We also emphasize that the real battle of the Arab revolutions is a battle against US imperialism and not against other cultures or against freedom of expression. This battle will not be won except through the continuation and growth of the radical struggles of working people and the oppressed of all peoples against their exploiters and tormentors at home and abroad.

This battle against US imperialism cannot be reduced to a question of “the clash of civilisations”. Nor can the violence of a small group against embassies and US bases in Libya, Egypt and Yemen be a substitute for the mass struggle from below for independence and national liberation.

At the same time as they ignite anger against America, the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists insist on the maintenance of diplomatic, economic and military relations with the USA. Nor are they taking any genuine steps to stop co-operation with this imperialist regime, or making any serious effort to cancel the shameful peace treaty with the Zionist entity which squanders national independence. No sooner had the authorities washed their hands of the massacres they perpetrated in the Sinai, than they destroyed the tunnels of the besieged Gaza Strip, in an operation which gained the direct political support of the American and Israeli governments, and strengthened links of co-operation with them.

This incident represents an attempt to strike at the Arab revolutions at the level of collective and democratic values. It is a blow against the model of solidarity between peoples across the world in the struggle for freedom from tyranny, which was beginning to take shape with these revolutions, inspiring global movements of protest.