April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

evolutionary process in China. The real point of Tunisia, as in China, is
that in every revolutionary situation it is the real action of human beings
taking to the streets, defying the police and fighting with courage and
imagination that changes society. Revolutionaries should grasp the epochmaking
process that is now underway in the world. How this epoch-making
process will mature across Africa, Europe and Asia will depend on the
politics and organisations that shape the movement in the coming weeks
and months. Revolutionaries must learn the positive lessons: the new
pattern of 21st century revolution, the new forces of revolution and the
new tools of revolutionary struggles that are being fashioned by those who
are making sacrifices for a new mode of social existence.
SELF-IMMOLATION, SACRIFICES AND SELF-ORGANISATION
Within a month, the narrative in the international media on Tunisia has
changed completely. Prior to the present uprising against the capitalist
classes and the dictator, Tunisia was represented in the Western media as
a stable free-market economy that was a symbol of the success of
capitalism, a top ally of the USA in the war against terrorism. Tunisia was
the choice destination for European tourists as the same European states
shut their doors to migrants from Africa. Behind the image of Tunisia as a
stable tourist resort where Europeans could relax was the reality of
repression, corruption, censorship and massive exploitation of the people.
The concentration and centralisation of wealth and power in the hands of
the ruling family alienated even members of the capitalist classes, who
were locked out of the inner circles of opulence and obscene wealth. In
the midst of struggle, there was unemployment and suffering. Mohammed
Bouazizi, a youth who had sought to dignify his existence by becoming a
fruit and vegetable seller, decided to make a sacrifice to make a stand
against oppression and made a break with the politics of obedience.
Mohammed Bouazizi, like millions of youths across the world, wanted a
new world. He had studiously gone through school only to find that the
economy did not have a place for him. He created his own space by
becoming a fruit and vegetable vendor in the town. But even in this
capacity, the society had no room for the creativity of the youth so the
police harassed him continuously and on 17 December 2010 confiscated his
vegetable cart. Bouazizi was the principal breadwinner of his family and
decided to make a stand against oppression. After unsuccessfully
complaining to the local authorities, he burnt himself as an act of protest.
He did not die immediately and his sacrifice acted as an inspiration for
others to resist oppression and to popularise his action.
The other youths in Sidi Bouzid took up his cause and carried messages of
his self-immolation across Tunisia and beyond. As the youth mobilised and
took to the streets with ‘a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other,’
their message cracked the walls of censorship to the point where the
dictator himself sought to mollify this rebellion by going to the hospital to
try to contain the anger of the youth and blunt the rising protest. In an
effort to gain support of the youth, the government decided to declare
2011 the year of the youth. But the youths were not waiting for a dictator
to declare the year for them; they were bent on taking the year and
making the break for a new decade.
Mohammed Bouazizi joined his ancestors on 4 January, expiring from the
self-immolation, but his act of sacrifice had acted as a spark to impress on
the youths the importance of intentionality to make a break with the old
forms of oppression. The rebellion that had been sparked by the action of
Bouazizi took over the region of Sidi Bouzid and moved from spontaneous
actions of solidarity to an organised resistance that brought in new forces
who recognised the determination of the youths. From the spontaneous