MR Zine/Monthly Review Foundation
The electoral victory of the Muslim Brotherhood and of the Salafists
in Egypt (January 2012) is hardly surprising. The decline brought about
by the current globalization of capitalism has produced an
extraordinary increase in the so-called "informal" activities that
provide the livelihoods of more than half of the Egyptian population
(statistics give a figure of 60%).
And the Muslim Brotherhood is very well placed to take advantage of
this decline and perpetuate its reproduction. Their simplistic ideology
confers legitimacy on a miserable market/bazaar economy that is
completely antithetical to the requirements of any development worthy of
the name. The fabulous financial means provided to the Muslim
Brotherhood (by the Gulf states) allows them to translate this ideology
into efficient action: financial aid to the informal economy, charitable
services (medical dispensaries etc.).
