Solidarity with the Egyptian Revolution

Below is an English translation from the original Arabic (translated by CWI China) of a leaflet distributed in Cairo by the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) following the departure of dictator Hosni Mubarak on Friday 11 February. This leaflet raises important issues about how the revolution can go forward and defeat the old regime, which through the army tops and Vice President Omar Suleiman is clinging to power. It also poses the need for struggle against capitalism and imperialism if the democratic aspirations of the Egyptian people are to be fulfilled. I do not have access to the Arabic version. Events continue to be momentous and inspiring - but who will draft the new constitution? - For a revolutionary constituent assembly of the workers and poor!
In defence of the revolution:

• For a government of representatives of workers, the youth and the poor
• For the immediate elections of a revolutionary constituent assembly supervised by committees of working people, the poor and the youth!

Less than 24 hours after he declared he would stay until September, Mubarak has been forced to resign as Egyptian president. The increasing size of the demonstrations, and especially the working class’s collective entry into the struggle through a nationwide strike wave, marked a decisive new stage in the revolution. Mubarak’s last TV broadcast enraged the more than six million who were then protesting on Egypt’s streets and the indignation spread to the military, as reports came in of soldiers going over to the side of the demonstrators.
Egypt’s revolution won the support of working people around the world. Tens of millions followed on TV and the internet every move. The hopes that the movement that started in Tunisia will win a victory in Egypt have been met. This victory will encourage every struggle around the world against dictatorship, oppression and misery. Many are now asking, who is the next ruler to fall?
This turning point is a tremendous victory for all those who courageously fought Mubarak’s police state - the youth, the working class and the activists in Tahrir Square. It is a huge example to workers and the oppressed around the world that determined mass action can defeat governments and rulers no matter how strong they appear to be.
However the battle is not over yet, dangers still remain. The military leaders, with the backing of US imperialism, removed Mubarak in the hope of preventing the revolution challenging the power of the elite. The new head of state, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, has been defence minister and the armed forces Commander-in Chief since 1991, nearly two-thirds of the time that Mubarak was in power. As a BBC correspondent commented: “The army takeover looks very much like a military coup … because officially it should be the speaker of parliament who takes over, not the army leadership”.
The mass of the Egyptian people must assert their right to decide the country’s future. Many may have hopes in the army, but there is a difference between the rank and file and the top commanders. No trust should be put in figures from the old regime to run the country or run elections. There must be immediate, fully free elections, safeguarded by mass committees of the workers and poor, to a revolutionary constituent assembly that can decide the country’s future.
Now the steps already taken to form local committees and genuine independent workers’ organisations should be speeded up, spread wider and linked up. A clear call for the formation of democratically elected and run committees in all workplaces, communities and amongst the military rank and file would get a wide response.
These bodies would co-ordinate the removal of the remnants of the old regime, and maintain order and supplies and, most importantly, be the basis for a government of workers’ and poor representatives that would crush the remnants of the dictatorship, defend democratic rights and start to meet the economic and social needs of the mass of Egyptians.
The revolution and its demands pose a decisive challenge to the old order and capitalism, but they cannot be completely won without breaking with imperialism and overthrowing capitalism. The Helwan iron and steel workers have called for “People’s revolution for the people!”, but this can only be realised through the mass movement bringing to power a government of workers’ and poor representatives that implements a democratic socialist programme. To achieve such a government workers, the poor and oppressed need their own political weapon. Workers and the poor need to create their own alternative - a new mass party of the working class attracting small farmers and the oppressed to a socialist banner.
Today there is naturally great support for unity to defend the revolution. Yes we need unity in struggle, but calls for unity do not answer the question of what sort of Egypt needs to be built?
Correctly there is great suspicion of all those who held top positions in the Mubarak regime. Now the ruling class will attempt to involve and trap the workers’ movement and the Left in joint work with the military rulers or in some kind of “unity” government of all classes. But any government involving capitalists would naturally attempt to safeguard capitalism in Egypt. This would be true of any government whose stated main role was “only” the organisation of elections as it would have to govern the country in the run-up to any elections. It is the lesson of many other revolutions – like Russia after February 1917 or Spain 1936 – that such governments cannot meet the demands of working people and are used by the ruling class as a means of trying to break the revolution and ensure the continuation of their rule.
The demands of the workers, poor and youth cannot be met unless all the elements of the old regime are completely removed. Capitalism cannot offer a way forward for Egyptian society. The Left must not join any coalition government with pro-capitalists; for a government of the representatives of workers, small farmers and the poor that carries out a genuine socialist transformation of Egypt.
The Committee for a Workers International is an international socialist organisation struggling in 40 countries against the rule of big business and for democratic international socialism.

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