Egyptian Anarchists and Revolutionary Socialists, under attack

international | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Friday January 20, 2012 12:54 by NN

The Egyptian radical left is facing repeated attacks by an emerging alliance between the country's military rulers and the Islamists seeking power. This is a text by the Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement dealing with this situation.
It's about time! For weeks, several internet sites, and facebook pages that belong to the Muslims Brotherhood, either officially or administered by its members, launched an attack against Anarchists and Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt trying to single them out as inciters of violence and propagandists of State demolition. Today a member of the Brotherhood filed a lawsuit against three socialists one of them is comrade Yaser Abdel Kawy a well known anarchist and a member of the Egyptian Libertarian Socialists Movement. The general attorney forwarded the lawsuit to the State Security GA, an exceptional apparatus of the legal system that works only under the state of emergency.

It sure was expected. While small in numbers Anarchists in Egypt have been quite prominent amongst the different revolutionary forces taking part in the Jan25 Egyptian revolution. Anarchists are distinguishably vocal on the social media sites, but more importantly they are always in the front lines on the streets whenever revolutionaries take a stand in the face of the state brutal crack down.
The uneasy but strong alliance between the Brotherhood and the ruling military junta was always evident since the very beginning. The brotherhood was the only political force that had one of its members in the legislative committee responsible for preparing the modifications of the 1971 constitution approved by a referendum on March 19th. The brotherhood refused to take part almost in any rally against the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), and in many cases sought to tarnish these rallies and attack those who called for them.

The brotherhood, had also take an aggressive stance against laborers in their continuous struggle against the masters backed by the military junta. It has always condemned workers rallies, sit-ins, or occupations, and described the workers fight for their rights as counter-revolutionary and incited by clients of Mubarak's regime.

Poised for a land sliding victory in the current parliamentary elections along with the more radical Salafi Islamists, the Brotherhood is keen on getting rid of future opposition namely socialists. It's easy to know why if one takes a look at the policies their counterparts in Tunisia have adopted once confident in their new seats in the parliament. It's even clearer when once takes notice of their prominent leaders (mostly businessmen) statements to the media especially one describing Mubarak's regime financial and economic neoliberal policies, good and effective if not coupled with corruption and crony capitalism.

We are sure that these new attacks by the SCAF and its Islamists allies are nothing but an early beginning. A new phase of the Egyptian Revolution is already starting to take shape. This time the true conflict lines will be clear for all after being only clear for some. The Egyptian Revolution will take its true face of a class war of us the proletariat against them, the masters, the military junta, and the conservative fascistic Islamists.

Egyptian Libertarian Socialist Movement