Egypt Under Empire, Part 4: Dancing Between Dictatorship and Democracy, by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
andrewgavinmarshall.com
Originally published on The Hampton Institute
August 7, 2013

America’s Mambo with Mubarak

America’s ruling elites – and those of the Western world more generally – are comfortable dealing with ruthless tyrants and dictators all over the world, partly because they’ve just had more practice with it than dealing with ‘democratic’ governments in so-called ‘Third World’ nations. This is especially true when it comes to the Arab world, where the West has only ever dealt with dictatorships, and often by arming them and supporting them to repress their own populations, and in return, they support US and Western geopolitical, strategic and economic interests in the region. America’s relationship with Egypt – and most notably with Hosni Mubarak, who ruled Egypt from 1981 to 2011 – has been especially revealing of this imperial-proxy relationship between so-called ‘democracies’ and dictatorships.

Egypt Under Empire, Part 3: From Nasser to Mubarak, by Andrew Gavin Marshall

by Andrew Gavin Marshall
Writer, Dandelion Salad
http://andrewgavinmarshall.com
Originally published on The Hampton Institute
July 30, 2013

Part 1: Working Class Resistance and European Imperial Ambitions

Part 2: The “Threat” Of Arab Nationalism

Between 1952 and 2011, Egypt was ruled by three military dictators: Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak. Nasser placated labour unrest and imposed many social programs that benefited the population. Sadat subsequently began to break down the ‘social contract’ with Egyptian society, and when Mubarak came to power in 1981, the following three decades witnessed the imposition of a neoliberal order, complete with crony-capitalists, corrupted bureaucracies and a repressive police force.

Egypt’s New Pharaoh, by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
December 17, 2012

Image by MoudBarthez via Flickr

When Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran after 14 years in exile on Feb. 1, 1979, he set out to destroy the secular opposition forces, including the Communist Party of Iran, which had been instrumental in bringing down the shah. Khomeini’s declaration of an Islamic government, supported by referendum, saw him rewrite the constitution, close opposition newspapers and ban opposition groups including the National Democratic Front and the Muslim People’s Republican Party.

Nazemroaya: Destabilization of Syria Based on Libya Model + Chossudovsky: Military Intervention in Syria Will Lead to Extended War

Dandelion Salad

GlobalResearchTV on Aug 4, 2011

The process of destabliziation of Syria is being conducted along the same lines as Libya, with external political interests driving and manipulating the protest movements in both countries.

Noam Chomsky: Egypt and Wisconsin Labor Uprisings

Image by oemebamo via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

TVSBSC on Feb 26, 2011

Noam Chomsky visits the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Bridgewater, MA. 2/24/2011.

Imperialism and the historical context of the developing 2011 Egyptian Bourgeois Democratic Revolution by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.

by Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
February 24, 2011

Image by Takver via Flickr

Summary

The 1952 Bourgeois Democratic Revolution was launched by the Free Officers Movement of the armed forces against the corrupt and repressive monarchy of King Farouk, under whom Egypt had become the most important lever of control and domination of the Middle East by Western imperialism in general and US imperialism in particular, as well as Zionism. The success of that revolution ended the century and a half of Mohammad Ali Dynasty rule and resulted in the establishment of a republic in 1953.

Cindy Sheehan: Egypt’s military follows the will of the US Empire

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
February 16, 2011

Presstvusdesk | February 16, 2011

American anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan says Hosni Mubarak’s decision to step down was in collaboration with the U.S. government.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV’s U.S. Desk, Sheehan said Washington insisted on Mubarak being replaced by Egypt’s military, because the military too followed the will of the U.S. Empire.

The American activist added that for 30 years the U.S. had been propping up the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, giving it military and monetary support. This she said inflamed the Egyptian people, turning them against Washington.

Samir Amin: Obama is Bush, but with a different language, Translated By Siv O’Neall

Translated By Siv O’Neall
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Axisoflogic.com
Feb 15, 2011

Samir Amin is a Franco-Egyptian economist, a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum and chairman of the World Forum for Alternatives. Samir Amin analyzes the political and economic crisis in Egypt.

This interview was conducted for the World Social Forum in Dakar by Rosa Moussaoui, special journalist/correspondent for ‘L’Humanité‘.

Question – Are the events that shook Tunisia and Egypt merely “popular uprisings” or are they a sign of the entry of these countries into the revolutionary process?

Gilbert Achcar: The History of Military Dictatorship in Egypt

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Image via Wikipedia

www.therealnews.com

Gilbert Achcar: Military rule in Egypt began with Nasser’s overthrow of King Farouk and increasing independence from the US.

Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon, and is currently Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. His books include The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder, published in 13 languages, Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-authored with Noam Chomsky, and most recently the critically acclaimed The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives.

Mubarak’s Folly: The Rising of Egypt’s Workers by David McNally

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Crossposted with permission from www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/

Image by Mashahed's Photos via Flickr

by David McNally
Socialist Project | The Bullet
February 11, 2011

Rarely do our rulers look more absurd than when faced with a popular upheaval. As fear and apathy are broken, ordinary people – housewives, students, sanitation workers, the unemployed – remake themselves. Having been objects of history, they become its agents. Marching in their millions, reclaiming public space, attending meetings and debating their society’s future, they discover in themselves capacities for organization and action they had never imagined. They arrest secret police, defend their communities and their rallies, organize the distribution of food, water and medical supplies. Exhilarated by new solidarities and empowered by the understanding that they are making history, they shed old habits of deference and passivity.

The Egyptian Revolution: A Democracy Now! Special on Mubarak’s Resignation

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

Democracy Now!
Feb. 11, 2011

Is this a ‘Young Turks’ moment all over again? By William Bowles

By William Bowles
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
williambowles.info
11 February, 2011

Mubarak steps down, surely the result of direct US pressure. But what difference will it make, the country has been run by a military clique for three decades, all that’s changed is that now they do it openly. The real issue, is what next? Will the masses now press for Suleiman, all of them to step down now? It’s possible, it depends on what the army and the security-state forces do next, after the euphoria has died down.

Is it a pre-revolutionary situation? The fact that this all came to a head with the entry of organized labour into the fray, is not a coincidence, for buried in this act is also the fact that alternate, independent trade unions have sprung into being and it’s these that helped mobilized workers across Egypt.

Change Has Finally Come to Egypt + Revolution in Egypt

https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/

ProletarianRenegade | February 11, 2011

The Fascination of The Mediterranean World, by Gaither Stewart

by Gaither Stewart
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
11 February, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

A Personal Testimony

(Rome) When as a young man I moved to Italy it was an act of love for this Mediterranean land where lemon trees bloom. The original attraction for me however was not only the Bel Paese, as Italians like to call this truly beautiful peninsula jutting out southwards into the Mediterranean Sea and nearly reaching Tunisia. I also wanted the whole Mar Nostrum, the sea around which our Western civilization developed; I set for myself the secret goal of knowing all the lands surrounding the great sea. The attraction I felt was perhaps the same allure for the succession of peoples and civilizations, which have sought to both control and unite this beautiful and unique world. Though my original love for Italy has faded and waned in the vulgarity of contemporary Italy, not so the magical lure of the Mediterranean World as such.

America is No Example of Democracy By Timothy V. Gatto

By Timothy V. Gatto
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
liberalpro.blogspot.com
February 10, 2011

It’s very telling that the United States will not give any indication that actually makes any kind of statement on the Egyptian revolution and where America stands on the subject. It’s apparent that the U.S. doesn’t want to show it’s hand until all of the variables have been taken into account and the people of Egypt have finally accepted an alternative to the rule of Mubarak’s regime…at least not in public anyway. We have no real idea of what is happening in the background. It’s quite possible that elements in the U.S. government have clear goals as to what they want to wash out of the current stalemate in Cairo.