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Egypts elections under military rule: Join our resistance to the counter-revolutionTo you at whose side we struggle,From the beginning of the Egyptian revolution, the powers that be have launched a viciouscounter-revolution to contain our struggle and subsume it by drowning the peoples voices in

a process of meaningless, piecemeal political reforms. This process aimed at deflecting thepath of revolution and the Egyptian peoples demands for "bread, freedom and social justice."Only 18 days into our revolution, and since we forced Mubarak out of power, the discourseof the political classes and the infrastructure of the elites, including both state and privatemedia, continues to privilege discussions of rotating Ministers, cabinet reshuffles, referendums,committees, constitutions and most glaringly, parliamentary and now presidential elections.Our choice from the very beginning was to reject in their entirety the regime's attempts to dragthe peoples revolution into a farcical dialogue with the counter-revolution shrouded in thediscourse of a "democratic process" which neither promotes the demands of the revolution norrepresents any substantial, real democracy. Thus our revolution continues, and must continue.

Egyptians now find themselves in a vulnerable moment. Official political discourse would havethe world believe that the technologies of democracy presently spell a choice between twoevils. These are: Ahmed Shafiq, who guarantees the consolidation of the outgoing regimeand its return with a vengeance, openly promising a criminal assault on the revolution underthe fascist spectres of security and stability, and the false promise of protection for religiousminorities (against whom the regime systematically stages assault and isolation as part of itsfear-mongering campaigns); and Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhoodwhom we are expected to imagine might save us from the old regime through the myths ofcultural renaissance - all while consolidating its financial stronghold and the regional capitalisthegemony that fosters and depends on it for a climate of rampant exploitation of Egypts peopleand their resources. This consolidation, we are certain, will be accompanied by the subsequentmarshalling of the military apparatus to protect the emboldened ruling class of the Muslim

Brotherhood from the wrath and revolt of its victims: the multitude whom the leaders of theorganization have historically fought by condemning and outlawing our struggles for livelihood,dignity and equality.

According to election officials, most voters themselves (75%) have chosen neither Shafiq norMorsi in the first round of elections. We refuse to recognize the choice of lesser of two evilswhen these evils masquerade in equal measure for the same regime. We believe there isanother choice. And in times where perceived common sense is as far from the truth as can be,we find the need to speak out once again.We perceive the affair of presidential elections in Egypt as an attempt by the as yet prevailingmilitary junta and its counter-revolutionary forces to garner international legitimacy to cement

the existing regime and deliver more lethal blows to the Egyptian revolution. We ask you to joinus in resisting the logic of this process that seeks to further entrench the counter-revolution.Our struggle does not exist in isolation from yours.What is revolution, but the immediate and uncompromising rejection of the status quo: ofmilitarized power, exploitation, class stratification, and relentless police violencejust to namea few of the most basic and cancerous features of society in the present moment. Thesestructural realities are not unique to Egypt or the Egyptian revolution. In both the South and the

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North communities resist what we are meant to accept without questioning, rising up againstthe narrow realist perspective that tells us that democracy is merely choosing the lesser of twoevils, and that the election of either represents a choice in government rather than what it is: anaffirmation of the only government that exists - that of unbridled, repressive and dehumanizingcapitalist relations. We stand in solidarity with the masses of precarious and endangeredpeople who have chosen to defend their being from an aggressive global system that is in

crisis; indeed, a sputtering system that, in its twilight hours, reaches for unprecedented levels ofsurveillance, militarization and violence to quell our insurrections.

We must make clear that despite the fact of the international political establishments praise ofthe democratic nature of the first round of the Egyptian presidential elections, we strongly andcategorically reject the outcome of these elections for they do not represent the desires of theEgyptian people that fought in the January 25th Revolution.Furthermore, we categorically reject the elections themselves in principle, for the followingreasons:

1- Even by the standards of the deceased and irrelevant systems of representation that once

existed in the Global North, no free and fair elections can take place under the supervisionof a power-hungry military junta, vying relentlessly for continued political domination and theprotection of their vast economic empire, so relentlessly, indeed, that no constitution exists todefine the powers of any presidency. How can we tolerate a military dictatorships supervisionof any political process when thousands of Egyptians continue to languish in the dungeonsof military prison after undergoing arbitrary arrest, campaigns of systematic torture, andexceptional military tribunals.

2- The abuse of law in favor of the power mongering of the ruling military generals: in orderto run the junta's preferred candidate, former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, the SupremePresidential Electoral Commission has simply and blatantly disregarded the law of politicalexclusion recently passed in order to ban the candidacy of any members of Mubaraks regime

from running in the presidential elections.3- The absurdity of unlimited power concentrated in the hands of an electoral commission madeup of central figures from the Mubarak era who are meant to supervise a democratic process.4- The vague programs marketed by the most strongly backed candidates fly in the face of thevalues and object of the revolution, the very reason why we are even having these electionstoday and the cause for which over a thousand martyrs gave their lives: "bread, freedom andsocial justice."If these elections take place and are internationally recognized the regime will have received theworlds stamp of approval to make void everything the revolution stands for. If these elections

are to pass while we remain silent, we believe the coming regime will license itself to hunt usdown, lock us up and torture us in an attempt to quell all forms of resistance to its very raisond'tre.We continue on our revolutionary path committed to resisting military rule and putting an endto military tribunals for civilians and the release of all detainees in military prisons. We continueto struggle in the workplace, in schools and universities and with popular committees in ourneighborhoods. But our fight is as much against the governments and systems supporting theregime that suppresses us. We are determined to audit loan agreements that did and continue

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to occur between international financial institutions or foreign governments with a regime thatclaims to represent us while thriving from exploiting and repressing us. We call on you to joinus in our struggle against the reinforcements of the counter-revolution. How will you stand insolidarity with us? If we are under attack, you are also under attack for our battle is a global oneagainst the forces that seek our obedience and suppression.

We stand with the ongoing revolution, a revolution that will only be realized by the strength,community and persistence of the people; not through a poisonous referendum for military rule.

Comrades from Cairo