further protests will take place overnight or tomorrow.
A message on posted by the organisers of the demonstrations posted on the 25 Bahman Facebook site - the site's title reflecting today's date on the Iranian calendar - seemed to indicate that there might be more protests.
"The 25 Bahman group will try to announce the programme for of protests for tonight and tomorrow shortly," it read...
There was no mention of Monday's demonstrations on state-run television stations or websites.
Several videos on YouTube can be found, including the frightening response to tear gas:
And from MrHinkyDink's diary:
Will Iran's youth revolt result in democratic reforms or will it end abruptly under the iron fist of Iran's Regime like their election protests? Only time will tell. DrSteveB has a thoughtful diary on that very subject in Military & Labor: Why People's Revolutions Succeed?:
Why and when do People's Revolutions succeed. I would argue, that -- for all very real differences between countries, cultures and history -- it really comes down to two factors:
1. Will the military, or other well armed internal security forces, kill large numbers of their own people?
2. Will the working class, actual laboring forces, go on general strike in support of the revolution?
3. A third predictive factor is whether food prices are rising....
At the end of the day, push comes to literal shove, the difference is the willingness of the military to mow down large numbers of their own people.
And the other criticial factor, is whether the workers identify with the revolutionaries or the regime. Many working class people, especially if they are from areas and population separate from the those formenting revolution, may patriotically identify with the regime as representing their country and stability. We saw this in the use of miners and other workers to initially put down the revolution in Romania. Closer to home we saw a parallel this situation with many working class people in the U.S. backing the governement position in the U.S. during the Vietnam era.
Revolutions of just young people and students have little staying power or generalizable support, are easy to put down. Even if it is supplemented by the unemployed, this is less dangerous then if working people shut down the economy, which is a real threat to both the regime and the elite...
Why do militaries not kill the people? At some level there has to be a seperation between the regime and their military. And also a degree of ties between the military and the people: In Egypt, most families, urban and rural, have connections (in the current or recent generation) to the military. In China, in 1989, the military (especially those elements specificially brought in from the outside to break up the demonstrations in cities) is often described as being made up of rural conscripts for whom the military was a way to get ahead, and whose background led them to be alienated from urban folk.
One last great article on the swelling tide of unrest in Iran from Aljazeera:
Just a short four weeks ago, Iran's Green Movement appeared to be the most vibrant political struggle in the Middle East.
That is the case no more. With the uprising in Tunisia that overthrew long-time dictator Zine el Abedine Ben Ali, and with its spread to the streets of Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen and most spectacularly Egypt, the Arab world is on the march, demanding democracy, human rights and jobs.
Yet, for all the hope and enthusiasm on the ground, the worry, particularly in Washington and other Western capitals, is that a dark side to this wave of popular outpouring lurks in the possible hijacking of the movement by Islamic fundamentalism. Will the Arab experience not repeat what happened in Iran, when the overthrow of the Shah led to the country's takeover by Ayatollahs, the imposition of sharia, and the loss of hard-gained rights for women?
That certainly has been the line Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has taken until now - and his excuse for three decades of martial law. His warning that it was either him - or the Muslim Brotherhood - was designed to instill fear both at home and abroad. And it is a message that has resonated well with Western concerns, particularly in this age of al-Qaeda extremism and Islamic terrorism.
At Informed Comment Juan Cole writes about the
Top 5 Effects of Egyptian Revolution including growing protests in Yemen:
Thousands of protesters marched Sunday on the presidential palace of Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Salih, who has ruled since 1978. The United States has increasingly forged a relationship with the Yemeni military aimed at destroying the alleged al-Qaeda operatives in that country.
Aljazeera English has video on Yemen:
Aljazeera has more on the protests in Yemen, where protests continue for a fourth day:
The 3,000-strong throng of demonstrators in the capital, Sanaa, comprising students, human rights activists and lawyers clad in black robes, clashed with police and pro-government supporters on Monday.
Rival groups, armed with clubs and rocks, were seen facing off after supporters of Saleh reportedly confronted the protesters.
At least three people were injured, including one stabbed with a traditional Yemeni dagger, in fighting outside Sanaa's university where protesters chanted: "A revolution of free opinion ... A revolution of freedom ... We should be allowed to decide."
Further chants of "After Mubarak, Ali" and "No corruption after today" reverberated around the city...
"The anti-government protests are gathering momentum, despite the huge concessions given by President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who said that he will step down in 2013, and that his son, General Ahmed Abdullah Saleh - who was being groomed to take over - won't inherit power.
"Thousands of young Yemenis are saying: 'We won't trust Ali Abdullah Saleh, because we trusted him in the past, particularly in 2006, when he said he was about to resign - only for him to continue and to ask for the constitution to be amended to allow him to be appointed for life'."
In Bahrain protests dubbed a "Day of Rage" clashed with security forces:
Small-scale clashes have been reported from parts of Bahrain amid heightened security over planned protests by the kingdom's Shia Muslim majority.
Protesters had called for a Day of Rage to be observed on Monday, inspired by anti-government uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
Helicopters circled over the capital Manama, where protesters were expected to gather in the afternoon, and there was greater police presence in Shia villages.
At least 14 people were injured in clashes overnight and on Monday, news agencies reported.
Khalid Al-Marzook, a Bahraini member of parliament, told Al Jazeera that one person was killed and three others in critical condition in hospital following the clashes.
News agency reports said police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse marchers in the mostly Shia village of Newidrat in the southwest region of the island kingdom - a key Western ally. The marchers were demanding the release of those detained during earlier protests.
Why are they protesting?
Irrespective of overwhelming majority of Shia in Bahrain, they are minoritized in many official posts, even in those appearing to be popular like the municipality and parliamentarian councils. In the last cabinet change, held October 2005 , Shia was represented by five out of 22 ministers, equivalent to 22.7%. Other high posts, director and higher, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) study indicates that Shia are represented by 18% only of the total governmental posts, covered by the study . In the Shura council, whose members are appointed by the Head of the State, the King, only 18 Shia members (45%) are appointed out of 40. In the Elected council, and as a result of election constituencies which are plotted by royal decree, Shia could no win more than 12 out of 40 seats, representing 30% of the total. In the municipality councils, Shia, and due to the same reasoning, won maximum of 22 seats out of 50 (44%).
In Algeria citizens have lived under emergency rules since 1992, but protests have finally brought promises that it will end (we'll see):
As anti-regime protests gain momentum in Algeria, the government on Monday rushed to announce that it would end the state of emergency enforced since 1992 in the country, amid fears that Algeria may sink into a similar unrest that ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak....On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police in the eastern Annaba city. Several people were injured.
The day before, thousands of protesters defied a police ban and protested in the capital Algiers.
Widespread discontent over rising unemployment, poor living conditions and high food prices sparked widespread unrest in the country since January.
Meanwhile our hapless main stream media continues to
work as stenographers for these oppressive regimes.
Jordan too has been quick to appease protesters , but will it be genuine enough to lead to true reform?
New PM Marouf Bakhit has been charged with carrying out "true political reforms", but the Islamist opposition rejected the appointment.
The protesters had demanded action on unemployment and rising prices and the right to elect the prime minister.
They blamed former PM Samir Rifai for the country's economic problems and had called on him to stand down.
The palace said the king had accepted Mr Rifai's resignation earlier on Tuesday.
The move is being seen as an attempt to head off further trouble from angry Jordanians, in the wake of the unrest in Tunisia and Egypt.
Last but not least for this diary are the
swelling protests in Palestine :
The Palestinian Authority (PA) dissolved its cabinet Monday in a preemptive move to deflect the recent wave of Middle East unrest from hitting the West Bank.
The new cabinet – which will be selected by PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad – is expected to manifest within the next two weeks.
“It’s obvious that the Palestinian leadership is taking steps to soften the outcome of the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia with regard to the Palestinians,” said Hani Al Masri, an expert on Palestinian affairs. “The new situation is completely different and must be dealt with differently – the policies methods and people.”