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

actions of the youths, the rebellion took on an all-class character as
teachers, lawyers, workers, trade unionists, small scale entrepreneurs and
other social forces joining in this first phase of the revolution. Within a
week of the passing of Mohammed Bouazizi, the revolution had spread to
Tunis and the masses had joined in the streets to topple the dictatorship.
THE FALL OF THE ZINE AL-ABIDINE BEN ALI REGIME
Ben Ali was like so many other African leaders who had joined the anticolonial
struggles only to take over the habits and behaviour of the
colonialists. Tunisia had become independent in 1956 and the ruling party
developed authoritarian principles as it sold itself as a base for Western
capitalism. The more the society ingratiated itself with the West, the more
the ruling sections of the political class felt a sense of impunity, believing
that Western support could shield them from popular opposition. In the
case of Ben Ali, he had not only supported a rabid form of corruption, his
regime earned praise as one of the firmest supporters of the war against
terrorism.
This support of France and the USA concealed the economic terrorism of
capitalism, but as the global economic depression took its toll on the
people, there were protests to reveal the extent of the terror and
corruption of the dictator who had been in power since 1987. The ruling
party was dominated by the national capitalist class, as well as the foreign
multinationals and banks that cooperated to establish free-trade zones
where workers could not organise. Unemployment and poverty among the
youth had made them a pool of cheap reserve labour to be manipulated by
religious and political leaders, but youths such as Mohammed Bouazizi had
risen above the politicisation of religion. When the rebellion spread to
Tunis by 10 January, the maturation of years of agitation immediately
manifested itself in the slogans of the rebellion:
‘Down with the party of thieves, down with the torturers of the people.’
These slogans of rebellion resonated with all sections of the oppressed and
initially Ben Ali dismissed the demonstrations as terrorists as the police
shot and killed unarmed civilians. Ben Ali called the demonstrations the
work of masked gangs ‘that attacked at night government buildings and
even civilians inside their homes in a terrorist act that cannot be
overlooked’. This reflex of calling the bogey of terrorism did not scare the
people, and by Thursday 13 January the anger of the families of those shot
in cold blood was buttressed by the maturation of the popular resistance
to the dictatorship. The president’s billionaire son-in-law ran away and by
Friday Ben Ali, who had promised the masses that he would not stand for
the presidency in 2014, fled the country. While in flight even his
imperialist allies deserted him. It was only the Libyan dictator Muammar
al-Gaddafi who had the temerity to castigate the Tunisian people for
removing Ben Ali from power. Gadaffi spoke for the other dictators across
Africa and the Middle East when he said in a televised address that, ‘You
[Tunisians] have suffered a great loss. There is none better than Zine [Ben
Ali] to govern Tunisia.’
Gaddafi exposed the fact that the African unity that he represented was
the unity of dictators. But even as he spoke the revolution was moving to
the third stage as the caravans of liberation converged on Tunis as the
ideas and principles of self-organisation and self-emancipation spread
across Africa. Initially, other European leaders were silent, but as the
gravity and seriousness of the Tunisian workers and youth became a force
in international politics the government of Switzerland froze the accounts
of Ben Ali and his family. Former allies of Ben Ali such as the leaders of the
USA and France distanced themselves from his rule as the images of