Downfall of Morsi represents defeat of imperial powers Plan BDan Glazebrook2013-07-10, Issue 638 <http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/638> http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88194<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88194>[image: Bookmark and Share]<http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=fahamutech>Printer friendly version <http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88194/print>
*cc N B* <https://picasaweb.google.com/100728930732456242897>The popular rebellion against President Morsi shows that Egyptians will no longer back leaders who leave economic policy in the hands of Europe and the international banking elite, security in the hands of a savage and torturing police force, and foreign policy in the hands of the US, Britain and Israel The revolutionary momentum currently making waves in Egypt once again is not primarily a revolt against one man or even one state, but an uprising against conditions which are fast becoming universal features of the current crisis-ridden world economic order: permanent mass unemployment, rampant inflation in the price of basic goods (food and fuel in particular) and merciless attacks on welfare for the poor. Egyptians are through with governments that are prepared to impose such conditions and sacrifice all notions of sovereignty and social justice whilst feathering their own nests<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2343903/500m-EU-taxpayers-money-donated-Egypt-fight-corruption-vanished-says-shocking-auditors-report.html> in the process. President Morsi oversaw a year in office in which food prices doubled, and at the behest of the IMF - committed himself to ending the fuel subsidies on which millions of the poorest Egyptians depend. He signed up to a Free Trade Agreement with the EU that will exacerbate unemployment and rural impoverishment and showed his commitment to imperial interests by flooding the Gaza tunnels with sewage<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/world/middleeast/egypts-floods-smuggling-tunnels-to-gaza-with-sewage.html?_r=2&;> andcalling for a no-fly zone<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/15/egypt-mohamed-morsi-cuts-ties-with-syria> (code for NATO bombardment) in Syria. In so doing, he attempted to ensure that the Mubarak strategy of subservience to American, British and Israeli interests was not only maintained, but deepened at the cost of basic living standards and at a time when the neo-colonial world order is clearly breaking down under the double hammer blows of economic crisis and third world resurgence. This is not a strategy which most Egyptians are any longer willing to tolerate. The millions-strong mobilisations of the past week have shown that they will no longer back leaders who leave economic policy in the hands of Europe and the international banking elite, security in the hands of a savage and torturing police force, and foreign policy in the hands of the US, Britain and Israel. The revolutionary upsurge that has just forced Morsi from power, however, did not emerge last week, last year or even in January 2011. It began in 2007 when the biggest strike wave to have hit the African continent for 50 years broke out in the Misr spinning and complex in Mahalla, quickly spreading to most other major industries in the country. This coincided with an unprecedented wave of agrarian unrest against neoliberal policies which were and still are devastating the rural population who still constitute the majority of Egyptian society. So taken aback were the Egyptian authorities, that they were forced to put the brakes on the economic reforms code for the decimation of national control and regulation - being pushed by the IMF and the EU, in an attempt to quell the emerging unrest. It did not work, and the growing movement demonstrated its strength by putting 15million onto the streets in January 2011, forcing Mubaraks removal. The military council that replaced him backtracked on neoliberal diktat even more, reversing some of the liberalisation measures that had been implemented previously, much to the fury of the EU<http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/docs/2012_enp_pack/progress_report_egypt_en.pdf> . President Morsi was supposed to put a lid on this unrest. By adding a veneer of Islamism to the same neo-colonial policies of his predecessor, he was supposed to succeed where others had failed, tapping into the cultural traditions of Egyptian society in order to win legitimacy (his favourite word, used 56 times <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23161987> in his last speech) for fundamentally unpopular policies. It didnt work. The events of this week mark the defeat of neocolonialisms Plan B for Egypt. What plan C will look like is not yet clear. The problem for the Egyptian army council is that to win genuine legitimacy, any future Egyptian government will have to end its collaboration with the blockade of Gaza, stop privileging extortionate interest payments<http://bankwatch.org/ru/node/8754> to international bankers on Mubarak-era loans over social spending, and reject the IMF loan conditionalities and EU trade deals<http://www.ecdpm.org/Web_ECDPM/Web/Content/Navigation.nsf/index2?readform&http://www.ecdpm.org/Web_ECDPM/Web/Content/Content.nsf/0/d9d7698eb7f2dc45c12579d100273176?OpenDocument> that threaten to plunge millions into ever deeper poverty. Indeed, it is precisely these types of demands that were at the forefront of the Tamarod campaign of opposition to Morsi, whose petition garnered a reported 22 million signatures. These moves would be the minimum necessary to win the support of the people, but are precisely what would make the Egyptian government illegitimate in the eyes of its international backers in London and Washington. The dividing lines, then, are clear. Much as the imperial powers would love to see Egypt implode into a sectarian disaster along the lines pioneered in Iraq and now being spread to Libya and Syria, the dividing line is NOT between Sunni and Shia, or between Islamist and secularist. It is between those who support genuine independence (the prerequisite for any meaningful moves towards social justice or democracy), and those who support continued collaboration with the imperial project to plunder and cripple the region. Long live the Egyptian revolution! * BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS On the situation in Egypt: an insiders viewpointHelmi Sharawy2013-07-10, Issue 638 <http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/638> http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88190<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88190> [image: Bookmark and Share]<http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=fahamutech> Printer friendly version<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88190/print> *cc A M* <https://picasaweb.google.com/104120879872255160007>In essence, what we had witnessed on 30 June 2013 in Egypt was the ordinary peoples revolution against the Islamists governance that had dismantled their lives for the interests of the West Dear Friends, These words are part of discussions with friends in some African institutions and abroad relevant to the Western capitalist medias categorization of Egyptian popular movement as a military coup. I am writing this letter after having returned very tired from Tahrir Square in support of the change. I wrote to my friends: I am still surprised that you are following the news from Obama and conservative sources on the western side who were and are still interested in supporting Islamist groups in Egypt. We know that the USA has used Islamists in Afghanistan, Libya and Syria as well as for their strategy in the Middle East to protect Israel and oil fields. There was no economic development since Morsi came to power. Moreover, poverty was exacerbated because Islamists were preparing to accept the economic reforms dictated by the IMF. CRISES MOUNT These crises and others political issues had mobilized more than 20 million people to sign a petition to delegitimize the government of President Morsi. The organizing group of the campaign is called Tamarod (Rebel). They were able to mobilize people mostly throughout the month of June, and on 30 June at Tahrir and other squares and streets of the cities of Egypt, they were able to repeat the Revolution and recalled the memory of 25 January 2011, the beginning of the Revolution; here again they said a big NO to Islamists. After the meetings between the Tamarod Group and political and civil society organizations, all united to call for the end of Morsis legitimacy. The supreme Military Command of Egypt sent a short notice after the mass protests of 30 June. I repeat, it was after 30 June that the supreme military command announced that it will defend the peoples demands because the President has failed to listen. (This must be admitted, it is gracious and legal for any national military to ask the president to listen to the people!) THE RISE OF POLITICAL ALLIANCE The decisive announcement was declared on 4 July in a meeting attended by representatives of the political alliance headed by Dr. Baradei, Al-Azhar University, the Pope of the Egyptian Coptic community, Tamarod activists, women representatives, an Islamist party representative from Al Nour and top military officers. In this context, can someone claim this to be a planned military coup? All attendees agreed to form a democratic government admitting that the current regime has failed the aspirations and inspiration of the January 2011 Revolution; they all committed to establishing a Constitution, interim presidency, and prepare for free and fair elections. We should not forget that global capitalism and the US need the Islamists in the Middle East, and certainly the Western media is working well to serve this purpose! MILITARY INTERVENTION DID NOT SERVE THE WEST We cant forget African peoples in Mali, Ghana, Tanzania, and etc. in their democratic transitions of 1991/1992: there were popular movements, problematic changes and sometimes even appeals to the national military to serve as a buffer-zone. And we called those processes an acceptable democratization model. We should not also forget that the western global machines can do many things to dismantle the original agenda of these liberation movements of the masses in Africa (Mali, Benin, and Madagascar as examples). The West, as we have witnessed before, does use IMF loans, World Bank programs etc. for its purposes and does not often denounce military intervention in developing countries if they are serving Western interest. Alas, in Egypt, the military intervention did not serve these Western interests. Scholarly thought in Africa or anywhere else should not continue to consider only the western means of political change to be legitimate or accepted. Should we always accept changes through so called Youth Spring, Youth movement Green movement and Colored revolutions as the only legitimate mechanism for political change? In essence, what we had witnessed on 30 June 2013 in Egypt was the ordinary peoples revolution against the Islamists governance that had dismantled their lives for the interests of the West: there were the poorest of the people who suffered under the Islamists rule, and before them they suffered under the military supreme council rule that followed the Mubarak regime. Both regimes ignored any developmental social programs for the poor. The masses of 30 June were led by the marginalized youth of the 25 January 2011 uprising. The problem facing the democratic forces now is not a military coup; it is weak organization and the challenge of putting strong socio- economic programs that support and uplift the poor. *Helmi Sharawy is the former Director of Arab and African Research Center in Cairo; he is an author and executive member of CODESRIA, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. An important victory of the Egyptian peopleSamir Amin2013-07-10, Issue 638<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/638> http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88189<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88189> [image: Bookmark and Share]<http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=fahamutech> Printer friendly version<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88189/print> *cc A C* <https://picasaweb.google.com/116692976180632212946>Sixteen million Egyptians demonstrated against the government of President Morsi that led to his downfall. Western powers, Israel and the Gulf countries hate the perspective of a democratic, socially progressive, independent Egypt Yes, the fall of Morsi and of the rule of the Moslem Brothers is an important victory of the Egyptian people. It was expected by all Egyptians. Twenty five million citizens had signed a petition requiring the departure of Morsi, elected only thanks to a massive fraud; whose legitimacy was not recognized by the Egyptian judiciary body, but who was imposed by the decision of Washington. The body of international observers of elections had indeed failed to see the fraud! The government of the Moslem Brothers was pursuing the same reactionary policy as that of Mubarak, and even in a more destructive way for the majority of popular classes. It made clear that it did not intend to respect the rules of democracy; it mobilized criminal gangs paid to harass the popular movements, continuously waving the flag of a civil war. Morsi acted as a brutal dictator, setting in all positions in the State of exclusively devoted Moslem Brothers. The combination of a disastrous economic and social policy and of the disrespect for normal management of the State led to an accelerated decline of earlier illusions of a good part of the society; the Moslem Brotherhood showed their real face. Yet the western powers continued to support the elected President, claiming that the regime was progressing toward democracy. Probably just as the Democratic Republic of Qatar is! What happened on 30 June was expected. Mass demonstrations, larger even than those of January 2011: 16 million people on the streets, as recorded by the Police. Morsi responded by moving again the flag of the civil war. But he was unable to mobilise more than a few hundred thousands of paid supporters. Western powers, Israel and the Gulf countries hate the perspective of a democratic, socially progressive, independent Egypt. They will manipulate criminal mercenaries, so called Jihadists, established with their complicity and support in Libya and in the Egyptian province of Sinai. The Egyptian nation and its army can defeat them. *Samir Amin [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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