Declaration of the International Current Socialism or Barbarism
Long live to the great Arab revolt of the masses!
Long live to the fighting people of Egypt!
The Arab world is shocked by a huge and dramatic popular uprising. Initiated just weeks ago in Tunisia, the uprising has been expanding, albeit, very unevenly, to all countries of the region, in the first place to Egypt.
The astonishing speed with which they have spread the flames of this rebellion, it shows several things. First, that the Arab peoples, although fragmented in multiple states, retain an impressive degree of unity and identity, connected with large and fast "communicating vessels." But also, and not least important, it shows that these people are facing terrible problems and common enemies.
Under monstrous dictatorships (like the one that fell in Tunisia and is now wavering in Egypt), the Arab peoples are sinking ever deeper into poverty and social degradation, a situation now aggravated severely by the global capitalist crisis. In Egypt, since 2007, the price of food has risen by 800%!
The spark from Tunisia that set this international fire off accurately portrays the political and social situation: Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed university graduate who was making a living as a hawker, set afire himself in protest, and ultimately died, because the police had taken away his vegetable truck that helped him to survive.
A reporter from a "serious" American newspaper in Egypt notes with concern that "for decades the people's fury has been smoldering beneath the surface." [New York Times, 1/28/1911] Today, as a volcano, the "fury of the people" is erupting in one country after the other!
The Arab peoples, however, share not only political and social situations increasingly intolerable but they also have the same enemies who profit from their misery and oppression. These enemies are the miserable bourgeoisies, their political and military staff, and above them, their masters: in the first place, the U.S. imperialism (with its colonial enclave in the State of Israel) and also the former European colonial powers like France which still remains active in the Maghreb.
Egypt, the epicenter of the rebellion
The transcendental thing is that, at present, the epicenter of the earthquake is in Egypt, the most important country in the Arab world and which also marked his political course during the last century. Under Nasser’s rule, Egypt was the capital of secular nationalism, when he presented himself as "anti-imperialist" and combated Israel. Then, under Sadat and Mubarak’s rule, Egypt marked the record of appeasement and capitulation to the U.S. imperialism and to Israel.
Now, the fall of Mubarak’s notorious dictatorship of more than three decades—the chief satrap of the U.S. and Israel together along the Saudi Arabia monarchy—would be a terrible blow and it would change the whole situation of the Arab world.
Moreover, in Egypt there is a stronger and more important working class than in other countries in the region. Despite the dictatorship (and union bureaucrats in his service), workers have been making strikes and even political demonstrations, such as the one held last June in support of Gaza and to protest against Israel’s attacks and the complicity of Mubarak.
In Egypt there is a huge youth sector. Forty per cent of the population is between the age of 10 and 29 [Al-Masry Al-Youm, 16/2/1910] and an important part of them has varying degrees of education, including university degrees.
But the prospect of the vast majority of this group of more than 30 million young people, even those who have received a good education, is to stay unemployed or to wander in precarious and miserable jobs. Education, including higher education, does not guarantee private or state employment. In addition to that, the hateful and oppressive dictatorial regime handles everything by the rules of a corrupt patronage and mafia and suppresses any free expression of the youth, even to those who do not directly question him politically.
Not surprisingly, this massive youth sector, as in Tunisia, was the catalyst and the forefront of the rebellion.
The press has distorted it by giving extremely importance to Facebook or Twitter, when in fact it's not just the means used to communicate, but whom and for what they use them. That is, what social and political content they transmit.
Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians from different social sectors, from workers and unemployed to middle class, from bourgeois professionals to customers excluded from the scheme joined these broad youth groups.
The considerable weight of secularists
In Tunisia and then in Egypt, the rebellion has also opened a new ideological perspective, which can be of immense political importance for the region and also for the development of revolutionary socialism.
After the Second World War, when simultaneously the decolonization in the Arab world and the installation of the imperial enclave of Israel occurred, there were two ideological and political “waves.” The first one was that of bourgeois nationalism, "anti-imperialism" and secularism, whose paradigm was Nasser in Egypt.
After the political, ideological, and moral degeneration of all secular nationalisms (from Algeria to Iraq and from Egypt to Palestine), various "Islamist" groups took over power in different states. While in Egypt they failed to take power, they remained very relevant there and Cairo became also one of its ideological centers.
Recently, the rebellion which started in Tunisia and increased its power in Egypt shows a new phenomenon, and perhaps, if the process advances and succeeds, it can mark a third phase, different from the degenerate and secular nationalism of the past and from the reactionary "Islamism" that arrived later.
A new phenomenon seems to appear, a regional expression that reminds us that the "sign of the times" at an international level is not the same that two or three decades ago. When neo-liberalism and the so-called "death of Islam" were in full expansion, the ground was fertile for the appearance of religious currents, mostly reactionary.
However, during the recent events neither in Tunisia nor in Egypt, the "Islamists" were at the forefront or took any initiative. In Egypt, the main Islamist organization, the Muslim Brotherhood which actually has been playing the role of the "opposition of His Majesty" to Mubarak, waited until Friday 28th to call their followers to mobilize, when already half of the country was on the streets.
Apparently, much of the youths who rallied are secular and "educated", which is reflected in the statements, reports and messages in the "social networks".
If this process moves forward and achieves huge successes, there could be a major change in the ideological landscape of the Arab world, with qualitative more space for various secular currents.
This would be a unique opportunity for revolutionary socialism. The Arab world was not only "blocked" by the barriers of secular nationalism and reactionary Islamism, but also by the devastating fact that "Marxist" currents were represented by the Stalinist organization. At the moment, the perspectives are that another way to re-launch the fight for genuine socialist and revolutionary currents can open.
Two policies of the American imperialism and the Arab bourgeoisie to defeat the rebellion in progress
The suddenness and unexpectedness of the process has caused confusion and division in the different imperialisms and its servants in the region.
With regard to Egypt, which is the key factor to this situation, Washington and its natives obsequious followers still hesitate between two counter-revolutionary policies: to continue to support the unsustainable Mubarak regime or to bet on a transitional "democratic" trap. As this declaration is being written, the latter is what is being debated fiercely in the White House and the Pentagon, and also, of course, between its vassals in Cairo, especially the military.
The effort to support Mubarak at all costs would require an even more bloody repression, possibly with thousands of victims. Although this fact does not concern the American imperialism very much, repression at all costs does not give full guarantees of success, even in the short term.
The consequences would be that if the dictatorship eventually fell, the hate of the masses would point directly to the American imperialism. And so far—although there have been anti-imperialist expressions—protesters have not targeted the U.S. Moreover, it seems that there is a sector that believes in Obama’s “democratic” quackery.
The other way out already delineated is the trap of the "transition" to democracy. The American imperialism and the Egyptian bourgeoisie have a successful candidate to lead this scam, the “Nobel Peace Prize,” Mohamed El-Baradei, a former UN official, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The appointment of El-Baradei in a "transitional government" could calm the waters in the near future, but would start a frightening process; it would open the door to workers, youth and the masses demands, who would act with a triumphant sense after bringing down one of the worst dictatorships in the world. In other words, it can open a course of increasing strife and political radicalization because neither the Egyptian capitalism nor their American master would be able to meet their demands.
It would also be a potentially devastating example for the rest of the US-Israel and France puppets, from Saudi Arabia and Yemen to Algeria and Morocco.
The fight for an independent working class, young, and popular path
In this situation, this can also open a historic opportunity for revolutionary socialism in the Arab world. The focus is to promote and develop all those elements and initiatives independent of all bourgeois currents, whether those being seculars or "Islamists". We must say: No to the “Islamists,” neither to “secular” bourgeois politicians like El-Baradei!
The independent self-organization of the youth and workers to pull down the tottering dictatorship and then to deal with any "democratic" trap emerges as a central necessity. This is the chain’s first link to be thrown!
In this perspective, a fundamental and immediate task is to demand an absolute freedom of organization and propaganda, first for the currents of the Left and of the revolutionary socialism.
In order to allow the opening up of a new political cycle in the Arab world it is imperative to end what has been the common feature of all the previous Arab political regimes (including those who called themselves "socialists" as Nasser or the FLN of Algeria), namely, the total absence of political freedom and of freedom of speech, especially for the left.
It was in that framework of lack of political freedoms that all these rulers, even those posing as "imperialists," could respond with a brutal repression to any popular and workers' claims.
This is a first step to allow the rebellion of Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries to open there a new era with the prospective of a workers and socialist path.
World solidarity with the Arab Revolt!
Finally, in all the countries of the world and especially in the U.S. and Europe, workers and the youth have a fundamental task: solidarity with the Arab masses in struggle. To achieve this, it is necessary to organize protest rallies to Arab consulates and embassies, especially to the Egypt embassy.
• Demand all governments to cease their support to the genocide dictatorships of Egypt and the entire Middle East!
• No more repression!
• Mubarak must go!
• For a self-organized, democratic, socialist and working class path!
