Revolutionary Socialists (Egypt)
Encyclopedia
The Revolutionary Socialists (RS) are a Trotskyist
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

 organisation in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 aligned with the International Socialist Tendency
International Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...

. According to Mark LeVine
Mark LeVine
Mark LeVine is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. He is also a musician. He received his B.A. in comparative religion and biblical studies from Hunter College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University's Department of Middle Eastern Studies...

, a professor of history at the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

, the RS "played a crucial role organising Tahrir (during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011) and now in the workers movement
Labour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...

" post-President
President of Egypt
The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt is the head of state of Egypt.Under the Constitution of Egypt, the president is also the supreme commander of the armed forces and head of the executive branch of the Egyptian government....

 Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

. They are currently involved in establishing the Workers Democratic Party
Workers Democratic Party
The Workers National Democratic Party also is a workers' political party in Egypt formed shortly after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. It is backed by the Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions and forms part of the Coalition of Socialist Forces...

 and the Coalition of Socialist Forces
Coalition of Socialist Forces
The Coalition of Socialist Forces is a coalition of five socialist and left-wing groups in Egypt formed on 10 May 2011. The different forces agreed to enter into a "socialist front" in order "to create a more dominant leftist force" in post-revolutionary Egypt...

. Leading RS members include engineer and labour
Wage labour
Wage labour is the socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer, where the worker sells their labour under a formal or informal employment contract. These transactions usually occur in a labour market where wages are market determined...

 activist Kamal Khalil and sociologist Sameh Naguib
Sameh Naguib
Sameh Naguib is an Egyptian sociologist at the American University in Cairo, a socialist activist and a leading member of the Trotskyist organization the Revolutionary Socialists...

. Other prominent members include journalists Hossam el-Hamalawy
Hossam el-Hamalawy
Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist, blogger, photographer and socialist activist. He is a member of the Revolutionary Socialists, the Center for Socialist Studiesand the Workers Democratic Party.- Early life and career :...

 and Gigi Ibrahim
Gigi Ibrahim
Gihan "Gigi" Ibrahim is an Egyptian journalist, blogger and socialist activist. She has been credited as being a part of a new generation of "citizen journalists" who document news events using social media. For this she was featured on a cover of Time magazine as "one of the leaders" of Tahrir...

. The organisation produces a newspaper called The Socialist
The Socialist
The Socialist can refer to several socialist newspapers:* The Socialist , historically published by the Victorian Socialist Party* The Socialist , currently published by the Revolutionary Socialists...

.

History

The group began in the late 1980s among small circles of students influenced by Trotskyism
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

. Adopting the current name by April 1995, the RS grew from a few active members, when the Egyptian left was very much underground, to a couple of hundred by the Second Palestinian Intifada. Despite not being able to freely organise under President Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....

, the group's membership still increased due to their participation in the Palestinian solidarity movement. The intifada was seen to have a radicalising effect on Egyptian youth, which in turn helped to re-establish grass roots
Grass Roots
Grass Roots is an Australian television series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation between 2000 and 2003.The series is set around the fictional Arcadia Waters Council near Sydney, and was primarily a satirical look at the machinations of local government...

 activism, which had long been repressed under the Mubarak regime.

The RS' relationship with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers is the world's oldest and one of the largest Islamist parties, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states. It was founded in 1928 in Egypt by the Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna and by the late 1940s had an...

 is also distinct from earlier leftist organisations in Egypt which held similar positions to that of the Egyptian Communist Party
Egyptian Communist Party
The Egyptian Communist Party is a political party in Egypt, formed in 1975 by a number of members of the former Egyptian Communist Party. Under the regimes of Presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak the new Communist Party faced state repression and was barred from running in elections. The...

, which generally equated Islamism
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...

 with fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

. The RS however, advanced the slogan "Sometimes with the Islamists, never with the state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...

". The slogan was coined by Chris Harman
Chris Harman
Chris Harman was a British journalist and political activist, and a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party...

 of the Socialist Workers Party
Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far left party in Britain founded by Tony Cliff. The SWP's student section has groups at a number of universities...

 of Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, in his book, The Prophet and the Proletariat, which was translated into Arabic, and widely distributed by the RS in 1997. The RS has thus been able to campaign alongside the Brotherhood at times, for example, during the pro-intifada and anti-war movements.

2011 Egyptian Revolution

The RS, along with the rest of the Egyptian far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

 and the April 6 Youth Movement
April 6 Youth Movement
The April 6 Youth Movement is an Egyptian Facebook group started in Spring 2008 to support the workers in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, an industrial town, who were planning to strike on April 6....

, played a key role in mobilising for January 25, 2011, marking the first day of the Egyptian Revolution
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...

. The various forces previously met and developed strategies, such as demonstrating in different parts of Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 simultaneously, before marching on Tahrir Square, to avoid a concentration of security forces.

The RS later issued a statement calling on Egyptian workers to instigate a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...

 in the hope of finally ousting Mubarak:
The regime can afford to wait out the sit-ins and demonstrations for days and weeks, but it cannot last beyond a few hours if workers use strikes as a weapon. Strike on the railways, on public transport, the airports and large industrial companies! Egyptian workers, on behalf of the rebellious youth and on behalf of the blood of our martyrs, join the ranks of the revolution, use your power and victory will be ours!

Glory to the martyrs!
Down with the system!
All power to the people!
Victory to the revolution!


Gigi Ibrahim
Gigi Ibrahim
Gihan "Gigi" Ibrahim is an Egyptian journalist, blogger and socialist activist. She has been credited as being a part of a new generation of "citizen journalists" who document news events using social media. For this she was featured on a cover of Time magazine as "one of the leaders" of Tahrir...

, an RS activist, claimed the revolution had been brewing since the Second Intifada of 2000.

Post Mubarak

In the aftermath of Mubarak's resignation as President, the RS is calling for permanent revolution
Permanent Revolution
Permanent revolution is a term within Marxist theory, established in usage by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels by at least 1850 but which has since become most closely associated with Leon Trotsky. The use of the term by different theorists is not identical...

. On May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....

 2011, they chanted "A workers’ revolution against the capitalist government
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces consists of a body of 20 senior officers in the Egyptian military. As a consequence of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Council took the power to govern Egypt from its departing President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.The junta meets regularly, as...

", while marching to Tahrir Square. They argue that the working class
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...

, particularly of Cairo, Alexandria and Mansoura were the key players in ousting Mubarak, rather than the Egyptian youths' use of social networking sites, such as Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...

 and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

, as has been widely reported. The RS sees the role of the Muslim Brotherhood post-Mubarak as "counter-revolutionary".

In March 2011, RS activist and journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy
Hossam el-Hamalawy
Hossam el-Hamalawy is an Egyptian journalist, blogger, photographer and socialist activist. He is a member of the Revolutionary Socialists, the Center for Socialist Studiesand the Workers Democratic Party.- Early life and career :...

 was among many protesters who stormed and seized offices of the State Security Investigations Service
State Security Investigations Service
The Egyptian State Security Investigations Service was the highest national investigating authority in Egypt. Estimated to employ 100,000 people, the SSI was the main security apparatus of Egypt's Ministry of Interior and had the role of controlling opposition groups, both armed groups and those...

 in Nasr City
Nasr City
Nasr City is a district of Cairo, Egypt. It is located to the east of the Cairo Governorate and consists mostly of condominiums. It was established in the 1960s as an extension to neighboring suburb of Heliopolis. The establishment of the district was part of the Egyptian Government's plan to...

. The building had been used prior to the revolution to detain and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

 many activists. El-Hamalawy was able to visit the cell where he had been imprisoned, later writing on his Twitter feed that he could not stop crying. "Entered the small compound where I was locked. Man, I can't believe it still... Many are literally crying. We can't find the interrogation rooms. This is a citadel."

The RS calls for the dismantling of the ruling Military Council
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces consists of a body of 20 senior officers in the Egyptian military. As a consequence of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, the Council took the power to govern Egypt from its departing President Hosni Mubarak on February 11, 2011.The junta meets regularly, as...

, the army
Egyptian Army
The Egyptian Army is the largest service branch within the Egyptian Armed Forces and holds power in the current Egyptian government. It is estimated to number around 379,000, in addition to 479,000 reservists for a total of 858,000 strong. The modern army was created in the 1820s, and during the...

 and police force
Law enforcement in Egypt
Law Enforcement in Egypt is the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior of Egypt.-National organization:The Ministry of Interior divides the functions of the police and public security among four deputy ministers of interior while the Minister of Interior himself retained responsibility for...

, and for Mubarak and his former regime, including Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Sami Hafez Anan
Sami Hafez Anan
General Sami Hafez Anan or Enan is the Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces. From 1990 to 1992 he was the Egyptain Defence Attaché to Morocco. More recently he served as the Commander of the Egyptian Air Defence Forces from 2001 to 2005...

, (who currently form part of the Military Council) to stand trial. They oppose the decree-law that criminalises strikes, protests, demonstrations and sit-ins imposed by the Council on March 24, 2011.

The RS along with many other Egyptian leftist organisations are also seeking to establish a new workers party
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...

 in the wake of Mubarak's downfall. The party, named the Workers Democratic Party
Workers Democratic Party
The Workers National Democratic Party also is a workers' political party in Egypt formed shortly after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. It is backed by the Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions and forms part of the Coalition of Socialist Forces...

, aims to have "workers as the main players and leaders of the party joined by a number of intellectuals". The establishment of such a party in Egypt is still illegal under the current government with the new Political Parties Law issued on March 29, 2011, where the establishment of class
Social class
Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

-based parties is strictly prohibited. Kamal Khalil - a leading RS member - responded by saying they are not concerned of the legality of the party: "We don't want a party based on paper, we want a party based in factories and workplaces".

On May 10th, 2011, the RS along with four other left-wing Egyptian groups united to form a "socialist front" called the Coalition of Socialist Forces
Coalition of Socialist Forces
The Coalition of Socialist Forces is a coalition of five socialist and left-wing groups in Egypt formed on 10 May 2011. The different forces agreed to enter into a "socialist front" in order "to create a more dominant leftist force" in post-revolutionary Egypt...

, which includes the Popular Democratic Alliance Party
Popular Democratic Alliance Party
The Socialist Popular Alliance Party is a leftist party in Egypt formed shortly after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Its membership comprises many leftist organisations, mainly former members of the Tagammu Party who resigned, later joining the party after a split over the party's position on...

, The Socialist Party of Egypt, the Egyptian Communist Party
Egyptian Communist Party
The Egyptian Communist Party is a political party in Egypt, formed in 1975 by a number of members of the former Egyptian Communist Party. Under the regimes of Presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak the new Communist Party faced state repression and was barred from running in elections. The...

 and the Workers Democratic Party
Workers Democratic Party
The Workers National Democratic Party also is a workers' political party in Egypt formed shortly after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. It is backed by the Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions and forms part of the Coalition of Socialist Forces...

.

Positions on international issues

In 2006, Sameh Naguib
Sameh Naguib
Sameh Naguib is an Egyptian sociologist at the American University in Cairo, a socialist activist and a leading member of the Trotskyist organization the Revolutionary Socialists...

 - a leading RS member - labeled Hezbollah's defeat of the Israeli Defence Forces in the Lebanon War "a very important victory for the anti-war movement worldwide", claiming it prevented or delayed US and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i plans to attack Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

.

On March 2, 2011, during the US Wisconsin budget protests, the RS sent a message of solidarity to the US International Socialist Organization
International Socialist Organization
The International Socialist Organization is a revolutionary socialist organization in the United States that identifies with the politics of International Socialism, a current of Trotskyism, and the Marxist political tradition that American socialist writer and activist Hal Draper called...

, urging them to build "a revolutionary socialist alternative" against "Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

 and imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

".

The RS were amongst many socialists who condemned the Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...

 regime of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

 for arresting and torturing militant
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...

s, amongst who were members of Zimbabwe's International Socialist Organisation, for hosting a meeting discussing the revolutions in Tunisia
Tunisian revolution
The Tunisian Revolution is an intensive campaign of civil resistance, including a series of street demonstrations taking place in Tunisia. The events began in December 2010 and led to the ousting of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011...

 and Egypt
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...

. They said "[t]he masses in Tunisia and Egypt have proven that no matter how long autocratic regimes
Autocracy
An autocracy is a form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state. It is derived from the Greek : and , and may be translated as "one who rules by himself". It is distinct from oligarchy and democracy...

 last, the revolution's earthquake can break the walls and dams. Be sure that the earthquake is coming and that Mugabe will fall--".

On March 20, 2011, during the Libyan uprising
2011 Libyan civil war
The 2011 Libyan civil war was an armed conflict in the North African state of Libya, fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The war was preceded by protests in Benghazi beginning on 15 February 2011, which led to clashes with security...

, the RS condemned the UN Security Council, the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 and the Obama Administration on their decision to implement a No-Fly Zone
No-fly zone
A no-fly zone is a territory or an area over which aircraft are not permitted to fly. Such zones are usually set up in a military context, somewhat like a demilitarized zone in the sky, and usually prohibit military aircraft of a belligerent nation from operating in the region.-Iraq,...

 and foreign military intervention
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....

 in Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

 as "part of the counter-revolution." They accused them of remaining silent "for decades while Gaddafi, and his like among the Arab regimes
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

, suppressed their people with the utmost brutality and piled up wealth... so long as these regimes implemented the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 for the abolition of any social support
Welfare
Welfare refers to a broad discourse which may hold certain implications regarding the provision of a minimal level of wellbeing and social support for all citizens without the stigma of charity. This is termed "social solidarity"...

 for the poor... as long as companies kept open their doors to global capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

...".

See also

  • Socialism
    Socialism
    Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

  • Marxism
    Marxism
    Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

  • Trotskyism
    Trotskyism
    Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

  • International Socialist Tendency
    International Socialist Tendency
    The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...

  • List of Trotskyist internationals
  • Tony Cliff
    Tony Cliff
    Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...

  • Workers' Councils

External links

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