Appeal to the Socialist International regarding Egypt

Yesterday the Socialist International, the international body to which Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) is affiliated, finally published a statement on the developments in Egypt. The statement, which can be read here, is suprisingly bland. It makes general references like "These changes are at the core of the people’s demands: freedoms, rights, jobs and opportunities. The role of politics is to provide them." Furthermore the statement makes a positive reference to the sham elections scheduled for September 2011. Another section says: "In the case of Egypt, with its key role as a partner of the international community – including our own International - in the search for peace and stability in the region, we are confident that gains in democracy and freedoms would lead to greater stability." The follows words like "NDP did not deliver...", etc.. With such verbiage, the Socialist International has adopted the sort of discourse the U.S. State Department used some days ago. In no passage is the dictatorship, the tortures and the violence of the NDP regime condemned in clear terms.

Nor does the statement mention the elephant in the room, namely that the ruling party of a brutal dictatorship that prefers to massacre its own population rather than leave office remains an affiliate to the Socialist International. The fact that the International has not expelled the NDP, unlike the expulsion of Ben Ali's RCD (long overdue, though), is disturbing.

Please contact the Socialist International, and ask that they 1) condemn the Mubarak dictatorship in unequivocal terms and 2) immediately expells NDP from its ranks. Be polite, but clear. E-mails can be sent to secretariat@socialistinternational.org . Even better, send a fax it their London offices at +44-20-7720 4448 or +44-20-7498 1293.

Please circulate this appeal, it can be re-posted on your own blog.