Silence Is No Longer the Refuge of the Oppressed

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

Last night, in yet another episode of the Interior Ministry’s relentless cycle of revenge and brutality against everyone, a police officer shot and killed a young driver in the head in the Darb al-Ahmar district. In response, enraged residents gathered and surrounded the Cairo Security Directorate, demanding justice and retribution against the officer responsible.

These criminals—the torturers and murderers of the Interior Ministry—may strut with arrogance, armed to terrorize Egyptians. Still, nothing frightens them more than people rising in protest, resisting their savagery in any form.
This is what terrifies not only the Interior Ministry but the entire regime it protects. We have all witnessed the vicious media campaigns launched by state-owned and many private media outlets against doctors for their decision to strike in response to police assaults on medical professionals. This regime does not even want its victims to have a voice. It has issued a security directive through the Ministry of Health to shut down the Nadeem Center, an organization documenting torture victims, in an attempt to conceal its crimes and continue its spree of killing and torture—whether in the streets or detention facilities.

Submissive silence is no longer an option for the oppressed, who endure the tyranny of a murderous regime that unleashes its enforcers to brutalize and kill indiscriminately—whether the victim is a revolutionary, an activist, a tuk-tuk driver, or even an Italian researcher. The Interior Ministry acts as if it faces no consequences, believing that no force can stand in its way—but this illusion is beginning to shatter.

The response of the people last night was not an isolated event. We have seen it before—in Luxor, when police officers tortured a citizen to death, and in Ismailia, among other cases. It is also evident in the doctors’ movement and their call to provide free medical treatment—a step that, if implemented, expanded, and victorious, could inspire more sectors of society to join the fight against police brutality.

The butcher Sisi’s regime knows well that the deep crisis engulfing it—economically and politically—has no escape except through more repression, more violence, and more systematic terror against Egyptians. But as oppression and injustice mount, they will only fuel more resistance against this regime. The more they try to seal off the public sphere with blood, iron, and fire, the more it will be reopened by the angry, the oppressed, and the wronged.
This was not the case a year ago—or just a few months ago. These battles do not erupt in isolation; they pave the way for one another. They demand unity, coordination, and the mobilization of every possible force to confront the tyranny of a regime that steals with one hand and kills with the other—the regime of Hatem’s State.