Mubarak missed by 17 hours the last possibility of a respectable resignation. His demission was stated by his vice, Mr. Omar Suleiman. Mubarak could see how the whole Arab nation from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arab-Persian Gulf celebrated his departure, as well his Western allies welcoming the transition of power in Egypt.
The Egyptians have a great reason to celebrate. They are celebrating a victory over 30 years of a rule of fear and poverty. They are celebrating a victory which was achieved by an uprising of popular masses and without foreign support.
The Egyptians earn the respect of the whole world, being able to remove one of the most crucial regimes in a country with 80 million inhabitants through a totally peaceful uprising. Despite of all attempts of defamation by Western media, millions of people on the streets behaved in a much civilised manner being peaceful and disciplined. Despite the aggressive attacks of the uniformed and civil police of the regime, they maintained the peaceful character of the protests. It was the so called “guarantor of stability in the country” who behaved like a real mafia boss sending his gangs to attack demonstrators. The history will take note that not a single policeman or a regime scoundrel was lynched by the masses. The call “Peaceful! Peaceful!” protected policemen and gangsters caught by the angry and wounded protestors.
The Egyptian, in their tradition of state organisation, showed a high grade of self organisation, solidarity and discipline and deprived the Western media of the “mob” they had constantly been looking for.
The uprising began by the initiative of young activists and was rolled out into a mass movement thanks to the stupidity of Mubarak’s regime of repression. The movement has been able to create its own field leaderships and local organisation structures. The traditional legal and illegal opposition parties were over-rolled by the uprising and could hardly gain influence. Most of them joined the uprising at a later point. Despite of the lack of political organisations, the masses joined in the central political demands of the initiators, calling for the removal of the regime, a new constitution and free elections in Egypt.
The demission of Mubarak does not mean the end of the US regime in Egypt. Nevertheless, it represents the cleaving off of its head. It is expected that the regime will work on a recycled version of itself, maintaining the maximum of the old policy it can afford. That is why the regime media and some forces try to de-politicise the popular demands and to focus on the narrow circle around Mubarak being responsible for all the evil. Nevertheless, anyone who intends to rule Egypt in future will have to take the Egyptian people more seriously than Mubarak did. No other regime would represent the US hegemony in a manner as consequent as the Mubarak regime did. The USA will also make its learning from the events. It is obvious that the CIA is not able to predict popular uprisings, as far these are not guided by the CIA itself.
Therefore it is logical, that other comprador regimes in the regions were desperately supporting Mubarak. A victory of a people uprising in Egypt can be contagious. In Yemen, the dictatorship of Saleh is shaking, in Jordan the peoples movement is slowly ripening, and even in Saudi Arabia the first manifestation against the autocratic Saudi regime have been reported. Everywhere the regimes are seeking a sort of compromise with the oppositions, in order to prevent or delay a breaking out of popular rage. The victory of the Egyptians is a result of the victory of the Tunisians, both being a great gift to all peoples of the region.
The fact that Israel was supporting the dictator until the last second, lays in the nature of the state of Israel being a foreign body in the region, whose relationship to its neighbours can only be seen in the context of its security as a colonial outpost in the robbed land of Palestine. The lives of 80 million humans in Egypt are reduced to the security needs and privileges of four million Israelis. This equation can last for no longer. Israel can only exist as long as the Arab masses are suppressed by tyrants such as Mubarak being kept in poverty, hunger and lack of education.
The victory of the Egyptians is a victory of all anti-imperialists all over the world. We in the Anti-imperialist Camp congratulate the Egyptian people and the Egyptian progressive political forces on this victory. A battle has been won, but the final victory is still ahead – the total removal of the US regime. To prevent a set-back, it is indispensible to raise the demand to take over the “transition period” from the hands of the government set by Mubarak and maintained by the army. The new constitution must be made by a new constitutional assembly set together by the leadership of the uprising. A serious democratic and economical reform is only possible by the removal of the regime lobby. Issues of social justice and national sovereignty can not be separated from the question of democratisation.
It is still unpredictable how far the popular demands can be achieved in this stage regarding the current balance of power and the ambiguous role of the army being at the same time the pillar of the old regime and the only trusted institution by several political forces.
To move this balance of power toward the masses, it is on the Egyptian popular movement to benefit from the achieved democratic climate and to (re)build its party and organisation structures being able to take power in the sense of a real democratisation of the country.
Anti-imperialist Camp
Vienna, February 12, 2011
