Ben Seattle
25th January 2011, 17:01
Tunisia Proves that Political Transparency
has Emerged as Powerful Weapon
of the Class Struggle
The revolution in Tunisia is inspiring millions of people all over the world. This revolution was based on countless thousands of workers, unemployed and youth who defied the army and police and suffered more than 80 deaths for marching in the streets.
The current struggle in Tunisia, as I understand it, is the traditional struggle of these workers, unemployed and students for class political independence against the efforts of the corrupt reformists to co-opt and outmanuever the protesters in order to put in place a regime that will continue as many of the old policies as possible.
A big factor in the revolution has been the role of various internet-based platforms (ie: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Wikileaks, etc) which have given the protesters and the movement the weapon of political transparency. Using this powerful weapon, protesters have been able to self-organize with much greater speed than has been possible in the past.
There will undoubtably be lots of twists and turns in the road ahead for the Tunisian revolution. And I am as clueless as anyone else concerning what will happen next in Tunisia and the larger Arab world.
But what I am certain of is that the events in Tunisia are making clear to many millions that the emerging revolution in communications is destined, in the decades ahead, to play a powerful (and, eventually, decisive) role in the class struggle.
Today, a number of bourgeois pundits (Malcolm Gladwell, Evgeny Morozov, etc) are dismissing the long-range significance of the revolution in communications on the basis of a host of fairly stupid and shallow arguments. The voices of these pundits, naturally, are amplified by the bourgeois media. The actions of many thousands in Tunisia, however, tell us the real story.
This is a story that involves us also, even those of us living in the belly of the beast.
We will learn to use the power of political transparency to overcome everything that is stinking and rotten within our own social movements--and create a healthy and powerful revolutionary movement that will, once again, be deserving of the respect, attention and loyalty of the working class and oppressed.
http://struggle.net/ben/2010/images/Tunisia_sword_fight--half_size.gif
Read the rest of this on my RevLeft blog here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/blog.php?b=1387)
has Emerged as Powerful Weapon
of the Class Struggle
The revolution in Tunisia is inspiring millions of people all over the world. This revolution was based on countless thousands of workers, unemployed and youth who defied the army and police and suffered more than 80 deaths for marching in the streets.
The current struggle in Tunisia, as I understand it, is the traditional struggle of these workers, unemployed and students for class political independence against the efforts of the corrupt reformists to co-opt and outmanuever the protesters in order to put in place a regime that will continue as many of the old policies as possible.
A big factor in the revolution has been the role of various internet-based platforms (ie: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Wikileaks, etc) which have given the protesters and the movement the weapon of political transparency. Using this powerful weapon, protesters have been able to self-organize with much greater speed than has been possible in the past.
There will undoubtably be lots of twists and turns in the road ahead for the Tunisian revolution. And I am as clueless as anyone else concerning what will happen next in Tunisia and the larger Arab world.
But what I am certain of is that the events in Tunisia are making clear to many millions that the emerging revolution in communications is destined, in the decades ahead, to play a powerful (and, eventually, decisive) role in the class struggle.
Today, a number of bourgeois pundits (Malcolm Gladwell, Evgeny Morozov, etc) are dismissing the long-range significance of the revolution in communications on the basis of a host of fairly stupid and shallow arguments. The voices of these pundits, naturally, are amplified by the bourgeois media. The actions of many thousands in Tunisia, however, tell us the real story.
This is a story that involves us also, even those of us living in the belly of the beast.
We will learn to use the power of political transparency to overcome everything that is stinking and rotten within our own social movements--and create a healthy and powerful revolutionary movement that will, once again, be deserving of the respect, attention and loyalty of the working class and oppressed.
http://struggle.net/ben/2010/images/Tunisia_sword_fight--half_size.gif
Read the rest of this on my RevLeft blog here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/blog.php?b=1387)