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The situation in Egypt seems to be a situation of not of dual but of triple
power;
The Regime: the tyrannical state regime controls the country's
finances and its civil security apparatus - the police and its secret
appendages - which it dare not use against the people as it has for the last
thirty years; while the youth organisation controlling Tahir Square in
Cairo, has the world looking on .through the energetic coverage provided by
the journalists of Al-Jazeera.
The self-organising youth, who control Tahir Square and the
day-to-day demonstrations in Alexandria and other cities, who follow no
political party, and in their organisation not only of security in the
square, but extending to such normal state duties as collecting rubbish;
protecting lost property; providing medical, toilet and care facilities and
so on, and showing not only the antipathy so general in Western Europe to
"party politics", but also the communal development of self-organisation,
which remind one of the those characteristics of the Paris Commune of 1871,
so well-described by Marx in the "First Draft of Civil War in France" as:
The whole deception [of the omnipotence and necessity of the state]
was swept away by a Commune which consisted predominantly of simple
workers who organise the defence of Paris, wage war against the
pretorians of Bonaparte, ensure the supplies of this giant city, and fill
all the positions hitherto shared among government, police and
prefecture."
And, thirdly. the Army, which declares it is on the "side of the
people", but in reality is acting as a "third estate" preventing the state
from repression, but the people from further and decisive activity, such as
the real eventual necessity of arresting Hosni Mubarek and his cronies and
bringing them to justice.
Sad to say, the eventual dénouement may eventually depend on
discussions taking place within the ranks of the army, where I (perhaps
wrongly) presently tend to rest my hopes (having had experience of
discussions on British involvement in Greece, when I was in the army in
Italy in 1946.
A great deal for the whole world, and, of course, particularly for
the Middle East. depends on the success of this overwhelming demand of the
Egyptian people for change - and ALL Marxists, whatever their differences on
unrelated questions, should be bending all their efforts to support the
Egyptian revolt.
(And how I would wish to have similar scenes in Britain !!!)
Comradely greetings to you all,
Paddy
http://apling.freeservers.com
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