June 19—The egyptian coalition Tamarud ("We Refuse" or "Rebellion") is preparing for a week of mass actions demanding the removal of President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power. Tamarud says that since May Day it has collected 10-15 million signatures from all over egypt on its "no confidence" petition. egypt has an adult population of about 45 million people.
A mass mobilization is planned for June 30, the second anniversary of Morsi's rise to power. The Army has told Morsi not to count on its protection. Prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood have already begun to send their wives and children out of the country. some predict that it may once again be forced underground.
The Tamarud campaign appeals to the masses who are suffering from fuel and energy shortages, increasing unemployment, inflation, and economic hardship. Also, many are angry at Morsi's policies, based on his Muslim Brotherhood ties, like banning alcohol and persecuting religious minorities. There are fears of severe water shortages, and possibly a war, due to a dam planned by the ethiopian government and Israel for the Blue Nile.
Morsi is trying to use the water crisis to build egyptian nationalism and defuse the Tamarud movement. so far he's had little success with this typical capitalist tactic. At the same time, like politicians worldwide, he's trying to use religion to divide the masses and rally support around himself.
But you can't fool all the people all the time. The egyptian masses dumped one dictator (Mubarak) only to get another (Morsi) and now many are looking for solutions beyond "democracy" (elections). "even the old man sitting by the roadside is talking politics," said an Egyptian reader of Red Flag.

Egyptian activists are watching the situation in Turkey with great interest.
In the past, many saw erdogan's Turkey as a "democratic Islamist country" that could serve as a model for egypt. But now the mass protests in Istanbul and elsewhere have unmasked Turkey as just another dictatorship. We hope they'll see that elections are just a front for the dictatorship of the capitalist class over the masses.
A dozen or more egyptian electoral parties eagerly await the possibility of new elections if Morsi is forced to resign. "I don't believe in any of these parties," our friend added. "something is missing. We need more information so we can understand other choices." What's missing is the revolutionary outlook of mobilizing the masses for communism. Our friend has promised to help spread this information, which can be found in Red Flag and on our website.
As the egyptian situation makes clear, it is especially important to win rank-and-file soldiers in egypt, the Us, and everywhere, to ally with industrial workers and youth. They are key in this fight for mass communist power and the destruction of capitalism in all its forms, nationalist and imperialist alike.
The egyptian generals, however, form a large section of the capitalist class there, controlling perhaps as much as 40% of the economy. since Mubarak's fall, they have "inaugurated projects in sectors ranging from maritime transport to oil, gas and renewable energy …bringing in gulf conglomerates, as well as Western and Asian multinationals, as partners."
In contrast, most Egyptian soldiers are conscripts whose pay (usually around $1/day) may be their impoverished families' main source of income. They form the largest army in Africa and the Arab world, and the 10th largest in the world. Were these soldiers to turn their guns against their capitalist bosses and fight for communism, they could inspire military personnel around the world to do the same.