Now it's Morocco!

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

The BBC has just reported massive demonstrations in Rabat calling for change.

Kuwait, Qatar, Dubai and S Arabia next...?

[Omsk]

Dubai and S Arabia
Why Dubai and S Arabia?The situation is not that bad.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Nice use of irony there coomrade...

[scarletghoul]

Just talked to a Moroccan comrade online. Apparently there are 'thousands in every city'. She says they can probably get rid of the King, but not quite yet.. She also says there are a lot of communists in the country.

With Gaddafi well and truly fucked, it looks like most of North Africa has fallen, and this will give the people of Morocco even more strength :)

[scarletghoul]

Why Dubai and S Arabia?The situation is not that bad.
Bahrain is a highly developed first world country, and is not immune to uprising. No country in the region is safe.

[Omsk]

Yes,you are right,but some countries have a greater chance of falling into a state of uprising.
Although,this wave of uprisings seems to only gain strength.

[scarletghoul]

Yeah its only growing. Glenn Beck was right, it is snowballing. Its already crossed the language barrier into Iran, and there are attempted protests organised in croatia and china.. this is so cool

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

^^^Makes those who think the revolution can't take place internationally look a bit foolish, eh, Scarlet?

[Omsk]

The situation in Croatia is far from the ones in the North Africa states,it's only on the internet for now.:) And i think it will stay on the internet.

[scarletghoul]

^^^Makes those who think the revolution can't take place internationally look a bit foolish, eh, Scarlet?
I didn't know anyone on RevLeft thought that. Unless you are referring to the Trots who think socialist revolution in the third world is doomed to failure..

[Reznov]

Just talked to a Moroccan comrade online. Apparently there are 'thousands in every city'. She says they can probably get rid of the King, but not quite yet.. She also says there are a lot of communists in the country.

With Gaddafi well and truly fucked, it looks like most of North Africa has fallen, and this will give the people of Morocco even more strength :)

I'm still waiting to see if the people actually elect someone who will represent them or have an American puppet get elected.

[Mather]

My step-family is Moroccan and as a kid I lived there (in the northern city of Tangier) for four years.

If anyone has any questions they would like to ask me about Morocco and it's political situation, please feel free to do so.

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

I've been following this in the French press. Morocco was a French protectorate and most Moroccans still speak French; there is obviously much interest in Morocco in France, and support demonstrations were planned in Southern France and Catalunya. The Moroccan regime flew in a couple of planeloads of anti-riot materiel it acquired from Israel (the French didn't want to get involved), but it looks as though they won't be needing it yet.

There were "facebook" marches in the larger cities, especially Casablanca and Rabat, which are the most "modernized." Unfortunately the Gov't, as usual, managed to finesse the demonstrators by claiming that these marches were proof of the Gov'ts support for free speech. Of course that's a game the King's been playing for a long time, posing as a reformer while brutally repressing his people.

For this thing to be successful it's going to have to involve a lot more than the facebook crowds, for instance the rural disaffected and outright rebellious, not to mention industrial and state workers. It could happen yet, it might even be happening, but from my perch I don't see it today.

[Blackscare]

Man, this shit is getting intense. I'm really excited about this supposed croatian thing, so that this can spread outside of the Arab world as well. I am however concerned that the world's funny hat market will suffer a bottleneck because of this.

[Mather]

Just talked to a Moroccan comrade online. Apparently there are 'thousands in every city'.

The protests took place in Rabat (the capital city), Casablanca (economic/financial capital and Moroccco's largest city), Marrakesh and Tangier. These protests took place despite the poor weather, as it was raining in Morocco yesterday.


She says they can probably get rid of the King, but not quite yet..

So far most of the protesters have not raised that demand, instead limiting their demands to asking King Mohammed VI to sack the government, dissolve parliament, call for fresh elections and to address social and economic issues.

The Moroccan monarchy is the oldest in the Arab region (1202 years old) and the second oldest in the world, after Japan (2670 years old). The current ruling royal family is the Alaouite dynasty which came to power in 1631. Of course overthrowing of the royal family is possible, after all Iran was ruled by Shahs for 2500 years until 1979 and I hope the Moroccan people push for this as real power in Morocco is in the hands of the royal family.

If the Moroccan regime responds violently and in a repressive manner to these protests, then we will most likely see a situation similar to Bahrain where at first the protesters simply asked the royal family to implement refoms but after the regime responded with repression and violence, the protesters lost faith in the royal family and began calling for the overthrow of the royal family.


She also says there are a lot of communists in the country.

That is true, but the revolutionary left in Morocco is in a rather shambolic and disorganised state, lacking in theory, programme and organisation. All the 'left' parties in the Moroccan parliament, including the ex-communist Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS), are social democratic reformist formations and as a condition of their legality, they have to support the monarchy and Morocco's colonisation of the Western Sahara. Most of these formations are totally useless and are seen by the people as pro-regime sellouts.

[syndicat]

there is however a grassroots tradition of struggle. there are the various community and human rights organizations, the organizations of the berbers (whose language is officially not recognized even tho they are half the population) and various worker organizations. there's been a lot of repression in recent times.

the CGT (syndicalist union) of Andalucia, located just across the Gibraltar straights, has been doing a lot of solidarity work with the people and workers in Morocco and ex-Western Sahara (former Spanish colony seized by Morocco).

[Mather]

I've been following this in the French press. Morocco was a French protectorate and most Moroccans still speak French; there is obviously much interest in Morocco in France, and support demonstrations were planned in Southern France and Catalunya.

There are large Moroccan expatriate communities in Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. They are mostly made up of economic migrants who escaped the poverty and massive social inequalities that exist in Morocco, with a smaller portion being a community of political exiles who escaped from the repression of the regime. So I would expect solidarity protests in these countries, as the expatriates are mostly anti-regime.

As for France and Spain, both countries are Morocco's main trading and economic 'partners' and have a great deal of influence in the country and with the regime, though Morocco is closer politically to France due to territorial disputes with Spain (the two countries almost went to war in 2002).


The Moroccan regime flew in a couple of planeloads of anti-riot materiel it acquired from Israel (the French didn't want to get involved), but it looks as though they won't be needing it yet.

Though Morocco does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel, the two countries are close, especially when compared to Israel's relations with other Arab countries. This is due to the Moroccan regime's pro-Western stance and the fact that Morocco has it's own Jewish community, who have lived in Morocco since they were expelled by the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. One fith of Israel's Jewish population is of Morrocan origin. I have also heard that Mossad provides training and support to Morocco's secret police.


There were "facebook" marches in the larger cities, especially Casablanca and Rabat, which are the most "modernized." Unfortunately the Gov't, as usual, managed to finesse the demonstrators by claiming that these marches were proof of the Gov'ts support for free speech. Of course that's a game the King's been playing for a long time, posing as a reformer while brutally repressing his people.

Tell me about it. The Moroccan media (state controlled) refers to Mohammed VI as the "King of the poor".


For this thing to be successful it's going to have to involve a lot more than the facebook crowds, for instance the rural disaffected and outright rebellious, not to mention industrial and state workers. It could happen yet, it might even be happening, but from my perch I don't see it today.

Agreed, without the working class, the trade unions and the rural poor, the protests will not get far.

There is also the issue of the Western Sahara (Morocco is the last colonial power in Africa), last November there was a protest camp that was brutally supressed by Moroccan security forces.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11710400

Besides internal social unrest, Morocco's rule over the Wester Sahara is contested by the Polisario Front, a pro-independence guerrilla movement based in southern Algeria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polisario_Front

[Savage]

^^^Makes those who think the revolution can't take place internationally look a bit foolish, eh, Scarlet?
I seriously doubt that even the most dogmatic Stalinist would believe such nonsense, rejecting international revolution is different from accepting isolated revolution.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Then you haven't been around here long enough to see them arguing just that.:)

[Toppler]

Heh, and just over a week ago "THIS CAN'T HAPPEN" http://www.revleft.com/vb/morocco-egypt-like-t149921/index.html?t=149921&highlight=morocco .

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

^^^I suspect BCBM was being ironic.

[bcbm]

i was sharing an interesting article, not expressing any particular sentiment of my own

[LeninBalls]

My friend who lives in Morocco just told me that where she lives (Tangier) and other cities the protests were really just looting and that where the protests are genuine it's mainly a call for the King to give up some of his powers... Don't know what this means exactly.

[Os Cangaceiros]

"Morocco's interior minister says authorities have found five charred bodies in a burned bank after demonstrations erupted into unrest."

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Five-Killed-in-Morocco-Unrest-116603313.html

[Mather]

Heh, and just over a week ago "THIS CAN'T HAPPEN" http://www.revleft.com/vb/morocco-eg...hlight=morocco (http://www.revleft.com/vb/morocco-egypt-like-t149921/index.html?t=149921&highlight=morocco) .


i was sharing an interesting article, not expressing any particular sentiment of my own

It is obvious from that article that the 'anarchist' in question was not really an anarchist but more a young guy who was into punk culture.

It was more the fault of The Star newspaper as the writer of the article fell for the lazy punk = anarchist line.

There are individual (revolutionary class struggle) anarchists in Morocco of course but I am not aware of any anarchist organisations there.

[Crux]

Revolution is never practical - until the hour of the Revolution strikes. Then it alone is practical, and all the efforts of the conservatives and compromisers become the most futile and visionary of human imaginings.
- James Connolly

[Lenina Rosenweg]

My step-family is Moroccan and as a kid I lived there (in the northern city of Tangier) for four years.

If anyone has any questions they would like to ask me about Morocco and it's political situation, please feel free to do so.

I am not very knowledgable about Morrocco, although I have had several ESL students from that country. I have once met a Moroccan medical student who seemed very "loyal" if that's the term to his society. He told me he felt his society had done a lot for him so he felt he should "give something back". This may be a common feeling for some but I have actually never felt this way towards my own society and I felt somewhat jealous of him.

Anyway some questions-why has the struggle taken longer to develop in Morrocco than elsewhere? Are there illusions in the royal family?

What is the state of the opposition? I have heard oppositions groups took at least 2 weeks to organize a demonstration. I have thought of Morrocans as the "Canadians" of the Arab world.

Is Morocco more tied in to French or Spanish capitalism? Does the country have a middle class layer like Egypt? Would it be more similar to Egypt or Yemen?

I see some of my questions have already been partially answered.

[Mather]

why has the struggle taken longer to develop in Morrocco than elsewhere?

Compared to the regimes of other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Syria, Libya and Algeria, the Moroccan regime is not as brutal and as oppressive, relatively speaking. This was not always the case as during the 1970s and 1980s under the former monarch, King Hassan II, Morocco went through a period of oppression (mainly aimed at the political left and trade unions) known as the "years of lead".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_lead_(Morocco)

As to your question, my estimation would be that the rather slow pace of the protests in Morocco is down to the disorganised and incoherent state of the opoosition and the groups behind this protest.


Are there illusions in the royal family?

Sadly amongst some segments of the population, yes. Though it is impossible to tell the extent of these illusions given the massive cult of personality that the regime and it's propaganda organs place around the royal family.


What is the state of the opposition? I have heard oppositions groups took at least 2 weeks to organize a demonstration.

Morocco does have a parliament with a number of regime approved political parties and it's political system is half constitutional monarchy, half absolute monarchy. A comparative example would be Germany pre-1918 or the Austro-Hungarian Empire after 1867, where a parliamentary democracy co-exists with a royal autocracy.

However, all the political parties that sit in the parliament are regime approved, meaning that they have to support the monarchy, Morocco's colonisation of the Western Sahara and cannot question royal edicts and decrees. So I do not really count any of the political parties that sit in the parliament as part of the opposition.

The extra-parliamentary opposition is weak and lacking in coherence, programme, theory and has so far been unable to really reach out to the people and the working class. This is in part a legacy of the past wave of repression during the years of lead which destroyed much of the political left in Morocco, though many indivduals still identify with the left, ideologically speaking. Now the tasks of the political left must be organisation, a coherent programme and to reach out to people and the working class.


I have thought of Morrocans as the "Canadians" of the Arab world.

Can you please elaborate as to what you mean by this?


Is Morocco more tied in to French or Spanish capitalism?

Economically speaking it is tied in equal measure to both.

Politically France has much more influence, given Morocco's territorial disputes with Spain. Most tourists (tourism is one of Morocco's main industries) who come to Morocco are French and France, along with the USA, provides Morocco with most of it's weapons.


Does the country have a middle class layer like Egypt?

It has a middle class and during the last twenty years the middle class has grown in size due to Morocco's economic growth, though the disparity in wealth between the upper, middle and working classes has grown wider at the same time.


Would it be more similar to Egypt or Yemen?

Definately Egypt.

Yemen is the most backward and underdeveloped nation in terms of it's economy, infastructure and social relations in the entire Middle East and North Africa region, more on par with African nations than other Arab ones.

[Honggweilo]

I hope those fuckers from the secret service and the Isqhal Youth who attacked the Sawari's at the world youth festival in ZA, get a fucking beating soon!

[Mather]

I hope those fuckers from the secret service and the Isqhal Youth who attacked the Sawari's at the world youth festival in ZA, get a fucking beating soon!

Can you tell me more about this incident and where is ZA?

[Sasha]

Za is dutch short for south africa. It was host this year to an huge socialist youth festival deconreflex was present at.

Anyway, back on topic: ten thousands demonstrated in Casablanca yesterday, other citys saw smaller demonstrations. For the first time the islamists joined the demonstrations to demand the release of their political prisoners.

[Mather]

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has invited Morocco and Jordan to join it. The GCC is made up of six states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...c7bf6239a9.a71 (http://www.anonym.to/?http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ghopEaFIvwkj2k9n2UQSOTIGy3zQ?docId=CNG.a6e23 f58edf0879da98617c7bf6239a9.a71)

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/201...next-schengen/ (http://www.anonym.to/?http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/05/12/gcc-the-next-schengen/)

Naturally this has some people asking questions as Yemen, a Gulf Country, is not a GCC member yet Morocco and Jordan have now been given GCC invitations. One similarity that Morocco and Jordan have with the GCC states that Yemen doesn't is that all of them are ruled by royal families. The other more disturbing reason is that compared to most GCC states, Morocco and Jordan have more larger and advanced military forces which the GCC states would be keen on using to crush any dissent or social unrest. As we saw in March when Saudi and UAE military forces invaded Bahrain, the GCC 'charter' allows for member states to 'intervene' in any GCC state to crush dissent and social unrest.

Despite the GCC officially claiming that all of this is to counter the growing "Iranian threat", it is crystal clear that the GCC has become the main pole of reaction in the Middle East and North Africa in alliance with the major imperialist states.

It seems that the Gulf region is fast becoming the bastion of reaction and authoritarianism in relation to the popular uprisings and struggles across the Middle East and North Africa. Much like certain European countries (Austro-Hungary, Prussia, Britain and Russia) did in forming a reactionary alliance against revolutionary France in the 1790s.

[Mather]

Moroccan police beat up demonstrators in Rabat and Casablanca:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/05/2011522204645915126.html

[Os Cangaceiros]

Thousands poured into the streets of Rabat on Sunday June 5 to condemn the death of a protester and to demand an end to the country-wide government crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.

"We are here today to protest the murder of Khaled al-Amari," said a 40-year-old Rabat resident who did not give her name out of fear of the authorities. "But we are also here because we demand dignity, democracy and freedom. This repression must end."

Last Thursday, 30-year-old Khaled al-Amari, a member of Morocco's main opposition group, died after reportedly suffering a severe beating at the hands of police during a protest in the city of Safi. Officers deny that his death was a direct result of police violence, despite eyewitness accounts that he was severely beaten.




Police violence against peaceful demonstrators in Morocco has exploded in recent weeks, in what protesters say is a significant escalation of government repression.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/20116512125272326.html