7 steps toward successful revolution

Abbas Adel and Haytham Mones, old friends of Point conference, came back to Sarajevo to try to transfer their experience when it comes to organizing revolutions. They have recent experience, that, unfortunately, did not end up as people who participated were hoping for.

What they have learn on the Egyptian revolution experience can fit into 7 points:

1. You need to be sure that you have massive support for your work, most importantly that of grass-roots and the local community  
2. You have to be prepared. “After the revolution we had a lot of power, but nobody understood how to use that power. The only people who had that understanding was the old regime.”
3. Aim right, meaning that you have to set the aim in the correct way. “In Egypt we did not know how to achieve the goals we had, and the goals were not specific.”
4. Know your strengths: “We had the opportunity to involve civil society to make decisions, but we failed with that.”
5. Goals need to be smartly developed and you have to know your maximums and minimums.
6. Do not fail your allies. “After the revolution, people who were involved in the revolution started to fight, and that allowed those in power to start taking back the old positions.”
7. In Egypt we failed. “We acknowledged that with the first elections we had failed. We now know that you should not really go back.”

And the most important – NOW IT IS YOUR TURN, DO IT RIGHT!