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Friday, April 08, 2011

"Act One" of the Egytian Revolution

Philip Marfleet
British academic and Socialist Workers Party member Philip Marfleet, on the Egyptian revolution - it ain't over yet.

From International Socialism April 4
Revolutions are invariably complex and lengthy processes. In the case of Iran, with which there are some striking similarities, protests which began in 1976 only took their full effect three years later with the fall of the Pahlavi regime. There were numerous episodes of advance and retreat of the students’ movement, the petty bourgeoisie of the bazaar, the clerical establishment, the national minorities and the peasantry, before sustained mass strikes expelled the shah.
These struggles threw up a host of forms of social organisation including local committees and workplace groups, some taking on a proto-Soviet character before they were dispersed by the Ayatollah Khomeini’s offensive.
There will be similar episodes in Egypt, as a movement initially animated by democratic demands addresses the possibility of further radical change—a generalisation of struggle that addresses the inequalities of the Mubarak era, the ownership of societal resources including industry and the land, and the problem of power wielded by the state itself.
The entry of the workers gives cause to believe that the Egyptian Revolution is indeed “growing over” into a movement for wider and historic change—that a process of permanent revolution with global implications is under way.
Yes indeed. This disaster, will have "global implications".

Communists instigated the Iranian revolution and worked with the Islamists to achieve it. Once in power the Islamists executed ed, imprisoned and exiled thousands  of communists.

The left does not intend to allow this to happen in Egypt. They aim to come out on top.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Communists instigated the Iranian revolution and worked with the Islamists to achieve it. Once in power the Islamists executed ed, imprisoned and exiled thousands of communists."

If your goal is a one-world socialist government, you can march a long way beside those whose goal is a one-world religion, before you have to part company.

The situation in Iran panned out differently to how things usually work with Communists.

Few now remember that the Communist tactic is to work with other disaffected elements to overthrow the existing social order, then suppress their fellow travellers, seize power themselves, and impose the total state.

After the overthrow of Czarist Russia, the Communists were at first bit players in the democratically elected Kerensky Provisional Government. By insisting on Communists being Minister of Police and Minister for the Interior, the Communists were able to control the police force and the army -- very useful if you are working for the clampdown.

I think in the Middle East the lack of separation between Mosque and State will always cause the Commies to lose to the Islamists once a power struggle is joined.

The best thing the US can do is send in the B-52s and turn the Middle East (with the exception of Israel) into a parking lot.

11:37 AM  

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