HOW TO BUILD A YOUTH WING

“YOU LIARS..!”
CAMPAIGNING ONE YEAR
AFTER THE REVOLUTION
One year after the Egyptian revolution, “The Liars” campaign emerged as
a grass root protest against SCAF and the state-dominated media. Movies
showing military violence against civilians were shown in streets throughout
the country. “A true Egyptian campaign with informal organization and
easy for everybody to participate in,” says one of the participants, Hossam
Mamdouh.
“The Military Liars” or the “Askar Kazboon” campaign is one of
the most successful post-revolution campaigns. It is very simple
and everybody can join it! Hossam Mamdouh, 29 years old
and member of the Board of the Awareness Party has been
amongst the thousands and thousands of young Egyptians
taking part in the campaign since its launch in January 2012,
one year after the revolution.
The campaign was initially started by a small committee
and quickly became an extended grass root movement aiming
at debunking the military’s dominance of the state media.
It developed into a guerilla theater initiative chanting antimilitary
slogans and setting up impromptu screenings, usually on busy streets and in public
squares, showing abuses committed by Egyptian security forces across the country.
Activists would go from street to street and air small movies of clashes between the military
and protesters. “We would give people another picture of who the SCAF are than what
they normally see on the state controlled television,” says Hossam Mamdouh.
Initially, the movement hoped it could force the SCAF to resign by calling attention to its
abuses over the past year: more than 80 people killed in crackdowns on demonstrations,
female protester subject to virginity tests, and at least 12.000 civilians brought before military
courts.
“One of the many challenges of the revolution has been to get the true story out to the
Egyptian public who is totally dependent on the state controlled TV for their information,”
says Hossam Mamdouh. “Most media-exposed actions took place exactly in front of the
Egyptian state-run TV on the first anniversary of the revolution. We screened the film on
the TV-building itself and protested not only against SCAF but also against the state media
responsible for the dissemination of the pro-regime propaganda,” says Hossam Mamdouh.
The screening on the wall went on for days, every evening hundreds of people would
come and watch the Kazboon film and key events from the revolution:
“It united people, but it is still very difficult to judge what people got out of it. People have
different levels of education; some don’t have any education at all. We don’t know what
takes place in peoples’ heads or if we manage to change their minds. But we just have to
move on.”
HOW TO BUILD A YOUTH WING DANIsH INsTITUTe fOr pArTIes AND DemOcrAcY pAGe 52