Thursday, March 10, 2011

Tunisia – people power, but…


By SPGB

The light­ning rapid­ity and rel­a­tive ease with which Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was chased out of Tunisia in Jan­u­ary, is a clear tes­ti­mony not only of the power of the masses but also (though unknown to many) how vul­ner­a­ble and cow­ardly many a dic­ta­tor is. Hours before his igno­min­ious flight, Ben Ali appeared on tele­vi­sion vis­i­bly shaken and plead­ing with the peo­ple to give him time to address their prob­lems. Too late; the masses were already up in arms. It is said that the cap­i­tal­ist sys­tem digs its own grave. But it does not do so will­ingly. It is an inevitable fate that it must ful­fil; it devel­oped the inter­net to enhance its insa­tiable crave for prof­its but, iron­i­cally, it is the same inter­net that the masses will use as a col­lec­tive organ­iser to mobilise the exploited to bury the sys­tem. The present upheavals in the Arab coun­tries are one such example.

Else­where in the Arab lands, this defi­ant action of the Tunisians sent frosty shiv­ers down the spines of the other dic­ta­tors and, appre­hen­sive of a pos­si­ble domino effect, some of these rulers started mak­ing jit­tery reforms to avert a sim­i­lar (and deserved) fall. (Read on)

Source: World Socialist Party (US)

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