People's Democracy

Egypt Erupts Again

R Arun Kumar

SIXTY years ago, on these days (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.