Cops join protestors in streets of Tunis. Protestors battle cops in Algiers

The situation is Tunisia is classic. Now, firemen, police and national guard are distancing themselves from the government and the police have joined protestors in the streets. Al Jazeera reports that lawyers, police officers, and students joined workers in the streets of Tunis today. Some of the police were in uniform and the plain clothes wore red armbands to identify themselves and in solidarity with the workers. "They said they want to be with people now, they want to be part of the revolution," Al Jazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri reports. "They no longer want to be persecuted - they say, 'Please don't blame us for the deaths of the protesters'." She says.

Protestors are refusing to accept any ministers of the former regime and members of Ben Ali’s cabinet in a new government. One trade Unionist told Al Jazeera that the protests must go on until the RCD, the party of Ben Ali, is out of the government entirely.

The inclusion of the police in the protests reveals the fluid nature of actual struggle. While the police are not workers but an armed body of men whose purpose it is to defend the state apparatus and the ruling class, they are not immune to the power of the working class in action and any neutralizing influence on them is positive.

Demonstrators battle cops in Algiers

In Algeria there were serious clashes between police and protestors demonstrating for democratic rights in the capital. The government warned people not to show support for the demonstration as they are afraid of the Tunisian events being repeated there.

The Algerian government warning stated that "marches are not allowed in Algiers" and that "all assemblies on public roads are considered a breach of public order". Demonstrations are banned in Algeria because of a state of emergency in place since 1992.

There have also been clashes between protestors and state forces in Albania and Belarus. We often say that consciousness lags behind events and for those of us that recognized the shift in consciousness and a more favorable objective situation in the aftermath of the recent and ongoing economic crisis it comes as no surprise. The political crisis is following on the heels of the economic one.

In the Middle East in particular, the success of the western imperialist interests in helping Islamic or other dictatorial regimes maintain power while crushing national democratic and left movements has left a huge vacuum of leadership among the working class of the region. But the recent events are moving rapidly and certainly in Tunisia, the revolutionary process has not yet exhausted itself.

We can expect more releases from the Wikileaks archive in the coming weeks ahead. These revelations will fuel anger among workers throughout the world and embolden opposition movements.

Had you asked all the so-called experts on international relations one week before the Tunisian uprising if the regime of Ben Ali was stable, they all would have said it was entrenched.

When the working class enters the arena, all bets are off. These are exciting times.