By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

The revolution in Egypt is not primarily Islamic – it is socialist/communist with a Muslim cover.

Below is a video of Communist Party of Australia leader Warren Smith speaking in Sydney.

Egypt has the potential to change the world…to shift the balance of forces in the Middle East…A progressive change in Egypt can provide the spark for change in Palestine.

Current events in Egypt and across the Arab world, demonstrate the potential to build and strengthen anti-imperialist fronts across the globe…These events challenge the domination of the U.S. dictatorship of capital…they challenge its economic, political and cultural domination…

Next are extracts from a C.P.A. statement on the revolution. The rhetoric is both accurate and significant.

The Communist Party of Australia stands in solidarity with this heroic struggle in Egypt’s political and economic life to achieve democracy, jobs and bread.

We are witnessing a national democratic revolution, a determined attempt to overthrow a corrupt reactionary, pro-imperialist regime.

It was organized initially by young Facebook and Twitter activists inspired by the success of Tunisians in overthrowing Ben Ali. They came from the Kifaya (Enough) movement – a coalition of government opponents – and the April 6 Youth Movement. Formed three years ago, this takes its name from a April 6, 2008 general strike that itself stemmed from a year-long strike by textile workers in Ghazi el-Mahalla. Key issues in the general strike were the soaring cost of bread and other basic necessities, and demands for increased wages.

The popular mobilization we are witnessing on the streets of Egypt also has its roots in the courage and persistence of the organizations representing the workers and other progressive forces – among them the Communist Party of Egypt – who have worked for many years under very difficult conditions to rebuild the workers’ movement, weakened by successive cycles of repression and political persecution.

The Communist Party of Egypt has experienced decades of repression. Its members have suffered imprisonment and death at the hands of this regime. They have shown great courage and have succeeded in mobilizing tens of thousands of workers in recent years in waves of strikes that have contributed to weakening the regime.

Egypt occupies a highly strategic position, straddling Africa and Asia, and it controls the Suez Canal, the vital shipping link for oil and other products moving between Asia and Europe and beyond.

The US and its European and Israeli allies will fight to prevent the Egyptian people from controlling their nation’s military and energy policies, and what passes through the Suez Canal. The threat of military intervention hangs over the nation. Imperialism has invaded Egypt once before to maintain control of the Suez Canal.

The ultra-conservative Fox TV raised the spectre of Islamic fundamentalism, reporting: “If Mubarak falls, the United States and its other principal ally in the Middle East, Israel, could have to face a government of the Muslim Brothers in Cairo, and a turn towards anti-western sentiment in the North African country.” But this is not an Islamic-led movement.

US imperialism and its allies are desperately concerned that the Egyptian national democratic and anti-imperialist revolution will succeed and spread to other parts of the Arab world, threatening other client regimes and undermining US-Israeli hegemony in the region.

What is happening in Egypt is already affecting Jordan, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco as well as other states. The balance of forces, the political map is changing in a process which may be diverted or delayed but cannot be stopped…

A new Egyptian government could break the blockade of Gaza.

Current events in Egypt and across the Arab world challenge the domination of the US dictatorship of capital, they challenge its murderous wars of economic, political and cultural domination, and they challenge the oppression and destruction of the Palestinian people…

Regardless of the immediate outcome, the mass uprising in Egypt marks a turning point not only for Egypt, but for the Middle East and surrounding countries, and for US foreign policy. Imperialism and the reactionary, Zionist state of Israel have a lot to lose.

This is not primarily an Islamic revolution, though Islamic forces and sentiments will be exploited in its completion.

This is a communist led insurrection designed to wrest one of the most strategic countries in the world from the pro-Western camp.

If this revolution succeeds, as looks likely, Egypt will become, once again a client state of Russia and an ally of China, Iran, Cuba, Syria and the rest of the fast expanding “Evil Axis.”

This revolution is not about “democracy,” it is about a decisive shift in the world balance of power away from the West, in favor of the East.

It is the most significant geopolitical event so far this century.

The communists understand that – why don’t we?