Tunisia, Middle East. A view of things.

Trotsky. Most associated with the theory of the permanent revolution as explained here below.

Those of us who run this blog have a certain view of things. Take the events in Tunisia for example and for that matter the entire Middle East.

The first element in our view is that capitalism cannot solve the problems of this area or any area of the world. There is no solution on the basis of capitalism. All that capitalism will bring is mass starvation, looting, division and wars. We are therefore against capitalism. We see the problems in the former colonial world and in fact the world as a whole as caused by capitalism.

The second element in our view is that the only force that can end capitalism and solve the problems society faces is the working class. We therefore work to unite the working class around a program to end capitalism and with a conscious leadership based on this objective.

Over the past 100 years there have been mass organizations of the working class, the Social Democratic parties and the Stalinist parties. These parties have accommodated themselves to capitalism. That is they have given no way out for the working class to solve the problems with which it is faced.

If we take the Middle East for example there was at one stage mass workers parties in many of the countries. These tended to be mass Stalinist parties under the control of the bureaucracy of the then Soviet union. This bureaucracy was at the time entrenched in making a deal with the advanced capitalist countries and to do so they blocked these parties from moving in any way forward towards socialist revolution. They wanted to prove they were reliable partners to capitalism.

So in the Middle East for example we had capitalism unable to solve the problems, mass movements against capitalism but these movements blocked from overthrowing capitalism and solving the problems by its own parties. The result was continued exploiting of the region by capitalism and mass starvation, poverty and wars. This was unbearable to the mass of the population, the working class. Therefore inevitably we had continual uprisings and revolutionary explosions.

However these could find no way forward as there were no mass workers parties dedicated to overthrowing capitalism. The result was not hard to predict. As the saying goes nature abhors a vacuum. Vacuums are always filled. So into this vacuum in the Middle East that was caused by the pro capitalist policies of Social Democracy and Stalinism we had the rise of various forms of Islam. A set of backward ideas in every way. From the Mullahs in Iran, to Bin Laden, to the rest, these ideas look backwards not forwards, they cannot solve the problems because they are not based on ending capitalism and establishing a democratic socialist society.

But the important thing to see is this. Such backward ideas were only able to get a hold because there was no mass force fighting to overthrow capitalism and build a socialist federation of the Middle East. The conclusion therefore is simple. The decisive struggle must be to build a mass force, throughout the entire region committed to ending capitalism and establishing a democratic socislist federation of the Middle east. This is the task facing all workers and activists.

Only the working class can take the region forward. Only the working class through mass organizations with a program to take the wealth into public hands under workers control and management and establish a democratic socialist plan based on need can take the region forward.

There are real opportunities for this. Look at the events in Tunisia. These did not take place under a backward islamic banner but under a banner of democracy and taking the wealth from the rich. A clear socialist alternative was not spelled out and this is unfortunate nevertheless the fact that the Tunisian revolution is not taking place under the banner of right wing Islamic backwardness is of great importance. This must be the basis on which the a workers socialist movement should be built.

This general view of events as spelled out here and as reflected in our blog is called the theory of the permanent revolution. That is only the working class can solve the problems of society and only by overthrowing capitalism and only by spreading the revolution internationally. These are the ideas, this is the theory that is wanted in Tunisia and throughout the Middle East and internationally at the present time.

Sean.