As we go to the press, masses of people in the Arab world stretching from Morroco in North Africa, through Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Bahrain have come out on the streets against their anti popular regimes. The people taking part in these uprisings have drawn inspiration from the mass revolts in Tunisia and Egypt which had resulted in the toppling of the unpopular rule of Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak.
As we go to the press, masses of people in the Arab world stretching from Morroco in North Africa, through Algeria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Bahrain have come out on the streets against their anti popular regimes. The people taking part in these uprisings have drawn inspiration from the mass revolts in Tunisia and Egypt which had resulted in the toppling of the unpopular rule of Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak.
Brutal repression, including the use of tanks, air bombing and armed goon squads, is being used to try and quell the peoples’ protests, but despite the bloodshed, the mass protests are continuing. In the latest uprisings too, the people have been calling for the removal of despotic regimes, for an end to political repression and to the looting of their countries’ resources by those in power.
The events in Tunisia and Egypt were not one-off events. They represent the outpouring of deep discontent among the masses of people in this region that was just below the surface all this time.
In practically all the countries concerned, the rulers had entrenched themselves in power, and had used their power to enrich themselves, their families and cohorts at the expense of their peoples. People’s rights have been denied and people’s protests have been suppressed mercilessly. However, those regimes which thought that they could carry on in this way indefinitely have been proved hopelessly wrong.
Many of the countries in this region possess huge oil resources. Libya is a case in point. Far from being used to benefit the masses of people and raise their material and cultural levels, the regimes have, in collaboration with foreign powers, exploited these resources with a sole eye to enriching themselves and their supporters and the powerful foreign oil monopolies.
The foreign imperialist powers have sought to control these countries through the dictatorial regimes in power, not only because of the oil wealth there, but also because of their highly strategic location. The Mubarak regime in Egypt, a country which does not possess significant oil reserves, nevertheless received countless billions of dollars in military and other aid from the US imperialists because it was the lynchpin of their strategy to contain the struggle of the Palestinian people and to support the Zionist state of Israel. Yemen’s rulers, too, have always had the backing of the US imperialists because it is the base of the US naval Fifth Fleet which hovers menacingly in the Persian Gulf region. The same is the case with Quatar. In short, many of the regimes which are now feeling the wrath of their peoples’ fury were able to survive for so long because they were backed by foreign imperialist powers.
Through their heroic actions, the peoples of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and other countries of the region, have succeeded in destabilising these rotten arrangements that have been in place for so many decades. They are reclaiming their right to be masters of their own destiny. But many forces are at work in the present critical situation in the region.
On the one hand, the fighting people are either still struggling to bring down the regimes in power or, as in Tunisia and Egypt, are fighting to ensure that their interests will not be betrayed and that they will be able to have their say in the new arrangements that come into being.
On the other hand, the military leadership and other powerful forces of the old regimes are still in positions of power, and are doing their best to clamp down a lid on the people’s political activism.
The US and other imperialists are actively intriguing behind the scenes to ensure that their interests are disturbed to the least extent possible. They are without doubt using all their connections and clout within these countries to ensure the most favourable outcome of the crisis for themselves, even while they proclaim hypocritically how they are in favour of “democracy”. The peoples who are rising in rebellion in these Arab countries will have to deal with the machinations of the imperialists and the ruling cliques in power. They will know from their own experience, how imperialism led by US imperialism has been the important external factor for their miseries, working in tandem with their internal enemies.
The ongoing sweep of mass uprisings across North Africa and West Asia is a historic development. Seen in conjunction with the huge number of protests by the working class and people in various European and other countries against having to bear the burden of the capitalist economic crisis, they point to the growing anger and militancy of the peoples in fighting the worldwide capitalist-imperialist system which is the common source of the exploitation and repression that they face.