[The following statement was issued on 21 December 2011 by the Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt.]
Yes … we do want the downfall of the state of tyranny, poverty and dependency
Accusations are being levelled at the Revolutionary Socialists by certain quarters, at the head of them the Ministry of the Interior’s website, and a number of satellite channels showed a clip from a video of a meeting which the Centre for Socialist Studies organised recently in the wake of the massacre on Mohammed Mahmoud Street with the title “What is the road to revolution?”. In the meeting, colleagues Kamal Khalil, Hossam el Hamalawy and Sameh Naguib spoke, and the clip showed a section of the meeting where Sameh Naguib talked about how the revolutionaries want the downfall of the state to build a new revolutionary state, and that the military council does not protect the interests of the Egyptian people but instead protects the interests of the 1000 richest families in Egypt, the interests of the Pentagon, the US government and the Zionists, in order to raise a storm against us that we are in favour of overthrowing the state.
Our reply is that it is no indictment to say that we want the downfall of the oppressive state and the creation of a just state: it is the goal we are fighting for.
As Umm Kulthum sang, and millions sang with her sixty years ago, “The oppressive state is erased – by my own hand”. It remains our dream to eradicate the corrupt state which has spread like a cancer through the body of Egypt.
Yes, we are seeking to overthrow the state of tyranny and poverty that has ruled us for the last 30 years, and continues to rule us today, the state that has killed thousands of fighters in its prisons, the state which has looted and stolen from the poor to increase the wealth of the rich.
This is the state which backs the bosses in their confrontations with workers. This is the state which refuses to take back the companies it sold off cheaply even though the courts ruled in favour of the workers’ campaign to return them to public ownership – demonstrating that for this state the power of capital is more important that the authority of the judiciary.
This is the state which allows the capitalists to sack and starve workers, peasants and the poor in their thousands, but then issues laws making their protests a crime.
This is the state which discriminates between its citizens on the basis of religion, gender and race. It is the racist state which slaughtered Sudanese refugees in 2005, sexually assaulted women in 2006 and 2011. It is the sectarian state which conspired to burn churches and persecuted poor Coptic Christians and finally murdered 24 of them in October this year. This is the state which deceives the people through its media. It demands austerity and calls on the people to tighten their belts and to keep the “wheel of production” turning, while at the same time announcing palaces and resorts to secure the future of “our children”.
Yes, we want to overthrow the state. We want the downfall of its health policies which have made health and medical treatment commodities to be bought and sold by those who can afford to pay, while the poor die in their hundreds because the public hospitals have been ruined. We want to overthrow its education policies which teach lies and distortions to our children in classrooms which are collapsing over their heads because there is no money for building schools, so that pupils can barely speak Arabic by the time they leave education. We want the downfall of the Ministry of the Interior, its minister and criminal officers who killed our more of our sons and daughters than have died in natural disasters. We want to overthrow the policies of systematic impoverishment which have pushed over half our people below the poverty line. And the list goes on...
This oppressive state is protected by an army under the leadership of Mubarak’s military council. So that is why we want to end this military junta’s rule, which in less than a year has stolen the lives of more Egyptians than Mubarak managed to during his thirty years in power.
Yes, we want to put the corrupt leaders of the army on trial. For twenty years under Mubarak more than 30 percent of the economy came under their completely unmonitored control in the form of factories, hotels, housing projects, farms, arms deals and other parts of the state budget, taxes and the subsidies we provide them through the forced labour of our young men on these kind of projects during military service without any protection for their rights. These are the leaders of the army who opened fire on us, and imprisoned thousands of our free young people after unjust military trials.
We believe that sooner or later this army will produce patriotic leaders who will join the ranks of the revolutionaries, as has happened in all revolutions across the course of history.
Yes, we want to overthrow this regime and its state, together with its corrupt men, its opportunistic allies and its military council which rules the country at the behest of the deposed president. We swear to continue the struggle with the revolutionaries in the Tahrir Squares across the country despite smear campaigns and intimidation, until it falls and the people seize the power and wealth which is theirs by right ... until the victory of the revolution which the people ignited.
Yes, the people still demand the fall of the regime and its corrupt and tyrannical state. Glory to the martyrs ... Victory to the revolution ... Power and wealth to the people!
The Revolutionary Socialists
21 December 2011