``If you have never read Trotsky's classic, this is a perfect time to do so since they will illuminate today's events to an amazing degree, starting with this brief passage:
Throughout the entire day, crowds of people poured from one part of the city to another. They were persistently dispelled by the police, stopped and crowded back by cavalry detachments and occasionally by infantry. Along with shouts of "Down with the police!" was heard oftener and oftener a "Hurrah!" addressed to the Cossacks. That was significant. Toward the police the crowd showed ferocious hatred. They routed the mounted police with whistles, stones, and pieces of ice. In a totally different way the workers approached the soldiers. Around the barracks, sentinels, patrols and lines of soldiers stood groups of working men and women exchanging friendly words with the army men. This was a new stage, due to the growth of the strike and the personal meeting of the worker with the army. Such a stage is inevitable in every revolution. But it always seems new, and does in fact occur differently every time: those who have read and written about it do not recognise the thing when they see it.
As a leader of the Russian Revolution, came away from it with a passionate conviction that a vanguard party was necessary. He understood that if the ruling class has the police, army, bureaucracy, and state apparatus in general at its disposal, the working class needs a centralized political instrument to counter the bosses. If the struggle is dispersed geographically, culturally and politically, it has little chance of succeeding.
What Trotsky did not grasp was the way in such a party is built. He assumed, as most Bolsheviks leaders did, that it was sufficient to adopt a kind of blueprint through the Comintern that could be adopted on a worldwide basis. In the hands of Stalin, such a methodology became an instrument of bureaucratic and counter-revolutionary control. In the hands of the Trotskyists, it became a recipe for sectarian disaster.
In actuality, a revolutionary party can only be built out of a mass movement, such as the kind that has been developing in Egypt for some years apparently. It will be necessary for those who struggle on behalf of the working class and against the corrupt, neoliberal state to find a way to unite on the basis of a common denominator that puts extraneous doctrinal matters to the side. Indeed, this task might be the most necessary and demanding since the formation of the Bolshevik party itself.''
Just some additional comments. What I am afraid is taking place is an internal struggle in the top brass of the Egyptian army. I suspect they will try exactly the kind of thing the NYT published, Suleiman, somebody else, and a military chief. And, I suspect that this so-called solution was agreed to by Obama, Clinton, US intelligence and military. It's just the kind of bullshit they would come up with. FUCK YOU.
I think it is a trick to keep Egypt in exactly the same place, neoliberal hell. After watching as much of Aljazeera as I could and reading what I think are the most accurate sources on Egyptian society, that the vast majority will not accept this bogus solution. I think many will see through it. The reason is simple and obvious. Suleiman was chief of intelligence.
So I agree with Louis Proycet a representative coalition must form from within the mass movement, and get that done in the next few days and begin delivering press conferences. Remember this is probably a temporary committee. I am sure this is very dangerous for them. The tactic that I think would work, is to produce these conferences underground in different locations and then send videos of them to trusted media sources. There are probably already informal meetings going on, so it might just be a matter of making recorded statements of positions.
Here is a video which I have no way of understanding:
http://www.youtube.com/CitizenTube#p/c/2E2D3F4A0DA6DCD2/0/cmU39pGh5B8
The longest section (12+ minutes) is an interrogation of a teenager or a in his early twenties. I have no idea who is doing the interogation---someboy who knows Arabic please translate...
Hours later, another giant protest at Tahrir square. Aljazeera is back. So cool, massive...
CG