There are no short-cuts to changing the system. Real revolution, real change, will not happen by a dramatic event, or a spontaneous transformation. The actual process of change is not only long, but often tedious, frustrating, and even boring.
One of the biggest obstacles we have to overcome is the very notion that we can’t achieve change ourselves; that we must adhere to pre-existing models of activism or operate in formal parties rallying around designated leadership. We have to liberate our own minds from acceptance of these arbitrary restrictions.
Most of us want a government based on Islam.
Most of us do not belong to a party or group.
Most of us do not support Sisi.
Most of us are poor. Most of us are exploited. Most of us are struggling.
We are the overwhelming majority.
Of course we can organize.
We just have to stop looking to our “leaders” and start looking to each other. There is an underlying unity in our conditions and aspirations which it takes great skill to make us overlook. Reach out to the people who have resisted aligning with groups.
Start grassroots organizing. Draft a People’s Constitution, for example, and ratify it by the signatures of the population. Make petitions calling for cancelling the debts from the Mubarak regime, calling for regulations on foreign direct investment, suspension of the privatization of public assets and so on…so that you can tell people why you are calling for these policies.
Use actions like this as opportunities to educate the public about vital issues, and to establish awareness and support on the ground for the more confrontational strategies that must inevitably follow.