Counter-revolution takes hold in Egypt

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4 SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 2013 As we go to press, the reincarnated Hosni Mubarak Egyptian military dictatorship, minus Mubarak, has ex­ tended repression beyond its initial banning and slaugh­ ter of 6000 Muslim Brotherhood leaders and ranks. A new law promulgated on Nov. 24 by the figurehead pres­ ident, Adly Mansour, appointed by July 3 coup leader General Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, bans overnight sit-ins and all protests over 10 people that have not been pre-ap­ proved by authorities. The law bans protests at places of worship, traditionally used by Muslim groups after prayer meetings.

The law also restricts political campaign meetings— an indication that the scheduled January vote on a new constitution, proposed by the military’s appointees, will be rammed through with no debate. To make clear that the ban was to be enforced, a Nov. 24 rally of leading hu­ man rights activists was harassed and beaten by Cairo police.

A new Socialist Action pamphlet by Jeff Mackler, “Rev­ olution and Counter-revolution in Egypt: Lessons of the Arab Spring,” analyses the new situation in that country from the point of view of revolutionary socialism. Fol­ lowing is the introduction to the pamphlet: A 2011, mobilizations that led to the toppling of Almost three years after the historic Jan. 25, the U.S.-backed 30-year dictatorship of Presi­ dent Hosni Mubarak, the once overflowing streets lead­ ing to Cairo’s famed Tahrir Square are barricaded on orders from the now high-flying new military dictator, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Posturing as the nation’s savior in the tradition of radical nationalist Gamel Abdel Nasser in 1954, General Sisi, (formerly Defense Minis­ ter and personal friend of overthrown President Moham­ mad Morsi) and his bloodlusting cohorts have systemati­ cally murdered some 5000 to 6000 Muslim Brotherhood members, according to MB leaders. All but a handful of NEW LONDON, Conn.— Nurses and technicians are locked out of Lawrence and Memorial (L&M) Hospital following a four-day strike action. The lockout is the latest in a long list of dirty deals dealt by L&M owners.

The nurses and technicians, represent­ ed by two bargaining units in the Ameri­ can Federation of Teachers (AFT), voted overwhelmingly on Nov. 14 to authorize the strike, which began Wednesday, Nov. 27, as workers walked off the job. A rep­ resentative from the AFT said, “This is the first time in 30 years that we [AFT] have gone on strike in Connecticut.”

The strike vote was called because L&M bosses had refused to bargain in good faith and committed unfair labor practices. This included moving work from the main hospital campus to other non-union sites in New London, laying off nurses and techs, and hiring medical assistants who work for less pay and are less skilled.

A lab tech commented, “They’re un­ dermining the union. Experience is im­ portant, and the L&M management was chipping away at that every day. Now some 200 scabs are inside doing our jobs and providing an even worse quality of service.” Unionized workers in every sector of the economy are familiar with these tactics as business owners seek to increase profits by cutting corners at ev­ ery turn.

The lock-out was called the day after a Nov. 29 rally had taken place in support of the strikers, which gathered nearly 1000 participants from the community, other unions, and local politicians. Workers were thrilled with the level of solidarity. A board at the rally listing all the differ­ ent union locals in attendance at the rally quickly filled up as workers shouted out the top and middle-ranking MB leaders are dead or im­ prisoned.

The barbed wire enclosed Tahrir Square is jammed with tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other mili­ tary paraphernalia. This former site and symbol of mass resistance to military dictatorship has been intentionally transformed into the symbol of rule by brute force. It serves as a dire warning to any who would again return to demand bread, justice, and freedom.

No one is excluded from the ongoing broad and deep repression in Egypt today. Defenders of the MB are ostracized, beaten, and imprisoned—if not murdered outright. Simultaneously, almost all secular opponents of Morsi, including many of Egypt’s liberal and intel­ lectual “democrats” and major sections of the purported left, cheer on the military and hail the MB repression. Egyptian society is tragically divided. Hatred and cries for vengeance, if not for the extermination of Islamists like rats, toxically spew from virtually the entire media. With few exceptions the streets have been abandoned by protesters, except for the beleaguered ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, who risk their lives when they cautiously take to the streets to demand the return of their leader, President Mohammad Morsi, who was ousted by a military coup and imprisoned, and then slated to face spurious charges of murder on Nov. 4. A defiant Morsi did appear in court that day and loudly proclaimed that he was the democratically elected president and that the court had no legitimacy. The disoriented judge immedi­ ately adjourned the kangaroo court proceedings, obvi­ ously to seek instructions from his military superiors. The Egyptian Revolution has been decisively defeat­ ed, perhaps for years to come. The counter-revolution, which top U.S. government officials claim will provide “a second chance” at democracy, is triumphant. This So­ cialist Action booklet recounts the key events, turning points, and critical political lessons to be drawn by revo­ their affiliations. One RN said excitedly, “Even a Teamster truck refused to bring supplies across the picket line!” “We are L&M!” chanted the crowd.

The initial enthusiasm has remained, as the nurses and techs are determined to win this strike. L&M owners have tried to undermine the union by running fullpage advertisements in the local paper with outright lies about nurses’ salaries as well as misrepresenting the character of the union’s strike action.

This is a strike about unfair labor prac­ tices, and not wages or benefits. A state­ ment posted on the AFT website reads, “We want a resolution, not a lockout,” said L&M Hospital registered nurse and AFT Local 5049 President Lisa D’Abrosca. “The corporation is reacting in a reckless and irresponsible way to our lawful ef­ forts to hold them accountable.”

However, the L&M workers are equally determined to fight back and will need of the military. Indeed, Morsi was characterized by this “left” election front as the “right wing of the Egyptian This designation carried with it the strong implication that the “first stage” of this Egyptian “revolution” was to be radical democratic in nature and would function within the confines of Morsi’s capitalist state while seek­ ing to reform it in a revolutionary direction sometime in the unstated future.

This Socialist Action booklet explains in detail why this “two-stage” conception of revolution is funda­ mentally flawed and indeed can only lead to defeat and tragedy—the terrible reality in Egypt today. “In truth,” Jeff Mackler states in one article, “the fight for democ­ racy, for majority rule, for the rule of the great majority against the elite capitalist plunderers, is inseparable from the fight for socialism.

The democratic and socialist revolutions are in reality one and the same. The achievement of both requires a break with the minority capitalist state power in all its manifestations and the re-construction of society on a profoundly new and revolutionary basis. This includes the abolition of private property in the means of produc­ tion and the establishment of a collective society run by the vast majority through their own organizations and in the interest of advancing the needs of the many as op­ posed to the profits of the corporate few.”

Egypt’s evolution since 2011, and indeed the develop­ ments in all nations of the Middle East and the Maghreb, where the mass forces of what became known as the Arab Spring courageously mobilized against repressive dictatorships, holds vital lessons for the future. All demonstrate in bold relief that the political cri­ sis of our times does not reside in the inability of the working masses the world over to rise up against their oppressors in the tens and hundreds of millions despite the possibilities of brutal repression. Rather, the crisis is marked more than ever by the absence of a deeply rooted revolutionary socialist leadership prepared to challenge the capitalist order for power and establish a new society based on the institutionalized rule of the vast majority. The construction of this leadership in ev­ ery nation is the key task facing all revolutionaries to­ day. n to remain so as the economic crisis of capitalism continues its assault on the jobs, wages, and basic standard of liv­ ing for workers everywhere. A for-profit health-care system spells disaster for both workers in the industry and those seeking care.

Socialist Action handed out hundreds of flyers to enthusiastic L&M workers, in­ viting them to attend a forum on Dec. 15, 1:30 p.m., at the public library in Hart­ ford, titled “Patients before Profits.” Mar­ garet Flowers, a national board adviser of Physicians for a National Health Plan, will be one of several speakers at the fo­ rum. See: https://www.facebook.com/ events/479640938815831.

The Hartford forum will discuss the stark reality of the Affordable Care Act of 2013 (ObamaCare), as well as putting forward the idea that workers can build a movement to win a single-payer, uni­ versal health-care system for all. In the meantime, Socialist Action encourages its readers to join the L&M nurses and techs on the picket line. n

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$15 minimum wage wins SeaTac vote (Above) Seattle-Tacoma airport workers hold banner reading, “UNION!” at rally Workers won a big victory this month in the little Wash­ ington town of SeaTac with the passing Referendum 1 and its signa­ ture issue to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The measure got 50.6% (77 votes).

The town is named for the airport located between Seattle and Tacoma. Most of the people who live in this di­ verse community are dependent on jobs in and around the airport. It is estimated that 6300 workers at 72 air­ port-related businesses in and around SeaTac will directly benefit from pas­ sage of the referendum.

The Teamsters have been trying for 13 years to organize baggage handlers and other non-union airport workers. The obstacles they had faced seemed insurmountable. They were constantly blocked by anti-union laws and regula­ tions and the targeting of union activ­ ists. Every time they had an organizing campaign that looked successful, the rank-and-file leaders were fired or in­ timidated.

Airports are under the Railway Labor Act, which means unionists they are required to organize a cer­ tain number of airports at the same time—in this case, including Hawaii. A few years ago, they decided to go directly to the community with a workers’ rights referendum. They joined together with HERE, which was organizing the large hotels and restaurants near the airport, and SEIU, which was working to organize Seattle fast-food workers.

The current minimum wage in Washington is $9.19, which is the highest in the country. The new mini­ mum wage will be indexed to inflation. The referen­ dum states that the new minimum wage will take ef­ fect on Jan. 1.

While most of the publicity has been around rais­ ing the minimum wage, there is much more to the SeaTac Referendum. It also provides for a minimum of 6.5 days of sick leave a year and specifies that all tips go directly to the workers instead of being con­ fiscated by managers. In addition, it states that there part-timers must be given more work hours before other part-time workers are hired. And it includes 90-day job protection for workers whenever there is a change in contractors. demanding recognition of SEIU Local 6.

The week that I volunteered in the campaign, there was a giant multi-union blitz for a push to get out the vote for Referendum 1. Rank and file and staff from all three unions arrived from as far away as Minne­ sota, believing that a victory in SeaTac would be an impetus to struggles across the country. Some union workers at SeaTac also took leave to be able to work on the campaign.

Abdirahman Abdullah, an employee of the airport’s Hertz rental car location, took a leave of absence from his job to campaign in support of the measure. “The workers at the airport work hard but don’t get what they deserve,” Abdullah said. “They’re juggling two or three jobs just to pay the bills, let alone to save mon­ ey. This initiative ... it’s going to improve their lives.”

The working class in SeaTac is very culturally di­ verse, as is the workforce in and around the airport. When I went into the Ethiopian Cultural Center, I saw that it was clearly an organizing hub where commu­ nity meetings were held and all the latest information about the campaign was posted.

Teamster Local 117 had worked with workers in struggle at the Hertz rental car company a few years ago when 34 Somali and Muslim workers were sud­ denly suspended for praying on the job. It had been agreed previously that they could take mini-breaks Working Washington for their daily prayers. Then suddenly, they were told by a manager, “If you guys pray, you go home.” When the workers asked if this was a new rule, they were told “yes,” but they prayed anyway. They believed it was a con­ tractual violation. “This is an outrageous assault on the rights of these workers and appears to be discriminatory based on their religious beliefs,” Tracey A. Thomp­ son, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 117, said in a statement at the time. The Teamsters worked to get them their jobs back and filed an un­ fair labor practice. About 70% of the Hertz drivers are Muslim. Labor and faith-based organizations joined with the Teamsters in protests outside the Hertz counter with signs, “Respect me, respect my religion.”

The union represents nearly 80 Hertz drivers, who earn between $9.15 and $9.95 an hour. They receive no health benefits, vacation, or sick leave. This histo­ ry of struggle helped bring together labor, faith-based organizations, the Somali Services Coalition, and the Ethiopian Cultural Center to fight for Referendum 1.

The opponents of Referendum 1 have threatened to demand a recount and will take the measure to the courts to try to get it nullified. From the begin­ ning, Alaska Airlines and the employer associations for restaurants, hotels, and rental car companies op­ posed the referendum. They tried to keep it off the ballot but were unsuccessful. Then, the oil tycoon, ultra-rightist Koch brothers joined them in trying to defeat the measure.

But the victors are taking this win as a mandate and moving forward to expand the $15 minimum wage to Seattle. Fast-food workers and their allies announced that on Dec. 5 there will be an all-day march from SeaTac to the Seattle City Hall. “We are taking the movement from its victory in SeaTac all the way to City Hall, and for people who cannot make the march there will be rallies in SeaTac and Seattle as well as along the march.”

Despite the threats to take the measure to court, these workers are not deterred from pursuing their mandate from the SeaTac vote. n