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Egypt: Textile Workers Call for Revolutionary Democracy

Published on March 8, 2012 by in Egypt, Plutocracy, Tahrir Square, Uncategorized, Worker Struggles
Tahrir Square

A letter from the Revolutionary Association of Textile Workers to the revolutionaries on the barricades in Tahrir Square, Alexandria and Suez Original Arabic here 29 November 2011 Eleven days behind the barricades in the squares of Egypt is proof that the revolutionaries have reclaimed revolutionary legitimacy in seventeen provinces. Yet although the revolutionaries have offered themselves as martyrs in the squares as sacrifices for freedom, equality and justice, they have offered their wounded, and lost more than 11,000 to the military’s prisons, we have still not reaped the harvest of our struggle. Now, after ten months where we’ve seen the remnants of the old system simply recycled, and opportunistic attempts by the political forces with religious authority to ignore the revolutionary legitimacy of the masses in the squares, ten months where the blood of the martyrs has irrigated the pavements anew, now they are fabricating and falsifying the democracy we fought for. They are signing the revolution’s death certificate at the ballot boxes because they know that their path to power can only pass through the blood of the martyrs and the injured. It is therefore down to the revolutionaries in the squares to propose an alternative to the bloodstained democracy which the military council and its allies among the political forces with religious authority have decided upon. The return of the masses to the squares has inspired experiences among the revolutionary forces of the students, workers, peasants, professionals and the marginalized which we must build on to create the new form of democracy that we must defend. The military council and its allies in the corridors of power and the political parties are preparing a parliament to extend their presence and legitimacy. Now is the time for the masses in the squares to create forms of popular revolutionary democracy in Tahrir, Alexandria, Suez, Mansoura and Sohag. We must develop new, legitimate revolutionary forms of democratic representation from the streets and therefore we must create popular revolutionary councils in the public squares by: A public vote by the tens of thousands on the barricades in Tahrir Square to create the first popular revolutionary council by choosing

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To the Occupy movement – the occupiers of Tahrir Square are with you

Published on November 4, 2011 by in Features, Occupy Wall Street, Tahrir Square

To all those across the world currently occupying parks, squares and other spaces, your comrades in Cairo are watching you in solidarity. Having received so much advice from you about transitioning to democracy, we thought it’s our turn to pass on some advice. Indeed, we are now in many ways involved in the same struggle. What most pundits call “the Arab spring” has its roots in the demonstrations, riots, strikes and occupations taking place all around the world, its foundations lie in years-long struggles by people and popular movements. The moment that we find ourselves in is nothing new, as we in Egypt and others have been fighting against systems of repression, disenfranchisement and the unchecked ravages of global capitalism (yes, we said it, capitalism): a system that has made a world that is dangerous and cruel to its inhabitants. As the interests of government increasingly cater to the interests and comforts of private, transnational capital, our cities and homes have become progressively more abstract and violent places, subject to the casual ravages of the next economic development or urban renewal scheme. An entire generation across the globe has grown up realising, rationally and emotionally, that we have no future in the current order of things. Living under structural adjustment policies and the supposed expertise of international organisations like the World Bank and IMF, we watched as our resources, industries and public services were sold off and dismantled as the “free market” pushed an addiction to foreign goods, to foreign food even. The profits and benefits of those freed markets went elsewhere, while Egypt and other countries in the south found their immiseration reinforced by a massive increase in police repression and torture. The current crisis in America and western Europe has begun to bring this reality home to you as well: that as things stand we will all work ourselves raw, our backs broken by personal debt and public austerity. Not content with carving out the remnants of the public sphere and the welfare state, capitalism and the austerity state now even attack the private realm and people’s right to decent dwelling as thousands

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Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

Published on October 2, 2011 by in Occupy Wall Street

First ‘official’ statement from the Occupy Wall Street movement As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known. They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization. They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices. They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions. They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right. They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay. They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility. They have spent millions of

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