Egypt in Movement

Pambazuka has a good interview with Samir Amin conducted by Chinese intellectuals Wang Hui and Lau Kin Chi. The piece is entitled, “Egypt: How to overthrow a dictator.”

In it, Amin helps sort out the different movements in Egypt’s political landscape during the revolution. While the interview was published last week, it took place while Mubarak was still in power. Still, I think it’s useful for the background information and analysis it provides.

It discusses the four components of the opposition: (youth, radical left, middle class, Muslim Brotherhood). It also clarifies for the record how the trajectory of the revolution unfolded: it began with the youth, then the radical left joined, then the bourgeois democrats. This latter group includes El Baradei. The Muslim Brotherhood was last, and Amin provides some insights for why that was.

He also discusses the strategy of the US, which includes dividing the opposition and working with the least revolutionary (the middle class and the MB).

Finally, he provides some background to the labor strikes from three years ago and the establishment of an independent (rather than state-controlled) union.

There is also brief discussion on what’s going on with the peasants, and their class divisions. The poorest peasants are pissed: they looked at a Google Earth map of Egyptian land distribution and are ready to revolt.

Kidding on that last one.

It’s a good read: “Egypt: How to overthrow a dictator”