It’s been a year since we watched the Egyptian people rise up and bring down the vicious tyrant Hosni Mubarak.  Yet the 12 months since 25 January 2011 have been filled with violent confrontations as millions demand an end to military rule. The massacre of 74 football fans shows the dictator may have gone, but the dictatorship remains.

Since Mubarak left the scene, the country’s been run by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), led by Field Marshall Tantawi. Though SCAF claim to support revolution and be honest democrats, their bloody record speaks for itself.

SCAF have used the army, the police, and gangs of thugs to attack, torture and kill protestors who have demanded an end to the army regime. Over 12,000 people have been tried in military courts for a range of crimes which include ‘insulting the army’ and ‘breaking curfew.’ Torture and beatings by security forces remain commonplace, and demonstrations are regularly greeted with volleys of tear gas and rocks from the state security forces. Women who have been detained faced invasive and brutal ‘virginity tests’ until popular outrage forced courts to declare them illegal in December.

Last October, when extremists burned down a Coptic Christian church, protests against the act of oppression were met with terrifying state violence which left 28 dead. What’s more, SCAF used their control of the media to claim that the Christians had attacked them, and urged Egyptian Muslims to defend the soldiers, which helped fuel further attacks on the minority Copts.

The past weeks have seen the protests increase once again. On January 25th (the one year anniversary of the revolution), millions demonstrated across the country, many calling for “bread, freedom and dignity” and a “second revolution.” Though the Muslim Brotherhood refused to officially endorse the anti-Mubarak protests of a year ago, it took part in the ‘celebrations’ of the anniversary and tried to convince people not to oppose the regime or push for further reforms.

When protestors decided to continue demonstrating in the square after the anniversary was over, the Brotherhood condemned them, leading several of their members to be ejected from Tahrir.

These protests have been bolstered after the violence at a football game in Port Said on February 1st. Supporters of the Al-Ahly football club have taken an active part in the revolution, from the initial clashes with Mubarak’s thugs to today. In recent weeks they used matches as an opportunity to sing anti-SCAF chants, fly flags and hang banners calling for justice for the victims of state violence. Many have claimed that al-Masry fans were allowed to smuggle in knives and that the exit gates at the Al-Ahly stands were locked so people could not escape.

When al-Masry fans (or state thugs pretending to be fans, according to some) rushed the pitch and the opposition stands, hundreds of police officers just stood back and allowed the violence to continue. By the end of the night 74 fans were dead, sparking larger mobilisations against state violence across the country. Thousands have demonstrated around the Ministry of the Interior building, and police stations have also been targetted. Security forces have responded with live ammunition and shotgun pellets, and by tear-gassing residential areas.

Military rulers have shown their contempt for democracy in the recent arrest of 43 activists, including 19 Americans, for pro-democracy activism they claim is illegal. Only a few weeks ago the regime felt confident enough to relax the security laws of the country, but these recent demonstrations have shown the unpopularity of the military regime.

In June, the SCAF is meant to formally handover power to the parliament, which is firmly under the control of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) who occupy around half the seats. However, the Islamists have been working closely with SCAF since the revolution began, and FJP higher-ups have promised that the military will still play an important role in Egyptian politics after the handover date. The SCAF itself has announced that it intends to hold onto the power to block laws from passing, to dismiss parliaments, to set budgets, and to sign deals with other countries.

In recent days the extent to which the Muslim Brotherhood and the military rulers support each other was made obvious when protestors calling for an end to SCAF rule and for greater political representation for women were blocked from reaching parliament by a crowd of Brotherhood members.

This relationship could also be seen in the recent elections which the FJP won, where SCAF blocked observors from monitoring and preventing corruption, vote-rigging and political threats. Many leftists refused to take part in such obviously crooked elections, and have looked beyond parliament to strikes, demonstrations and occupations to get their voices heard.

Demands for democracy are not the only issue fuelling the ‘second revolution,’ as Egyptian workers, peasants, and youth struggle to earn a living. The working-class is one of the worst paid in the region, with over 40% of the country living below the poverty line and a huge number of people surviving on around $2 a day. FJP leaders have promised to continue working with US imperialism to exploit their people and have met with representatives of the International Monetary Fund to get a loan for Egypt, despite the fact that IMF loans come with strings attached which force countries to allow multinational corporations to dominate their economy.

Huge numbers of Egyptians are sick of being forced to live in poverty by a corrupt and bigoted regime which has allowed revolutionaries’ murderers to go unpunished. Violent crackdowns on protests, blatant corruption, and continued inequality have helped to create this latest wave of resistance. Many people are aware that the SCAF’s puppet democracy will not achieve the revolution’s goals, so now is the time to build an alternative to the sham parliament.

There will be no halfway house for Egypt- a stable, democratic, capitalist state cannot exist there because of its relationship with the major imperialist countries. So long as these countries keep sucking the money and resources out of Egypt and impoverishing the population, the people will fight back until they either beat or are beaten by the state.

The workers, the poor and the oppressed of Egypt need to take control of the economy and society by establishing their own democratic assemblies, by organising their defence, and by preparing to take down the SCAF and Brotherhood leaders who seek to recreate Mubarak’s rule without Mubarak.

 

 

Read more

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Arrests as protesters storm Syrian embassies

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Return to Tahrir Square

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Religion and Revolution

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………