Report from the Cairo Conference. posted by Richard Seymour

An excellent guest post (with his own pics) by Guy Taylor:

The Cairo Conference: a wonderful vibrant and hectic event, where timetables make less sense than those for a London bus, and manners and respect for one another is pleasingly prevalent. Four years ago both John Rees and George Galloway were invited to speak in conferences in Cairo at the same time. They managed to pull the two together (from London!) and the birth of the Cairo Conference - a meeting of activists from the secular and Muslim worlds - took place. The impact on the movement in Egypt has been extraordinary.

We started on Thursday, with overseas delegates given a walking tour of Islamic Cairo, which for the Tomb I'll not go into. After a briefing over food we trooped down to the opening session. We were greeted with a protest at the doors of Muslim activists demonstrating against the closure of Afaq'Arabia, a radical Muslim publication. In previous years delegates have been greeted by a strong police presence at the doors to the conference, this time the cops were as evident as Blair or Mubarak. Given that the majority of protests get repressed in no uncertain terms in Egypt, the conference has provided a place which has at least some immunity around it - mainly because of the presence of a significant number of overseas delegates.

It was the sort of opening session that you may dream about and have nightmares on at the same time. The speakers list was A List, leaders of Islamic movements, trade unions, and political groups, MPs from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt - oh and Britain. And international antiwar activists from UK, Denmark, Korea and Canada. The problem being 30 speakers in an alloted 3 hours, with no chair brave or foolish enough to call the speakers on time, we got a bit concerned when a 15 minute break was called a full 2 hours after the scheduled end of the meeting! The session eventually overran by two and three quarter hours.

After an all-too-large helping of Islamic radicalism, the interesting speakers for this blog were, unsurprisingly John Rees and George Galloway.

John Rees issued a call for unity. "We are here because we are all here. The Muslims, the Nasserites, the socialists and the communists and other nationalists and those who fit into none of those categories. This unity allows this conference to happen." He went down a storm.

Galloway was in excellent form. Not pandering to some opf the more 2 deminsional rhetoric of the local speakers. He welcomed he election of Hamas but pointed out
"You can't have a free Palestine without Hamas, but you can't have a free Palestine with only Hamas". He noted that there are non-corrupt people in the PLO and Fateh, and called for uniting with those and getting a broad and radical front against Israel. His attack on the west and it's reaction to the Hamas victory was incisive (paraphrased): "When the victorious party in an election is called upon to take the position of the party which they had just defeated, and defeated for the reasons of those positions, it is a travesty of democracy". The reception he received was enthusiastic and impressive.

Hamas' Information Minister was uncompromising in his attitude to Israel, stating repeatedly they will not recognise the occupying forces of the state of Israel. His talk seemed a little at odds with other statements coming from the Palestinian government in other arenas.

The Iraqi delegation was notable by its absence, unable to obtain documentation from the Egyptian authorities to enter the country. We were handed a letter from the Wahaj El Iraq (Patriotic Forces Rejecting the Occupation) Command: "We received with great pleasure & gratitude your invitation to attend your respectable conference, but we were surprised by a lot of security complications and requirements in order to get the visa... Which represent a kind of disapproval (in a diplomatic way)." Couldn't have put it better myself.

The Cairo conference is now being run in conjunction with the Cairo Social Forum, which begins at 3pm each day, and ocassionally finishes by midnight. We've discussed everything from peasant politics and problems to 'Arab Communities Abroad'. 'Art, Power and Resistance', 'The Myths of Zionism' and 'Different Governments, Same Torture' were all on the agenda. Most meetings had simultaneous translation, though not all.

The Myths of Zionism meeting introduced by John Rose was fantastic, with Muslim Brotherhood members discussing with Jewish people the meaning and intent of Zionism, where one hijab wearing sister declared that you couldn't put "all Jews in the same basket" and needed to look at the question again. It was a open and serious debate, with criticism and understanding of the various viewpoints in the room.

Throughout the conference, when sitting in the coffee area or wandering around the stalls, delegates were constantly approached by young Egyptian activists wanting to talk and find out about the movement in various places in the world. Questions about the 'average' person in your country "what are they like, just thinking about drink, drugs, football and sex with your girlfriend?" to "How long does Tony Blair have in office - why do you let him stand for prime minister so many times? I hate him" to more detailed enquiries about working class life and conditions in the UK. The resulting conversations were fantastic and extremely long at times.

The forum ended on Sunday as it had started with a protest outside the Syndicate of Journalists, the venue. This time it marked the massacre of Sudanese refugees by the Mubarak government earlier this year.

The movement here is growing in strength, number and confidence. Socialists are now selling papers in public after being underground for many years (the second edition of Socialist Worker's sister paper had amazing sales), many present had been imprisoned and some tortured for doing what happens in the UK as a matter of course. The election of the Muslim Brotherhood MPs last year has opened up space for organising and activity. The Cairo Conference is a place where dissenting voices from Egypt and around the world gather to organise and debate. We are seeing a new era in the resistance in Egypt.

Sifting through the leaflets and papers and contact details I picked up in the conference I am reminded of how intense and constructive the whole event was. One seasoned attender (this was the fourth such conference) said that the western delegates had a dual purpose, to intervene and to take the role of human shield as the Egyptian movement develops - I think he missed mentioning one of the most incredible learning experiences you can get. All set in one of the most historic and incredible cities on the planet.

Them pyramids aren't bad either.

Viva Cairo!

See also Simon Assaf's report back for Socialist Worker.