The entire state apparatus - army, police, government, judiciary and media - are mobilizing behind Al-Sisi in preparation for his coronation, on June 5, as president. They want the anniversary of sad memory of the naksa (defeat) this year – what a coincidence – to be the date to announce the inauguration of the candidate of the alliance of the counter-revolution.

Thus Al-Sisi, who they have promoted for nine months as the saviour of the nation and the commander of the war against terrorism, but also as the successor of Abdel Nasser as well as of Sadat and sometimes of Mubarak, is he who has the solutions to all problems, the man who does not hesitate to exploit the disease of millions of people infected by hepatitis C by announcing the invention by the army of an (imaginary) device to diagnose and treat the disease. Al-Sisi, who initialled in place of the minister of housing a contract with the United Arab Emirates for the construction of a million apartments, and this, so as to exploit the dreams of the inhabitants of the cemeteries. It is for him also that the current provisional government has increased the price of gas and removed the subsidies on commodities before his coronation in order not to affect the popularity of His Majesty by these decisions if they were to be taken after his arrival in power.

Against a background of a decline in the revolutionary situation among the masses, the attack of the counter-revolution and the return of the police state with more savagery to commit massacres without precedent, the arrest and torture of thousands, the siege and storming of the universities, the adoption of laws restricting freedoms like the law prohibiting demonstrations, and the confiscation of the independence of the labour movement and trade unions, the presidential elections are taking place and through them the counter-revolution intends to wrest an overwhelming victory over the revolutionary forces, which would give it the means to pursue the savagery and the attacks against the revolution and freedoms.

To this end the Revolutionary Socialists consider that participation in the elections, and not boycott, is the decision that is appropriate to the current political situation, to make propaganda against the candidate of the counter-revolution and denounce him and all those who lie behind him as residues of the Mubarak regime or opportunistic lickspittles.

Despite our principled criticisms of the positions of Hamdine Sabahi with which we differ radically, especially after June 30, to begin with his silence on the violations of the Ministry of the Interior and the army against freedoms, the massacres, the arrests, torture, the onslaught against the universities, up to his support for the lie of the “war on terrorism” used by the state as a pretext to allow the return of the police state, at the same time we find that millions of Egyptians are beginning to doubt the speech and imaginary program of Al-Sisi and are in search of an alternative. These we call upon to vote for Hamdine, because each vote taken from Al-Sisi has its value, if not today, for tomorrow, to build a genuine broad opposition which is radicalized day after day.

The coming presidential elections reflect the impasse of the revolution in Egypt that has led to the absence of a candidate who adopted all the demands and objectives of the revolution. On this basis, we call on Hamadine and also his campaign for a reconsideration of their default position in the present system, which restores the state of Mubarak, and call on his supporters and those who are going to vote for him in the elections to put pressure so that his declared program is committed to the aims of the revolution of January, which are freedom, social justice and human dignity. And that he adopts the following points:

1. A transitional justice that allows the judgment of the assassins of the martyrs from January 25 until today;

2. The release of detainees and the abolition of laws restrictive of freedoms, including the law on demonstrations and military trials of civilians, and to focus on the right to organize;

3. The redistribution of wealth by imposing a new tax system and the application of minimum and maximum income for the public and private sectors;

4. The elimination of the state of tyranny and the establishment of a participative popular democracy and the consecration of the freedom and independence of the trade union and labour movement;

5. The elimination of dependency so as to ensure national independence.

We will not leave the masses as prey to the media of the counter-revolution, and we do not adopt a position of purity for the boycott of the elections, in spite of our respect for its justifications. But we will participate in the battle of the election to denounce the illusions in Al-Sisi and destroy the idol that is being constructed of a return of the state of Mubarak.

The Revolution continues!

Glory to the martyrs!

The power and wealth to the people!

Revolutionary Socialists, 27 April 2014