The Muslim Brotherhood Understands the Army’s Position on Strikes


Hesham Sallam has a brilliant piece in Jadaliyya on the fate of workers under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Small strikes and demon­stra­tions have been ongoing. But any insur­rec­tionary actions calling for economic redis­tri­b­u­tion – chris­tened fi’awi – are con­sid­ered ille­git­i­mate by the gov­ern­ment. Three months ago, on March 23, Prime Minister Isam Sharaf issued a law banning strikes, assem­blies, and protect that obstruct public and private busi­nesses. The worthless Muslim Broth­er­hood, the reac­tionar­ies’ ace-in-the-hole, has described the fi’awi as damaging the national consensus and expressed “under­stand­ing” for the army’s position. So much for the Muslim Broth­er­hood. The house organ of the “liberal” Wafd part has agreed, claiming that calls for economic change could roll back the revolution’s gains. The petty bour­geoisie wants the country to get back to business.

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