BY JEFF MACKLER The June 30 mobilization of 20 million Egyptians demanding the resignation of President Muhammad Morsi, elected on the same date of the previous year, was likely the largest street demonstration against ruling-class prerogatives in human history. A few days later, Morsi and several of his closest Muslim Brotherhood (MB) associates were arrested…
By ANDREW POLLACK In recent weeks the masses of Egypt and Tunisia have re-entered the streets and taken workplace action in significant numbers, boldly defying their rulers out of dissatisfaction with how the latter are throttling the promise of their revolutions. In response the parties in power in each country—bourgeois populist parties with an Islamist…
By ANDREW POLLACK The regime headed by President Mohamed Morsi shot down dozens in protests in Egypt at the end of January. All the while it continued to meet with International Monetary Fund officials to dicker over the terms of a promised loan, terms that it knows can only be enforced if militancy in the…
By ANDREW POLLACK Following mass protests in November against President Mohammed Morsi’s decree granting himself new dictatorial powers, millions returned to the streets to protest his announcement of a snap referendum to be held in mid-December for a draft constitution hastily written by an assembly dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood after most secular and liberal…
This is our second installment of major excerpts from the Political Resolution adopted at the August 2012 Socialist Action National Convention in Minneapolis. Today we are witness to a new world armaments race, with every major power striving to increase its military arsenal. This clearly indicates the desperate need of all capitalist nations to protect,…
By ANDREW POLLACK When a ceasefire agreement ended (for no-one knows how long) Israel’s latest murderous assault on Gaza, Palestinians in the besieged area poured into the streets to celebrate their victory. But how could this be, after at least 160 Palestinians had been murdered, at least 40 of them women and children, and a…
BY JEFF MACKLER On Sept. 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected Lynne Stewart’s appeal for a re-hearing before the entire court. Her original conviction was upheld in 2009 by a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit. The court’s opinion was not unexpected. This was the same court that earlier pressed Federal…
By ANDREW POLLACK On Sept. 11, demonstrations broke out in several predominantly Muslim countries as news spread of a viciously anti-Islamic video produced in the United States. Crowds gathered in front of U.S. embassies and consulates, in some cases storming them. In Benghazi, Libya, a U.S. diplomatic building was attacked and four U.S. officials, including…
Workers at the Alexandria Tire Company (Pirelli) in Egypt are on strike against management’s arbitrary refusal to implement agreements that were concluded with workers in the presence of representatives of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), as well as their refusal to comply with workers’ legal rights. Situated on the Cairo-Alexandria desert…
By ANDREW POLLACK As the armed conflict heats up in Syria, there are indications that organizing of the rebellion is proceeding at the rank-and-file level. The Revolutionary Left, for instance, cites the continued role of workers and peasants in the revolt, as well as students: “Today, not a week goes by without the voices and…
<!–[if !mso]><![endif]–> Since the uprising against Mubarak began there have been regular solidarity protests, forums and other activities in the U.S. In New York, this support coalesced in the formation of the Coalition to Defend the Egyptian Revolution. In April, leading members of that Coalition were among the lawyers, activists, and scholars who organized and…
<!–[if !mso]><![endif]–> After massive theft of votes from liberal and radical candidates in the first round of Egypt’s presidential elections in May, there was widespread fear that the country’s ruling military would rig the results in the run-off between its favored candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) candidate, Mohamed Morsi, a fear exacerbated…
In their battle to rid themselves of the murderous, corrupt Assad regime, the Syrian people faced a succession of obstacles. Decades of repression had left organizers trying to make up for lost time when the revolt broke out. This was followed by a usurpation of leadership of the movement by various bourgeois forces, from the…
<!–[if !mso]><![endif]–> The Walker victory disappoints but it does not surprise me. One thing’s for sure, the Democrats are incapable of defeating the right. Does not the last 30 years demonstrate that? Every vote for a Democrat has meant the success of the Republican agenda, whether or not by rotten deals cut with Republicans or…
The first round in Egypt’s presidential elections, orchestrated by the Egyptian military (the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF), which has run the country since Mubarak’s ouster, was rife with fraud. The candidates receiving the first and second largest votes in the May 23 and 24 election—Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, and…
On May 25, 108Syrian civilians were murdered in the Houla area of towns and villages, including 34 women and 49 children. Some were killed by artillery shells, some at close hand by guns or knives. Not surprisingly, the regime and the opposition blamed each other. It’s most likely that responsibility for the carnage lies with…
On Wednesday, May 2, paid thugs hired by Egypt’s military rulers murdered at least 20 participants in a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Defense (MOD). While the initial core of the sit-in, begun the Friday before, consisted of supporters of a Salafi (conservative Islamist) presidential candidate, one of several disqualified by the Supreme…
Reports by independent Arab human rights organizations and the UN Human Rights Council (published March 2) document the human rights violations in Libya since February 2011. They show us that it was indeed the case that the Qaddafi regime conducted crimes against humanity and, when the war began, war crimes. But what the UN report…
<!–[if !mso]> <![endif]–> On April 1 The New York Times reported that the U.S. and the Gulf states, meeting as the “Friends of Syria” in Istanbul, had moved dramatically closer to direct military intervention against the Assad regime. The pro-U.S. Arab nations pledged $100 million to pay the fighters of the Free Syrian Army, and…
Below are introductory remarks to the March 23-25 UNAC conference by UNAC co-cordinator Marilyn Levin. When I started preparing for this talk, I thought back to July 2010, when UNAC began, and where we are today. It is astounding how much has changed over the past year and a half, although many of the challenges we…
<!–[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]–> Chances are that you have seen the film, “Kony 2012.” The viral video has attracted an unprecedented amount of attention in only a few days. The subject of the film, The Lord’s Resistance Army, is a central African guerrilla movement with a fanatic religious character and a…
Statement by Socialist Action (U.S.) Political Committee For revolutionaries in the United States, there is no question that our primary responsibility in regard to solidarity with the workers and peasants of Syria is the need to organize against U.S. intervention. No other task is so crucial to ensure self-determination so that Syrians can win their…
In early February, a number of protesters were killed and over 1500 injured, as Egyptian police attacked demonstrations that had been called to express the mounting public anger over the deaths of at least 74 people at a soccer match in Port Said. The mainstream media at first blamed the Feb. 1 soccer stadium fight…
A Conference to Challenge the Wars of the 1% Against the 99% at Home and Abroad—this banner heads the call for the United National Antiwar Coalition Conference, which will be held in Stamford, CT, on March 23-25. Addressing this theme will be international guest speakers that include Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the wife of the former…
Time Magazine designated its “Person of the Year 2011” as “The Protestor.” To make clear that its reference was to what the editors considered the most important development of the year, Time added to its cover-page headline: “From the Arab Spring to Athens, from Occupy Wall Street to Moscow.” Its feature story began, “No one…
