Click here to access article from Jadaliyya featuring a roundtable discussion by academic specialists on Mid-East issues. They are associated with various Western universities.
I recommend especially the first two discourses regarding the nature of the political and social changes brought about recently in Egypt. The treatments of the subject vary basically around the objective versus subject aspects of the events that have occurred in Egypt since early 2011.
As I have always argued, what happened with the ousting of Mubarak was only a battle in the ongoing struggle of the Egyptian people for substantial revolutionary change. If the latter is to happen, it depends on the strength of a revolutionary consciousness persisting in spite of the more superficial changes. This consciousness will depend to a great extent upon the prospects for the material improvement of the lives of ordinary Egyptians under the new regime.
But therein lies the rub. The new regime is still wedded to the US Empire and neoliberal policies, and therefore they cannot improve the lives of ordinary Egyptians. Thus, in the years to come the Egyptian military will further oppress their populations.
This, of course, is happening nearly everywhere in the world. The dynamics of neoliberal policies will bring ever greater concentrations of power and wealth in the face of diminishing resources and the social chaos created by disasters related climatic changes. Thus, the One Percents of the world will have to rely on their instruments of violence to sustain their system and rule.
