The January Revolution Is Not Just a Memory

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

The January 2011 Revolution led to many significant changes in awareness and experience that persist and will continue for years. A decade ago, the popular uprising initiated a long process of revolutionary change that still deserves discussion, reflection, and deep analysis to draw lessons from it. After decades of authoritarian rule, the Egyptian revolution united the masses to challenge repression, torture, and vast social divisions between classes, between Muslims and Christians, and between women and men. It also aimed to challenge neoliberal policies that imposed privatization, unemployment, and harsh austerity measures on the masses.

With the counter-revolution in 2013, which filled prisons with activists and dissidents, built walls of fear and intimidation, and besieged the revolution with repression, killing, and defamation, the situation in Egypt has become oppressive and painful. This increases our determination to challenge these conditions. The revolution that paved its way ten years ago created a widespread consciousness that remained resilient for a long time in the face of a dictatorship serving capitalism in its current exploitative neoliberal form. This revolution—an honor to all who participated and defended it—is far more than a mere memory. The best way to honor it is to learn its lessons and try to rebuild the mass movement again, slowly and persistently, under difficult circumstances.

On the tenth anniversary of the revolution, we renewed our commitment to its goals, struggling for political, economic, and social rights to build a just society, no matter how long it takes. We will remain in solidarity with workers, peasants, students, women, and the rights of all the oppressed in a collective struggle, even in the most miniature battles and even under these oppressive and difficult conditions—especially under these conditions.