Four Days that Shook the World by Sameh Naguib, Revolutionary Socialists Egypt

17 million people reclaim the streets!

What happened on June 30 was, without the slightest doubt, the historic
beginning of a new wave of the Egyptian revolution, the largest wave
since January 2011.  The number of people who demonstrated on that
legendary day is estimated to exceed 17 million citizens, an
unprecedented occurrence in history.  This surpasses in significance any
participation by old regime remnants, or the apparent support of the
army and police.  Mass demonstrations of millions are exceedingly rare
events in human history, and their effect on the consciousness and
confidence of the populace in themselves and in their power to change
the course of history transcend the limitations of the slogans raised
and the political alternatives put forward.

Yes, the liberal bourgeois elite wanted to use this mass impetus to
overthrow the rule of the Islamist elite, in order to themselves reach
power with the endorsement and support of the military institution.  And
it is true that the feloul (old regime remnants) wanted to return to the
political scene by way of this new revolutionary tide.  But there is a
special logic to popular revolutions that will not submit to the
illusions or schemes of the liberals or feloul, even if sections of the
masses were temporarily affected by the slogans and promises of that
elite, just as they were affected before by the slogans and promises of
the Islamist elite.  Yes, there is influence from the huge media and
propaganda campaigns, undertaken by sections of the ruling class opposed
to the Muslim Brotherhood, about how the army and police are standing
with the people, about their neutrality and patriotism, even their
?revolutionary nature?!  But this influence is momentary and
superficial, and cannot erase the memory and direct experience of the
people of the counterrevolutionary character and opposition to the
masses, whether it be the institutions of  the military or the security
services.

The true reason for this temporary influence is the betrayal of the
liberal opposition, as represented by the National Salvation Front, of
the goals of the Egyptian revolution and the blood of the martyrs, in
order to shorten their path to power.  The true reason is the absence of
a united revolutionary political alternative capable of exposing the
Front and winning the masses to a concrete revolutionary program; a
project that can surpass both the liberal and Islamist elite and proceed
forward to deepen the Egyptian revolution, sweeping away all of the
institutions of the old regime, including the military and security
institutions, which are the heart of the counterrevolution.

The masses have not revolted anew out of a desire for military rule or
love for the feloul liberal alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood.  They
have revolted anew because Morsi and the Brotherhood betrayed the
revolution.  They did not implement even one of the demands of the
revolution for social justice, freedom, human dignity or retribution for
the martyrs of the revolution, whether they fell at the hands of Mubarak
and al Adli, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or at the hands of
the Brotherhood and the Interior Ministry during the period of
Brotherhood rule.

In fact, Brotherhood rule deepened the same policies as the Mubarak
regime, of impoverishment and corruption, and the desperate defense of
big business interests in the service of American and Zionist interests.

Rather than purging the state apparatus of corruption and of those who
smeared their hands with the blood of the martyrs, whether in the
Interior Ministry or the military institution or secret intelligence,
they held to their bargains with them, hoping for the participation of
the Brotherhood in state administration along with the feloul and
Mubarak?s men.

And thus Brotherhood rule became merely an extension on all levels of
the Mubarak regime against which the Egyptian people had revolted.

This is the essence of the new revolutionary explosion which began on
this historic June 30.  The Brotherhood did not understand this essence,
so their popularity evaporated within months.  And this is what the
leaders of the military institution do not understand, nor their
civilian cover represented by the National Salvation Front with their
liberals and feloul.  For it is not at gunpoint that they take the same
policies pursued by Morsi, the military council and Mubarak before them.
The same neoliberal economic policies, the same strategic alliances
with the oppressive monarchs of the Gulf, the same humiliating
dependency on American and Zionist colonialism.

The governments and media outlets of the American and European
bourgeoisie are trying to describe what has happened in Egypt as if it
were only a military coup against a democratically elected president, or
a coup against the ?legitimacy? of formal democracy.  But what has
happened in reality far surpasses formal democracy with its ballot
boxes.  It is legitimacy via the democracy of the popular revolution,
direct democracy creating revolutionary legitimacy.  It opens the
horizons to new forms of popular power which dwarf the temporary
democracy of the ballot boxes, which results in nothing but the
sustaining of bourgeois rule with its different wings.  The temporary
democracy of the ballot boxes ensures only the continuance of power of
the capitalist state apparatus.  It ensures the delusions of the people
that they rule via ballot boxes that are open to them only once every
few years to choose who among the bourgeois elite will rule and exploit
them, without of course getting near to the state apparatus or the
sheltered capitalist corporations through the manipulation of the ballot
boxes.

What has happened in Egypt is the height of democracy, a revolution of
millions to directly topple the ruler.  As for the military displacement
of Morsi, this was nothing but a foregone conclusion, once the military
institution saw that the masses had already settled the issue in the
streets and squares of Egypt.  Al Sisi did on July 3 2013 what Tantawi
did before him on February 11 2011; he acquiesced to the will of the
rebelling populace, not out of any patriotism or revolutionary fervor,
but out of fear of the revolution.  For if al Sisi had not intervened to
dislodge Morsi, the revolution would not have stopped with the overthrow
of Morsi and the Brotherhood, but was – and still remains – competent to
transform into a complete social revolution which would oust the entire
capitalist state, including the leaders of the military institution.

The military institution is hostile to the Egyptian revolution; it got
rid of Mubarak to save itself from the crossfire of the revolution.  The
military is now getting rid of the Brotherhood and Morsi, its erstwhile
allies, in fear of the time when the earthquake of the revolution will
reach it. And just as broad sections of the populace were affected by
the illusion of army neutrality and its stand with the revolution at the
beginning of SCAF rule, they are affected today by the lying propaganda
about the heroism and revolutionary allegiance of al Sisi and his generals.

But just as the masses quickly left behind that propaganda in the days
of Tantawi through experience and struggle, they will pass anew through
the illusion that ?the army and the people are one hand? in the weeks
and months to come.

The Egyptian masses have managed to overthrow two presidents in thirty
months.  This mighty power is not reflected only in million-strong
protests, but also in the subsequent waves of labor strikes and popular
demonstrations.  For political confidence will transform into confidence
in the social and economic struggle, and vice versa.

After the first revolutionary wave, the army had wagered on the
organizational and populist capabilities of the Brotherhood to
assimilate and abort the revolution.  But this gamble failed on June 30.
Now, the army is gambling on the liberal opposition for the same goal.
But the vast field between the expectations of the revolutionary
masses and what the liberal forces are offering them in terms of
economic and social policies, in the wake of a violent economic crisis,
will quickly lead to the exposure of these forces, and behind them, the
true rulers of Egypt, the military and security institutions.

One of the hazards that we will face in the coming weeks and months is
that the wave of repression directed at the Muslim Brotherhood and the
Islamist movement will be used as propaganda by the liberals and for
security purposes by the army and the police to strike at the labor
movement and popular demonstrations, on the pretext of stability during
?this critical period?.  Restoring the security apparatus to confidence
in facing the Islamists will be translated without doubt into waves of
repression against strikes and sit-ins under thick cover by the
bourgeois media.

Because of this we 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.

The dilemma of the Egyptian revolution today is the political weakness
of revolutionary forces espousing the demand of continuing the
revolution and at its heart the social demands.  For these forces, the
ballot box will not suffice, and they will not accept the continuance of
capitalist policies of impoverishment.  They will not abandon the demand
for retribution for the blood of the revolutionary martyrs.  They will
continue to insist upon the overthrow of Mubarak?s state, including its
security, military, and judiciary institutions. These institutions still
control the country and still protect the interests of the big
businessmen and Mubarak?s feloul.  They remain a great swamp of
corruption, plunder, and despotism.

It is incumbent upon the revolutionary forces today to unite their ranks
and put themselves forward as a convincing revolutionary alternative for
the masses.  An alternative to the liberal forces who are ascendant
today on the shoulders of the military, to the forces of political Islam
which have dominated for decades over broad swaths of the population.
We must create a pulpit to unite the economic and social struggle among
the ranks of the workers and the poor, to unite all of the oppressed
sections of society.  For it is these people who have an interest in
continuing the revolution, an interest in toppling the heart of the
regime and not just its representatives, whether that be Mubarak or
Morsi in the past or perhaps el Baradei in the near future.  So we begin
from this moment preparations for the third Egyptian revolution
inevitably to come, to be ready to lead this revolution to final
victory.  For the masses have proven anew that their revolutionary
energy is endless, that their revolution is truly a permanent
revolution.  Let us rise to the task of this historical responsibility
and let us work together for the success of the revolution.