Precursors of the Egyptian Revolution

This article argues that there had been sustained protests for at least a decade before the January 25th uprisings, which functioned as the political incubators that nurtured the forces of the revolution, shaping people's political consciousness and organisational capacities. Over the past decade, Egyptians have protested against just about everything: regional occupations and Mubarak's inheritance plans, from encroachments on the judges' independence to poor wages, shortages of water and cooking gas, and attacks on Christians. In these demonstrations, this article argues, some of the most innovative and effective mechanisms of protest were deployed, yet the intelligentsia dismissed these events as too inconsequential for challenging the status quo. They were proven wrong.