The Egyptian Revolution 2.0
There is the military coup in Egypt that ousted President Mohamed Mursi. The future is uncertain for Egypt. The rights of the working class and the poor ought to be protected in Egypt. There was an opposition to Mursi's Islamist regime. Millions of folks participated, but be careful what you wish for (because you just might get it). There are 4 militant attacks on the Egyptian army in Sinai. Crowds have flooded the streets. Austerity and economic trouble influenced the large crowd. Some of the protesters are for real and others are linked with terrorist, extremist organizations even. Egyptians are trying to solve the issues of social inequality, poverty, war, and the breakdown of democracy. Yet, human beings have not overthrown the military, which has huge power in Egypt still. There are still some token parties that want to advance IMF policies, U.S. imperialism, and other reactionary actions too. The events in Tahrir Square represented the end of the rule of Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood. Washington gave the green light to the coup d'état, because it was inevitable. The coup was an expression of a continuity of power changes. Some demonstrators denounced the President Barack Obama and his pro-Muslim Brotherhood Cairo Ambassador Anne Patterson. We know that the Muslim Brotherhood collaborated with British Intelligence and the CIA as a means to try to overthrow Nasser (since he was a nationalist and wanted independent policies that were outside the confines of the establishment). Some of the mass movement in Egypt has been infiltrated by the NED or the National Endowment for Democracy and Freedom House. The Kifaya civil society movement is supported by the U.S. based International Center for Non-Violent Conflict. Defense Minister General Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi was one of the military leaders who instigated the coup d'état directed against President Morsi. He was a graduate of the U.S. War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. General Al Sisi was in permanent liaison by telephone with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (right together with Al Sisi) from the very outset of the protest movement. Press reports confirm that he consulted him several times in the days leading up to the Coup d’état. It is highly unlikely that General Al Sisi would have acted without a ‘green light” from the Pentagon. General Martin Dempsey or the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff was in permanent contact with his counterpart General Sedki Sobhi. General Sobhi is the chief of staff of Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces or the SCAF. According to Military.com, Hagel and Dempsey “were walking a fine line" “...expressing concern while attempting to avoid the impression that the U.S. was manipulating events behind the scenes.” Egypt is the largest recipient of US military aid after Israel. The Egyptian military is therefore controlled by the Pentagon. In the words of General Anthony Zinni, former Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM): “Egypt is the most important country in my area of responsibility because of the access it gives me to the region.” We know from the RT that troops have used open fire with live rounds into crowds of pro-Morsi demonstrators. Reuters have confirmed the story and at least 3 are dead from the terrible, unjustified incident. These demonstrators were marching on the Republican Guard Headquarters located in Cairo. These included thousands of Morsi supporters that have taken marches also in the northern cities of Alexandria, Beheira including the Upper Egyptian city of Minya after Friday afternoon prayers. The military have deployed tanks outside the Presidential palace in Cairo as a means to keep the pro-Morsi demonstrators at bay. Morsi is not perfect, but even these demonstrators have the right to express their views. So, real revolutionary solutions are needed in Egypt without military domination of the nation or IMF control of the economy either.
We know that Egypt faces a crossroads period in their time. A civil war could come about if a real resolution doesn't come about. We know about Washington's role in these affairs via the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence. The Armed Forces in Egypt have cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood and they executed a coup d'état. We see that a significant number of the protest movement in Egypt is for real. Many of them are not fake or paid provocateurs. That is why some want to manipulate the protest movement as a means to prevent the accession of a real people's government. President Mohamed Morsi being overthrown in that fashion represents the continuity policy on behalf of Washington. One of the leaders behind the coup is Defense Minister General Abdul Fatah Al-Sisi. He was in liaison via telephone with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel from the very outset of the protest movement. There are many press reports confirming that he consulted him many times in the days leading up to the coup d'état. A green light from the Pentagon allowed General Al Sisi to execute the coup. The Muslim Brotherhood was supported by the U.S. and the West for decades. We find the U.S. foundations like the National Endowment for Democracy and Freedom House are trying to infiltrate the protest movement. The Kifaya movement, which organized one of the first protests directed against the Mubarak regime in late 2004, and which is currently involved in the movement against the Brotherhood is supported by the US based International Center for Non-Violent Conflict. These U.S. foundations are linked to the U.S. State Department. They are being used as a means to prevent a broader issue of the rejection of massive foreign interference in the affairs of Egypt or the establishment of a sovereign state. The West is supporting both sides as a means to divide Egyptian society and exploit the political chaos as a means to gain control of its resources (via the IMF, etc.). A truly sovereign national government in Egypt that is free from IMF influence is not what the West wants. There are still social and sectarian divisions in Egypt. The Egyptian military is not anti-American. It is fine for the protesters to advocate the ending of dictators' reigns in Egypt. Yet, they should also address the imperialist policies from the West, the EU, the IMF, and the World Bank. When you eliminate a neoliberal economic policy agenda in nations, then you can have meaningful political change. A notorious puppet Mohamed El Baradei (or the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency) is now the interim Prime Minister of Egypt. All of the protest movement was not U.S. inspired, but the military coup d'état was definitely U.S. inspired without question. The coup being cosigned by U.S. officials is the smoking gun. Even the National Salvation Front is littered with members from the former Mubarak regime. There are still heavy violent clashes all over Egypt. The coup was created as a means to pre-empt the growth of genuine political, revolutionary solutions in Egypt to benefit the workers and the rest of the people. At the end of the day, it is all about the people as all power should be placed in the hands of the people. Many Egyptians have been killed and about 400 human beings were injured in Cairo, Alexandria, and the Sinai Peninsula in July 5, 2013. Pro and anti-Morsi factions are shooting at each other. At the end of the day, Egyptians should end neoliberal actions, call for ending military bases in the Middle East, make sure the real democratic rights are created, and to use other actions as a means to create a truly, sovereign government.
When you research more into the 2013 Egyptian military coup, the more evil that you witness what it was. The U.S. backed military was created as a means to strife the sincere, real portion of the protest movement in Egypt. There have been snipers firing into the crowd of pro-Morsi demonstrators in Egypt. You have puppet leaders and the military temporarily running Egypt for the time being. It is not a secret that the West has been hypocritical in claiming to be a champion of democratic governance. This funding of extremism by the U.S. has occurred in Guatemala, Iran, South Vietnam, etc. This was when the West supported the eliminated of democratically elected leaders in exchanged for more fascist or reactionary political leadership. So, we have the coup against Egypt's first democratically elected government. The White House refuses to label the action a coup since it would hold into jeopardy the 1.5 billion dollars in U.S. aid to Egypt. Many in the White House gave consent to the coup before ex-President Mohamed Morsi was arrested. This makes free elections very weak in the midst of violence. Now, the military and the bureaucracy continue to run Egypt not the common people. Radicals like the Al Nour party (which makes the Muslim Brotherhood look moderate) supported the coup and want more political power in Egypt. As for Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei and the others who claim to be human rights advocates, they stand condemned by their silence in the face of the president's arrest, the shutting down of an elected parliament, and the banning of media that might be the slightest bit critical of the military's seizure of power. When we have massacres of civilians at prayer by the armed military, the once interim Prime Minister ElBaradei equated the unarmed victims with the armed military. It is hypocritical for the West to lecture on democracy when they actively support the monarchical, harsh theocracy of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are now funding the new government of Egypt. Defense Minister Abdel Fatah el-Sisi said that he would not allow any interference with the interim government's road map into democracy. This is an Orwellian message since it was al-Sisi that overthrew a democratically elected government completely. An undemocratic military junta in Egypt is blatantly immoral and evil. The military police have killed dozens of real activists fight for progressive freedoms in Egypt. 650 Morsi supporters have been arrested without cause and they are in places that we do not know about. Many of them are being tortured. Now, we see that Mansour's ruling document wants to restrict human rights like the freedom of expression and religious freedom rights too according to Abdel Tawab. His declaration replaces the nation's suspended constitution that was approved in 2012. Heba Morayef or the Egypt director of Human Rights Watch said that the new document has wording which is similar to a constitutional declaration issued in March of 2011. The extremist Salafis want some theocracy in the land. The Egyptian military has fought against the working class as well. The junta has named free-market economist Hazem El-Beblawi as prime minister. El-Beblawi believes in cutting subsidies for grain and fuel prices in Egypt. The army’s constitutional declaration also continues, and even expands, the Islamist legal foundation of the state. According to state-run Egyptian daily Al Ahram, “The declaration states that the Arab Republic of Egypt is a democratic system based on citizenship, Islam is the religion of the state, Arabic is its official language, and the principles of Sharia law derived from established Sunni canons are its main source of legislation.” This is a new dictatorship ruled by the military. Though Monday’s massacre of pro-MB protesters outside the Republican Guard barracks in Cairo was provoked by the army, prosecutors are now preparing charges including murder, thuggery, and undermining general security against 650 pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters who survived the massacre. That is why Morsi supporters are planning to hold a mass rally today in Cairo to protest the coup and commemorate the victims of the massacre. Liberation is needed in Egypt without an Egyptian junta.
There continues to be clashes found in Egypt. There has been a growing death toll from the massacres of the Egyptian Army indeed. There has been much conflict in Egypt. The military junta is trying to harm protesters. The streets are filled with blood. There has been the massacre of Wednesday. Supporters of Morsi continue to peacefully protest. Others have attacked government buildings all over the nation. The army ousted Morsi in the July 3 coup. This was aimed at pre-empting developing mass working class protests against Morsi's reactionary policies (though Morsi is not worse than others). Yet, the military backed dictatorship now is becoming even worse than Morsi. This comes after the 2011 uprising against Honsi Mubarak. The casualties from Wednesday's bloodbath mount into the thousands and the fighting spreads. The coup is placing Egypt on a path towards civil war and mass upheavals. Thousands of the relatives of the victims of Wednesday's massacres have flocked to the morgues and mosques. This was where the bodies of the victims are being held. They chanted the words of: “The army and police are one dirty hand!” Health Ministry sources reported yesterday that the death toll from Wednesday’s crackdown had risen to 638, with at least 4,200 injured—more than double the initial official figures. These figures, which do not include the bodies of protesters at facilities controlled by Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB), are still substantial underestimates. Reuters reporters counted a further 228 bodies at northeast Cairo’s Al-Imam mosque alone, and the MB has issued estimates that over 2,000 were killed and 10,000 wounded in Wednesday’s crackdown. The death toll is rising. Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi issued a statement praising the police for their "self-restraint" and justifying the massacre. He said the following words: “The state had to intervene to restore security and peace for Egyptians.” Some groups of Morsi supporters have attacked police stations in Giza, Port Said, Assuit, Helwan, Minya, and Fayoum. They also stormed and torched the Giza governor's office recently. They blocked Cairo's major Ring Road in both directions. This caused traffic in the capital to a halt. The police also broke up a protest by several thousand Morsi supporters on the Corniche in Alexandria. This killed 3 and wounded dozens. MB spokesman Gehad El-Haddad spoke to Reuters via Skype. He said that Wednesday's crackdown was a very strong blow to his organization. He estimated that the death toll at eight times the official figures. He said that several MB leaders had gone missing. He said the following words: “We can’t confirm the whereabouts of all of them yet. Two of the top leaders have been shot but are not yet dead, as far as I know. About six of them have lost their sons and daughters.” El-Haddad said that MB's central concern is that protests against the junta might escalate and escape their control. He said that the arrests and killings of MB leaders meant that the MB had lost central coordination, added that: "After the blows and arrests and killings that we are facing, emotions are too high to be guided by anyone.” “It's beyond control now. There was always that worry. With every massacre that increases,” Haddad said about anger among opponents of the junta. “The real danger comes when groups of people, angry by the loss of loved ones, start mobilizing on the ground.” What the Muslim Brotherhood, the junta, and its imperialist backers fear is that the rising violence and protests may trigger an independent movement. This independent movement can unite the working class against the reactionary policies which both the Muslim Brotherhood and the junta supporters. All of the factions of the Western establishment and the military junta in Egypt desire austerity measures including cuts to vital fuel and food subsidies (this will attack and crush the real revolution in the world). Governments worldwide fear the explosive fallout from the massacre. The West has been allied to the junta. US President Barack Obama issued a brief statement yesterday canceling joint Egyptian-US military exercises, but made no shift in US support for the junta. Washington still refuses to label the army’s July 3 toppling of Mursi a “coup,” so it can continue providing $1.3 billion in yearly subsidies to the Egyptian army. The office of French President François Hollande also issued a statement, declaring that “everything must be done to avoid civil war,” after Hollande summoned Egypt’s ambassador in the wake of the crackdown. Turkey's Islamist premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan brutally suppressed mass protests against his own regime in June. He fears a coup like the one that ousted Morsi. He criticized the massacre in Egypt and the U.S. backing for the Egyptian army. “Those who ignore the coup and don’t even display the honorable behavior of calling a ‘coup’ a ‘coup’ share in the guilt of the massacre of those children,” Erdogan said. “At this stage, what right do you have to speak of democracy, of universal values, of human rights and freedoms?” Some in the liberal bourgeoisie and other affluent middle class in Egypt have loved the coup and the massacre. The persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood can only militarize them not destroy them in the longer term. Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei resigned since he tried to distance himself from the crackdown that he had supported. We must never forget that ElBaradei helped plan the July 3 coup and supported repeated bloody crackdowns against pro-MB protesters. His maneuver was also exposed by recent revelations that, during the junta’s internal discussions preparing Wednesday’s bloodbath, he called for a resort to the “use of force within the limits of the law.” The supporters of the Tamarod or Rebel alliance have been coup supporters. Many of the Tamarod and some of his own Constitution Party including the NSF (or the National Salvation Front) have criticized ElBaradei's decision. They feel that he is abandoning the country in a critical time instead of staying the course.
The Minimum Wage
There have been nationwide strikes and protests about McDonalds and the minimum wage. This issue of economic justice and workers' rights are part and parcel of the human rights movement. It has been found that if McDonalds were to double the salaries and benefits to all of its employees from the CEO down to the minimum wage cashiers; it would still only cost an extra 68 cents for a Mag Mac. This has been cited by a new report. Many fast food workers are legitimately on strike as a means to demand a livable wage. Ryan Chittum of the Columbia Journalism Review crunched the numbers and found that the price rise of 68 cents per Big Mac, or 17 percent overall, is only true for company-operated restaurants. Including franchises, which make up 80 percent of McDonalds restaurants, puts the increase at 25 percent. The University of Kansas has clarified that Morelix, an undergraduate at the school, did not vet his research with the university. The report is not part of KU’s academic studies. Low wage workers already know that it would take very little for McDonalds to vastly improve the lives of those who make the company run. Studies have shown even that minimum wage raises have been beneficial to a company's bottom line. The current wages for the lowest paid McDonalds workers are unworkable and even the company know that. A recent budget released by McDonalds told employees to get by through getting a second job and spending $0 on heating. The company's leadership had tried to frame itself as a chartable above minimum wage employer. The raising of the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour will not involve budget outlays (if they all aligned with inflation). What folks are advocating is not creating a minimum wage of 30 dollars an hour. We want a slight increase of the minimum wage that is in line with inflation. We know that the current minimum wage is incredibly low by any standard or estimation. For the past four decades, increases in the minimum wage have fallen behind inflation. So, the minimum wage is substantially lower than it was in the 1960's while worker productivity has doubled. Many studies have shown that a slight increase of the minimum wage has little if any negative effect on employment. This increase can help low income families all throughout America. As Paul Krugman has written, "...The tax credit — which has traditionally had bipartisan support, although that may be ending — is also good policy. But it has a well-known defect: Some of its benefits end up flowing not to workers but to employers, in the form of lower wages. And guess what? An increase in the minimum wage helps correct this defect. It turns out that the tax credit and the minimum wage aren’t competing policies, they’re complementary policies that work best in tandem..." Most Americans agree with a minimum wage increase. It is known that many of the super-rich pay no income taxes. The poor pays a lot of payroll and sales taxes. A recent study by the Chicago Federal Reserve found that raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour would increase household spending by about $48 billion the following year, amounting to a .3 percent boost to GDP. And while opponents warn that a raise would hurt jobs, several studies have shown that it doesn’t have a negative effect on employment and may even help boost job growth. Another study finds that raising the minimum to $10.10 an hour would lift nearly 6 million workers out of poverty. It can decrease the gender wage gap at the state level since now women make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. A July 2013 poll shows that 80 percent of American supports a raise to $10.10 an hour. This includes more than 90 percent of Democrats and even two-thirds of Republicans, as well as 83 percent of low-income adults and nearly 80 percent of those who make more than $100,000. Voters also decided to raise the wage in three cities in November, and in fact when ballot initiatives include a raise, voters nearly always approve it by substantial majorities. We must fight for better worker conditions. I disagree strongly with the oppression of workers. Rand Paul and Tom Coburn's wicked Enumerated Powers Act of 2013 bill could effectively ban the nationwide minimum wage, the national ban on workplace discrimination, the national labor law and the overtime laws in most industries if it was passed last century. So, I will continue to endorse labor rights and human dignity.
The minimum wage increase protests are a key part of the human rights movement. Many protesters want a 15 dollar an hour wage and better benefits for workers (including better working conditions). These protesters have occurred nationwide. They are courageously fighting for human dignity. In Australia, the minimum wage is over $16 an hour for fast food workers. Salvatore Babones is the senior lecturer of sociology and social policy at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. He is an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. He writes for Truthout and other publications. We live in a new era. A minimum wage of $15 is not unrealistic since we don't live in the 1950's and the 1960's anymore. Some conservatives in the media and the press have criticized this idea. That extremist Charles Koch (who is worth $44 billion) recently said that the best way to stimulate the U.S. economy is by eliminating the minimum wage altogether. This is wrong since many of folks like Koch refuse to look at other countries to gauge their views on the minimum wage. When you look at foreign countries, their minimum wages are much higher than America. These nations are doing fairly well. Nations like France, Germany, Australia, etc. will have occasional recessions like America has right now. Over the long 30-40 year period, they do just as well as the United States economically. These nations have higher wages for their workers. And so while overall economic growth is about equal between the U.S. and other countries, conditions for ordinary working people are far better in places like Australia and Europe. Australia has no massive recession. There was no single quarter in which GDP declined in Australia in a long time. There was a mild slowdown in hiring back in 2008 and things picked right back up. Even lower wage workers in Australia have vacation days, sick days, four weeks annual leave, and full health insurance. There is the argument that raising the minimum wage will result in fewer jobs. Yet, the scholar Babones mentioned the following information about that argument: "...And so what we really need to do is instead of arguing from theory that if you raise minimum wage it would cause problems for employers, you should argue from fact, that is, look at countries where the minimum wage is higher, see how well they're doing. And, in fact, those countries are doing quite well. Even in the United States, we recently raised the minimum wage from an extraordinarily low level of $5.15 an hour in 2007 up to--now it's $7.25 an hour--not a high level, but still that's an enormous increase in the minimum wage, you know, almost a 50 percent increase in just a few years. And what have we seen? Even though there's been a big recession in the U.S., we've seen low-wage employment actually increase. So, you know, the idea that raising the minimum wage will hurt employment just has no basis in empirical fact. It's an interesting idea, and it's a very nice idea if you're an employer and you want to pay low wages, but the studies just don't bear out that raising the minimum wage has any impact on employment whatsoever..." Australia has raised their minimum wage almost every year. America has only seen three increases in the past 15 years. In Australia, there is an organization called Fair Work Australia. Each year, it reviews economic conditions; reviews productivity levels in the economy, and set the minimum age accordingly. Also, Big Macs are more expensive in Australia than the States in 70 cents more. Yet, Australia has full health insurance, and other benefits. Babones further states that: "... The cost of living in Australia is in fact slightly higher than in the United States. And if you want to make an adjustment for that, the Australian fast food wage of $17.98 an hour probably comes down to around $12 an hour if you adjust for cost of living. On the other hand, if you adjust for the fact that that Australian $17.98, on top of that, Australian workers get four weeks' annual vacation, retirement benefits, and full health insurance, then of course you would have to revise the figures upward. So there is some truth in the argument that the cost of living is higher in Australia. But on the other hand, you get more for your tax money and you get more for your wages in Australia as well. So I think the two either balance out or in fact probably workers are better off in Australia..." So, the fight for a higher minimum wage is a just cause.
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