Defend basic rights in Egypt
The ouster of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on July 3, 2013, has ushered in a period of repression against any and all critics of the military-backed government that replaced him. The backlash against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood has provided the regime a pretext for clamping down on all dissent.
The toll has been staggering. According to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, Egypt has imprisoned at least 16,687 political detainees and killed 4,482 in clashes with protesters since Morsi's ouster. The regime has also cracked down on university campuses, workers' organizing efforts and leading revolutionary activists.
In response, activists, authors and academics from Egypt and around the world are circulating a petition calling on the government to reverse its current course of crushing the freedoms that millions of Egyptians fought for when they overthrew Hosni Mubarak three years ago on February 11, 2011. Among the signatories are Gilbert Achcar, Anthony Arnove, Brian Ashley, Noam Chomsky, Nigel Harris, Thomas Harrison, Tikva Honig-Parnass, Assaf Kfoury, Naomi Klein, Joanne Landy, Michael Lowy, Alan Maass, David McNally, Leo Panitch, Pierre Rousset, Ahmed Shawki, Ahdaf Soueif and Jeffrey R. Webber. Add your name and see a full list of the signatories at the Egypt Solidarity Campaign website.
To President Adly Mansour and Prime Minister Hazem el Beblawi:
WE, THE undersigned, condemn the Egyptian government's arrest, detention and torture of activists exercising their right to legally and peacefully protest. Human rights groups, journalists' associations, and other organizations have documented abuses by Egypt's police and security forces, including the use of excessive force, mass arrests, and the torture and killing of those who dissent.
Since the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, one government after another has pledged to hold the state's security apparatus accountable for its abuses of Egyptian citizens, and one government after another has failed to do so.
The right to speak out and to peacefully assemble and protest is an essential component of a democratic society, and the Egyptian Revolution was broadly celebrated for achieving this most fundamental aspiration of the Egyptian people. But this aspiration has been thwarted by the military's rehabilitation of the hated security laws as well as some of the same individuals who carried out these repressive laws before they were driven from public life by the 2011 revolution.
We call on all those who stand for such basic rights as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to protest to join us in demanding the immediate release of activists targeted by the Egyptian regime in the exercise of their democratic rights and an end to the government's use of repression against all those who wish nothing more than the dignity of having their voices heard.
