Mubarak Apparently to turn over reigns of power in Egypt to Military and V.P. Tonight

[Magda Hassan]

ElBaradei: Soros's Man in Cairo

by Maidhc Ó Cathail

February 12, 2011




In a February 3 Washington Post op-ed piece titled "Why Obama has to get Egypt right," George Soros wrote that the U.S. president had "much to gain by moving out in front and siding with the public demand for dignity and democracy." Notwithstanding the reasonableness of his advice, past experience suggests that the Hungarian-born hedge fund manager has something to gain himself from regime change in Cairo.
In his public memo to the president he helped elect, Soros noted that it was a "hopeful sign" that the Muslim Brotherhood was cooperating with Mohamed ElBaradei, whom he disinterestedly described as "the Nobel laureate who is seeking to run for president." He neglected to mention, however, that up to ElBaradei's January 27 return to crisis-torn Egypt, the former IAEA chief had been a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, which Soros, the thirty-fifth richest person in the world, helped create and finance.
The International Crisis Group describes itself as "an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict," but self-descriptions can often be misleading. "The ICG is a fascinating case study of the way human rights organizations, governments and international corporations work hand in glove these days," George Szamuely wrote of the influential think tank's role in the Balkans. "Independent' figures like Soros identify a crisis' demanding urgent government attention. Governments act on them and then parcel out the lucrative contracts to Soros and his pals."
One of Soros's more notorious "pals" is Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former head of Yukos Oil, who by the age of 32 had amassed assets worth more than $30 billion in the rigged post-Soviet "privatization" of state-owned property. When the Jewish oligarch was arrested for tax evasion, embezzlement and fraud in 2003, Soros denounced the charges as "political persecution," called for the expulsion of Russia from the G-8, and urged the West to intervene. Khodorkovsky's partner in crime, Leonid Nevzlin, fled to Israel before he was found guilty in absentia of ordering the murders of several politicians and businesspeople that got in the way of Yukos's expansion plans. Like Soros and Khodorkovsky, Nevzlin has since attempted to rebrand himself as a "philanthropist."
Tel Aviv's concerns about the loss of a friendly dictator next door, however, should be assuaged somewhat by the fact that ElBaradei could collaborate with the considerable number of Israel partisans at ICG. Former U.S. Congressman Stephen Solarz, who helped start the group, was once dubbed "the Israel lobby's chief legislative tactician on Capitol Hill," and in 1998 led a group of neoconservatives who urged President Clinton to overthrow Saddam Hussein. Fellow neocon Kenneth Adelman assured Americans in a 2002 Washington Post op-ed that the Israeli-induced invasion of Iraq would be a "cakewalk." Even more reassuring for nervous Israelis must be the presence of Nahum Barnea, the prominent Israeli columnist who sharply criticized fellow journalists Gideon Levy, Amira Hass and Akiva Eldar for their "mission" of support for the Palestinians.
And among ICG's elite international list of senior advisersdefined as "former Board Members (to the extent consistent with any other office they may be holding at the time) who maintain an association with Crisis Group, and whose advice and support are called on from time to time"we find Shlomo Ben-Ami, former foreign minister of Israel; Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel; and Shimon Peres, current president of Israel.
On the face of it, it seems hard to reconcile the substantial pro-Israel presence at ICG with Soros's claims to be a "non-Zionist." But things are seldom what they seem with Soros. Two years after the founding of J Street, it emerged that he had given substantial donations to the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby. Not everyone is convinced by J Street's claims to be a genuine alternative to AIPAC either. As one astute commentator put it, J Street is "little more than a spin-off of the existing Israel Lobby to make it more palatable to the liberal Democrats that make up the Obama Administration."
Moreover, some of Israel's most fervent advocates on Capitol Hill have received donations from Soros, who has become "one of the largest political-campaign contributors in American history." In an interview with a conservative Jewish radio talk show, Senator Charles Schumer said he believed that HaShem (Orthodox Jewish term for "God") gave him his namewhich means "guardian"so that he could fulfill his "very important" role in the U.S. Senate as a "guardian of Israel."
Essentially filling the same role in the House of Representatives until 2008 was the late Congressman Tom Lantos, whom a former U.S. diplomat referred to as "the Hungarian-American guardian of Israel's interests in Congress." As co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, Lantos knowingly deceived his co-chairman and the public about the identity of "Nayirah," whose incubator atrocity story helped justify American intervention in the 1991 Gulf War. Lantos, who is said to have "shared a common drive for promoting democracy and human rights" with his close friend Soros, also championed the fugitive Nevzlin as an innocent victim of anti-Semitism.
"I hope President Obama will expeditiously support the people of Egypt," Soros wrote in his Post op-ed. "My foundations are prepared to contribute what they can." If the Egyptian people have as much sense as they have courage and determination, however, they will tell this self-described "committed advocate of democracy and open society" what to do with his "philanthropy"and his Nobel laureate.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2011...-in-cairo/

[Magda Hassan]

P U L S E

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."

Egyptian People Power Versus the Oligarchy

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By Michael Barker
The ongoing insurrection in Egypt is fantastic, but the barriers standing between the people and any substantive form of democracy are formidable and will need to be overcome in the near future. As one might expect there are plenty of reformers' waiting amongst the counter-revolutionaries to undermine any forthcoming revolution, ready and willing to proudly take on the mantle of power in the name of the democracy. Leading neoconservative ideologue, Paul Wolfowitz, suggests that Hossam Badrawi, the "recently appointed head of Egypt's government party may be emerging as an interesting and reasonable transition figure." Acknowledging that there are many such leaders who stand between the Egyptian people and a successful revolution, this article will focus on the elites in Badrawi's higher circles in an attempt to draw attention to just a few of the many of the powerful groups and individuals ready and willing to smash/co-opt the peoples movement under the iron heel/velvet slipper of the Oligarchy.[1]
Until recently Hossam Badrawi served on the board of governors of Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP), but with the en masse resignations of many of the members of the NDP's top executive committee, Badrawi a founding member of Arab Parliamentarians Against Corruption, became their new Secretary General. To gain an idea of Badrawi's reformist ambitions for Egypt one might turn to look at some of his colleagues at Egypt's International Economic Forum, a group whose "ultimate objective" is "fully integrating the Egyptian economy into the world economy on favourable terms."
Notable elites serving alongside Badrawi on Egypt's International Economic Forum's executive committee include Taher Helmy, who is the founder and chair of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, a think-tank has been supported for the past two decades by the imperialist National Endowment for Democracy. In fact, the International Economic Forum's current chairman, M. Shafik Gabr, also serves as a board member of Helmy's think tank, and as a member of a World Economic Forum project called the Community of West and Islam Dialogue (C-100). Next up, the treasurer of Egypt's International Economic Forum, Shahira Magdy Zeid, just so happens to be a board member of the Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement which is headed (of course) by the dictators wife, Suzanne. (Likewise, Taher Helmy is a board member of Mubarak's peace' movement.)
Egypt's International Economic Forum boasts of a small but impressive advisory board of just five individuals, the three most significant being: the former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Robert Pelletreau; World Economic Forum president, Klaus Schwab (a devotee of Orwellian politics who counts himself as a peace' advocate because of his service on the board of governors at the Shimon Peres Center for Peace); and Frank G. Wisner, Jr. , an important imperial power broker who after serving as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt (1986-91), went on to become the U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines, where he supervised the aftermath of their recent transition from U.S.-backed dictatorship to democracy.' That the Philippines' immensely powerful people-powered movement could be co-opted by the U.S. governments democracy promotion' apparatus provides a stark example of what the Oligarchy has in store for Egypt; that is, if they are not thwarted by what may turn out to be a truly revolutionary movement for change.[2]
Last but not least, especially considering their advisors' special imperial pedigree, it makes sense to briefly examine some of the members of the Egypt's International Economic Forum's board of trustees. We might start here with the former information secretary of Mubarak's National Democratic Party, Ali Eldin Helal (who resigned earlier this month). In addition to his central role in dispensing state propaganda, Eldin Helal was the first vice president of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (1985-7) a group that received annual support from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) between 1994 and 2005. Furthermore it is important to point out that at the same time as he worked for this human rights group he served on the council of the British-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (1983-92).[3]
Other trustees of Egypt's International Economic Forum include Ahmed Ezz and Rachid Mohamed Rachid, who are both board members of a business orientated nonprofit called Future Generation Foundation that is headed by Mubarak's son, Gamal; and Mona Makram-Ebeid, who is a founding member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs an elite think tank that models itself on the imperial brains trust that is the Council on Foreign Relations.
Here it is interesting to point out that a particularly influential member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs is Naguib Sawiris, the eldest son of Orascom-empire patriarch, Onsi Sawiris. Naguib Sawiris presently serves on the international advisory committee to the New York Stock Exchange board of directors, and is a recent board member of the democracy' and freedom' nonprofit, Foundation for the Future. In fact, Sawiris was linked to this group in 2007, during the time at which the romantic partner of Paul Wolfowitz, Shaha Riza (a former NED-scholar herself) managed this highly profitable neoconservative enterprise (for a critique of this group, see "The Foundation for the Future: What FOIA Documents Reveal," pdf).[4]
Finally, another significant member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs is Mamdouh Salim, who is a member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (see later), and is the vice president of the Forum of Dialogue and Partnership for Development's board of trustees. This latter group provides a connection to another important group that has received funding from the NED, the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies; this is because Ayat M. Abul-Futtouh acted as the program manager for the Forum of Dialogue and Partnership for Development from 2001 until 2003, before she moved on to become the managing director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies. Abul-Futtouh also happens to be a founder and a steering committee member of the Network for Democrats in the Arab World, and in 2006 she was invited to give a talk at Paul Wolfowitz's current nominal home, the American Enterprise Institute; this talk was later published in 2008 the Institutes's book Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats.
The current chairman of the Ibn Khaldun Center's board of trustees is Nobel Peace Prize nominee and Arab Organization for Human Rights founder, Saad Eddin Ibrahim. Although widely celebrated as a leading Egyptian pro-democracy activist, Ibrahim maintains intimate connections to U.S. neoconservatives and a wide variety of democracy promoting' organizations connected to the work of the NED (for a critical examination of his background, see "The Violence of Nonviolence"). Recently Ibrahim even joined the advisory board of a neoconservative group called Cyberdissidents.org, whose web site says they are "dedicated to supporting human liberty by promoting the voices of online dissidents." Founded in 2008 this project is headed by their cofounder, David Keyes, who previously served as coordinator for democracy programs under the right-wing Zionist Natan Sharansky while based at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies.
Retaining the theme on democracy' obsessed neoconservatives, it is significant that Sherif Mansour, the former program manager for the Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies, is a current program officer for Middle East and North Africa at the neoconservative outfit, Freedom House. He is the coeditor with Maria Stephan of the book Civilian Resistance in the Middle East (Routledge, 2009).[5] Based at Freedom House, Mansour runs the New Generation program which advocates for political reform in Egypt and North Africa. Needless to say such peace' activists do not want the popular insurrection in Egypt to escalate to become a successful revolution that dismantles Egypt's brutal state apparatus and creates a vibrant people-powered democracy. This helps explain why conservative commentators based in the United States are now asking: "Will Venezuela Be the Next Egypt?" The answer to that ridiculous question is a definitive no!
- Michael Barker is an independent researcher who currently resides in the UK. His other articles can be accessed here.
- Notes -
[1] This is a reference to the Jack London's 1907 book The Iron Heel. In a forthcoming article titled "The Velvet Slipper and the Military-Peace Nonprofit Complex,"I elaborate on what I refer to as the velvet slipper approach to manipulating social movements an approach currently in vogue among leading neoconservatives.
[2] For further details, see Kim Scipes, KMU: Building Genuine Trade Unionism in the Philippines, 1980-1994 (New Day Publishers, 1996); and William I. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, US Intervention, and Hegemony (Cambridge University Press, 1996), Chapter 3.
[3] Incidentally, elite peace'-broker Peter Ackerman joined the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London as a visiting scholar, undertaking research which led him to co-authoring a book with Christopher Kruegler (the president of the controversial NED-funded Albert Einstein Institution) called Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: The Dynamics of People Power in the Twentieth Century (Praeger, 1994). Ackerman is a current board member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the founding chair and primary funder of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, and former chair of the neoconservative Freedom House.
[4] One might add that Naguib's brother, Nassef Onsi Sawiris, is a board member of the cement behemoth, Lafarge, where he alongside numerous high-rolling members of the ruling class.
[5] It is noteworthy that Maria Stephan worked on this book while based at Peter Ackerman's democracy promoting' International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. (See footnote #3)
http://pulsemedia.org/2011/02/12/egyptia...oligarchy/

[Ed Jewett]

My friend the Coptic Christian from Egypt confirmed for me this morning what I thought was going on. Mubarak was thrown out by a military coup. When I asked my Coptic friend if the Egyptian Army was on the side of the people, he said "Of course... they didn't fire on us", and then we agreed that we all need to be in this together. He said 'Yes, my friend. It is the same in your house or my house, in your wallet or my wallet. What you saw in Egypt is the Muslim linking hand in hand with the Christian, refusing to be divided us against them any longer.'

[David Guyatt]

My friend the Coptic Christian from Egypt confirmed for me this morning what I thought was going on. Mubarak was thrown out by a military coup. When I asked my Coptic friend if the Egyptian Army was on the side of the people, he said "Of course... they didn't fire on us", and then we agreed that we all need to be in this together. He said 'Yes, my friend. It is the same in your house or my house, in your wallet or my wallet. What you saw in Egypt is the Muslim linking hand in hand with the Christian, refusing to be divided us against them any longer.'

Fingers crossed then Ed.

[Magda Hassan]

I hope so too but all that US military money buys a lot of influence. And there is probably more we don't know about. Lots more in special selected pockets.

[Magda Hassan]

Egypt's military-industrial complex

With US-made tear gas canisters fired on protesters in Cairo, Washington's role in arming Egypt is under the spotlight
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  • • [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/pratap-chatterjee]Pratap Chatterjee
      
    • guardian.co.uk, Friday 4 February 2011 19.01 GMT
      
    A riot policeman fires tear gas at protesters in front of the al-Istiqama Mosque on 28 January, in Cairo, Egypt. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images In early January 2010, Bob Livingston, a former chairman of the appropriations committee in the US House of Representatives, flew to Cairo accompanied by William Miner, one of his staff. The two men were granted meetings with US Ambassador Margaret Scobey, as well as Major General FC "Pink" Williams, the defence attaché and director of the US Office of Military Cooperation in Egypt. Livingston and Miner were lobbyists employed by the government of Egypt, helping them to open doors to senior officers in the US government. Records of their meetings, required under law, were recently published by the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington, DC watchdog group.
    Although the names of those who attended the meetings have to be made public, the details of what was discussed are confidential. I called Miner to ask him about their meetings, but he referred me to Karim Haggag, the spokesman for the Egyptian embassy in Washington, who did not respond. Miner did confirm that he was a retired Navy pilot who had worked for clients like the Egyptian government, as well as several military contractors.
    The cozy relationship between the lobbyists, members of the US Congress, Pentagon officials and the Egyptian government is easily explained: much is at stake. Egypt has received over $70bn in economic and military aid approved by the US Congress in the past 60 years, according to numbers compiled by the Congressional Research Service. Maj Gen Williams is the man in charge of the $1.3bn in annual US military aid supplied to the country.
    Specifically, the aid money pays for US-designed Abrams tanks assembled in suburban Cairo under contract with General Dynamics. Boeing sells Egypt CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, Lockheed Martin sells F-16s, Sikorsky Aircraft sells Black Hawk helicopters. Lockheed Martin has taken in $3.8bn from Egypt in the last few years; General Dynamics $2.5bn; Boeing $1.7bn; among many others.
    In addition, hundreds of Egyptian military officers come for short training courses to the US each year. Two days after Livingston and Miner met with the US officials in Cairo, the embassy sent a cable to Washington with a list of Egyptian officials approved to take a three-week military training course in the US in February 2010. Under the "Leahy law" a human rights requirement named after Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont that prohibits US military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights the embassy must, as a matter of routine, vouch for the prospective trainees.
    One of the training courses listed in the cable made public by WikiLeaks was listed as one in how to handle explosives. The WikiLeaks cables show that numerous officials working for "state security", aged between 30 and 50 with ranks from major to lieutenant colonel, were given clean bills of health to take a variety of such specialised military training programmes.
    After the US lobbyists returned to their offices in Washington, DC, Miner kept in touch with "Pink" Williams, corresponding via email. A little over three months later, an Egyptian military delegation led by Major General Mohamed Said Elassar, assistant to Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, the Egyptian minister of defence, came to Washington. Livingstone and Miner were on hand once again to take the Egyptian officials to meet with a number of members of Congress, as well to visit the office of the secretary of defence to discuss "US/Egyptian security issues".
    So, when protesters in Cairo last week were struck by tear gas canisters fired by Egyptian security officials, it was not surprising that pictures taken by ABC TV would show that the canisters were manufactured in the US. Nor does it seem that surprising that a journalist from the Sydney Morning Herald would find 12-gauge shotgun shells with ''MADE IN USA'' stamped on their brass heads when he visited the wounded in a makeshift casualty ward in a tiny mosque behind Tahrir (Liberation) Square.
    The photographs show that the tear gas comes from a company named Combined Systems Inc (CSI), which describes itself as a "tactical weapons company" and is based in Jamestown, Pennsylvania. A similar picture from the protests in Egypt was posted on Twitter of a "Outdoor 52 Series Large Grenade" grenade made by CSI, which is designed to discharge "a high volume of smoke and chemical agent through multiple emission ports". (CSI did not return calls for comment.)
    Although CSI markets these products as "less-than-lethal", several incidents indicate that they can cause injury and death. Bassem Abu Rahmah, a Palestinian man, was reportedly killed on 17 April 2009, when a CSI 40mm model 4431 powder barricade penetrating tear gas grenade struck him in the chest, according to a report by the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Nels Cooper Brannan , a US marine deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, unsuccessfully sued CSI for injuries caused by an allegedly defective MK 141 flashbang grenade that caused serious damage to his left hand when it exploded accidently.
    While the Egyptian protesters were facing tear gas grenades fired by security forces in Cairo, another delegation of Egyptian senior military officials led by Lieutenant General Sami Hafez Enan, the chief of staff of Egypt's armed forces, was back in Washington to meet with Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (No public records have been filed yet, so it is unclear if Miner and Livingstone were escorting them again.)
    Within hours of the news of the huge protests, Enan cut short his trip and dashed back to Cairo last Friday, but his boss, Minister Tantawi, has kept in touch with Washington, making daily phone calls to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Both men together with Egypt's spy chief, Omar Suleiman are among President Hosni Mubarak's closest allies and enjoy close ties with Washington, according to the diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks. And it was these men that Thomas E Donilon, the US national security adviser, was frantically phoning last weekend to try to gauge how to prevent the collapse of the Mubarak regime.
    It could days, maybe even weeks, before the future of the Egyptian government is decided, and with it, the relationship with the US. But one thing is clear: the Egyptian protesters are well aware of the close ties between officials in Cairo and Washington and not happy about the US training and tear gas shells supplied to the Egyptian military. Crowds gathered in Liberation Square last week chanted: "Hosni Mubarak, Omar Suleiman, both of you are agents of the Americans." The protesters believe that the billions in military aid that kept Mubarak in power have helped him keep democracy from flowering in Egypt.
    Two years after Obama's famous speech in Cairo, in which he called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims", it might be a little late for his administration to heed the words of Mostafa Amin, Egypt's most famous columnist and journalist:
    
    Maybe America gains a lot when it exports to us arms and cars or planes, but it loses more when it does not export the best that its civilisation has produced, which is freedom and democracy and human rights. The value of America is that it should defend this product, not only in its country but throughout the world! It may harm some of its interests, but it will make gains that will live hundreds of years, for the friendship of peoples live forever, because the peoples do not die, but governments change like the winter weather.
    
  
  
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...arms-trade
  

[Ed Jewett]

I do not expect to deep forces of evil, greed and power to rule over and play dead. It is, always has been, and always will be an endless struggle.

[Magda Hassan]

February 13, 2011 --- CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's new military rulers will issue a warning against anyone who creates "chaos and disorder," an army source said Sunday.

The source said the military statement was now expected to appear Monday, not Sunday as the source had said earlier.

The Higher Military Council will also ban meetings by labour unions or professional syndicates, effectively forbidding strikes, and tell all Egyptians to get back to work after the unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
[Without the right to strike it is slavery. We know where this is headed now]

The army will also say it acknowledges and protects the right of people to protest, the source said.

(Reporting by Marwa Awad, writing by Alistair Lyon)

[Magda Hassan]

Egyptian army moves to preserve its power posted by lenin

The revolutionaries demanded Mubarak's overthrow, and insisted that Suleiman should not be put in charge. They have won that. They demanded that the NDP-dominated parliament be prorogued in the interim before elections, and the constitution suspended. They have won that. But they also demanded that between now and elections, there should be a collective, civilian governing council, that the emergency law should be terminated, that unions and parties should have the right to form without the permission of the state. They haven't won that. The army has instead taken control, is attempting to dismantle the democracy village in Tahrir Square, and has been arresting activists today. This does not mean that the army is going to get its way over the future of Egypt, or even that its hesitant, faltering efforts today - and they did falter - represent anything but a tentative foot in the water, an attempt to see if something like order can be restored. In fact, the army's premature provocation resulted in thousands of people pouring back into the square, some rough confrontations, and eventually groups of army and police standing around looking perplexed. Some police even came to the square pleading to be accepted as comrades of the revolution. The army will have to concede some form of representative electoral system, with some basic political freedoms. The state will be weakened in its repressive capacity, and the government will be strengthened in its representative capacity. But the precise balance of forces in the new polity has still to be decided, and in particular the army's central role has to be negotiated (and struggled against). Everything the army does, therefore - whether they decide to keep the NDP men in place or throw them aside, for example - has to be read in terms of their determination to remain in charge.

The army's manoeuvering now is presumably aimed at breaking up the remarkably broad coalition that was first assembled in 2006. This has included of course the Muslim Brothers, the Nasserist 'Karama' party, the Labour Party (which is Islamist), the Tagammu Party (leftist), the Revolutionary Socialists (self-explanatory), Kefaya (an alliance which includes many of the above elements), the Ghad Party (a liberal offshoot of the Wafdists which was the first party to be approached by Mubarak for negotiations), and Mohammed El Baradei's National Alliance for Change. It has to be said that the alliance might have been quite difficult to maintain if the left had taken the sectarian attitude of some of the older layers of marxists who basically maintained that the Muslim Brothers were a tool of the capitalist class, simply an ally of neoliberalism and imperialism, and so on. The Revolutionary Socialists played a key role in overcoming that. Samir Najib, working in the Centre for Socialist Studies, argued that it was vital to understand that the Muslim Brothers as in part a movement of the oppressed, involving many rank and file activists who came from poor and working class backgrounds. Some of them had been on the Left, and been alienated from the Left because of their experiences under Nasser and because of the way the poor bore the brunt of the crisis that marked the latter years of the Nasser regime. He argued that socialists should act independently of the Islamists, but not dismissively of them. They should defend them when they were opposed to the state on issues such as the emergency laws, or the independence of the judiciary, and should be prepared to work with them on democratic demands. Such was an important argument in preparing the socialist Left to be directly involved in, rather than secluded from, the mass movements that have precipitated Mubarak's downfall. The subsequent alliance also meant that the Muslim Brothers were more sensitive to criticism, as when they were forced to recant on their 'Islam is the solution' slogan in 2005, which Christians and socialists argued was sectarian.

The army's strategy of forcing a transition managed by the armed forces themselves is partly possible because both Mohammed El Baradei and the Muslim Brothers appear to have supported an army takeover to avert an all-out social explosion. One expects that, though they were the slowest to support the recent revolution, they will be the first to be consulted by the armed forces. Under Mubarak, the Muslim Brothers were effectively coopted, operating as a loyal opposition. There were and remain tensions in the organisation between the businessmen and professionals who dominate the leadership and the poorer base, with more radical layers wanting to take a more uncompromising stance, and these started to come to the fore in the context of the Second Intifada. This building pressure contributed to the decision by the Muslim Brothers to form an alliance with left-wing and secular forces to depose Mubarak back in 2006. So, it would be mistaken to assume that the rank and file of the Brothers will necessarily accept whatever carve-up the leadership opts for. Similarly, while many of the leading middle class activists are declaring the revolution to be over, effectively throwing in the towel before they've even secured the minimal political and democratic rights that they are in it for, there is likely to be a mass of middle class radicals who will continue to want to fight. I expect they'll be among the thousands of people who remained in Tahrir Square as of today.

Internationally, the armed forces seem determined to hold on to Egypt's current role. The indications so far are that the Camp David peace treaty with Israel, which underpins the Palestinians' miserable plight and Egypt's participation in the seige of Gaza, is to be maintained. This is purchased with $1.5bn a year in aid plus training, but it's also part of a global orientation of power predicated on US-led neoliberalism. Again, the army's task is made slightly easier here, because El Baradei supports the peace treaty. The Muslim Brothers do not, but they are highly unlikely to push for its abrogation. Unless an alternative orientation for capital accumulation emerges, the Egyptian ruling class will likely continue to seek a profitable alliance with the US. Only the continuation of the popular movements can force an alternative path.

It seems clear enough that the revolution has further convulsions to go. It seems equally clear that the alliance which led to this revolution is going to be reconfigured. Juan Cole has long argued that this revolution was centrally based on the labour movement, the alliance of blue and white collar workers that first emerged in 2006. This has united textile workers with tax collectors. But the movement has also been characterised by a fairly broad alliance between the most militant sections of the working class and the liberal and radical sections of the middle class, the latter including lawyers, doctors, probably a lot of small businessmen not integrated into the regime, and so on. The focus, in the Anglophone media, on the Twitterati, may have overstated the relevance of the middle class, but they did not fabricate their role. In the current situation, it is often the small businessmen and middle class professionals (like the Google marketing head Wael Ghonim, currently in a meeting with the higher council of the armed forces) who are in a hurry to call an end to hostilities. They want to get back to earning money. The accent is shifting far more clearly to the organised working class. Perhaps more serious than today's arrests, then, is the attempted banning of labour activism. This is where a new front of struggle is going to be opened up.

[Magda Hassan]

Protests and clashes across Egypt as 'Pharaoh' Morsi seizes new powers (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

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Published: [COLOR=#999999 !important]23 November, 2012, 16:37
Edited: [COLOR=#999999 !important]24 November, 2012, 03:21[/COLOR]
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Police fired tear gas at protesters as supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clashed in Cairo. Demonstrations took place in several cities throughout the country after the leader signed a controversial decree expanding his powers.
[COLOR=#999999 !important]Protesters run from tear gas released by riot police during clashes at Tahrir square in Cairo November 23, 2012.(Reuters / Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
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"I've witnessed very heavy police tactics. Officers used a lot of tear gas and threw rocks down on protesters from buildings. I've also seen Molotov cocktails being thrown back and forth," Cairo-based journalist Bel Trew told RT.
Earlier Friday, demonstrators clashed with police in Alexandria, Egypt, as they protested against President Morsi. Casualties were reported at the protests, and Morsi opponents set fire to Muslim Brotherhood offices in the Suez Canal cities of Suez, Port Said and Ismailia, state TV said.

Thousands of demonstrators threw stones and chunks of marble at each other outside an Alexandria mosque after Friday prayers. Anti-Morsi protesters threw firecrackers at supporters of the Brotherhood, who used prayer rugs to shield themselves.
Protesters both for and against President Morsi also rallied in the streets of Cairo, Egypt. Supporters of Morsi chanted, "The people support the president's decree" in front of the presidential palace, AP reported.
The demonstrations follow a call by the Egyptian opposition to protest what they called a coup' by Morsi.
"The opposition is very strong right now. This has actually, in a strange way, united the opposition forces who have been quite divided recently," Trew said.
[COLOR=#999999 !important]
An Egyptian man walks by a burning Egyptian police truck during a demonstration against Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi on November 23, 2012 in Cairo (AFP Photo / Mahmoud Khaled)
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Photo from twitter.com user @3araab[/COLOR]
Morsi recently issued a declaration granting his office wide-ranging powers, effectively neutralizing Egypt's judicial system and preventing it from challenging his authority. The declaration prompted Morsi's Coptic Christian assistant, Samir Morcos, to resign. Al-Arabiya has reported that Morsi's Aid, Sakina Fouad, has also resigned in protest.
"What we're seeing here is massive criticism of the president and quite a lot of fear that he's becoming a new dictator. Because right now, he actually has more powers than Mubarak ever did," Trew said.
Opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei said that Morsi had become "a new pharaoh" with the powers he had granted himself, significantly violating democratic principles.
"The Egyptian political community is getting more complicated and dangerous…we have two separate camps right now…people have a lot of anger towards the Muslim Brotherhood and the ruling party in general," human rights activist Shimaa Helmy told RT.
Washington has acknowledged the decree, saying that it has raised concerns for many Egyptians and the international community.
"We call for calm and encourage all parties to work together and call for all Egyptians to resolve their differences over these important issues peacefully and through democratic dialogue," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
In a speech in front of his presidential palace in Cairo on Friday, Morsi told Egyptians that his aim was to "achieve political, social, and economic stability." He said that he would never use legislation for personal reasons, or to settle scores, and that he wants to ensure the independence of the executive, legislative and judicial authorities.

"I will never be biased. I will never be against anyone any Egyptians because we are all together and we need to give the momentum to the freedom and democracy and the transfer of power. And in order to be able to take care of everything you like, I like to be honest and take care of everything you care about because I like to support what you want to have: Stability and safety," he said.
Despite the controversy surrounding Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, many said there would be little to no political structure in Egypt if the party didn't exist.

"The Muslim Brotherhood didn't act as a leader when the Egyptian revolutions started, but it somehow managed to take a leading position and place itself at head. Now, if we exclude the Muslim Brotherhood, then we wil not find any leader at all," Middle East expert Leonid Syukiyanen told RT.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said the decree raised serious human rights concerns.
"We are very concerned about the possible huge ramifications of this declaration on human rights and the rule of law in Egypt…we also fear this could lead to a very volatile situation over the next few days, starting today in fact," UN Human Rights spokesperson Rupert Colville said in a statement on Friday.
Morsi said that the move was vital to protecting the revolution that ousted Mubarak two years ago, and to cement a democratic transition for Egypt.

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Protesters demonstrating against Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi run from tear gas fired by Egyptian riot police during clashes in Cairo's landmark Tahrir square on November 23, 2012 (AFP Photo / Ahmed Mahmoud)[/COLOR]
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Egyptian protesters stand near a burnt out car during clashes with riot police following a demonstration against Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo's landmark Tahrir square on November 23, 2012 (AFP Photo / Ahmed Mahmoud)[/COLOR]
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Egyptian anti-riot police clash with protesters demonstrating against Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo's landmark Tahrir square on November 23, 2012 (AFP Photo / Ahmed Mahmoud)[/COLOR]
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Protesters run for cover as they suffer from tear gas inhalation from canisters fired by Egyptian riot police during clashes following a demonstration against Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo's landmark Tahrir square on November 23, 2012 (AFP Photo / Ahmed Mahmoud)[/COLOR]
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Flames burn around a police vehicle after protesters threw a molotov cocktail at it during clashes at Tahrir square in Cairo November 23, 2012.(Reuters / Mohamed Abd El Ghany)[/COLOR]
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Thousands of Egyptian demonstrators march through the streets of Cairo to protest against Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi's power grab, on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / Gianluigi Guercia)[/COLOR]
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Thousands of Egyptian demonstrators march through the streets of Cairo to protest against Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi's power grab, on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / Gianluigi Guercia)[/COLOR]
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Egyptian supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clash in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / STR)[/COLOR]
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Egyptian supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clash in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / STR)[/COLOR]
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Egyptian supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clash in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / STR)[/COLOR]
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Egyptian supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clash in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / STR)[/COLOR]
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Egyptian opponents of President Mohamed Morsi break into the office of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / STR)[/COLOR]
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Egyptians beat a young boy during clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi, in the northern coastal city of Alexandria on November 23, 2012.(AFP Photo / STR)[/COLOR]
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Photo from twitter.com user @M2Wakeel[/COLOR]

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