EGYPTIAN UPRISING AND THE SOCIALIST PROJECT
Posted by Labels: american imperialism, arab nationalism, egyptian uprising, socialist project, tunisian revolt, zionism
When the ilk of left-leaders like CPM supremo Prakash Karat became vociferous about the working class movement (read left movement) behind Egyptian Upsurge ( The Anandabazar- 5 Feb & The Hindu – 6 Feb 2011), he perhaps intends to warm up the domestic dispirited activists in the face of forthcoming election. But the left-camp (camp-members aspiring for radical change) becomes apprehensive of dwelling on the same left-discourse modeled by the erstwhile post-Lenin Soviet Union . It appears to be an endeavour to revive the same vocabulary and its inherent process in verbatim to repeat another failed experiment. However, to some extent he was right, when he mentioned the loosening grip of American Imperialism in Arab World due to popular uprising. But the nationalist fervours behind these uprisings are lost sight of and thus leaving ample space to make same mistake of ignoring and underestimating the role of bourgeoisie in the uprising.
We have the reasons to be apprehensive because it’s the same old regime that Col. Gamal Abdel Nasser created, based on military power with the support of secular elites imbibed with western model of development & progress, after a coup d’etet against the monarchy and displacing civilian officers in the military and British influence and siding with the Soviet camp. Sadat brought Egypt Camp David accord to prop-up Anglo-Saxon hegemony & Zionism.
In the nineteenth century, the elites of the Muslim world accommodated western ideology of political liberty, ideology of socio-economic change within their ideals of ethico-religious ideology. In Ottoman Empire , these elites used the political control against indigenous despotism and tried to impose the concept of national freedom and development from above with themselves being torch-bearer as well as dominant force. In Egypt , the country of the ancient civilization in Africa and of ancient civilized south Arabia , they never had much credibility owing to manipulation and authoritarianism, transforming them into instrument of domination for the ruling social strata. The rural masses, who were enclosed within the old structure, found them difficult to understand, and as their poverty persisted or even worsened with industrialization, they saw little advantage in them or suspected them of being tools of domination by the elites. The modernizing efforts at the behest of the elites were contrary to the western libertarian process which was the culmination of a social upheaval causing structural change from within, and as such the mass of people of Arab world including that of Egypt Nasser ’s socialist regime did not have much difference to the masses. The new elites who formed the new privileged class that was as disagreeable as their predecessor in the eyes of the disadvantaged were brought to power. The change of guard was always in keeping with the vicissitude of the balance of power within imperialistic hegemony. Masses were always mobilized for the ideas of political control and socialism by appealing to deep-rooted feelings of belonging to the Muslim community and so Islam was always the mobilizing core within the ambit of modernization envisioned by the new elites.
Though the present Egyptian uprising has overshadowed all its past popular movement, it has actually been triggered by the recent Tunisian popular movement. In this general uprising, 80% of Tunis Tunisia Tunisia & in Egypt Egypt
agitated the minds of middle class especially the educated youths. Israeli military offensive code-named ‘Operation summer Rain’ caused havoc to the life of Palestinians. From a different perspective of strategic interest and to maintain anti-Syrian and pro-Western Government, the propaganda blitzkrieg compelled the Syrian army to pull out. The overenthusiastic Israeli aggression in Lebanon to bring the entire Levant (all countries bordering the E. Mediterranean sea between Greece & Egypt ) and Fertile Crescent region under the direct control and scanning of America & Israel Egypt , the centre of gravity of Arab World and a major militarily strategic threat to Israeli domination, remained mere spectator under the Camp David accord signed by Hosni Mubarak, a stooge of American Imperialism. The disgruntled Muslim psyche due to repression and aggression in Muslim countries and the disillusioned educated middle class about the efficacy of neo-liberal policy already set the ground for revolt against regime headed by Mubarak, and after a failed attempt in 2003 due to repressive measures, the Lebanese popular resistance and the recent story of Tunisian uprising triggered the spontaneous mass revolt in Egypt. The zeal that was generated in the event can be gauged by the way Mr. Robert Fisk of Independent magazine captured the mood of the people in Tehri square. He wrote, “It was a victory parade – without the victory. They came in their hundred of thousands, joyful, singing, praying, a great packed mass of Egypt, suburb by suburb, village by village, waiting patiently to pass through the ‘people’s security’ checkpoints, draped in the Egyptian flag of red, white and black, its governess eagle a bright gold in the sunlight. Were there millions? Perhaps across the country there certainly were. It was, we all agreed, the largest political demonstration in the history of its least-loved dictator. Its only flaw was that by dusk – and who knew what the night would bring – Hosni Mubarak was still calling himself ‘President of Egypt’.” Horace Campbell commented “…..the people of Egypt and Tunisia Jordan , Yemen and Sudan Algeria , Cameroon and Libya
Though the common masses participating in the Egyptian revolt have a sense of belonging to the Muslim community, the revolt is secular-democratic and anti-imperialist & nationalist in nature. Along with the petit-bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie, a section of comprador class and the national army are taking side with the masses. In this scenario - the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBardei, has already emerged as the consensus presidential candidate of the masses and ostensibly has the backing of Iran and ipso facto that of emerging new axis of China-Russia, the second in command in Mubarak’s Govt. Omar Suleiman is being projected by the US administration with the backing of Egyptian army to replace Mubarak as an interim truce, the third but not the least formidable force is the ‘Muslim Brotherhood’ who has its reach to the rural masses through Muslim clerics and the landed gentry. Though all these forces are not basically averse to neo-liberal economic regime, but to replace Mubarak and its dictatorial policy, there must be some quid pro quo and for that matter a middle road will be traced to back out from the policy of appeasement towards Zionism. If under popular pressure, Camp David accord is abrogated and an election is held to restore parliamentary democracy, it will be a great step forward with immense ramification in the Arab World vis-à-vis for the revival of working class movement world-wide. The socialist forces should take a lesson from all these spontaneous people’s initiatives which are to go a long way for the working class to emerge as the front-runner, participate actively in support of anti-globalisation and nationalist movement and to draft a new socialist program from the experience of these new events unfolding in different part of the world. Then only, the western campaign about moribund ideology of socialism will get a thrashing and the socialist forces world-wide will re-emerge with new vigour, when the global capitalism is in deep crisis and under duress from people’s quarters.
E-mail : baisya_arup@rediffmail.com // swabhimanngo@gmail.com//
I take the privilege to introduce “THE ARUNODOY, the oldest vernacular tabloid that has been published from Assam’s southernmost town of Silchar since 1950” to the members of Swabhiman NGO and the readers of Swabhiman Blog as well as facebook friends. The present editor Mr. Chandan Sengupta took the charge in 1992 from its founder editor Sunil DuttaRoy. Though this newspaper is not an organ of any outfit or party, it acts as the mouthpiece of the oppressed, gives voice to the voiceless people, analyses the events and reports that normally do not find prominent place or produced as a half-baked truth in the mainstream media. It upholds democratic values and diversity in opinion.
The Editorial Board-member directed me to give a write-up on Egyptian uprising for the current issue of ARUNODOY and following his direction and considering the space limit and immidiacy, when I sat down to write the essay, I thought it easier to write it in English, as the information and the statement from major sources related with this episode are available in English. So I decided to write it in English anyway and post it in the Swabhiman Blog, and to translate this in Bengali with some updates, if possible, for Arunodoy later. --- Arup Baisya
1 comments:
Why not you share bottans you have here? You can send this write up to facebook, Orkut, Google Buz, Google Reader and many more places. Here read another good write up here:http://fifthinternational.org/content/egypt-mubarak-refuses-resign-general-strike-needed-bring-him-down
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