In Yemen you can see the future of Egypt under Neoliberalism; or anyway, the future of those Egyptians not fortunate enough to live in the new golden capital being planned for the elite.
With half of Yemen’s oil and gas reserves depleted in just the last 7 years, it is predictable that the government will lose its main source of revenue within the next decade, leaving it completely crippled financially. All state services will be privatized, which means they will become profit-making enterprises paid for by the public, with the revenues flowing out to multinationals and foreign investors.
This process is already underway. The government has committed to privatize every major public sector of the economy in the next 5 years. This is essentially an acceleration of the very policies which have led Yemen to economic ruin since the mid 1990s.
Privatization of public sectors like agriculture, electricity, education, and so on, in a country where 34% of the population already lives on less than $1.25 per day, 50 % of the population is illiterate, and 34% are unemployed; is a recipe for slavery and insufferable misery.
Approximately one-third of the country’s total GDP is allocated to service Yemen’s debt to foreign creditors, while every day Yemen’s ability to generate domestic wealth is being dismantled.
This is precisely what is going on in Egypt today, though the process is not as far along as it is in Yemen, you can clearly see the trajectory (when foreign energy companies herald increased production capacity, for example, that translates for Egypt as accelerated depletion of your resources).
The revolutionary movements in Yemen, Egypt, and elsewhere, must address the real mechanisms of oppression, and the Islamists must develop policy alternatives around which activists can mobilize to achieve genuine liberation and independence.