“I was in Tahrir Square in Egypt two years ago, right after the massive mobilizations that toppled the Mubarak government,” Dan Fein, center, told Chris Bishop, far right, a driver for an animal care company, when they met outside the John Lovejoy Elliott Houses in Manhattan July 7. “Now millions have come into the streets again forcing the unpopular Morsi government out. Working people in Egypt face the same question we do: how to fight for political power.”

“Working people are the foundation of society,” Bishop said. “We need to do what you said in all countries.”

“Yes,” said Fein. “The challenge is building a revolutionary party. If working people had such a party in Egypt today, it wouldn’t be the military stepping in. It would be the working class in its own name.

“Here the Democrats and Republicans represent the capitalist class. Working people need our own political organizations, independent of the bosses,” Fein said.

—SARA LOBMAN