To be published in Arabic for Arabi21
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There is possibly no place more important for activists to organize than prison. This is, by far, the best way to empower and embolden activists in the street: to control the situation behind bars. The real key to popular liberation
In a society under tyranny, the unfortunate reality is that an increasingly large segment of the population will be imprisoned at some point in their lives, and for activists, the only thing that prevents prison from being inevitable, is the possibility of being killed instead of arrested.
For most people, understandably, the possibility of incarceration is terrifying. Being denied freedom, being separated from their families, enduring severe restrictions on their movement, to say nothing of the ever-present brutality and constant threat of torture; all of this can cause crippling fear.
This fear makes activists timid; it can turn someone into an informer; it can cause someone to flee their country; it can cause enthusiastic young people to abandon the struggle for justice. This fear is the most powerful weapon the state has to crush revolutionary movements; this is why it must be overcome.
Organized crime syndicates have long understood that whoever controls the situation inside prison, controls the streets; but we can take that basic logic a step further: whoever can control the situation inside the prisons, can overthrow the state itself.
The mass incarceration of Islamists and activists can potentially set in motion the ultimate negation of the state’s power to intimidate, threaten, and repress the population, which will essentially mean the neutralization of the state’s authority altogether.
The reality, of course, is that prisons belong to prisoners, the police just work there. The inmates always vastly outnumber the guards, and the police interfere very little with much of what happens in prison on a day to day basis. If the facility is very large, this is even more the case, with days or even weeks going by during which the prisoners have little or no contact whatsoever with the guards.
This dynamic leads to fairly complex internal politics within the prison population; there are cliques, leaders, suppliers, facilitators, enforcers, etc; there are alliances and rivalries, and there is some degree of coordination with people outside.
Because of their large numbers in Egypt’s jails, and because of their activism and experience, the Islamists are in a unique position to dominate this system inside the prison walls.
If communication and practical support are maintained with their brothers and sisters outside, activists can be an unstoppable and undeniable authority group controlling the situation in Egypt’s prison system. For example, the actions of guards inside the jail can incur consequences for them on the street (this is how you prevent torture and abuse); the families of informers can be identified and pressured to dissuade their jailed family member from his treachery; cooperative police can be rewarded for their help, and so on. Islamist prisoners can be financially supported, and this will make a tremendous difference not only for their own individual circumstances in prison, but it will also instantly increase their influence within the inmate population.
If the Islamists and activists can organize and exert their influence over the situation inside the prisons, the Islamists and activists on the street will know that, in the case of their arrest, they will be moving into an environment in which they will not be systematically victimized and helpless; rather, they will simply be joining their brothers on another field of revolutionary struggle, and the fear of incarceration will be abated, thereby dispossessing the state of its most powerful weapon of repression.