History Is Ours ...

I have a poster at home - very similar in style to the one on the left - that I have kept for almost thirty years. I borought it from the Chile Solidariy Campaign when I was an 18year-old member of the YCL (!?!) off to university to read history.

It bears one of my favourite quotes  - from Salvadore Allende in 1973: 'History Is Ours For  It Is Made By The People'. 

For any socialist  there is nothing more inspiring than seeing this history actually unfolding in front of your own eyes. Just as we are at the moment watching the extraordinary scenes from Egypt. 

The quote reminds us - or at least it should do - that history is not made by the mastabatory analysis of radical intellectuals from the safety of meeting rooms far behind the frontline - or in online forums either.

So I'm only going to add three brief  thoughts to what is being said about the situation in Egypt:

1.Those on the left who have been cozying up to reactionary Islamo-mentalists  will have some answering to do - although if they haven't already learnt from the experience of  Iran in 1979 I doubt they will now.

2. The organised working class still remain  the only section of society capable of securing a progressive democratic socialist regime in the region - or any region - not the amorphous 'nation' and certainly not a radical faction of the army.

3. Trotsky's theory of  Permanent Revolution -  far from being past its sell-by date still provides the best framework for understanding what is going on.

But most of  - and my final thought:

4. The revolution will carry on without asking my opinion.