Samir Amin reflects on Egypt http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/88764
AMIN: The fall of Morsi and of the rule of Muslim Brothers came as expected. Firstly, the government of the Muslim Brothers has been pursuing the same neoliberal policies as that of Mubarak, and even worse. It could not solve any problem faced by the Egyptian people.Secondly, Morsi was elected through a gigantic fraud. The Muslim Brothers were mobilized to occupy the voting places and made impossible for others to vote, to the extent that the Egyptian judges who usually followed the election were disgusted and moved out and gave the election to the Brotherhood. Despite that, the US Embassy and Europe declared the election was perfect. This is how Morsi was elected.
What role did the US play in the change?
AMIN: The US supported Mubarak to the last minute. They also supported Morsi to the last minute; they continuously repeated ‘the elected president’. But when the leaders of the army took action to deposit Morsi, then the US accepted it, they understood. Of course they exercise strong pressure on the new government to continue neoliberal policy, submitting to IMF and the World Bank. But the people on the street shouted the slogan, ‘we don’t want IMF, we don’t want the World Bank.’ But there are pressures; those working with the management of finance are spontaneously conservative and pro neoliberalism. So there is a need for a struggle against them.
On one hand, we can say the US accepted and supported the army and the new government, but on the other hand, they tried to put pressure to bring back reactionary political Islam, not through the Muslim Brotherhood but through the Salafist. This is the plan of the US, which is not to help Egypt out of the crisis, but to use the crisis to further destroy. Because Egypt is considered by them a dangerous country, it has a long past, it has been the first emerging country since the beginning of the 19th century, and one of the Third World important emerging country in the time of Nasser and Bandung, in line with China, the Soviet Union, and other countries of the third world. It played an important role in the liberation of all Africa. An independent Egypt with a sovereign, popular, progressive project would be a danger to the influence of the US, not only in Egypt, but in the Middle East, in Arab countries, and in all Africa. It will limit the expansion of Israel to Palestine. It will also put an end to the influence of the Gulf countries. • Egypt is now in another transition which is not peaceful; the clashes have cost hundreds of lives. What do think of the bloodshed? What will be the future of the transition?AMIN: Of course it is not peaceful, but it’s not a civil war. The people are highly politicized, everybody is discussing politics on the street every day. People are active. Therefore different opinions appear, they discuss in some cases correctly and in other cases less correctly. But there is no danger of civil war because the common front is very wide.
[[[[The US is using another weapon in addition to economic and financial pressure. The US are supporting small armed groups operating as real terrorists. These groups are coming from Libya. Since Libya has been destroyed by the western military operation, Libya has become the base for all kinds of Jihadists. There are Jihadists with strong arms including missiles coming from the desert, this is the real danger. Also in the Egyptian peninsula of Sinai small Jidahist groups supported by Israel and the Gulf countries are operating terrorist actions. This is made possible by the so called ‘peace agreement’ between Egypt and Israel which puts a limit on the number of Egyptian soldiers stationed in Sinai : 700 to 2000, very small figure for this wide area. On the 4 July after Morsi was removed, I wrote a paper, the last sentence of which says now the danger is from imperialist US, Israel and Gulf, using criminal mercenaries, coming from Libya, and from the province of Sinai. This is what is happening now : terrorism , not ‘civil war.’]]]]