L’esprit du Caire et de Madison

L’esprit du Caire et de Madison

Nous tentons de montrer par ailleurs combien l’interprétation des événements en cours (l’enchaînement crisique entamé en Tunisie) est fondamentale pour l’évolution de la situation. L’enjeu est bien la mise en cause générale du Système, contre laquelle s’opposent les tentatives réductionnistes. L’assimilation ou non des événements de Madison à ceux du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient joue un rôle essentiel dans ce processus, – pour la mise en cause du système s’il ya assimilation, pour son dédouanement s’il n’y en a pas.

Tom Engelhardt, sur son site TomDispatch, ne cesse d’argumenter pour justifier cette intégration fondamentale de Madison et du Caire en un seul phénomène antiSystème. Ce 27 février 2011, il présente un texte de son collaborateur Andy Kroll en ses termes notamment :

«…Meanwhile, in far-off Wisconsin, the protesters who massed for a huge rally Saturday evidently know instinctively which side of history they're on; unlike the Obama administration, they identify with those organizing the “days of rage” in the Middle East, not with its autocrats. American demonstrators may still be focused on issues of immediate self-interest, but remember, only yesterday no one thought a non-Tea-Party-type would ever again take to an American street shouting protest slogans.

»And keep in mind as well, if you stay out in the streets long enough, sooner or later you’ll move beyond an imperious and manipulative governor and run smack into imperial power itself – into, that is, our obtuse, time-warped wars which take their toll here, too. If the protests continue to spread, so will the subject matter, and then it will be clearer, as TomDispatch associate editor Andy Kroll reports from Madison, just how close we're coming to Cairo…»

Voici quelques extraits du texte d’Andy Kroll, retour de Madison. Il y a vu partout l’“esprit du Caire” et de la chaîne crisique dont, manifestement pour lui, Madison est un maillon.

«The spark for Wisconsin's protests came on February 11th. That was the day the Associated Press published a brief story quoting Walker as saying he would call in the National Guard to crack down on unruly workers upset that their bargaining rights were being stripped away. Labor and other left-leaning groups seized on Walker's incendiary threat, and within a week there were close to 70,000 protesters filling the streets of Madison.

»Six thousand miles away, February 11th was an even more momentous day. Weary but jubilant protesters on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, and other Egyptian cities celebrated the toppling of Hosni Mubarak, the autocrat who had ruled over them for more than 30 years and amassed billions in wealth at their expense. "We have brought down the regime," cheered the protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the center of the Egyptian uprising. In calendar terms, the demonstrations in Wisconsin, you could say, picked up right where the Egyptians left off.

»I arrived in Madison several days into the protests. I've watched the crowds swell, nearly all of those arriving – and some just not leaving – united against Governor Walker's “budget repair bill.” I've interviewed protesters young and old, union members and grassroots organizers, students and teachers, children and retirees. I've huddled with labor leaders in their Madison “war rooms,” and sat through the governor's press conferences. I've slept on the cold, stone floor of the Wisconsin state capitol (twice). Believe me, the spirit of Cairo is here. The air is charged with it.

»It was strongest inside the Capitol. A previously seldom-visited building had been miraculously transformed into a genuine living, breathing community. There was a medic station, child day care, a food court, sleeping quarters, hundreds of signs and banners, live music, and a sense of camaraderie and purpose you'd struggle to find in most American cities, possibly anywhere else in this country. Like Cairo's Tahrir Square in the weeks of the Egyptian uprising, most of what happens inside the Capitol's walls is protest.»Egypt is a presence here in all sorts of obvious ways, as well as ways harder to put your finger on. The walls of the capital, to take one example, offer regular reminders of Egypt's feat. I saw, for instance, multiple copies of that famous photo on Facebook of an Egyptian man, his face half-obscured, holding a sign that reads: “EGYPT Supports Wisconsin Workers: One World, One Pain.” The picture is all the more striking for what's going on around the man with the sign: a sea of cheering demonstrators are waving Egyptian flags, hands held aloft. The man, however, faces in the opposite direction, as if showing support for brethren halfway around the world was important enough to break away from the historic celebrations erupting around him.»

Et, pour terminer, après avoir mis en lumière tout ce qui sépare en apparence Le Caire et Madison, il observe l’évidence qu’il y a effectivement dans ces deux événements, avec un symbolisme d’une très grande force qui se nourrit à une psychologie commune, le même esprit qui souffle.

«Obviously, the outcomes in Egypt and Wisconsin won’t be comparable. Egypt toppled a dictator; Wisconsin has a democratically elected governor who, at the very earliest, can't be recalled until 2012. And so the protests in Wisconsin are unlikely to transform the world around us. Still, there can be no question, as they spread elsewhere in the Midwest, that they have reenergized the country's stagnant labor movement, a once-powerful player in American politics and business that's now a shell of its former self. “There's such energy right now,” one SEIU staffer told me a few nights ago. “This is a magic moment.”»

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