Revolution anniversary stirs reflection

Last Wednesday, the Egyptian Revolution celebrated its first anniversary. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians crowded into Tahrir Square, which was again lit up like it was on the day last year when Hosni Mubarak agreed to step down. While celebrating the fall of Mubarak, they reaffirmed their commitment to the revolution, which is still far from over.

In the next couple of months, we will witness the first anniversaries of revolutions all across the Arab world. Therefore I think it's appropriate to recall the inspiration and lessons that they offer anyone working for change in the United States.

All of these revolutions—which started as mass protests against conditions of high economic inequality and a lack of democratic freedoms across the Arab world—remain in various states of incompleteness. While Egyptians return to the polls to elect the upper house of parliament this week, the proposed governmental framework preserves an overwhelming share of power for the current military rulers. Negotiations between the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the Muslim Brotherhood have, so far, resulted in a stalemate.

The revolution in Libya, though starting from a similar point as in Egypt, transformed into a civil war when the dictator Moammar Qaddafi unleashed waves of repression. Nearly a year later, Qaddafi is deposed and deceased with the assistance of NATO air strikes and personnel. However, the Libyan Transitional National Council is staffed by ex-regime leaders and exiles with few actual connections to the popular revolutionary committees. The NATO intervention was calculated to support this unaccountable leadership. Libya is likely to become a client of Western powers, whose main interest in the country is its oil, barring a future return to revolution.

As I write, a similar situation may be developing in Syria, whose heroic revolution has continued throughout the past year in the face of brutal government repression. Though the Syrian National Council developed out of the revolution on the ground, its leaders have been intensifying contact with Britain, France and the United States; and activist and chairman of the Transitional National Council Burhan Ghalioun, has openly called for international military intervention.

How should we respond to the idea of an intervention in Syria? Though it could topple the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which the revolutionaries have thus far been unable to do, we should consider the possible consequences. A Western military intervention will strengthen the dependency of Syria's likely future rulers on the West, making them less accountable to their own people. In the worst case, this may mean that the Syrians will not gain from their own revolution. Syria may be ruled by a new undemocratic regime, only this time, one that supports the West.

The United States in particular was the creator and beneficiary of the situation that led to the current revolutionary uprisings. U.S. client states, whether autocratic (Egypt) or more theocratic and monarchical (Saudi Arabia) preserved U.S. influence, did not stand in the way of U.S. corporations' profits, and did not threaten the colonial-settler state of Israel, which has been the American watchdog in the region. That this was the preferred setup of the region is shown by the fact that even after millions appeared in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria calling for Mubarak to go, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton still thought he should stay.

Activists in the United States taking inspiration from the Arab revolutions must be on watch to prevent Libya from happening again, in Syria or Iran or anywhere else. The complete failure of the U.S. military's mission in Iraq combined with the popular revolutions sweeping the region mean that for the first time in decades, the Arab peoples have a chance to seize the reins of their own countries, instead of having their lives determined by the interests of foreign governments and the local elites collaborating with them. We must steadfastly resist any attempt to direct the Arab revolutions down courses acceptable to our own rulers.

The revolutions across the Arab world emphasize, for the first time in our century, the notion that no government, however rich, oppressive or strong militarily, is immune to concentrated and organized popular anger organized on a grand scale. We would do well to remember that in our own situation. Occupy was directly inspired by the example of the Arab revolutions, and it remains our most practical act of solidarity with them to make the revolution in our own country.

Mabrouk, Arab Spring and many happy returns.

—Bill Crane '12 is an Asian studies major.