Introduction The events unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa (subsequently referred to as MENA) since December 2010 have been indeed breath taking. From Tunisia to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and in a limited but complicated situations, Syria, one autocratic regime after another was challenged by mass movements. Some of these mass uprisings were successful in ejecting dictators from the rented palaces they have used the sweat, blood and flesh of working people to forcefully (and seemingly perpetually) occupy. However, most of the movements were derailed. In places like Bahrain (despite brutal crackdowns), Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Iran and Saudi Arabia, the working people, youths and the downtrodden in general challenged their dictators and corrupt rulers. The small rats of the Maghreb had hitherto assumed the statures of giants having been given magnifying mirrors by imperialism as gifts for their subservience and turning in of their peoples’ lands to imperialist fiefdoms. Th...
Revolt in Burkina Faso and the Challenge of Working People’s Alternative
After what seems like atrophy in mass movements in Africa, aftermath of counterrevolutionary rise in countries of the Middle East and North Africa, the working people and youth of Burkina Faso have brought the issue of mass movement and revolution back to the political agenda. The attempt of corrupt and politically bankrupt Blaise Compaore to grant himself extra term(s) in addition to his 27-year old rule could now only bring the mass discontent already bottled up, to the fore. The working people, youth and the poor could not stomach a day extension for a government that would only assure more poverty and misery for the majority. Against all odds, and throwing their fears to the sea, the mass of working people and youth stormed onto the streets, and in a sign of clear revolutionary instincts, stormed the centres of power – the parliamentary building, the seat of government, Place de la Nati...
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