Revolution in Tunisia must reach out and spread the process throughout the region.

Reports today say that all ministers in the Tunisian government have followed the representatives from the Unions’ lead and have broken from the former ruling party forced by the pressure form below. Protesters had gathered outside the RCD headquarters in Tunis demanding that ministers associated with the rule of Ben Ali leave the government.

The central committee of the RCD has been disbanded and property of the Ben Ali clan has been seized and family members arrested apparently. An army commander said to demonstrators today: "We are on your side and we will not shoot."

"People are saying that it is not a revolt, but it is a revolution and therefore the outcome should be brand new faces." , writes one Al Jazeera correspondent, "this government is being undermined by ongoing protests ... This is a strong signal to the government."

The new government has desperately been trying to convince the ministers from the Unions to return as "It will be the union's presence that can win this government the public support that it needs," Al Jazeera adds. The workers leaders will be needed to hold back the revolutionary process.

At the moment it seems that there is a struggle going on over whether or not the interim government should be supported. The first round, the elimination of any remnants of the RCD from the process seems to have gone to the workers although every effort will be made to co-opt the Union ministers and use them. Also, whether the Tunisian masses will tolerate the presence of ministers who simply resigned from the RCD seems unlikely at this point.

As in all these situations when the class struggle breaks out in to the open, a stalemate cannot last forever, one side has to impose its will on the other. There is a genuine revolution from below taking place in Tunisia with the problem being the absence of a leadership able to pull it together and spread it throughout the region. There is no doubt that the conditions are overripe for such a development and the Arab capitalist class and their imperialist allies are well aware of this potential and the dangers of it.

They will use everything in their power, including crushing the movement with violence if they have to. The community and workers’ committees that have emerged during this revolutionary process must be strengthened and expanded in to the military and all aspects of life. These committees are the organs that can elect delegates to a Constituent Assembly and should spread this process throughout the region. In Algeria, Mauritania and Egypt, similar conditions exist and some protests have also broken out there.

The spreading of the Tunisian revolutionary process, linking up with workers throughout the region is the only way that the efforts of the imperialist countries and their corrupt Arab allies to derail the process can be defeated.