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Egypt and the global economic order
Egypt's protests were a denunciation of neo-liberalism and the political suppression required to impose it.
Neo-liberalism and crony-capitalism
"The strikers were responding to the fast-track imposition of neo-liberal economic policies by a cabinet led by Ahmed Nazif, the then prime minister who relentlessly implemented the demands of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). These measures included the privatisation of public factories, the liberalisation of markets, decreasing tariffs and import taxes and the introduction of subsidies for agri-businesses in place of those for small farmers with the aim of increasing agricultural exports.

Such economic policies, which are by no means unique to Egypt, are the fruitful soil of neo-colonialism, whereby multi-national corporations are able to capitalise on economies run by regimes that impose low standards of corporate responsibility towards their labour force, have few environmental protection laws and, in the case of Egypt, subsidise natural resources for big industry. This is coupled with the shrinking of the public sector, which is precisely where most of the labour action in Egypt has been concentrated.

These policies benefitted a small Egyptian elite and foreign corporations, while condemning the country's working class to a new form of labour-slavery - many public sector employees held up their wage slips during protests, showing meagre monthly earnings of $50 to $90 - and the broader population to the consequences of a shrinking public sector and increased commodity prices."
ALJAZEERA


Economists Blame 'Neo-Liberalism' for Region's Woes
Egypt embarked on "neo-liberal" economics more than three decades ago reorienting its socialist-oriented policies towards those of the "free market." Now, however, many critics call the strategy a failure and blame it for the country's rampant poverty and unemployment.


"Egypt's experiment with neo-liberal economics has resulted in soaring inflation, steadily increasing unemployment rates and a reduction of the average citizen's purchasing power," Hamdi Abdelazim, economist and former president of the Sadat Academy for Administrative Sciences in Cairo, told IPS.


The experiment first began in the late 1970s, when president Anwar Sadat forsook the socialist orientations of his predecessor, Gamal Abdel Nasser, by launching his "infitah," or "open-door" economic policy. The new strategy aimed to "liberalise" the economy by opening it up to imports from abroad and welcoming foreign investment in the country's development.
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Stealing Egypt's revolution
Understanding Egypt
And the rich got richer
Neo-liberalism & Egypt’s Working Class

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