Egypt: Form independent workers councils which include workers’ delegates from the factories, delegates from the rank and file soldiers and the revolutionary anti-capitalist youth;

Boycott the elections;

Away with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF);

Forward to a revolutionary workers government based on the independent workers councils

The central task facing the Egyptian masses today is the formation of independent councils of workers delegates, centrally from industrial and other workplaces. It is crucial that delegates of rank and file soldiers and the revolutionary, anti-capitalist youth be included in the ranks of the workers councils. Where there are ‘popular committees’ it is important that they be broadened to include workers delegates from the industrial and other workplaces. It is important to extend them to include delegates from the rank and file soldiers.

The basis of these independent workers councils or extended ‘popular committees’ should be on the following:

boycott the elections
Away with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)
Disband the police, army and bureaucracy- arm the masses for workers self-defence against the capitalist state and imperialist forces
All power to the workers councils /extended ‘popular committees’
Forward to a workers government based on these workers councils/ extended ‘popular committees’.
Shut down the US military bases and expulsion of all imperialist armed forces
Expropriation of all capitalist interests and imperialist assets, without compensation, placing them under workers control
Nationalise the land; full assistance to the poor peasantry
For Mubarak and all of the past regime to face a workers tribunal- full reparations to the masses for the crimes of the old regime

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) are the subcontractor agency for the 1% on Wall Street

Military support for the Mubarak regime was $1.3 bn per annum from US imperialism. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) receives over $2bn- this is how much US imperialism depends on them to control the masses. Now that imperialist puppet Assad is killing protestors at will in Syria, imperialism has given the instruction to the SCAF to do the same in Egypt. Teargas from military contractors in Pennsylvania in the USA is being used to suffocate and kill off protestors for the past week. Already, with 12 000 political prisoners, the SCAF has more activists in jail than even the hated Mubarak. The SCAF are the subcontracted killing machine for US imperialism, for the 1% on Wall Street, to try and crush the revolution. They want the masses to passively accept a return to a new regime of Mubarak without Mubarak. They want to prevent another Libyan uprising where the masses armed themselves and smashed the armed repressive forces of Gaddafi.

Through the elections on Monday 28^th Nov 2011, the SCAF want to give the NDP of Mubarak another opportunity to be reborn. This is another sham election of the kind that Mubarak used to have as a cover to hide the rule of his clique and to hide the real domination by imperialism. The military elite have been trained in the academies of US imperialism- they control a huge portion of the wealth of Egypt- they enriched themselves in the time of Mubarak. The elections are to ensure that the Egyptian capitalists retain the riches stolen from the masses in the time of Mubarak. The price for this is that the Egyptian 1% have the military elite give instruction to shoot down the insurgent masses. While the military elite have given orders for the masses to be shot down with live ammunition, the Muslim Brotherhood have shown their true colours- they support the Military Council (SCAF) and the elections. Here they show their opportunism- they want to gain privileges- a piece of the cake that the Egyptian capitalists have, so that they can play the role, as they do now in Tunisia, to turn their backs on the masses and give imperialism a new lease of life to continue a brutal capitalist regime- indeed the resurrection of the Mubarak Phoenix out of the ashes of old Mubarak regime. We call for the workers councils to spearhead a total boycott of the capitalist elections.

On the treacherous role of the world’s left, such as the ISO

The ‘left’ is deliberately not posing the question of armed self-defence against the attacks by the state. This is because to pose the question of arming the masses leads directly to a contest for power between the masses and the capitalist state. The ‘left’ leave the masses unarmed in the face of the increasingly more violent crackdown by the state that is armed to the teeth by billions of dollars of equipment and support, mainly from US imperialism.

The masses in Tahrir Square are raising the call for an interim civilian government- the question is- what is the class content of such a government ? Surely the first basis has to be that such a government must be based on delegates elected at grassroots level, subject to instant recall and receiving the wage of an average skilled worker. Secondly, no-one who has served in any leading capacity in the bureaucracy or armed forces from the Mubarak regime should be allowed in such a government. Surely the elite who gained their riches in the time of Mubarak should have no link to such a government; surely no-one with links to imperialism should be part of such a government.

The ‘left’ pose the raising of economic demands for workers in the factories, instead of concentrating all forces on the struggle for the working class to take political power through revolutionary means.

A civilian government can only really represent the masses if it is based on workers councils, on the programme outlined above.

The world’s ‘left’ like the ISO also deliberately isolate the Egyptian masses from the struggling masses in the imperialist centres and in the region.

A call to the world ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement

The military regime in Egypt is the direct agency of the 1% who control Wall Street. The 1%, the capitalists of US imperialism are the direct beneficiaries of the plunder of Egypt, of the Palestinian masses, of the oil resources, of the masses in the region.

We call on the Occupy Wall street movement to find ways to blockade all military and other aid to the elite in Egypt. Note the fear that the 1% has for you that they ask British and French imperialism to be seen to be at the head of attacks in Libya, Ivory Coast and elsewhere. We call on the working class in England and France to rise up to blockade arms for the elite in Egypt. We call on you to learn from the still-developing movements in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, that the world masses can only get rid of the system which enriches the 1% if we get defeat the state and its armed forces.

As much as it is necessary for workers delegates and delegates from the rank and file soldiers to join the masses in Tahrir square, it is necessary to seriously pose the question of councils of workers delegates and armed self-defence of the Occupy Wall Street movement. For workers brigades to support the revolutionary masses in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen. Tear down the Rafah border and unite the Egyptian, Palestinian and Syrian masses, indeed the masses of the entire region, not only to defeat the hated Mubarak military regime, but also the Zionist state.

On the basis of all the above it is necessary to internationalise the Tahrir-Occupy Wall Street movement. But for the world capitalist system to be defeated we need to refound the Fourth International, to co-ordinate the fight of the world working class to take power through revolutionary means, defeating the imperialist regimes and their puppets around the globe.

For independent workers councils with delegates from factories and other workplaces and delegates from rank and file soldiers, with delegates from the revolutionary anti-capitalist youth in Egypt!

Boycott the sham elections!

Away with the Supreme military council (SCAF)!

All power to the workers councils!

For a revolutionary workers government based on the workers councils!

For the refounding of the Fourth International with sections in Egypt and all around the globe.

Issued 25.11.2011