As many Americans of Egyptian descent protested in cities across the country this past weekend, demonstrating in solidarity with their families back in Egypt, forces on the far Left, from ANSWER coalition to the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), have taken advantage of the situation to promote their socialist agendas.
With the exception of Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, the media has been oblivious to the obvious demonstrations staged by U.S. socialist groups.
In television news reports from across the country, protestors are clearly seen waving banners that bear the slogans and logo of the ANSWER coalition, which they have made available for download online.
In conjunction with ANSWER, demonstrations were also attended by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Trotskyite-Maoist political party that has come to replace the Communist Party USA as the most active communist party in the country, and has even run candidates for local and statewide races in California, Ohio, and New York.
In a statement from the PSL entitled “Long live the struggling people of Egypt,” they conclude with a message of solidarity: “The aspirations of the Egyptian people cannot be fulfilled by any government acting on behalf of U.S. imperialism. Down with the U.S.-backed Mubarak dictatorship! Long live the Egyptian struggle,” the statement read.
The slogan “Down with the U.S.-backed Mubarak dictatorship” also appears on one of the ANSWER coalition’s signs, which protestors were seen carrying throughout the country.
In a coordinated effort, ANSWER and PSL activists took to the streets demonstrating in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C. The call to action for its members in Los Angeles was addressed in an online video, where a PSL spokeswoman declared:
For our part, the people of the United States must, as we are, go into the streets, in the coming days, to show solidarity with the people of Egypt and demand an end to all U.S. imperialist aid and the Mubarak government.
This weekend people throughout the world, including here in Los Angeles will be taking to the streets in solidarity protests. We hope to see you there at the Westwood Federal Building at 11:30am to make our demand on the Obama Administration heard.
The spokeswoman then urged that anti-government protests, such as those in Egypt, also be staged in the United States:
Beyond this weekend we must work hard to build the protests on March 19 so that we can build our own movement against the imperialist policies of the United States that only repress the people of the United States while continuing to impose economic policies that harm working and poor people here at home….
Long live the people’s revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia and beyond.
According to the ANSWER coalition, on March 19, 2011 — which coincides with the eighth anniversary of the commencement of the Iraq War — ANSWER and PSL protestors will host “Resist the War Machine,” a nationwide protest against U.S. imperialism and capitalism.
These protests by U.S. socialists are akin to the protests occurring in Egypt.
Although the majority of people protesting in Egypt come from all walks of life — men, women, children, and elderly; Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, Sufi Muslims, Coptic Christians; students, workers, business owners, poor, and middle class, who have become dissatisfied with the over-20-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak — there too radical leftists have been heavily involved.
Despite the flaws of President Mubarak, the alternative may be much worse, as the Muslim Brotherhood, trade unions, and leftists — most notably the Communist Party of Egypt — have used the widespread discontent to incite and fuel the ongoing revolution in Egypt.
In the United States, Bob Avakian’s Revolutionary Communist Party USA also called for action: “A challenge has been issued by the courageous youth of Egypt. Everyone who wants to see another way brought forward in this world of oppression is called upon to support them politically,” he wrote in Revolution — the official publication of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
Exploiting the situation, Revolution went on to state:
This is also a moment to distribute and promote Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage, A Manifesto from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, widely — to let people know, both from that part of the world as well as everyone else whose ears have been perked up to hear the sounds of liberation, that the only, very possible and profoundly liberating, answer to this madness is the communist revolution and to let them know what communist revolution actually is.
The socialist and communist movements are ecstatic with jubilance as they see the fall of Mubarak as the fall of the United States and their opportunity for revolutionary change here in America and across the world.
