In Egypt the Islamists sacked by the army will remain as a back-up force to be used against the proletariat

The Egyptian government, which took office in the middle of July and was put together in record time by the octogenarian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawid, doesn’t have much time because the Egyptian situation is one which requires rapid decisions. ‘Imported grain reserves will run out in two months, according to an ex-minister of the recently dismissed government. There are about 500 thousand tons on top of the three million tons grown in Egypt’ (AGI, July 11, 2013). Indeed it seems that back in February, due to a fall in foreign currency reserves, the deposed Morsi government suspended its usual purchases of grain on the world market. Now, after the coup, they are waiting for the 12 billion dollars of aid promised by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates; this substantial amount should allow the Egyptian State, the largest importer of grain in the world, to feed its 85 million inhabitants and buy a bit of time; although at the expense of an increased debt burden.

The Muslim Brotherhood government wanted to abolish State subsidies over a five year period and had started to do so. Most of these subsidies were to cover energy costs, providing cheap energy to industry but also cheap petrol to private individuals. Oil worth 165 billion Egyptian Pounds (1 dollar = 7 Egyptian pounds) is extracted inside the country but the State sells it on for only 50 billion, deducting the difference from its budget. Other important subsidies reduce the cost of the gas canisters which play such an indispensable part in the family economy of Egypt: apparently 360 million are used there each year. Another essential product which is subsidized is bread: a loaf of bread which costs 40 piasters to produce is sold by the government for 5 piasters.

Of course this system is open to abuse but for several million poor Egyptians these subsidies are essential for their survival. Despite this, the vampires of the IMF still asked the Morsi government to abolish the subsidies system.

This was just one of many problems which the Muslim Brotherhood government was unable to address. Extremely serious economic and social problems were threatening the establishment’s hold on things and stoking up social conflict. Hence the army, the real holder of political and economic power, decided to step in.

The ‘revolution’ of 2011

In the first few months of 2011, spurred on by the example of the revolt in Tunisia, the powerful Egyptian proletariat began to organise mass mobilisations and strikes. In the space of a few weeks this led to an emptying of the regime unions and the formation of free trade unions, which called for significant pay rises and for improved working and living conditions.

In this phase the intervention of the liberal democratic movement on the one hand, and the Muslim Brotherhood on the other, served the interests of the ruling classes by diverting the working class from its own objectives and focussing it instead on the bourgeois demand of bringing down Mubarak; who in a well orchestrated media campaign was suddenly held responsible for all of the country’s ills. Once again it was a case of ‘changing everything to change nothing’.

In the July 9 issue of L’Unita’ we read: ‘In the 17 months since the fall of the Hosni Mubarak government the army have kept a tight grip on Egypt. In those 17 months, states a report by Amnesty International, the security forces and the army have killed at least 120 demonstrators; court martials have subjected 12,000 civilians to unfair trials; the army has arrested women who took part in the protests and forced them to take “virginity tests”‘.

And yet the liberal El-Baradei, to name just one among many, has collaborated with the leaders of the Coup-d’etat from the word go.

Another example: at the end of 2011 the army intervened in a demonstration of young Copts, who were protesting against attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood, by opening fire on the crowd with machine guns and causing a massacre. And yet when General Al Sissi announced the Coup d’etat, the Coptic Pope was seen standing beside him.

The Brotherhood: changing everything to change nothing

The government of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was elected by a very narrow margin, had had its sphere of action severely circumscribed by an agreement it had made with the military hierarchy. In the economic sphere, the Brotherhood’s ‘liberalism’ had to settle accounts with the army’s ‘statism’, a matter which would be resolved in the Brotherhood’s favour only after they had secured key government posts.

It wasn’t however the same on the social plane, where the government’s actions against the Workers’ movement was a lot more incisive. This is evidenced by a document drawn up by the Egyptian Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in June 2012 (obtained from the Mena Solidarity Network):

‘Today we are living in the third year of the revolution but under the present regime ‘s government we are still garnering the bitter fruits of the dictatorship, which has seen Egypt placed back on the International labour Organisation’s black list of those countries with the worst record on workers’ rights. Today, on the eve of a new wave of our people’s revolution, we remind the world of the demands the Egyptian workers made the day after the revolution.

We ask: where is the new law on the unions, the so-called law on trade union freedom? Why hasn’t it been passed, despite having been debated for over two years? Why is the machinery of repression being used more and more to crush workers’ protests, up to the point that the strike at Portland Cement in Alexandria was smashed by police with dogs? Why are workers being sacked whose only crime was exercising their right to protest and strike, with some workers even facing prison sentences after being accused of ‘inciting strikes’? Why are there thousands of workers unemployed due to the closing of factories or the termination of their fixed-term contracts? Why has the State kept silent while around 4,000 factories have closed; why haven’t they questioned the owners and why aren’t they protecting the workers’ rights? What is preventing the implementation of the laws to improve workers’ conditions, such as the law on the minimum and maximum wage, and the new labour law? Meanwhile, on the contrary, laws have been passed which are directly opposed to workers’ interests, such as the one which criminalizes strikes, and the laws which demand taxes from the poor but leaves the rich and the big investors untouched.

It is necessary to declare that the present government is as guilty as the previous ones, both those before and after the revolution, seeing as how they have all worked against the workers’ interests, seeking instead to line the pockets of a small minority consisting of investors, the rich and big businessmen. The only thing these people are interested in is maximising their profits by sucking the life blood out of the workers and the poor’.

The evolving situation in Egypt over the last two years has more than confirmed this.

The bourgeoisie applauds the coup d’etat

The well-organised coup, which probably happened following consultations with Washington, would see the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces quickly divesting President Mohammed Morsi of power, arresting hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including their main leaders, suspending the Constitution, dissolving the Senate, and imposing a judge, Adly Mansour, president of the Constitutional Court, as provisional leader of the government. The Chief of Staff of the army and Minister of Defence, Al Sissi, made the announcement of Morsi’s dismissal speaking from a room in which were gathered high-level representatives of so-called ‘civil society’, of the opposition parties, El-Baradei, and of the Coptic and Islamic religious hierarchies.

The immediate objectives of the coup were: to prevent any reaction by the Muslim Brotherhood and their party Justice and Liberty, so abruptly removed from power; to continue to enjoy the support of the United States by giving a ‘democratic’ veneer to the coup, using the huge anti-government demonstrations to justify it; to obtain a patent of impartiality and moderation, which could be useful to it if it needed to intervene; which sure enough it did, against the rural and city proletariat.

The action by the army obtained the support of the liberal El-Baradei’s National Salvation Front, the Salafist muslims, the Coptic Church and the ‘Rebel Movement’, the latter allegedly having collected 22 million signatures for its anti-Morsi petition. It just goes to show, for the umpteenth time, that the various components of the ruling classes are always prepared to sink their differences whenever the survival of the bourgeois State is at stake.

If the Egyptian proletariat really wants to get organised and defend workers’ interests, this solidarity that exists amongst the bourgeoisie must be borne firmly in mind. The bourgeoisie’s liberal movement in Egypt backs a number of demands which supposedly define the Western democracies, namely: the lay State, equality of the sexes, freedom of the press, freedom to join trade unions and the right to strike. But the revolutionary communist party can’t ally itself with this movement on those grounds. In Egypt, just as in the European countries, a liberal’ or ‘progressive’ bourgeoisie no longer exists: the bourgeoisie is counter-revolutionary everywhere, wherever it may be, and is united in defending what is an increasingly shaky economic system. It is ready to do anything to defend its privileges, whether these are huge or ridiculously small, and it will fight to hold on to its power even if it means installing an open dictatorship, and they certainly won’t be seeking the consensus of the exploited classes.

In reality, this ‘democratic’ coup d’etat wasn’t directed against the Muslim Brotherhood (with whom, up to a few weeks ago, the army was actively collaborating against the working class) but against a government which had proved unable to hold back the rising tide of protests and strikes.

‘The Morsi administration’s greatest limitation was its inability to ensure security and control over the country’s territory’, states Maurizio Massari, the Italian ambassador in Cairo. ‘The supply of gas became irregular, transport became unreliable, and money started to disappear. The institutional confusion, corruption and legislative chaos eventually delivered the final blow to the experiment of Muslim Brotherhood government’, is reported in No. 29 of Il Mondo. It was really a preventative coup d’etat to try to gain time. By imposing a government which is capable of re-establishing an appearance of law and order and creating, or so they think, the minimum conditions needed for the country to continue receiving economic aid from abroad, essential if the State is to head off the collapse, it’s ultimate aim was really to deviate the protest, yet again, onto the level of changes that are really just reshuffles within the bourgeois class.

The army, it is true. is defending its own interests as trust proprietor of industries and land and employer of tens of thousands of wage earners, and in this respect it has come into conflict with the ‘laissez faire’ policies of the Morsi government; but it also represents the essential interests of the State, insofar as it is an instrument for the defence of the bourgeois order, and it is this which has ensured it the backing of the greater part of the ruling classes.

Here is the statement issued to Asia News by the spokesperson of the Egyptian Catholic Church: ‘What is happening in Egypt is not a coup d’etat. The army has chosen to defend a peaceful revolution organised by young Egyptians backed by millions of people throughout the country. In a normal coup d’etat the army would have immediately nominated one of their own men as interim president, changed the government and taken power. But this isn’t the case in Egypt’.

Today against the Muslims, tomorrow against the proletariat

In the early hours of the morning of Monday July 8^th, the Egyptian army broke up a demonstration organised by the Muslim Brotherhood using extreme violence. The demonstrators were assembled outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard in Cairo and were calling for the release of ex-president Morsi, who they believed was being held inside the building. Under fire from soldiers and snipers, more than 50 demonstrators were killed, many shot in the head, and over 300 wounded. Over 200 were arrested as well and the headquarters of the Justice and Liberty Party, an emanation of the Muslim Brotherhood, was closed down. This massacre passed off without any major scandal, and the bourgeois parties and various churches thought that calling for ‘a commission of enquiry’ to ‘ascertain’ the facts would be quite enough.

This brutal intervention certainly responds to the need to terrorise demonstrators (and not just those mobilised by the Muslim Brotherhood) but it also had another purpose: the Islamists needed to be removed from power but not eliminated altogether, because their clampdowns on the workers’ organisations, their populist demagoguery and their religious propaganda have helped and will continue to help the ruling classes to retain their hold on power. Equally, when the high sounding slogans of freedom and democracy currently being used by the army’s supporters are no longer convincing, the State will increasingly have to resort to its well oiled machinery of repression.

Bourgeois international solidarity 

On the international plane the coup was immediately welcomed by the Saudi monarchy, who congratulated General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, and the new head of government, Adli Mansur, for ten years Hosni Mubarak’s right-hand man in Saudi Arabia. The Syrian president Al-Assad also welcomed the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood government since they are his adversaries in the domestic war he is fighting. Abu Masen, the Palestinian president, took the same position, whereas it seems that Hamas have lost an important ally following Morsi’s departure.

Meanwhile Qatar, which is small but financially powerful and whose interests had been given preferential treatment by the Muslim Brotherhood government, harshly condemned the coup; although this won’t of course stop it continuing to do business there. Turkey, with its Islamic background, has taken the same stance, and so has Iran.

The western countries have been much more cautious, with the United States setting the tone and Europe following behind. Their stance has been summed up well in the words of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the General Secretary of NATO, who declared: ‘I don’t believe that the most important thing right now is to put a label on what happened in Egypt or to have theoretical discussions about whether or not it was a coup d’etat. What we need to do now is strengthen democracy as quickly as possible’.

Nevertheless, the United States have just delivered the remaining four of a consignment of twenty F16 fighter planes to Egypt, signalling that the alliance remains in place, and the State Department has sent their vice secretary, William Burns, to Cairo to reaffirm United States support for ‘the Egyptian people’. Despite the crisis and the economic difficulties, from which not even its own economy has been immune, the United States doesn’t want to lose a precious ally, and one which not only directly controls the Suez Canal but constitutes a mainstay of the status quo in the Middle East.

The Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hua Chunying, has also expressed support for the ‘Egyptian people’s choice’, appealing to the various sides in the name of ‘dialogue’ and ‘reconciliation’; and this despite the fact China was the chosen destination for President Morsi’s first State visit outside the Arab world! But business is business, and China has important projects underway in Egypt. According to the data reported in the September 21^st 2012 edition of Le Monde, ‘Between 2009 and 2011 the volume of trade between China and Egypt rose from 5.5 to 9 billion dollars. The Chinese, not particularly bothered by the arrival of the Islamists in power, continued to invest in Egypt while the rest of the world was pulling out. As far as China is concerned, Egypt is strategically very important’.

Only the proletariat can take up the challenge

Egypt is therefore in a very difficult economic position. The economy, already weakened by structural problems and the general crisis of capitalism, has been weakened by the long months of social instability, street battles and strikes.

Faced with this crisis, which shows no signs of abating, the bourgeoisie everywhere, the old and the new capitalisms, are unable to propose any alternative ‘model’, but just the same old recipe they always come up with: reducing wages and winding down the social State in an attempt to beat the competition on the world market.

The only force with an ‘alternative economic model’ is the one force which is effectively absent at the moment both in Egypt and internationally: the proletariat. It still hasn’t managed to articulate its own interests, ‘represented’ as it is by parties which are either openly bourgeois or which are fake-socialist or fake-communist.

Certainly the workers of the cities and rural areas of Egypt constitute the one class which is capable of obtaining ‘bread, justice and liberty’, which is what they are calling for; but they will be only able to achieve this, with the support of the international proletariat, by overthrowing the bourgeois State and destroying its army, abolishing private property in the means of production and land, and installing its class dictatorship.

What happened in Egypt was certainly not a revolution; there was no change of regime, only a change of government. Heads may have rolled but power has remained in the same hands. For there to be a revolution there will have to be more than just mobilisation of the proletariat, a weakened ruling class and an economic crisis; there will need to be a working class with its own independent organisations, namely, a well organised Communist Party, and powerful proletarian economic organisations.

To achieve this result the proletariat will have to extend and strengthen its unions, but in order to turn them into really formidable instruments of struggle, they will need to keep them free from the insidious influence of the State and of the bourgeois, opportunist parties. And it will only be able to proceed towards establishing its class power if its vanguard is able to reconnect with its programme, which is a condensation of the class’s long experience of fighting for revolutionary emancipation; only if it manages to reconnect with revolutionary Marxism; with the International Communist Party.