The events the world is currently witnessing in the streets of Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, and Egypt indicate a fundamental shift in the revolutionary change sweeping the Arab world.
The Tunisian revolution succeeded in ousting a dictator supported by the U.S. oligarchy. Days later, the Egyptian revolution erupted, threatening the imperial interests of the U.S. and its ally, Israel, in the region.
The revolutionary events in Tunisia and Egypt have been led by the youth, who have suffered the consequences of globalization under capitalism — no freedom of speech, no civil liberties, no jobs, no health care, no social security, insufficient food, and no future!
Repression supported by the U.S. has been an essential ingredient to keeping the lid on protests against policies that have widened the huge gap between the rich and the poor.
The genius of the youth is reflected in their use of the Internet to organize protests that surprised the U.S. oligarchy and its allies who had propped up the dictators to serve the interests of the global capitalists.
We cannot predict the course that revolutionary change will take in these countries. In the short-term, they may get sidetracked into yet another accommodation with global capitalism.
But coupled with what else has been occurring in the Middle East, namely the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somali wars, the breaking up of the Sudan, the crisis in Lebanon, and the deteriorating Iranian-U.S. situation, it is not difficult to see that the exploitation by global capitalism is being resisted by the peoples of that region — as it is by peoples across the globe.
As we struggle against capitalism here at home, we stretch our hand to and stand with the Tunisian and Egyptian people. After all, the capitalists are our common enemy.
