Positive Boycott: Our Path to Confronting the Dictator on the January Anniversary

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

When the Revolutionary Socialists Movement first announced its participation in the presidential elections as part of Khaled Ali’s campaign, it was seen as a way to fight against the counter-revolutionary regime and its policies. Later, we, along with the campaign, decided to withdraw from the elections, choosing this as another way to continue our struggle against those very policies.

In a short time, the campaign worked diligently to unite opposition forces, striving to create a program around which these forces could rally for change. It successfully mobilized hundreds, even thousands, of young people behind the cause, opening a path for action that disrupted the stagnation imposed by the counter-revolutionary regime.

As the regime’s actions made it clear that no political activity would be allowed in the presidential elections and that even the most essential elements of a fair electoral process would be ignored, the campaign, through its democratic mechanisms, chose to withdraw as a strategic move. This decision exposed the sham nature of the regime’s elections. It refused to play the role that the authoritarian regime had set for it while staying true to the campaign’s original mission of rallying forces against policies of tyranny and impoverishment.

The campaign’s struggle did not begin with the presidential election. The “Path to Tomorrow” campaign was part of a longer fight against tyranny, oppression, the surrender of Egyptian territories, poverty, and rising prices—policies the regime has enforced since 2013. Despite facing mass arrests of its members and supporters, fabricated charges, and constant restrictions from the moment it considered running, the campaign worked to bring together those who protested against the surrender of Tiran and Sanafir, those who opposed the raid on the Journalists’ Syndicate, those who resisted collusion with Israel and the United States in undermining the Palestinian cause, and those who stood with the working class and people experiencing poverty in opposing the IMF’s policies. The campaign also rallied those who fought against repression, torture, the silencing of dissent, and the confiscation of free expression. The decision to withdraw from the elections simply continues this ongoing struggle, building on the progress already made.

The “Path to Tomorrow” that the campaign initiated must be carried forward by preserving the unity it achieved among various struggling forces, bringing more groups into the fold, and transforming the electoral program into a platform of demands for movements opposing the regime’s policies. The campaign must continue with the hundreds and thousands of young activists and volunteers using every tool of resistance to expose the sham elections—from Sisi’s false promises at his conference to the lack of real competition, the buying of endorsements, and the suppression of any attempt to change this farcical scene, all of which showcase the regime’s blatant tyranny.

On the seventh anniversary of the January Revolution, the Revolutionary Socialists reaffirm their commitment to continue the fight by all means necessary, alongside all those who share the revolution’s goals. They stress that withdrawing from the presidential elections is not a retreat from the struggle but a reaffirmation of it, just as participating in the elections was a method of resistance, not an endorsement of a sham process run by an authoritarian regime. The steps taken by the “Path to Tomorrow” campaign are only the beginning of a journey that all struggling forces will walk together to achieve what the January Revolution called for seven years ago: “Bread, Freedom, Social Justice.”