Egypt's vote today is for constitutional amendments acceptable to imperialism

While we all share the elation that the Egyptian population have now that they have overthrown the US stooge Hosni Mubarak, this doesn't mean all is well.  The Egyptian population voted today on amendments to a new constitution. Facts For Working People has  no idea of the result of that vote at this time.  But what we must recognize is that the new constitutional amendments that were voted on today was presented to the Egyptian population by a judicial committee that was selected by the military council.  The military council was in turn given power by Mubarak after he was forced to step down by a popular uprising.

The amendments, include a two-term limit on the presidency, restricting to eight years the time a leader can serve in the office;  Mubarak was in office for three decades.

But the Egyptian military is very close to the US government and has been trained and armed by US capitalism. We must also not forget that Mubarak himself was kept in power with US and Israeli support and financing. We only have to go over the events of the last few months and see the ambivalence of the US with regard to the uprising against Mubarak's rule. The US government was very reluctant to criticize Mubarak and certainly to call for his ouster, with US VP Biden calling him a trusted friend almost till the end.

US capitalism has accepted a situation in Egypt that it had no ability to prevent. It would have continued to keep Mubarak in power if it could especially as Mubarak was a loyal ally of the Zionists and, along with them, supported the siege of Gaza.

So we have a situation where the the advanced capitalist countries, the US in particular, are trying to maintain the same situation in Egypt with a few minor changes.  Even the candidate of Egyptian capitalism Mohamed ElBaradei claims the amendments are not enough and betray the goals of the revolution.  He is joined by many of the youth groups and other reformers that accuse the constitutional amendments of not going far enough.

The Egyptian military and their judicial council will ensure that western capital can continue to exploit and loot the wealth of the country.  We unconditionally oppose the military or their chosen representative re-writing a constitution.  Instead we call, as we have with regards to other countries like Tunisia that have experienced popular uprisings, for a different approach:

For the calling of a Constituent Assembly
For the election to this Constituent Assembly of delegates from all workers organizations and committees.

Delegates to be elected from :
Trade Union bodies and workplaces
Community committees and other committees that were formed during the revolutionary process, defense, safety, etc.
From committees of the rank and file in the military (No Officers)
From the youth in the schools and universities.
Committees representing small business

This Constituent Assembly to then meet to draw up a new constitution.  In this way a constitution that responds to the needs of the mass of the people instead of the elite and the imperialist countries and global corporations can be developed.