The removal of the Mohamad Morsi government by Egypt's military on July 3 and subsequent bloody repression against Muslim Brotherhood supporters had caused debate on the international left on how to understand the events and what attitude to take to the anti-Morsi protests, the July 3 coup and protests against the military regime. The contribution below is from John Riddell, a Toronto-based activist and historian of the socialist movement. A version of it first appeared on .
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The military massacres in Egypt are 鈥減art of a plan to liquidate the Egyptian Revolution and restore the military-police state of the Mubarak regime,鈥 say the Revolutionary Socialists (RS) of Egypt in an August 15 statement. Their present analysis contrasts sharply with their previous positive appraisal the July 3 military coup that ousted Egypt鈥檚 elected government.
The RS, who enjoy a wide reputation as a revolutionary voice in the Egyptian struggle, are reconsidering the meaning of this experience. Socialists abroad should be rethinking it as well.
The army/police massacre is 鈥渁 bloody dress rehearsal for the liquidation of the Egyptian Revolution,鈥 the RS now states. 鈥淚t aims to break the revolutionary will of all Egyptians who are claiming their rights, whether workers, poor, or revolutionary youth, by creating a state of terror.鈥
Yet only a month ago, the RS and socialist currents abroad that follow its lead looked on the military overturn of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi as the culmination of a great step forward for Egypt鈥檚 revolution.
The giant anti-Morsi demonstrations of June 30 that triggered his ouster were 鈥渢he historic beginning of a new wave of the Egyptian revolution,鈥 the RS wrote on July 5.
True, the army and police had gained in authority, they said, but 鈥渢his influence is momentary and superficial鈥. June 30 represented a 鈥渘ew revolutionary explosion鈥.
In replacing the elected government by a hand-picked junta the trademark of a military coup the army's July 3 coup merely 鈥渁cquiesced to the will of the rebelling populace鈥.
Now that the RS has, finally, identified the military rulers as the main enemy, this must shape international solidarity efforts.
Democratic rights
Other aspects of the RS analysis also need review. For example, the August 15 RS statement declared they do not 鈥渄efend for a single day the sit-ins by the Brotherhood and their attempts to return Morsi to power鈥.
In reality, the Muslim Brotherhood鈥檚 public protests represent a bid to assert their right to exist as a political movement after six weeks of brutal and bloody suppression. Their right to protest military violence must be defended.
The RS has tended to be even-handed, attacking both the military and on the Brotherhood. Its August 20 statement now explicitly repudiates this approach, rejecting 鈥渁 kind of 鈥榖alance鈥 in our attacks on the military and the Islamists鈥.
Yet its main slogan, 鈥淒own with military rule 鈥 no to the return of the Muslim brotherhood鈥, stays in the old groove.
In fact, the military are in the saddle and the Brotherhood repressed and subjected to massacres. In this situation, an even-handed approach is a formula for paralysis and abstention. What is needed is a united defense of democratic and human rights.
The earlier RS statement pointed the way on this issue. 鈥淲e must be consistent in opposing all forms of abuse and repression to which the Islamists will be exposed in the form of arrests and closures of satellite channels and newspapers, for what happens today to the Islamists will happen tomorrow to the workers and the leftists,鈥 the RS stated on July 5.
Socialists internationally should support and encourage protests against the military's denial of democratic and human rights in Egypt including the rights of the Brotherhood and its supporters.
Morsi and other Brotherhood political prisoners should be released, the Brotherhood鈥檚 political and legal rights should be restored, and new elections should be held without delay and without any restrictions on who may participate.
In particular, socialists should highlight the role of imperialism, over several decades, in orchestrating, financing, and defending the rise of rightist military tyranny in Egypt a process that transformed Egypt into a pliant tool of US-Israeli policy.
The overturn of Morsi swept away the limited forms of electoral democracy achieved following the 2011 revolution, replacing it with direct military rule.
The earlier RS statement took no note of this change, suggesting instead that the overturn represented a step forward from 鈥渇ormal democracy, with its ballot boxes, to legitimacy via the democracy of the popular revolution direct democracy creating revolutionary legitimacy.鈥
This 鈥渙pens the horizons to new forms of popular power, which dwarf the temporary democracy of the ballot box,鈥 the RS said.
The dismissal of elective institutions is still evident in the August 20 RS statement, which refers with apparent approval to 鈥渢he downfall of the legitimacy of the ballot box鈥.
It is now clear that the talk of 鈥渘ew forms of popular power鈥 was deluded. Far from achieving a new system of direct revolutionary democracy, Egypt鈥檚 popular movement is now overshadowed by the rise of military tyranny.
This misjudgement suggests the need to revisit our attitude to the limited democratic gains the 鈥渇ormal democracy, with its ballot boxes鈥 achieved by the 2011 revolution.
Since 2011, Egypt鈥檚 limited democratic institutions have been subject to repeated heavy-handed intervention by the military wing of the capitalist class, including dissolution of an elected parliament.
Nonetheless, election of a government in a process not subject to direct military control erected a safeguard of the democratic rights of working people. And when constitutional rule was swept away, there was no longer any institutional barrier to unrestrained and murderous military repression.
Yes, hopefully one day working people will replace bourgeois parliamentarism with a superior form of democracy. But under today鈥檚 circumstances, socialists are not indifferent to the form of capitalist rule.
Socialists strive to defend and to expand the democratic elements won within the capitalist order. Capitalist parliamentarism offers more favourable conditions for workers鈥 struggle than unrestricted capitalist tyranny.
ALBA governments respond
While socialists debate how to respond to military tyranny in Egypt, several anti-imperialist Latin American governments, members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) have moved into action. Formed by Venezuela and Cuba in 2004, ALBA unites eight Latin American nations.
Days after the army takeover in Egypt, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, speaking at a mass rally in Cochabamba in the presence of presidents of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Argentina, denounced the military coup. He explained that Venezuela defended the Morsi government against the coup despite its disagreements with Morsi regarding the civil war in Syria.
Recalling Egypt鈥檚 anti-imperialist stand during the presidency of Gamel Abdel Nasser, Maduro said on July 23: 鈥淓gypt is in upheaval today because it has departed from the path of independence.鈥
Since then, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, and Venezuela have all denounced the army鈥檚 massacres, and Ecuador and Venezuela have withdrawn their ambassadors from Egypt in protest.
On August 16, Socialist Alliance of Australia said: 鈥淭he Socialist Alliance adds its voice to those demanding that all political prisoners be released and supports those who are calling for an immediate end to military rule and a civilian-led process to democratically elect a new government.鈥
The next day, Egyptian-Canadians in Vancouver acted in the spirit of this appeal by convening a demonstration against the coup d鈥檈tat and police/army violence in Egypt.
The remarks of Vancouver socialist Roger Annis provide a guide for socialist in expressing solidarity: 鈥淲e demand that the governments in Canada, United States and Europe cease their complicity with the criminal, military regime and its July 3 coup d鈥檈tat.
鈥淭hey must scrap all military assistance to the Egyptian military. They must condemn the coup and they must support a return to legal and constitutional government.
鈥淭hey must demand that political prisoners be released forthwith, including President Mohamed Morsi and other leaders of his party. The draconian, emergency measures by the coup regime that effectively outlaw civil liberties must be ended.
鈥淭hey must also demand that the punitive measures against the Palestinian people in Gaza who are suffering as a result of border restrictions by the military regime be ended. Emergency aid should be provided as needed.
鈥淚srael must end its treatment of Gaza as an outdoor prison that it can bomb or cut off at will.