Recent articles on international protests

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/12/20111227134059304969.html

"Russia's prime minister has belittled the country's protest movement as lacking clear aims or leaders and rejected their demands for a review of the results of disputed parliamentary polls.
'They have no united programme, clear ways of reaching their aims - which are themselves not clear - or people who could achieve something concrete,' Vladimir Putin said in comments broadcast by state television.
Putin said the protest movement was more interested in creating instability than achieving specific aims, comparing their strategy to 'Brownian motion' - the theory on the random movement of particles."

This is a peculiar article, saying both that the protests are "leaderless" and then interviewing the "leaders."  But I find Putin's view fun; protests are illegitimate unless they have leaders.  Welcome to the 20th century.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/27/world/europe/27iht-letter27.html?_r=3&ref=europe

"And everywhere, this year of mass defiance wrong-footed those who were supposed to be in the know. The experts had thought the Arabs were getting richer and were too scared of their autocrats, that the Russians were apathetic and quite liked their neo-czar, that the Indian middle class was politically disengaged, that West Europeans were too old for outrage, that Americans didn’t care about the class divide and that the Chinese comrades were too effective at suppressing dissent.
But everywhere, the conventional wisdom was turned upside down by people who turned out to be angrier than their elites had suspected, and better able to channel that dissatisfaction into mass protest and even revolution."

A nice summary about how everybody didn't see these protests coming. Except some of us.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/18/62/30170/Books/Review/The-Ultras-and-the-Egyptian-Revolution.aspx

"Eyewitness accounts and video recordings chart the role the Ultras played from the first day of the revolution. One video uploaded onto YouTube from an unknown source on 22 January, sought to reassure those intending to join the demonstrations on 25 January that they need not be scared of the police, because they would be protected by the Ultras who have experience of clashing with the police.
Since the afternoon of 25 January, Ultras groups joined the demonstrations, appearing most prominently on Qasr Al-Aini Street, then increasing their activities on 26 and 27 January throughout the neighbourhoods of Bulaq, Guiza and Shubra. The first Ultras martyr Hussein – the author does not include his full name – in Alexandra, and the next in Suez, Mohamed Makwa who died on 28 January.
The Ultras heroically defended front lines throughout different clashes, from the Battle of the Camel during the 18-day uprising, to clashes outside the Israeli Embassy in September and during the battles of Mohamed Mahmoud in November."

Have you even heard of the Ultras?  Yet they played an important part of Egypt's revolt.  It's going to take a thick book for each revolt to be accurately portrayed for history.  Many different groups came together to topple Mubarak.  The Internet helped bring them together.  But it was work on the ground that made the revolt a success.