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| Egypt has 1.6 million security officers |
Falk takes us back six years when US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, gave a speech at the American University in Cairo.
She gave the regime of Hosni Mubarak, a regime that denies democratic rights to its citizens and tortures and assassinates opposition figures, a glowing report but indicated that the Bush regime was intent on changing the way the US operated in the area, "For sixty years” Rice began, “my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people."
Not much has changed six years later. Hilary Clinton initially responded to the uprising for democratic rights and reform that has been taking place in Egypt in the last two days by telling the world that, "Egypt's government is stable.” Any normal response would be to champion the protesters for standing up to a dictatorship. But this is the US's dictator and Clinton's comments were designed to assure investors and her class that the regime is safe, the plunder will not be interrupted. The Mubarak regime has continued to torture maim and kill any who oppose its rule and the US said nothing, neither Bush or Obama. The US under Bush and Obama has continued to supply it with military hardware and money----our money---that can’t be spent on schools.
Falk goes on to recall that Rice’s comments about “supporting the democratic aspirations of all people." Fell by the wayside once the Palestinian residents of Gaza elected a leadership the US didn’t want. These elections were “internationally monitored” and considered fair and free Falk points out but the Palestinians were punished anyway. Hamas has been declared a terrorist organization and the Israeli’s have blockaded Gaza and the Israeli military has been shown by leaked Wikileaks cables to have demanded bribes from companies delivering goods there. It should come as no surprise that US politicians have suggested that Wikileaks also be declared a “terrorist” organization.
Israel, as those of us that follow international events know, has been busy assassinating Hamas representatives, including in other countries and also invaded Gaza in 2009. The US mass media called the invasion a war. Some war, the US supplied massive Israeli military against an imprisoned community, the largest concentration camp in the world with no ships, no planes, no army. The 1300 Palestinian losses and the 13 Israeli ones tell it all, body count is a good indication of the balance of forces in conflict.
And this slaughter came after the massive destruction of Lebanon’s infrastructure and the killing of civilians by the Israeli military after a border incident in Northern Israel that was not an uncommon event. Bush referred to this slaughter as "a moment of opportunity".
Much of this is not news to Americans that follow events and that don’t allow the cloak of patriotism and nationalism to mask the murderous activities of US capitalism abroad. But for the millions of Americans that fall victim to the powerful propaganda machine that we call the mass media I would ask them to consider what image it presents of Americans throughout the world when our government supports and arms these oppressive regimes that deny basic democratic rights to their own citizens; rights that we claim to value, that deny people the right to assembly, to free speech to protest and that torture and murder political opponents.
The US company Caterpillar makes most of its profits abroad. Every working person, every Arab, every Muslim in the Middle East is aware that the Israeli’s destroy the homes and farms, crops and olive trees of Palestinians it wants to drive from the region with heavy equipment supplied by a US corporation. They are aware that the massive destruction Israel inflicted on the Lebanese people and their country’s infrastructure and the slaughter and destruction in Gaza is made possible by money and arms supplied by the US taxpayer. This is not in our interest to support this. Not as workers, not as Americans.
Every worker in the Middle East is aware that their miserable condition, their lack of basic freedoms is made possible through US arms and money paid to their corrupt leaders so that the wealth, the commodity their land possesses, oil, can be extracted and transported and sold under conditions that benefit US corporations and the few thousand thugs that sit on their boards; the unelected few who actually determine US foreign and domestic policy.
It is these policies that are at the root of Anti-American sentiment and that are a recruiting tool for so-called terrorist organizations and the growth of religious fanaticism. But as an earlier blog pointed out; the program and objective of the Tunisian revolution is not fought under the banner of Islam. It is being fought under the banner of an end to corruption, for equality, an end to oppression, for a just society and going by the Che flags some kind of socialism. These objectives are much more attractive to the working class and youth throughout the region and the world than suicide bombings. They will spread the movement much more effectively and better help keep other regimes from intervening to put down the Tunisian revolution. It is of concern to US capitalism and its representatives and is in our interest to support it.
We need to recognize that workers, youth and the middle classes in these countries, bringing the issues in to the open at great risk to their own safety, have forced the US to make public statements counter to the position it has held for years. PJ Crowley, the spokesman for the US state department, tells Al Jazeera “the US supports social reform and more freedoms in Egypt, yet at the same time supports the government of Hosni Mubarak, the president.”
Crowley says Egypt is a force for stability in the region. So was Stalin in Russia "We want to see change in Egypt, we want to see it done peacefully and stably.", he says. What this means is that people should go back to their homes and do nothing when they wouldn’t be in the streets if change could have occurred by e mailing the president. Hilary Clinton has changed her tone and now announces to the world that Mubarak should introduce "political, economic and social reforms to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people". It took mass action to dislodge the Tunisian regime and mass action to force the likes of Hilary Clinton to talk of the need for their friend in Egypt to institute reforms in case they both lose their cash cows.
As American workers we need to draw some conclusions form the events in Tunisia and Egypt. We need to recognize that mass action works. A brutal regime in Tunisia has fallen and another may well fall in Egypt. Under the most harsh conditions, workers have brought about change already no matter what happens. We applaud our North African comrades for their heroism and showing us what has to be done here in the US.
You can read Falk's opinion piece in depth here
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