The Egyptian Revolution is being co-opted

February 06, 2011

By Marco Fonseca

The Egyptian Revolution is being co-opted. From the moment the international media began
labelling protesters as "pro-democracy" fighters to the moment when liberal politicians like El-
Baradei appointed themselves - and were regarded as such by the "international community" and
not emphatically opposed by the local youth activists of the January 25th movement - as
representatives of the "people" and from the moment that the United States began to articulate its
fall-back policy towards Egypt - and the whole Middle East, except Israel - as a policy of "co-ordinated
transition to democracy", the revolution was lost.

Let's be clear about this. The model of "co-ordinated transition to democracy", the idea that what
Egypt needs is a system of "fair and free elections" at regular intervals and with a real chance for the
"opposition" to access power in the political institutions of the status quo, is in fact the regulation
and co-optation of radical grassroots dissent for the preservetion of imperial rule in the Middle East,
for the preservation of the balance of power with Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, and for
the preservation of certain ruling elites within Egypt to the exclusion of the spectres that these
elites, and the United States/Israel fear the most: the radical left and Muslim fundamentalism.

But Egyptian dissent as expressed in the January uprising is informed only to some extent by the
sentiments of oppressed and radicalized Muslims or by those of "pro-democracy" activists. Although
not altogether absent - how could it be? - Muslim fundamentalism does not appear to be the
decisive force behind the process. Likewise, although some Egyptians do speak the language of
liberal democracy as a solution to some of their problems, few see this model of poliical community
as the route to real emancipation from the shackles of imperial domination, vernacular military
hegemony, and traditional party elites and machineries. The language of western democracy is here
as suspect as the language of Al-Qaida. The force that appears to be driving the process more
directly is the force of hunger, unemployment, exclusion, marginalization, repression, and fear. The
language that one hears coming from the streets of Egypt is the language of liberation. Thus, the
struggle to break free from the shackles of marginalization, impoverishment, exclusion, repression,
and hopelessness by young Egyptians, some groups of women, and certain segments of the middle
class, this is the driving force behind the process.

Although largely devoid of a centralized, political party-like, leadership, this movement is

nonetheless not devoid of a central project of change: it is about the satisfaction of human needs, it
is about the meeting of youthful expectations, it is about a fair social and economic compact, it is
about the political empowerment of people left out by 30 years of bureaucratic, militaristic and
despotic authoritarianism, Mubarak style, and it is about - as far as it's possible to tell - delinking
from corporate-driven globalization and its trickle down effects on Egypt felt there by the
implementation of Mubarak style neo-liberalism (comprehensive and institutionalized corruption and
personal enrichment willfully tolerated by the West mixed with high expenditures for the benefit of
the military elite and their clienteles mixed with fiscal austerity and discipline for the rest of the
people). Keeping this whole institutional arrangement and adding controlled elections is what
imperial foreign policy in the Middle East, those who are setting themselves up as the architects of
the "transition", and the global corporate media call "democracy".
Absolutely none of the widespread grassroots demands, from effective socio-economic inclusion
and justice to delinking from corporate-driven globalization and neoliberalism to an emphatic break
with the past of bankrupt political parties, the indirect rule of the army, and the ruling NDP elites can
be accomplished within the model of a US-imposed and Suleiman-controlled "co-ordinated
transition to democracy". Thus, to the extent that this model advances and succeeds, so too will
deepen the loss of the revolution that Egypt could sill have and that originates from youthful
revolutionary spirit that today haunts the streets of its dusty and old cities and towns.

From: Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives

http://www.zcommunications.org/the-egyptian-revolution-is-being-co-opted-by-marco-
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