Almost two years after the revolution that forced Mubarak out of office, Egypt is still unstable. Egyptians are using their freedom of speech to criticize the government, who is still run on the Mubarak system of fear and oppression. President Morsi changed some ministers and dissolved the hated Egyptian secret police. But he did not brought any genuine changes to the Egyptian government. Corruption and poverty remains as the Freedom and Justice Party remained loyal to the capitalist principals of the former National Democratic Party.
The protests against Morsi started in November 2012. The reason for them was Morsi decree that would expand his powers. Now Egypt was already a presidential republic with much power for the president. Morsi wanted to expand his presidential rule and the power to legislate without judicial oversight or review of his acts. Because the judges refused to support the president, he fired them. Massive demonstrations erupted as secular, leftist and nationalist Egyptians took to the streets to demonstrate against this authoritarianism!
Islamists choose to support the president and so the confrontation was set. On one side the youth who started the revolution against Mubarak, supported by the secular military and opposition forces, on the other side the Egyptian government and the Freedom and Justice Party supported by islamists.
We revolutionary socialists oppose Morsi, but there are some of us who made the mistake of supporting him in 2012 against the candidate of the Mubarak elite. Those on the Left who supported Morsi in June 2012 in opposition to the Mubarak regime presidential candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, such as the Revolutionary Socialists (RS), served to spread further confusion. The development of independent action and organisation by the working class and poor is key, they need their own mass party to fight for their interests and democratic rights!
The Revolutionary Socialists ( RS ) are a Trotskyist group in Egypt. They are linked to the International Socialist Tendency around the Socialist Workers Party in Britain. Like the SWP, the RS in Egypt thinks that supporting the radical islamists over supporters of a former dictatorship is better. The RS has indeed called for a vote on Morsi, a very counterproductive move. It would have been better for the RS to call people not to vote on either Morsi or Ahmed Shafiq.
Yet the RS is the only revolutionary socialist ( and anti-Stalinist ) group active in Egypt. The old Egyptian Communist Party is still limited to bourgeois Stalinist principals. Other socialist forces are too weak and too divided. There are the Democratic Workers Party, the Socialist Party of Egypt and the Socialist Popular Alliance Party. Some have united into bigger coalitions like the Revolutionary Democratic Coalition or the National Salvation Front. But since some leftist parties like the RS joined both the Revolutionary Democratic Coalition and the National Salvation Front, it is very unsure if these coalitions serve any revolutionary ideology!
On July 3, the military of Egypt removed president Morsi from power. They followed the same path as they did with Mubarak in February of 2011. Morsi was giving an ultimatum to leave his office after he refused to step down. Outside, the demonstrations were growing bigger and bigger. More Egyptians joined the demonstrations against the president and his Freedom and Justice Party!
As the military removed Morsi from power they also arrested two leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood. State television went on black and the Egyptian Constitution was put on hold. With this move, Egypt is again in the hands of the military as it always has been since the Nasser revolution in 1952. Now the military are dictating the nation and its politics. Some secular Egyptians and revolutionaries support this and hope for democracy. But we revolutionary socialists oppose military rule. The Egyptian military is a very huge force, a danger to a future democratic government!
Morsi has told his supporters not to accept the coup of the military. Could this led to civil war? We revolutionary socialists have other proposals. Workers and poor of Egypt must not trust the ruling military or the Islamic; Freedom and Justice Party. The people of Egypt must do it themselves. They must build democratic councils that are elected by the people. Those democratic councils will run the state and the economy. Egypt is creating huge wealth each year. But the profits of this wealth ends up in the hands of the Egyptian ruling class and the military. Only a socialist workers council based democracy can spread the wealth and give power to those millions of people, who are still powerless in the Arab Republic of Egypt!
After two years, the Egyptians see little difference
between Morsi and former dictator Mubarak!
