The amazing
steadfastness of the youth-led uprising coupled now with the dramatic
entrance of the Egyptian working class into the mass movement has
radically changed the relationship of forces.
Strikes have
been reported in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and the Suez Canal. Hundreds
of thousands of workers have walked off their jobs, and there has been
street fighting in Suez and elsewhere.
Mubarak, the principal face of the U.S.-backed dictatorship for the past 31 years, refuses to bow to the forces of the uprising.
His dramatic
television address shocked the nation when he announced that he was
intent on remaining and would only “delegate his duties” to Omar
Suleiman, the CIA’s own trusted agent and thug who has commanded
Mubarak’s hated Egyptian Intelligence Service. Suleiman is a favorite of
the Israeli regime as confirmed by recently released Wikileaks cables.
Having armed
and financed the Mubarak dictatorship’s 30-year-long war against the
Egyptian people, the U.S. government has abruptly shifted its position
in a last-minute effort to prevent U.S. imperialist interests in Egypt
going down with Mubarak’s doomed ship.
As the regime
seemed to be crumbling in the face of the uprising and the mass strike
wave, Obama raced to the microphone at Northern Michigan University
today to announce that the U.S. government saluted the youth-led
uprising.
Contrast between words and deeds
The cynicism, hypocrisy and sheer deceit of imperialist diplomacy are hard to match.
For the past 17
days, Mubarak’s police and thugs have murdered, beaten, arrested and
tortured thousands of valiant and peaceful protesters—and during that
entire time, the U.S. government refused to cut its massive financing of
the regime.
During the
entire 17 days of mass protest, Obama and Clinton refused to call for
Mubarak to step down immediately. The senior U.S. civilian officials and
the Pentagon’s top command stayed in constant contact with their agent
Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s vice president, and their other agents in the
senior leadership of Egypt’s military.
In the face of
the impending victory of the people over the U.S. client, President
Obama said: “It’s a moment of transformation that’s taking place because
the people of Egypt are calling for change. They’ve turned out in
extraordinary numbers representing all ages and all walks of life. But
it’s young people who have been at the forefront—a new generation, your
generation, who want their voices to be heard. So going forward we want
those young people and we want all Egyptians to know America will
continue to do everything that we can to support an orderly and genuine
transition to democracy in Egypt.”
This oratorical
syrup is designed to camouflage the brutal role of the Pentagon, CIA and
Wall Street banks which have been partners with the dictatorship in the
common looting and repression of Egypt’s people.
The harsh reality of capitalism
Forty percent of
the people in Egypt live on less than $2 a day. Two million are
homeless and live in cemeteries. For decades, when the workers rose up
and engaged in mass strikes to improve their wages, they were gunned
down. In recent years, militant labor organizing was repressed, but
somewhat less severely.
The young people
of Egypt are suffering from unemployment and repression. The workers of
Egypt—who have now entered the political arena as a militant class
force—are suffering immense poverty, not because Egypt is a poor country
but because Mubarak and the Egyptian elites allowed the country to be
swallowed up by the neoliberal dictates of U.S. imperialism.
Washington and
the IMF, using Mubarak as their puppet, imposed a vicious neoliberal
model that allowed western corporations and Egyptian elites to get rich.
Obama and the
Washington establishment are now emphasizing their commitment to what
they call an “an orderly transition to democracy.” This is well
understood code language. By “orderly,” they actually mean that steps
will be taken to preserve the current order, the current political and
economic system of oppression, but without the personality of Mubarak.
The revolution has its own logic
Mubarak is not
playing along. Having ruled the country for 31 years as if it personally
belonged to him and his family, Mubarak expects to ride out the storm.
Suleiman and his henchmen and cronies fear that Mubarak’s rapid exit
will leave them entirely exposed before a people’s revolution that is
becoming more radical by the day.
They are hoping
against hope that the revolution’s momentum will slow and that they will
then be able to unleash a wave of murder and terror against the real
organizers of the mass movement while co-opting some of the more
conservative religious organizations and pro-western liberal figures who
are now part of the broad, multi-class opposition movement.
The next hours
and days will be decisive. The masses are preparing to march and they
want to take power. The revolution has its own logic.
We in the United
States must stay in the streets demanding not one more penny to the
dictatorship. The U.S. government is responsible for the terror and
repression. On Friday and Saturday, we will be marching on the White
House. The people of Egypt are changing the face of global politics.
Their victory will light a flame of resistance and hope that will
inspire the movement for social justice everywhere—including inside the
United States, where 30 million people suffer from unemployment and
underemployment.
