Nick G.
The removal of Egyptian President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood government is a setback for US imperialism and its plans to impose a stable environment for its plunder of North Africa and the Middle East.
The events of late June and early July represented an attempt by the Egyptian people to revive their agenda for democratic rights, for improved wages and living conditions and for breaking free of the IMF and World Bank austerity measures designed to only benefit the US and European imperialist powers.
Lacking a strong centre of revolutionary leadership, the working masses have been unable to take power into their own hands. They have not yet been able to smash the old state apparatus, the core of which is the armed forces and the police.
Morsi acceptable to US imperialists
The mass movement against former President Hosni Mubarak that erupted in January 2011 had been anticipated by the US. Wikileaks and other sources revealed a careful nurturing of "opposition" leaders by the US, including amongst the Muslim Brotherhood. Capital is its own God and cares not what religious cloak is worn by its devoted worshippers. It merely demands stability for its own expansion and growth. And this was promised by Morsi and Co. who persevered with its neoliberal agenda of privatisation, removal of price controls, refusal of wage rises and continued outlawing of unions, and sale and disposal of Egyptian financial assets. They also lined up with the US and its terrorist thugs in support of the war against the Syrian government.
This led to demands for the recall of the government. Such a right is as much a condition of democracy as the casting of votes. It was declared as such by the victorious proletariat at the time of the Paris Commune (1871). In all, 22 million voters hand-signed a petition for Morsi’s removal, complete with their national ID numbers. When he refused to budge, 27 million took to the streets over a four-day period beginning June 30.
The Egyptian armed forces, long associated at the senior level with big local and foreign corporations, saw the people’s movement as a chance to again place themselves at the centre of state authority. The army’s actions to remove Morsi temporarily coincided with the demands of the people. There were wild scenes of rejoicing as the army and the people stood as one.
The working class cannot rely on an army of the rich and powerful
Lack of clarity on the role of the state and its key institutions allowed the army of Egypt’s rich and powerful to pose as "friends of the people".
The revisionist Communist Party of Egypt even went so far as to claim: "Our valiant armed forces reaffirmed their deep devotion, absolute loyalty to their people and their right to live a free dignified life, therefore, they responded to their demands, interacted with their revolutionary struggle, stood by them as a protector shield and a force to execute their demands and objectives."
This is the same army that has for years crushed the Egyptian people in the interests of the government and its US backers. It is the same army that sent tanks to clear Tahrir Square in April 2011 and massacred people outside the Maspero building that October. This is the army of "deep devotion" that finger-raped detained protesting women in callous "virginity tests" and beat and kicked the "woman in the blue bra" (below). This was how they stood by Egyptian women as a "protective shield"!
US imperialists move to impose agenda on new government
When Morsi was deposed, the US weighed in with denunciations of a "coup", concerns for the "rule of law" and expressions of support for the "legitimacy" of the Muslim Brotherhood government.
Never known for not sacrificing principle for profit, the tune quickly changed as the imperialists adjusted to the new reality. The US sent its No. 2 diplomat in the State Department, William Burns, to Cairo to meet with interim government officials as well as civil society and business leaders during his two-day visit.
The army’s "absolute loyalty to the people" was revealed in its selection of personnel to lead the post-Morsi government.
The new interim prime minister is Hazem El-Beblawi, an economist and former finance minister "respected" by the US. The new finance minister is US-trained Ahmed Galal, managing director of the Cairo-based Economic Research Forum since 2007 and for 18 years a researcher at the World Bank. Nabil Fahmy, who served as Egypt's former ambassador to the United States for over a decade under Hosni Mubarak, is likely to be foreign minister, while Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the UN Atomic Energy Agency was sworn in as Egypt's interim vice president for international relations.
With these willing servants in place, US imperialism began demanding that Egypt embrace policies that the IMF requires as a condition for releasing $4.8 billion in aid, such as increasing the sales tax to 12.5 percent from 10 percent and lowering the country’s enormous energy subsidies. US and other foreign investors are waiting to pounce.
People learning through experience
Events in Egypt are a rich school for the country’s working class. They can be expected to demand the right to freedom of organisation, the right to have unions, to reject austerity measures and IMF "loans", to demand independence from the US and other imperialisms, to have equality between the sexes and to end religious and other discrimination.
Growing numbers will repudiate reliance on the army of the rich and powerful and call for new state institutions under working class leadership.
Australian Communists salute the great Egyptian people and wish them well in further advancing their revolutionary cause.
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