a écrit :Uprising in Egypt
Angry and hopeful!
The eyes of the world are all on Egypt and the North African countries. We are witnessing the history of humankind in the making. It is not yet in the history books. It is right in front of us. It is part of us. Every freedom-loving person, Marxist and revolutionary has hopes and worries about the present and future of the mass protests in Egypt. The statuesque, represented by all governments and the international communities, including the mass media are scared and cautious. They are not full of hope. They have their own agenda. So do the militant people of Egypt. That is what makes the history!
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle” (Marx & Engels; Manifesto of the Communist Party; 1847). So true!
Why protest? People in Egypt are sick and tired of poverty, destitution, dictatorship, corruption and unemployment. Hence the slogans and demands: “Mubarak go, go, go” and “we want freedom”.
Who imposes the hardships? The government of Mubarak. He is not in love with being the President! Together with his government and the army, he is protecting the capitalist system. He is protecting the interests of the bourgeois class. Hence sending in the police and the army to attack the protestors, killing more than 100 people in a few days.
Who does not want to rock the boat? The Western governments including UK, USA, Israel, the Egyptian bourgeois opposition parties and figures including Elbaradel and Brotherhood of Muslims. Elbaradel says: “I wish we did not have to go out on the street to press the regime to act.” Mobarak says: “I hope that all preachers at Friday prayers tomorrow are calling people to be peaceful..”. US President Barack Obama says: “The people on the streets have to be careful about not resorting to violence”. The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth daily says: “The revolution in Egypt hones Israel’s strategic distress in the Middle East. It is alone, without an ally”.
They all have one thing in common: protecting the statuesque, preventing any political and social changes that would improve people’s lives. If that was not the case, if for one moment they cared about poverty, unemployment, corruption, absence of liberty, freedom and prosperity, they would rejoice at people’s uprising.
What they and the international mass media are really saying is this: Mubarak has been wrong in denying people the basics, we knew it but did not want to interfere or rock the boat because our interests were protected, so there was no need to object, but now that the people of Egypt are protesting, it is better that some sort of concession is made, and some sort of reform will do nicely. However, there should be no street uprising because it could lead to more radical change. By that they mean a true socialist revolution and destruction of the core of capitalism. After all, the world is run by this economic system at the moment. Tunisia yesterday, Egypt today, Iran tomorrow, United Kingdom another day?!!!! That is the scary thought!
The people of Egypt have defied one of the most heavily armed forces, i.e the army. They have defied the curfew in Cairo and have actually camped out in the main square. They have formed “neighborhood Committees” in some areas to coordinate every day living and protests. People are feeding the protestors and have opened their homes to them. Despite what the government officials propagate, there has been no looting. In-fact people have guarded the Museum from being destroyed. The army obviously plays a key role in both ways. It can massacre the protestors or take sides with them. It all depends of balance of forces at any juncture. In the case of Iran in 1979, when people were in the streets in their thousands to overthrow the Shah, the military took orders from the Shah but soon sided with the people. Pictures of flowers on tanks and people standing on the tanks are all a reminder of such change of sides.
Those who demand freedom, equality and prosperity are in the streets, those who suppress, exploit and live on profit and corruption are sitting in ministries and military headquarters. Those who create wealth are hungry, queuing in employment markets and those who take advantage of this wealth are high flyers. 40% of people in Egypt live on 2 a day!
We must salute the brave people of Egypt for rising against one of the most dictatorship rules in the world. Their aspirations and demands have inspired workers and the people of the world, especially in the region. Next month, it will be 32 years since the people of Iran rose against the Shah. They too had and still have similar aspirations. They too came to the streets against poverty, destitution, suppression and fought for freedom, equality and socialism. Their efforts were hijacked by the political Islamic movement. People of Iran came out for freedom, equality and prosperity but before they know it the Western governments sat together and brought the Islamist Khomeini out of hiding to rule the country. We can see what a devastating result that brought to the people of Iran. This should not be repeated in Egypt.
On the other hand, the murmur of democracy is everywhere. On the surface of it and considering the rule of Mubarak’s dictatorship, democracy sounds good. However, in the world we live in, democracy means different things in different countries. Under Indian democracy, they educate the best doctors but destroy baby girls in the womb. Under UK democracy, they have a good National Health Service but 4 million children (one in three) are currently living in poverty (
http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk). In Egypt the promise of democracy is going to be used as a tool by bourgeois opposition to curb the realization of real freedom and equality. A passage from Mansoor Hekmat (Marxist and the leader of Worker-communism) gives a good insight: “Democracy, not as a term in this or that old treatise, but as a reality confronting people in contemporary society, is a product of the rise of capitalism. Democracy is the bourgeois view of freedom. I do not mean at all that there is only one version of democracy, or that historically it is only the bourgeoisie that has pursued or formulated democracy. As it happens, particularly for the last two generations, democracy has been sought after by the subjugated classes and layers, and been variously defined and interpreted by the intellectuals and movements of these classes and layers. This does not reflect the non-bourgeois character of this concept. Quite the contrary; it bears out the domination of bourgeois ideology and terminology over the struggle for freedom and liberation as a whole. Bourgeois society has succeeded in substituting the concept of freedom and the struggle for it by that of democracy. By so doing it has managed to pre-determine the extent of the onset of subjugated classes in their search for freedom, as well as the eventual shape of their victory. You fight for freedom and, upon 'victory', are given parliament and 'pluralism'.” (Democracy: Interpretations and Realities
http://www.m-hekmat.com).
A new version of democratic government for Egypt suggested by a writer for the Financial Times is as follows: “That said, a doom and gloom scenario for post-Mubarak Egypt need not be the only game in town. It is now perfectly possible for Washington to work with new partners in Egypt. A new government can be formed – uniting secular and Islamist; civilian and military; democrat and traditionalist – if all are treated with dignity and fairness. There are no ayatollahs waiting in the wings to take over.”
(
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e5f639aa-2ca9 ... z1CdaZSBXs)
It is brilliant! The recipe for saving capitalism and preventing the introduction of even the S from Socialism in Egypt is what is suggested by the “experts” on the issue! Bring all the right wing political and religious tendencies to form a government and call it democracy! People in Egypt are shouting freedom, they are told listen to the traditionalists! People are demanding employment, they are told to obey the military! Women need liberation, they are told to have the Islamists in the government! This is how a potential revolution is hijacked under the name of “provisional democratic government”!
The mistakes of the Iranian uprising in 1979 should not be repeated. Then, protestors were told Shah leaves but a democratic Bakhtiar and Bazargan will listen to people’s demands. Before we knew it Ayatollah Khomeini was flown from France to impose the Islamic reactionary values.
The nucleus of peoples’ power has already taken shape in Egypt. “Neighborhood Committees” have taken some sort of role in carrying out certain tasks. Peoples’ Councils in work places and living areas are the true organizations that can carry the aspirations of the current protests forward. These are the bodies in which people rule their own destiny. If people can organize a million strong demonstration in one day, they CAN certainly decide their destiny too. If they can bring down the 30 year rule of despotism, they CAN certainly expand their local and national council organizations to bring-about changes in their favor.
A socialist leadership is what is needed to establish even the immediate demands of the people. It can also, in the long term, facilitate the advancement of the current revolutionary momentum for a better world. The eyes of the world is on Egypt.
Long Live the struggle of People in Egypt for freedom, equality and prosperity.
Maryam Kousha
www.wupiran.org 
