One of the most unexpected features of the ongoing revolution in Egypt, a/k/a "the January 25th Youth Movement," is its leadership, or more precisely, its apparent lack of leadership. Accordingly, some have dubbed it the "Facebook" or "Twitter" or more generically, the "Social Media" revolution. In my view, however, this is not so much a leaderless revolution as it is one with a diffuse leadership. Certainly, social media and other internet tools of communication enabled this revolution to organize and to reach critical mass. This structure has not been able, thus far, to transform itself into a formal political interest group capable of managing the transition to a new regime. As a result, older, more established political groups in Egypt have been given responsibility to negotiate with the regime. But, what are the political demands of the January 25th Youth Movement? I was able to find a communique dated February 4 on YouTube in the name of this movement setting forth its political demands. While I have no way of confirming its accuracy, it has the air of authenticity and is certainly an articulate formulation of what the demands of the movement are, especially in light of what other media has reported. I have set out a translation of this communication below:
