THE US-backed and financed Egyptian army has given a 48-hour ultimatum to the US-backed and financed Muslim Brotherhood government (which supports the imperialist powers in Syria and has maintained the peace treaty with Israel) to take political action to resolve the crisis in Egypt – or else it will intervene.
It has given due notice of a military coup, and the restoration of a Mubarak mark two type military regime.
What has blown these two pillars of imperialist domination of Egypt apart is the massive movement of tens of millions of workers, youth and the middle class, with the trade unions taking a decisive leadership role, that has taken to the streets.
This has secured almost immediately the resignation of at least five members of the Mursi government, and has seen the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in cities all over Egypt sacked or burnt down.
This mass movement of many millions not only refuses to allow the Muslim Brotherhood to thrust Islamic handcuffs and blindfolds onto society, pushing it back centuries, it is demanding the right to strike, wage rises that keep pace with inflation, and jobs and homes for the millions of Egyptian workers, the youth and the rural poor who have neither.
Millions of Egyptians are also demanding the end of the peace treaty with Israel, and the ending of the Egyptian government’s shameful urging of young people to go to Syria to help the US and UK overthrow Assad for the benefit of imperialism and Israel, so that they can redraw the map of the Middle East for their own benefit.
The Egyptian revolution is therefore both a political and a social revolution.
It demands not only a change of regime and the political defeat of the Muslim Brotherhood, it also demands a social revolution. This will see a workers and small farmers government take over, that will democratise society, redistribute the land to the rural poor, and expropriate the capitalists, to bring in workers management and control of industry and the economy.
Such a revolution, led by the most powerful working class in the Arab world, will have powerful national and international consequences.
The US will back the Egyptian army and urge Mursi to come to a deal with it, to bring a few opposition politicians into the regime to try and split the mass revolutionary movement.
The masses of the working class and the youth will not accept this.
They will press forward to bring down the Mursi regime and fight to bring in a workers, youth, and small farmers government that will carry out both a democratic and social revolution at home and will have the most powerful international consequences.
Internationally, such a development would drive the Arab masses forward in all countries, see the ending of the peace treaty with Israel and give mass support to the Syrian people against the US and UK imperialists. It will create the basis for the establishment of the independent Palestinian state and drive imperialism and Zionism out of the Middle East.
Such is the vital role of Egypt and the power of the Egyptian working class, the US will be working overtime to bring the Army together with the Mursi regime to bring some oppositionists into the government, to try to keep the masses at bay.
The working class, now enjoying massive support, will however continue to advance forward.
The movement that began in Tunis and has swept throughout the world, alongside the revolutionary developments in Europe, has shaken imperialism to its core.
It is this permanent revolution, driven forward by the capitalist crisis, that is creating the conditions for both a democratic and socialist revolution in Egypt and throughout the Middle East.
