Socialists Hijack Mubarak Resignation for Their Cause: 'A Revolution From Below

The socialists are celebrating.

One such group, ANSWER, issued a statement Friday in response to the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Not surprisingly, the organization's statement gave Van Jones-style praise to the "revolution from below."

See our previous report on ANSWER.

The statement, which includes three parts, decried American "imperialism," praised the "youth-led uprising," and continued the group's assault on Israeli, or as it calls the country, the "Zionist regime." Highlights of the remarks are below (all emphasis added).

It starts:

The Egyptian people have done it. A revolution from below, developed without a fully prepared plan and without a formal leadership, has succeeded in forcing the ouster of Mubarak. Even though it was a genuinely spontaneous uprising, the people developed leadership and organization in the course of the struggle itself. This great uprising by the people of Egypt has shaken the existing global order of imperialism. After all of their sacrifice, millions of Egyptians today are celebrating. All great revolutions become a festival of those who have endured oppression. Each participant knows that the revolution is the deepest expression of the power of the people.

Just like President Obama this week, the group also praised the youth for their role in the ousting:

The steadfast determination of the youth-led uprising coupled with the dramatic entrance of the Egyptian working class into the mass movement radically changed the relationship of forces.

ANSWER noticed Obama's youth-praise:

Having armed and financed the Mubarak dictatorship’s 30-year-long war against the Egyptian people, the U.S. government abruptly shifted its position in a last-minute effort to prevent U.S. imperialist interests in Egypt going down with Mubarak’s doomed ship. As the regime seemed to be crumbling in the face of the uprising and the mass strike wave, Obama appeared on national television yesterday to announce that the U.S. government saluted the youth-led uprising.

The group goes on to blast the U.S.:

For now, the Egyptian military has assumed the power in Egypt. This is the preferred plan of the U.S. government. The continued presence of Mubarak was accelerating the militancy and radicalism of the uprising. Suddenly, as a consequence of the entrance of the people in a genuine uprising, Mubarak turned into a liability rather than a valued asset. The main goal of the U.S. government now will be to find a way to sustain the authority of the Egyptian military high command, which has functioned as a client for the past 30 years. [...] A great victory has been secured. But the institutions of the dictatorship remain and behind them stand the Pentagon and the CIA. Undoubtedly, a new stage in the struggle will quickly unfold. The opening of political space for revolutionary and working-class forces to organize is of monumental importance.

And Israel:

The Israeli Zionist regime is deeply alarmed by the prospect of the end of the dictatorship. Although the Israeli regime pretends to be the great champion of “democracy,” the reality is that it fears the development of a genuine people’s government in Egypt, the largest Arab country that possesses the largest army in the Arab World. The 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, which followed the Camp David Summit Accord, is in fact a complete misnomer. The treaty gave the Israeli military a green light to wage war against other Arab peoples free from the threat of interference from the Egyptian military. In fact, this treaty sidelined the largest Arab army from engaging in any opposition to Israeli war plans against Lebanon, Syria, other Arab countries and especially the besieged Palestinian people. In exchange for the agreement, the United States provides nearly $2 billion to Egypt—most of it military aid—each year.

In the end, the group is sure to spin the Egyptian revolt as a class struggle:

The young people of Egypt and the mass of the working class have, through their own efforts, changed the political equation. All revolutions reveal as a dominant and characteristic feature the extraordinary intervention of the masses of people into the historical process. In normal times, it is politicians, heads of state, military leaders, the media, religious figures—all the representatives of the old order—who conduct the business of society, while the masses of people are excluded from the political arena. By their direct intervention in the historical process through the medium of revolution, however, the people create the foundation for a new social and political regime.

The Party for Liberation and Socialism (PSL) issued the exact same statement on the front page of its website. Read the full statement here.