Trevor Loudon
New Zeal
2/1/2011
Mark LeVine a leftist professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, interviews Egyptian blogger and activist Hossam el-Hamalawy from the Center for Socialist Studies, for Al Jazeera
Even Glenn Beck and Frances Fox Piven get a mention.
Emphasis added.
…Mark LeVine: What about the role of the US in this conflict. How do people on the street view its positions?
Hossam el-Hamalawy: We don’t expect anything from Obama, whom we regard as a great hypocrite. But we hope and expect the American people – trade unions, professors’ associations, student unions, activist groups, to come out in support of us. What we want for the US government is to completely get out of the picture. We don’t want any sort of backing; just cut aid to Mubarak immediately and withdraw backing from him, withdraw from all Middle Eastern bases, and stop supporting the state of Israel.
Ultimately, Mubarak will do whatever he has to do to protect himself. He will suddenly adopt the most anti-US rhetoric if he thought that would help him save his skin. At the end of the day he’s committed to his own interests, and if he thinks the US won’t support him, he’ll turn somewhere else. The reality is that any really clean government that comes to power in the region will come into open conflict with the US because it will call for radical redistribution of wealth and ending support for Israel or other dictatorships. So we don’t expect any help from America, just to leave us alone.
Read the complete transcript of the interview at New Zeal.
