A New Assault on the Poor and Workers Through Fuel Price Increases — Revolutionary Socialists Call on the Masses to Respond at Their Workplaces

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

Just as a thief plans his robbery, and under cover of darkness, the Ministry of Petroleum, in the early hours of last Friday, announced an increase in fuel prices through the Fuel Pricing Committee — that committee invented by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s regime in 2019 to implement the policies of the International Monetary Fund and to continuously rob and plunder the pockets of people experiencing poverty and workers.

Over the past ten years, the government has raised gasoline prices to three times the new minimum wage, even if it fails to enforce it. This confirms, beyond any doubt, that Sisi’s regime is heading in a single direction: relentless extortion of people experiencing poverty and workers while offering full support to businessmen and investors.

The decision to approve new fuel price hikes came despite a global decline in prices, and just days after the European Parliament, at the start of this month, approved a support package for Egypt worth €7.4 billion — including €5 billion in loans to support the general budget.

Once again, we are paying the price of loans, their conditions, and their interest. The rise in fuel prices is always followed by increases in transportation fares and the prices of goods. This regime’s insatiable appetite for borrowing on one hand and extortion on the other will never end unless it encounters resistance to these policies.

The Revolutionary Socialists reject the new fuel price hikes, standing in solidarity with every poor person and waged worker who will undoubtedly suffer due to this decision. We call on political and labor forces to form a broad front to resist the regime’s policies of impoverishment and tyranny. We also call on workers to respond at their workplaces and reject these extortionist policies.