Egypt: Bastille Is Stormed

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It will take a long time for the dust to settle in Cairo, Alexandria, and the other main Egyptian towns since the masses took to the streets on the 18th and 19th of last month.

The immediate efforts of the Egyptian government to impose price increases at the behest of the International Monetary Fund were pushed back. The subsidies were continued and wage increases maintained.

But at the same time the entire direction of the pro-capitalist, pro-American economic policies were brought into question, along with the so-called open democracy' policy of Sadat - and even his efforts at accomodation with Israel.

The eruption of discontent that followed the announcement of the proposed price increases showed the deep-seated dissatisfaction which has not been allayed by 25 years of nationalist rule or even the military victory of 1973, when the Suez Canal area was won back from the Israelis.

BROKE WINDOWS

The very evident differences between the poor masses and the rich minority was shown clearly when the poor came into the In Cairo they broke windows in the big hotels and the night club district and then went on to the Parliament building.

In Alexandria, they attacked the headquarters of the Arab Socialist Union, which also houses Egypt's two other legally tolerated political organisations.

The demonstrators in Cairo showed their real class hatred when they shouted against Sadat:

"Your daughter is wearing the latest fashions and we are sleeping ten to a room"

When the riot police threatened them with rifles, they shouted:

"We are dying of hunger in any case, so carry on with your bullets"

When a curfew was announced in Cairo, with anybody defying it to be shot, 30,000 people remained in the streets. At least 80 were shot dead.

Sadat's surrender to the main demands of the crowds by restoring the subsidies has in no way soived the problem either for the Egyptian masses or for the regime itself.

Ever since Sadat decided to reverse the political and economic policies of Nasser and to lean to the western capitalist powers, economic crisis has assumed new forms.

Some industries nationalised by Nasser have been handed back to private capital, and as a result the number of idle rich inhabitants of night clubs has increased, with no sign of real economic development.

"KULAK"

Similar trends can be seen in the countryside. At the village Nasinjah - the Arabic for Nasserism - a journalist called Mohammad Salnawi from the prestigious AlAhram newspaper found a now rich peasant "kulak" class developing under Sadat's economic policies.

His article saying so was, perhaps needless to say, not published, but the phenomenon he described will inevitably lead to further outbreaks of social discontent. The fact is that Sadat's attempt at economic development through capitalism has been a complete failure.

The 2,000 million dollar loan promised by President Nixon in 1974 never came.

The influx of American capital which was supposed to come never came.

No major US company has set up any manufacturing industry whatever, despite "planning', and what foreign investment there has been is in the unproductive service sector.

Nor has help been forthcoming from oil rich Saudi Arabia - from whom Sadat has been demanding a large proportion of his enormous arms bill, so tar without success.

American help has thus been used to buy expensive limousines and gas cannisters for police to throw at rioters.

It has not helped to deal with raging inflation - 50% since the 1973 war - nor with the average NOT ENOUGH The official level of subsidised food, including one kilo of rice and one of sugar per person per month in large families is not surprisingly not enough to convince the Egyptian people that they are gaining any benefit from Sadat's regime and its policies.

The correspondent of the French paper Le Monde saw some parallels of recent events with those in the history of his own country.

"GREAT FEAR"

They have had their 'July 14th' their 'storming of the Bastille', he said.

Now, as in the revolution of what might happen next.

The authorities have tried to explain the discontent with the somewhat discredited theory of a 'communist plot' They used this story in order to arrest 2,000 people, including members of the officially approved opposition party, the National Progressive Unionist Party of Khaled Mohiedin which holds four seats in the National Assembly.

But the 'communist plot' theory was not taken very seriously, even Sadat the authorities.

A spokesman told the times journalist that the arrests were:

"for the public to see. They will be released eventually"

Most of those arrested are from the various wings of the Arab nationalist movement, particularly the splits to the left.

Some claim to be 'authentic Nasserites' and of course they get some support from the masses who identify with the revolutionary side of the late President Nasser's political movement as well as with the left rhetoric of his rule. Communist Labour Party; There are also supporte rs of the , formed in 1968 and identified with the political trend of George Habbash and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

There are others in the Workers Commuist Party identified with the Palestinian Democratic Front.

The mass offensive in Egypt shows that despite the setbacks in Lebanon and Jordan in recent years, the Arab masses remain strong and prepared to fight.

RIGHT TO WORRY

They also show that the Arab bourgeoisie, whether they_turn to Stalinism or to imperialism are unable to serve the interests of the Arab masses.

The return to 'Nasserism' cannot provide a way forward any more than the various other varieties of Habash nationalism.

Nevertheless the Egyptian authorities and their media are right to worry about 'communism' The building of a seriously organised communist movement in the working class and breaking from the old nationalist notions is the way to present a real threat to Sadat, his Zionist and imperialist friends, and his reactionary Arab allies. IN BRIEF DENMARK THE MAJORITY SOCIAL Democratic government has been forced to call an election for February 15th because it has lost the confidence of the capitalist class (represented by the Liberal Plans for rent control and 'measures to stimulate employment' were to sugar the pill of wage control, but these are regarded by the capitalists as too high a price to pay.

The new political crisis is a continuation of the situation in December when the was almost forced out of office by a near general strike against the wage policy.

New contracts restricting increases to 6% a year for two years are due to be agreed by March 1st.

It looks increasingly as if no political party in Denmark has the power to force this policy down the throat of the Danish workers.

In that case the election wil oniy open the way for an intensification of the social crisis.

HOLLAND

DUTCH UNIONS PLAN TO begin a campaign of strikes and other action in private and nationalised industry in the next two weeks.

The action is in defence of the limited automatic compensation for inflation, which has been built into wage contracts since the early 1970s. This the employers say is 'too expensive'.

The social democrat led coalition government has so far not intervened directly but is expected to do so once the strikes begin.

ARGENTINA

THE VIDELA DICTATORSHIP has unveiled a new batch of anti-working class measures.

In public sector industries the working week is to be raised from 35 to 42 hours, and union officials are to lose the few facilities which remain to them.

Paid maternity leave, sick leave and holidays are to be cut. Huge redundancies are also planned including 15,000 railway workers.

Leaders of unions which have not been taken over directly by the regime have participated in a government cover-up of these measures from a visiting investigat-

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wage rate of just above £12 a month, the legal minimum.

1789 there is a 'great fear, this time amongst Egypt's rulers, about