`All repressive regimes must go!' -- Asian socialists in solidarity with the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and the Middle East

Statements from the Socialist Party of Malaysia, Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM, Party of the Labouring Masses) Philippines, Socialist Alliance (Australia), Labor Party Pakistan and Socialist Aotearoa.

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Socialist Party of Malaysia solidarity statement with the People's Uprising in Egypt, Tunisia and the Middle East

January 29, 2011 – The Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM) would like to express its solidarity with the revolutionary masses in Egypt, as well as in Tunisia and other countries in North Africa and the Middle East, for their courageous struggle against repressive regimes which are mostly backed by US-led imperialist powers.

January 28, 2011, is a historical day for the Egyptian people, when thousands of them filled the streets across Egypt on that "Friday of Anger". Inspired by the recent Tunisian uprising, which brought down a repressive regime, the struggle is still going on. The people of Egypt also took to the streets to protest against poor living conditions, unemployment, food inflation, lack of housing, low wages, corruption, suppression of freedom of speech, corruption, police brutality and a state of emergency since the US-backed Hosni Mubarak regime came to power 30 years ago.

The ordinary people of Egypt defied a nationwide curfew to participate in the intensified struggle against Mubarak's regime. The Egyptian government has sent in tanks to the streets to quell the mass protests. It also suspended internet access and the SMS network nationwide in its effort to cling onto power.

The flame of anger and people's power is spreading in North Africa and the Middle East, and this has made the ruling regimes in the region tremble in front of the rising of massive revolutionary waves. The Tunisian revolution which sparked off in December 2010 has put an end to the 23-year rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who came to power through a coup d'état. Ben Ali has implemented pro-Western capitalist policies and economic development that concentrated wealth into the hands of ruling elites and the comprador bourgeoisie clique. After overthrowing Ben Ali's regime, working people and youth are continuing to fill the streets to fight against the provisional government that only serves to protect the interests of ruling elite and imperialist powers. There will only be real sustainable change when the ordinary people take charge of political and economic affairs.

While in Egypt, for the last 30 years, Mubarak has embraced pro-US policies and Egypt has become a close ally of US in its domination over the Middle East region. The working people and the poor in Egypt have been forced to endure economic hardships and poor living conditions as a result of privatisation policies. There have been mass struggles over the years against repressive measures, imperialist war and poor living conditions.  

Besides Tunisia and Egypt, there are also massive waves of protest sweeping across Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and other parts of the Arab world. These people's struggles deserve our solidarity.

All repressive regimes and those who collude with imperialist powers must go. The people of Tunisia and Egypt have shown the way and more nations will follow their footsteps. Like the past revolutions which have brought dramatic change to the world and the ongoing revolutionary struggles in Latin America, the people's revolution in Tunisia and Egypt will continue to inspire people around the world to revive their fighting tradition and stand up against powerful ruling elites who collude with imperialist powers, and to build a better world from below.

Released by Choo Chon Kai, International Bureau, Socialist Party of Malaysia/Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).

PLM: Statement in solidarity with the people of Egypt, Tunisia and the Middle East

By Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM, Party of the Labouring Masses), Philippines

January 29, 2011 – The progressive movement and peoples of the Philippines stands in solidarity with the Egyptian people and the mass movement in the streets in these critical moments in their struggle for the ouster of the dictatorial Mubarak regime. We salute them for their tremendous courage in fighting a vicious regime, which has an infamous reputation for the brutality of its police and security forces, and that has been responsible for arbitrarily arresting and cruelly torturing government opponents. We support the people’s message that Mubarak must go and that the people no longer want his government and system.

We also salute the upsurge of the Tunisian peoples in overthrowing the US-backed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, and how their victory has electrified and inspired the people of Egypt and the Middle East, while dictators shake with fear.

We stand with them in sorrow and anger at the deaths of protesters, ordinary people, who have now become the martyrs of the movement. We note that the bullets that killed them and the tear gas used against the protesters are financed by the United States, which provides billions of dollars of funding to the Egyptian regime, for military equipment and “security” purposes. Despite Washington’s rhetoric about democratic rights, the Mubarak regime has been a key ally of the United States and has been propped up by the US for decades. Mubarak is Washington’s man in the region.

We understand the tremendous odds faced by the Egyptian people struggling in the streets today. However, we also know, based on our own experience in ousting the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, that people’s power can be victorious and prevail against the most cruel regimes backed by the mightiest powers on Earth, in this case the United States.

Revolutionary flames are sweeping across the Arab world. Yesterday Tunisia removed a barbaric dictator. Today is for Egypt. Tomorrow is for Palestine and all those in the Middle East struggling against dictatorships and exploitation and oppression.

Long live the revival of genuine peoples popular power in the Middle East!

Long live the revolution in the Middle East!

http://www.masa.ph/

Socialist Alliance: In solidarity with the people of Tunisia, Egypt and the Arab world

Statement by the Socialist Alliance, Australia

January 29, 2011 – The Socialist Alliance applauds the courage and tenacity of the Tunisian people, whose protests for democracy and economic and social justice, now in their second month, have ended the 23-year rule of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The Tunisian revolution has inspired ordinary people across the Arab world and protests have broken out in Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and, most dramatically, against the United States-backed dictatorship in Egypt.

The overthrow of Ben Ali was achieved by the Tunisian people without any outside help. The regime, on the other side, was supported by the Western powers, in particular France and the United States, right until the moment Ben Ali fled to refuge with the West’s closest ally in the Arab world, the Saudi monarchy.

In Egypt, hundreds of thousands of people are in the streets standing up to the violence of the security forces of Hosni Mubarak, dictator since 1981. While more than 40 million Egyptians live on less than US$2 per day and more than 1 million children live on the street, the people are denied free elections and a legal parliament, and suffer severe repression for any expression of dissent.

The tragedy of Iraq has demonstrated the falsehood of Western claims that its interference in the region is to bring about democratic regime change. The people of Tunisia and Egypt are showing where genuinely democratic regime change will come from — the people themselves.

The Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings are not just against Western-backed dictators. They are against an unjust global economic system based on the plunder of the human and natural resources of poor countries by Western corporations. The policies of multinational institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, faithfully implemented by Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, create poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunity for ordinary people.

On December 17, the twin evils of poverty and dictatorship in Tunisia became too much for Mohammed Bouazizi when he suffered police brutality and the confiscation of the fruit cart from which he eked out a living — a marginal living typical of the young, rural people who are the majority of Tunisians. His desperate response, burning himself to death in front of local government offices, catalysed a revolution.

After Ben Ali fled, Tunisians took out their anger on the mansions of his corrupt cronies and relatives. Tunisian workers, in enterprises from banks and insurance companies to airlines and the media, have literally thrown out managers who were close to the regime and taken over the enterprises themselves.

While the dictator has gone, the interim government is largely comprised of ministers who served under Ben Ali. The Tunisian people are now calling for the resignation of all ministers associated with the previous regime. In provincial towns, the regime has been challenged by the establishment of democratic councils based on participatory mass meetings.

Western leaders, while pretending since their dictator fled to be in favour of democracy in Tunisia, have demanded that the current interim government remain to oversee the transition to democracy. The Socialist Alliance expresses its full solidarity with the Tunisian people’s demands for a new, representative government.

The Socialist Alliance calls for:

• No Western interference in Tunisia. The Tunisian people have shown that it is they, and not the Western empires, who know what democracy means.

• The West to stop propping up the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt, the second-largest recipient of US military aid in world (after Israel).

• An end to the ongoing Western military occupation of Iraq, and other Western military interference in the Arab world and the neighbouring region, including the occupation of Afghanistan and covert operations in Yemen and Somalia.

http://www.socialist-alliance.org

We call on the masses of Pakistan to follow their brothers and sisters of Tunisia and Egypt

Labour Party Pakistan statement on mass upsurge in Egypt and Tunisia

January 20, 2011 – The Labour Party Pakistan expresses its solidarity with the masses for their daring struggle against authoritarian regimes in Middle East, particularly in Egypt, which are mostly backed by US-led imperialist powers. We stand in solidarity with the Egyptian people and the mass movement in the streets in these critical moments in their struggle for the ouster of the domineering Mubarak regime. 
We salute them for fighting a ferocious regime, which has a notorious reputation for the brutality of its police and security forces that have been responsible for arbitrarily arresting and cruelly torturing government opponents. We support the people’s message that Mubarak must go.

The working people in Egypt have been forced to endure economic hardships and poor living conditions as a result of privatisation policies. In Egypt, a devastating IMF program was imposed in 1991 at the height of the Gulf War. It was negotiated in exchange for the annulment of Egypt's multibillion dollar military debt to the US, as well as its participation in the war. The resulting deregulation of food prices, sweeping privatisation and massive austerity measures led to the impoverishment of the Egyptian population and the destabilization of its economy.

When Egypt had parliamentary elections only two months ago, they were completely rigged. The party of President Hosni Mubarak left the opposition with only 3 per cent of the seats. Now all that is been exposed by the mass upsurge.

The protests have drawn Egyptians from all walks of life, many of whom have never participated in demonstrations and feel that the time has come for them to voice their resentment. In an unprecedented show of civil disobedience and open revolt, young Egyptians have clearly and forcibly delivered a message that is still resonating in the Middle East and North Africa: authoritarian rule in the region is over.

By calling for the ouster of Hosni Mubarak and their unremitting resolve in the face of tear gas, water cannons and baton beatings, young Egyptian men and women have beat back decades of one-party rule, brutal repression against civil liberties, iron-clad control of the media and corrupt economic policies.
The protesters have been dismantling outmoded forms of governance in which the ruler is considered to be beyond reproach and economic policies are determined by his self-preserving business elite allies.

They are demanding equity in the distribution of wealth, an end to state corruption, greater employment opportunities and a curb to rampant inflation. They are not interested in a change of government –- as Mubarak promised on January 28 – and they will not be dissuaded by repeated promises of economic reform and prosperity. They are calling for regime change, not cabinet change. They believe that Egypt’s current socioeconomic malaise is rooted in the capitalist political system itself, a system which has not evolved since the first revolution overthrew the King of Egypt in 1952. We are happy that now the working class is becoming part of the revolt, a necessary ingredient to overthrow the dictatorship. 1700 public workers in Suez have gone on an indefinite strike seeking Mubarak's resignation. We call on the international working-class movement to side with the courageous struggle of the working class in Egypt.

The movement is continuing despite all the brutal repressive measures of the regime. Until January 30, the number of people killed in protests is reported to be in the scores, with at least 23 deaths confirmed in Alexandria and at least 27 confirmed in Suez, with a further 22 deaths in Cairo. More than 1000 were also wounded in violent protests on January 28, which occurred in Cairo and Suez, in addition to Alexandria.

Both Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali stayed in power because their governments obeyed and effectively enforced the dictates of the IMF. We say that the relationship of "the dictator" to foreign interests must be addressed. We demand the Egyptian masses unseat the political puppets but do not forget to target the "real dictators", the IMF, World Bank and US imperialism.

From Pinochet and Videla, to Baby Doc, Ben Ali and Mubarak, dictators have been installed by Washington. Historically in Latin America, dictators were installed through a series of US-sponsored military coups. In today’s world, they are installed through "free and fair elections" under the surveillance of the "international community".

No significant political change will occur unless the issue of foreign interference is meaningfully addressed by the protest movement.

We also salute the upsurge of the Tunisian peoples in overthrowing the US backed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on January 14, and how their victory has electrified and inspired the people of Egypt and the Middle East, while dictators shake with fear.

Besides Tunisia and Egypt, there are also massive waves of protest sweeping across Algeria, Yemen, Jordan and other parts of the Arab world. These people's struggles deserve our solidarity.

The people of Tunisia and Egypt have shown the way and we believe that more nations will follow their footsteps. Like the past revolutions which have brought dramatic change to the world and the ongoing revolutionary struggles in Latin America, the people's revolution in Tunisia and Egypt will continue to inspire people around the world to revive their fighting tradition and stand up against powerful ruling elites who collude with imperialist powers, and to build a better world from below.

We condemn the conspiracy against struggling masses by US imperialism to install/impose again those elements (chips from same stone) having same agenda after the departure of previous corrupt rulers. Urging the masses to continue until the achievement their cherished goal to dislodge the pro-imperialist ruling crust and their cronies.

We call on the masses of Pakistan to follow their brothers and sisters of Tunisia and Egypt. We call on the masses of Pakistan to overthrow the present pro-US imperialist capitalist feudal system and to elect a constituent assembly to do away from pro-IMF policies, to separate the state from religion, to dismantle feudalism, end of privatisation and a process of re-nationalisation, to grant right of self-determination to the nations, equal rights to the minorities, an end of all discriminatory laws against women and minorities and to demand an end of imperialist occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Labour Party Pakistan calls for:

• No Western interference in Tunisia. The Tunisian people have shown that it is they, and not the Western empires, who know what democracy means.

• The West to stop propping up the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt, the second-largest recipient of US military aid in world (after Israel).

• An end to the ongoing Western military occupation of Iraq, and other Western military interference in the Arab world and the neighboring region, including the occupation of Afghanistan and covert operations in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

Nisar Shah, general secretary,
Farooq Tariq, spokesperson,
Labour Party Pakistan

Socialist Aotearoa: Stand in solidarity with the Egyptian people

By Socialist Aotearoa (New Zealand)

January 28, 2011 – A revolution is unfolding in Egypt and across the world: from Tunisia to Athens, London to Amman people are demanding political freedom and economic justice. The current system of US imperialism, neo-liberal capitalism and constant social crisis is incapable of meeting the peoples demands and as revolt spreads we witness the system come crashing down.

Yet the ruling class will fight furiously to maintain their wealth and power. Armies of secret policemen will attack demonstrators on the streets, global corporations like Vodafone will cut cellphone and internet access to prevent news spreading, diplomats and politicians will urge protesters to be non-violent and listen to their rulers, even after decades of violence and deaf ears by rulers like Mubarak and Ben Ali. If the US thinks that Israel is threatened if the regime in Cairo falls then they might even intervene with force to suppress the Egyptian uprising.

The wildcard in world politics has always been international solidarity between workers and oppressed peoples. South African blacks remember the 1981 anti-Springbok Tour protests in New Zealand as a turning point in their struggle against Apartheid, in the 1970s ongoing rebellion by American students and massive GI resistance in the military forced the United States to end their war in Vietnam, in 1936 when Spain was taken over by General Franco, thousands of workers from across the world, including New Zealand went to fight fascism in defence of the Spanish Republic, in 1917 the Russian revolution and an uprising in Germany ended the murderous slaughter of the First World War.

In the face of the brutality of the Egyptian military and the callousness of the US imperialists, we need to urgently organise worldwide protests to show our solidarity with the Egyptian people and to demand that the US end its military support to its puppet dictators and regimes in North Africa and the Middle East. In workplaces, schools, universities, churches and mosques we should spread information about an uprising where Christians told Muslims that they would defend them from the police and where university professors and slum dwellers stand shoulder to shoulder against the regime. As tanks and tear gas fill the streets of Cairo, people across the world must stand in solidarity with the Egyptian people.

Download the pdf here of our two-page leaflet on Egypt.

Scenes from the Egyptian uprising

From Sudanese Online.