Egyptian Revolutionary Socialists’ statement on the massacre of Copts at Maspero

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Glory to the martyrs of Bloody Sunday
Shame on the military and the reactionaries
The Revolutionary Socialists send sincere condolences to the families of the peaceful demonstrators who were murdered by the bullets of the Central Security Forces and crushed by the military’s armoured cars after they came on the night of 9 October to defend the right of Coptic Christians to freedom and equality.

The police repression of the demonstrations is an extension of Mubarak’s policies, just as it is a continuation of the policies of oppression of the Copts which goes hand-in-hand with a policy of divide and rule between Christian and Muslim working people, while the bosses and the military from both sides enjoy the fruits of their hard labour. And at the same time as these events, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has announced new decisions which will assist the followers of the old regime in their takeover of parliament, in order to tighten their grip once again.

The goal of the counter-revolution led by the Supreme Council at this moment is to distract the masses in preparation for striking a blow at the revolution. The military’s crime is an expression of their fear, and the fear of their internal and external allies of developments in our continuing revolution.

Over the last three weeks more than half a million working people, Muslim and Christian have joined the struggle, in the historic strikes by teachers, public transport workers, doctors, irrigation ministry workers and others. Muslim and Christian have been on strike together, and they have joined the sit-ins together. Sometimes they have faced repression, at other times they have been victorious. Their struggle has provided the finest examples of how to erase the false divisions which our exploiters impose on us for their own benefit.

This coalescence between Muslims and Christians proves the interconnections between the struggle for social justice on one hand, side-by-side with our fight to defend full equality for the Copts and all the oppressed in this country.

Meanwhile Mubarak’s generals continue to use the blood of the workers and peasants who fell in battle during their past wars with Israel to glorify themselves and their role in history. The truth is that the policy of the Military Council is an extension of Mubarak’s policy of weakness and subservience to the Americans and the Zionists. The generals have not taken any position against the continued aggression of the Zionists against our brothers in Palestine, or even over their killing of Egyptian soldiers. The Military Council responded with silence, and with the crushing of demonstrations demanding the rights of the martyrs.

The perpetrators of the massacre at Maspero are not only those who took part in the killing in person; soldiers and those the military and the Interior Ministry like to call “honest citizens”, the thugs which the Interior Ministry put into action and some of the reactionary religious forces which spout sectarian rhetoric and whose followers are themselves directly involved in the crimes of burning churches and incitement to tear down buildings in the name of religion. They did not commit the massacre of Maspero on their own. Their accomplices are all those who published ‘facts’ in order to mislead the masses, all those who justified the slaughter in cold blood, and all those who refused to see that these are crimes against humanity and not only crimes against the Copts.

We will continue to defend our revolution, and the people’s right to free expression, to protest, demonstrate and strike, in order to restore our stolen rights, and to cleanse the country of the roots of corruption, which is still poisoning our revolution and attempting to overturn it.

In defence of freedom of expression, we declare our condemnation of the attack by the Military Council on the 25 January and Al-Hurra TV stations because they were broadcasting the massacres committed by the army and police that night.

While we know that it will probably not wipe away the tears or quench the burning loss of a son or loved one last night, we swear to continue the struggle for the success of the revolution, so that our country can become a nation of equality, freedom and justice.

The Revolutionary Socialists
4am, 10 October 2011

News and Spews

I've not really got into the meat of this matter. It's hard to summon up much forensic outrage when you know the party of government is basically the political wing of the City of London. You associate Tories with corruption the same way you associate puppies with soiled rugs. Why shouldn't it extend to the (heavily subsidised) armed wing of the bourgeoisie

But I love this: Liam Fox apologises but denies any wrongdoing. In which case what is he apologising for? It's part of the modern art of lying and swindling; only apologise for trivial things or abstract ideas (like the impression of wrongdoing) and, if in doubt, play the good-faith card. I told you this in good faith. I came out with a pile of transparent nonsense and believed it at the time. It was real for me then, why can't it be real for you now?

Elsewhere, self-styled Hugo Chávez has condemned the "horrible repression" of anti-Wall Street styled protesters and self-styled described a US Republican presidential self candidate as "self crazy" for his criticism of Cuba and Venezuela.

Although still convalescing from self-styled cancer surgery in June followed by four rounds of chemotherapy, the 57-year-old Venezuelan president is quickly self returning to his self-styled tough self rhetoric and styled strong views.

Really? What's wrong with calling Mitt Romney crazy?

Around the world: newspaper hacks breathe a sigh of relief as the nascent and inexplicable rebellion against global capitalism finds its first articulate and photogenic spokesperson. Give it time and perhaps Camilla Vallejo will become the self-styled Camilla Vallejo. Still it beats the dark, deadly and possibly muslamic rebellion in the Middle East.

But something like that could never happen here... oh, hang on.

News and Spews

Tory government to raise the motorway speed limit to 80 miles per hour. Now you can get go to hell in a handcart quicker.

Civil service occupations in Greece prevent EU, ECB and IMF delegates from meeting in public buildings. F-ing go for it!

The surprise sit-ins, which began with civil servants declaring that they had taken over six ministries at 7am, meant that Evangelos Venizelos, the finance minister, was forced to hold the talks on the 2012 budget elsewhere."The measures being pursued by the government are totally counter-productive. It is obvious to everyone that they have failed … all they have achieved is the impoverishment of Greeks," said a member of Adedy's [Greek equivalent of the PCS] executive board. "These occupations are symbolic but what is not is our determination to overturn policies that have driven us into deadlock. In the last two years 300,000 small and medium-sized businesses have closed and by December we estimate there will be one and a half million unemployed. That's one person per family."

Baharain doctors jailed for upholding the hippocratic oath (especially that bit about "I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures required...").

Twenty Bahraini medics who treated activists wounded during anti-government protests were jailed for between five and 15 years in sentences that were immediately denounced by medical bodies and human rights groups around the world.

The sentences were handed down by a military court set up to handle the trials, which stemmed from an Arab spring-inspired uprising in the country in February and March. It was crushed with the help of armies from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Thirteen of the doctors and nurses received sentences of 15 years in prison, while another seven received terms of five to 10 years.

Elsewhere, Local government minister Eric Pickles has made a stunning breakthrough; people don't like rolling in their own filth (it's not, generally speaking, good for their physical and mental wellbeing), and it costs money to have it taken away.

And finally, The Onion, the original fake-news outlet, set up another fake news story (with more than a hint of dark irony). Some people forgot this fact and took it seriously.

Remember Bolivia?

Latin American revolition, maaaan, it used to be right fashionable. Bolivia, Venezuela, provided hope and showed us the way... well, only a very little. The significance of the Arab Spring is exaggerated to some degree (in the best sense: the Arab revolution should provide hope and does show us the way, so long as people follow the Arab people's example, so long as we make it real here). Even a victorious workers Egypt would have difficultly making a gesture to the world to match Soviet Russia's withdrawal from World War One. Whatever else happened, the Russian Revolution brought peace to Europe at the time.

The rise of of Evo Morales and the Movement Toward Socialism is another exhibit in the case for permanent revolution. According to Morales' Vice President, Álvaro García Linera, the Movement Toward Socialism for the time being is a movement toward 'Andean Capitalism'. Well I never. Then again, the slogan of Nepal's Maoists in government has been make Nepal the Switzerland of Asia, an odd phrase, but the intent is clear.

If you don't want to break with the system of global capitalism, and that would be a daring thing to do in a place like Bolivia, then you have to accommodate yourself to it. There is a political row going on in Bolivia at the moment, over the building of a freeway through protected land. Morales natural supporters are going up against his government, using the old tactics of roadblocks and strikes.

Morales championed a new constitution in 2010 that granted Bolivia's 36 indigenous groups an as yet ill-defined autonomy. He promised to protect indigenous people from industry and developers.

But since winning election in December 2005 the president has been forced to weigh development against environmental protection. His "revolution" reached a crossroads last year when he decided to pursue a 190-mile (300km) jungle highway funded by Brazil through the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory National Park, or TIPNIS, in the eastern lowlands state of Beni.

Quibbles about silly quotemarks aside ("revolution"? Why the ironic reference? Has Evo Morales forgotten to send off to OffRev for the right to call himself a revolutionary? We're back onto "self-styled" again) the important thing to note is Brazil. The slow decline of American power has left room for others to manoeuvre. The protesters suspect, rightly I think, that this development is to satisfy Brazillian capital, rather than indigenous need.

The trouble is, outside of the moment of primitive accumulation, only capital begets capital. Nothing will come from nothing. If the Bolivian government wants to initiate 50 years of Andean Capitalism it will have to go cap in hand to someone. The most rational calculations are sometimes self-defeating. Maybe who dares wins after all.

But one final note before we get too high and mighty:

About 1,000 people began a march on La Paz in mid-August from Beni's capital, Trinidad, to protest against the highway they say is an open invitation to loggers and coca-planting settlers and a threat to park inhabitants. That march was broken up on Sunday by riot police who used teargas and truncheons, arresting several hundred marchers but later freeing them under pressure from local people.

Bolivia's defence minister resigned immediately in protest at the crackdown and the interior minister followed, accepting responsibility for police actions. Morales announced on Monday that he was suspending the highway project and would let voters in the affected region decide its fate in a referendum. The original protesters against the highway have promised to resume their own march.

Can you imagine something like this happening in Britain, a government taking responsibility for its errors and trying to correct them? Of course not. Bolivia is a more democratic society than Britain.

Libya

There have been lots of strange and distressful things (Distressful? Is that a word? It is now) coming out of the current Libyan conflict, probably the least of which is the knotted, wishful thinking of some people, regarding this 'revolution'. No one should cry for Gadaffi but no one should be in doubt, this is not Libyan self-emancipation at hand. Today's BBC News says:

A key summit on Libya, hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UK PM David Cameron, is to begin in Paris.

Note hosted by Sarkozy and Cameron to begin in Paris. Don't worry, the National Transitional Council will be represented too... it's only polite.

The internet told me to do it

During the Cold War every political event, even the most ephemeral, was granted some deeper, sinister meaning; it was all down to the International Communist Conspiracy. These neo-liberal days the powers that be try to render all events, even grand ones such as revolutions, as meaningless. What sparked the London riots? Not arrogant, corrupt policing. Not general political atrophy. Not low wages and unemployment, a lack of opportunity and a declining future. No.



It was social media, the mysterious cyber-Loki fanning enigmatic conflagrations from here to Cairo. Get ready for the 2012 bill banning the internet.