Pete McNally
In her foreword to this book, published in 2021, Naomi Klein described it as a living history and its author, Alaa Abd El-Fattah, as an intellectual, writer, technologist and Egyptian revolutionary.
The author has been prosecuted or arrested by every Egyptian regime to rule in his lifetime. It becomes clear that the life of the author is entwined both with Egypt and the wider world of struggle and oppression. The editors in the introduction point out that Alaa has spent seven of the eight years since the country’s counter-revolution in prison. General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi came to power in 2013. Alaa is far from being a Marxist, although Lenin is quoted on page 379: “We are building the new order out of the bricks the old order has left us”. Clearly the old order has to be brought down first.
There are many chapters in this book reflecting the upsurge of events and the setbacks, the last chapter being ‘Palestine on my mind’. At first, Alaa is the only person in his prison who has access to news through a weekly visit. This news is passed from cell to cell by shouting. Alaa writes that “my generation was raised on scenes from the second intifada and launched itself onto the scene with student demonstrations in support of Palestine. One movement followed another until this generation led a revolution. Yes, the routes of the demonstration lie in the solidarity demonstrations with the second intifada, for we are Arabs and Palestine is always on our minds.”
What has stayed with me from this collection is an appreciation of the resilience of the participants in the struggle for a better world. They will find that what is needed is a party based on the working class.
