Egypt Erupts
Again
SIXTY years
ago, (July 22-26), Egypt witnessed a revolution that changed its course. Egypt
was declared a republic, monarchy was abolished, land reforms initiated, Suez
Canal was nationalised, educational opportunities expanded rapidly and Non-Alignment
was declared as the foreign policy objective.
Sixty years
since, today, Egypt is once again on the boil. The people are out on
streets. Tahrir Square emerged as an important symbol for protest against
dictatorship and for political, economic rights. The people did not rest after
the ouster of Mubarak. As has been discussed in these columns, there were three
aspects to the popular protests that emerged in Egypt two years back – (I) they
were against dictatorship, (ii) they were against economic hardships, a result
of the global economic crisis and the neo-liberal policies pursued in their
country and (iii) against the pro-US imperialist tilt in foreign policy.
Mubarak's
ouster met only one of these demands. Though we cannot capture the entire historical
transition of Egypt here, from a republican State that had initiated land
reforms and other such measures to the current neo-liberal State, it would not
be out of context to recall that working class was indeed in action since 2006
against the neo-liberal, anti-people policies of the government. Workers, who
in fact had triggered the demonstrations against Mubarak, continued with their
strikes and demands for a higher minimum wage and other benefits. In fact, as
conceded by the deposed President Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, last year
witnessed 7400 strikes, sit-ins and picketing actions of the workers.
Due to the long
period of tyrannical rule of dictators, Communist Party and trade unions were
crushed. Private enterprises, which were promoted and established in a large
number banned the formation of trade unions. All these factors adversely
affected the organisation and class actions of the workers, but did not prevent
them from registering their discontent. A cumulation of this discontent and its
accentuation due to the economic crisis led the workers and the people at large
to lead the movement against Mubarak. Muslim Brotherhood, the only legal
opposition to Mubarak's regime, it should be remembered, was a late entrant in
these protests.
Muslim
Brotherhood due to the natural advantage of being the only legal political
grouping, won the elections narrowly in the fiercely contested presidential
elections. The Muslim Brotherhood continued with the same policies of
privatisation, liberalisation and did not concede the demand for an hike in the
minimum wages for the workers. They even did not concede the demand of the
workers' right to organise and form trade unions. Public sector workers too saw
through the smoke screen and began to understand the anti-worker characteristic
of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood showed their brazen bias towards the rich
capitalists in refusing the rights of the workers. Moreover, they reduced the
taxes on the rich capitalists. On the foreign policy front, they conceded so
much to the US and Israel that even put Mubarak to shame. Workers, due to their
role in the production process, were quick to understand the class bias of all
these reactionary measures which were very much against the grain of the
demonstrations that led to the ouster of Mubarak.
The economic
policies of the Brotherhood increased unemployment from 25 percent during
Mubarak period to 32 percent. Foreign and domestic debts rose and so did the
number of people living beneath the official poverty line, which went beyond 50
percent. The prescriptions of the IMF were followed. Islamic bonds were issued,
which Samir Amin, eminent economist, terms as a “theft to attach derisory
prices to goods that are worth billions of dollars. These are not the usual privatisations
that reactionary regimes indulge in, selling off goods at their economic value.
This is pure fraud more than a privatisation”.
Muslim
Brotherhood after a poorly participated referendum in which only 33 percent of
Egyptians voted, rewrote the Constitution which would lead to creeping
Islamisation of the society. Brotherhood tried to use its stint in power to
infiltrate many of the State institutions. Many key posts were filled with the
cadre of Brotherhood and their lack of expertise in administration resulted in
chaos. All these measures scared even some among the small and medium
bourgeoisie who were involved in tourism, construction and other small scale
industries. They feared insecurity, chaos and anarchy adversely affecting their
trade prospects. In short, substantial sections of the population got
disillusioned with the Brotherhood and their policies. They felt betrayed and
left with no other option, once again took to the streets.
The Tamarud
(Rebellion) movement started with the collection of 22 million signatures
expressing their loss of confidence on Morsi and calling for early presidential
elections. Most of the political parties, trade unions, youth organisations and
organisations representing various other sections of the society joined
together in collecting these signatures from factories, fields, work-places,
colleges and universities. This followed with a call for demonstrations
throughout the country on June 30. The latent anger among the people can be
understood from the fact that more than 27 million people participated in the
protests on that day, topping the expectations of even the organisers of the
protests. These were in fact labelled as the biggest protests ever to take
place in the history of not only Egypt but any other single country anywhere
else in the world. Many of the Left parties and organisations had termed these
as the 'second wave of revolution' in Egypt.
The forces that
had come together to oust Brotherhood had declared that “the first democratic
task of the revolution is promulgating a new civil democratic Constitution that
stresses human rights, women's rights and economic and social rights for the
toiling classes, and one which does not negate the people's right to choose its
political and economic system in the future according to the balance of
forces”. And “the freedom to form trade unions, political parties and
associations without government interference, rejecting the formation of
political parties on a religious and sectarian basis, full equality between men
and women in terms of rights and duties, equality before the law and the
criminalisation of religious and other forms of discrimination”. Thus, instead
of resorting to amending the Constitution that was promulgated by the
Brotherhood, they took upon the task of completely re-writing the Constitution.
This they had termed as “a fundamental task for the democratic and progressive
forces in the present moment”.
The Army is the
most powerful institution in the country, owner of enormous amounts of
resources and a regular recipient of aid from the US. It acted both in its
self-interests and under the pressure of the peoples' movement. They were also
forced to disobey the orders of the US, which many observers are calling it as
the 'first time' in its history after developing one of the close associations
with the US defence establishment. This was because of the widespread popular
anger among the people. But we should remain cautious of the role of the army
as the general secretary of the Communist Party of Egypt, Salah Adli had
explained, “the army’s leaders have interests and privileges which they want to
preserve, and they also want to have a role in power without a direct political
interference. We believe that this has to be taken into account at this stage
with emphasis on correcting things gradually during the next phase”.
The US was
naturally worried at these developments and tried to ensure that Brotherhood
remains in power as it serves its interests and that of Israel. It tried
to pressurise some of the political parties in Egypt to sever ties with the
Left-wing forces and the youth movement. They tried to prevent them from
demanding the ouster of Morsi and joining the demonstrations. The US also tried
to convince the Brotherhood in announcing certain 'reforms' to pacify the
peoples' anger. But all this proved futile in the face of the peoples' fury.
Muslim
Brotherhood mobilised its forces against the ouster of Morsi. Widespread
violence with street battles are being reported daily from Egypt between
the forces of the Brotherhood and the forces who had come out against it.
Critical observers are suspecting the US hand behind the large scale riots that
had taken place in Egypt. They apprehend that all sorts of divisive, sectarian,
terrorist elements will be encouraged to ensure that the 'revolutionary' aims
of the people are not realised. They are also fearing attempts and plots for
the overthrow and destabilisation of the process that was initiated with the
appointment of the interim president, the re-writing of the Constitution within
a certain time frame and the subsequent elections under it. Whether the Army
will stay the course set out is also a question.
The main
challenge for the people of Egypt will be to stand united against all
attempts to destabilise the process that they had initiated. For this, as the
general secretary of the Communist Party of Egypt himself has stated, it is
very important for all the Left forces to come together. A beginning is made
now, but this needs to be deepened to exert pressure and ensure that there is
no retreat.
DEPT OF PUBLIC RELATION
-RED ARMY BOYZ
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