They murdered a socialist
The Egyptian regime led by former general-turned-president Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi killed Egyptian socialist Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, as she and her comrades from the Socialist Popular Alliance Party held a march to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ousted U.S.-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak. The protesters were marching through downtown Cairo on their way to Tahrir Square with a wreath of flowers to honor the hundreds of people killed during the opening days of the Egyptian Revolution. The released this statement on their website condemning the murder of al-Sabbagh and the widespread repression faced by all those who still support the 2011 revolution.
THE REGIME trembles every time the anniversary of its great defeat in January 2011 approaches, when the Egyptian masses overthrew Mubarak and gave the thugs of the Interior Ministry a lesson they will never forget.
No matter how often they try to deceive us and deceive the masses with their false assertion that January 2011 was a conspiracy, we see the revolution reflected in their fear as they mobilize hundreds of thousands of the Interior Ministry's thugs to prevent any mass movement on the anniversary, even if it was just a peaceful march with flowers.
The Interior Ministry attacked just such a march by comrades from the Socialist Popular Alliance Party with bullets and birdshot, murdering the young poet, our comrade Shaimaa al-Sabbagh, a courageous daughter of Alexandria, who had long defended the rights of the workers. Like all the revolutionaries, she dreamed of bread, freedom and social justice. She dreamed of a future in a homeland of human dignity for her six-year-old son Bilal. Sisi's regime denied Shaimaa and her comrades even this dream.
As we mourn comrade Shaimaa, who has suffered the fate of thousands of other martyrs of the revolution, we offer our condolences not only to the Socialist Popular Alliance Party, but to all revolutionaries. We affirm that January is a revolution, in spite of all efforts to defame it with media lies and crush it by brute force, which has reached an unprecedented scale of blood-drenched brutality under the leadership of the mad general. We call on all those who believe in the revolution to unite their ranks in the face of this repressive authoritarian regime, which is leading this country into the abyss.
Revolutionary Socialists of Egypt
January 24, 2015
First published at the Revolutionary Socialists website.
