By Peter Molenaar
The people in this neighborhood of the world have yet another opportunity to experience an enhanced human connection””to elicit a smile and eye contact from the Arab people among us. For example, don”'t just plop coins on the counter at the corner convenience store, but boldly ask: “What”'s your opinion regarding the Egyptian Revolution?” You are likely to discover a knowledgeable person.
Why the commotion in Arab lands?
In Egypt, we are told, the corruption of the old regime cost more than $6 billion in public money per year. Estimates of the former president”'s accumulated fortune range as high as $70 billion. Mubarek”'s good buddies became merely billionaires while millions lived on less than $2 per day. Heartless brutality appears as the hallmark of a regime which sadly was considered to have been a “good friend of the United States”.
What line of march forward?
Early on, this writer somewhat errantly objected to the term “revolution”, preferring instead the phrase “dress rehearsal” to describe events. However, the phrase “National Democratic Revolution” is now deemed appropriate inasmuch as all social classes were represented in the street demonstration. The establishment of democratic institutions and practices (i.e. ”˜self-determination”') is the goal. So yes, we have witnessed a revolution.
Note:
The present strike movement of the Egyptian working-class will inevitably subside in the period of democratic construction. The focus will shift to the formation of political parties, etc. No doubt, certain earnest revolutionists will call me “Stalinist” for revealing this truth!
Yet, in due time, all good bourgeois democratic regimes must succumb to the imposition of revolutionary worker”'s democracy. Fundamental transformations along socialist lines will commence. A new humanity will be born. This too is inevitable.
Masses of millions in motion””this is what revolution looks like.
