Until Everyone Is Free

Beyond the Bill: Sudan: From Power in the Streets to a People's Revolution

Until Everyone Is Free

Show Notes

Staggering visions of unity from Kenya’s historic #RejectFinanceBill protests demonstrated a solidarity that many thought was impossible. However, now that the clear threat of a single bill has diffused, many feel we are in unprecedented, uncharted waters. Nothing could be further from the truth. In 2012-13, our Sudanese comrades realised that street demonstrations were the manifestation of people power, but only through mass organising could that power actually be wielded. From neighborhood resistance committees to informal unions, Sudanese have drawn upon African revolutionary traditions of popular democracy to innovate powerful forms of grassroots organisation—tactics we hope can expand the political imagination of those who have been invigorated and radicalised by the protests here in Kenya but ask, “What’s next?”

On 31 August 2024, we invited Rabab Elnaiem, Husam Mahjoub, and Gussai H. Sheikheldin to share insights from Sudan's grassroots organising.

Rabab Elnaiem is a Sudanese activist, labor organizer, and former spokesperson for the Sudanese Workers Alliance for the Restoration of Trade Unions (SWARTU) currently based in the United States. She is a co-founder of the Ta Marbuta podcast, a feminist, anti-capitalist podcast.

Husam Mahjoub is co-founder of Sudan Bukra, an independent nonprofit Sudanese TV channel launched in 2019 as a media voice for the revolution. Husam is a communications engineer, journalist, and host of a show in Sudan Bukra that critically examines Sudanese politics through interviews with various political actors, including many resistance committee members, trade union leaders/members, and progressive writers and activists.

Gussai H. Sheikheldin is a researcher and consultant whose work seeks to illuminate synergies between techno-science and institutions, to advance policies and solutions in sustainable design for socioeconomic systems and development governance. Based in East Africa and Sudan, most of his projects focus on African topics, from a pan-African perspective.

Other useful links:

https://hammerandhope.org/article/sudan-revolution

https://newpol.org/issue_post/a-revolutionary-way-of-doing-politics-is-taking-shape-in-sudan/

https://menasolidaritynetwork.com/2021/11/04/powering-the-uprising-sudans-resistance-committees/

https://www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/magdi-el-gizouli/

https://roape.net/2024/01/10/exposing-the-murderers-the-uae-and-saudi-arabia-in-the-war-in-sudan/

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Jul 4, 2025

Yesterday, we hosted the final installment of our teach-in series "Beyond the Bill." After the June 25 uprisings last year, many Kenyans were radicalized, they began seeing the state for what it is, they started seeing the contradictions. We wanted to capture that momentum and, through political education, help people make sense of the shape of power that guides what has been happening in the country—from "how countries should think about debt" to the history of Mwakenya, to Pan-Africanism in the DRC, and much more. Every month for the last year, we invited people to help us understand these connected struggles, and we're grateful to everyone who took part and, of course, everyone who listened and shared! In two of our sessions, we spoke to Sudanese comrades Rabab Elnaiem, Husam Mahjoub, and Gussai Sheikheldin. The edited transcripts of these conversations, we put together and published in a booklet called "Revolution Neither Starts Nor Ends." Our ultimate goal is to distribute these as free pamphlets for reading in social justice centres and other political organizing spaces throughout Nairobi (and maybe throughout the country)! However, in order to fund a big print run, we are selling bound copies of this book at 800 KES. Please buy some copies and help us raise money to print hundreds more to give away! You can find them at Cheche Bookshop. Some of you who have already sent money can pick up your copies there anytime.

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