Live… Freedom: A Unified Struggle

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

From the outset, it was clear that the repressive measures taken by the ruling regime ahead of the anniversary of the January Revolution were not merely driven by fears of potential protests or calls to take to the streets on January 25.

The military dictatorship baring its fangs—escalating arrests, raids, and searches—reveals its true motives: implementing yet another round of economic measures that will scorch people experiencing poverty and the working class with the fire of soaring prices.

The conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for granting the regime a $1 billion loan as part of a more significant $3 billion agreement explicitly required increases in electricity prices, higher tax revenues, reductions in the government wage bill, stricter debt management, and cuts to energy subsidies. Despite the government’s repeated denials that the loan came with conditions, an official document from the World Bank confirmed otherwise. Moreover, the regime’s policies clarify that it is fully committed to implementing these conditions. Even Sisi did not hesitate to brazenly declare that out of seven million state employees, only one million are needed—an open admission of his intentions toward the remaining six million workers.

This oppressive regime, which has granted investors and business people generous privileges, state lands, and public revenues while protecting corrupt elites, settling their disputes, and squandering billions in public funds, was not satisfied with merely raising the prices of essential services such as water, electricity, transportation, and basic commodities. Instead, it took the revolution’s anniversary as an opportunity to flex its power, preempting any potential public backlash against its economic policies—policies that show no sign of stopping.

Just yesterday, Sisi, the leader of the counter-revolution, decided to raise customs duties on a long list of goods, with increases ranging between 20% and 40%, under the pretext that they are “luxury items.” While taxing luxury goods has long been popular, the list also included textiles, electrical appliances, educational tools, kitchenware, and even vegetables and fruits consumed by all social classes. This signals yet another wave of price hikes—something that has been a defining feature of Sisi’s rule since he refused to approve the state budget at the start of his tenure without first enforcing austerity measures, including cuts to energy subsidies, which triggered a severe inflation crisis.

The protests that erupted on January 25, 2011, would never have evolved into a full-scale revolution that toppled a corrupt dictator without the mass participation of the working class, who flooded the streets and occupied workplaces, demanding the regime’s downfall. Today, the counter-revolutionary regime is accelerating its assault on the poor and working class, reinforcing its economic oppression with intensified repression—now extending to the independent labor movement, which emerged from workers’ strikes, as well as to all those demanding democracy and freedom.

The counter-revolutionary regime makes it clear: the fight against it must unite opposition to the protest ban with resistance to the mass dismissal of workers. The forcibly disappeared must stand together with the unlawfully fired. The struggle for freedom must merge with the struggle for justice. Because to the regime in power today, all these groups are nothing more than a single enemy.