‘The Protestors’ Change The World

The Time Magazine named ‘The Protestor’ as the Man of the Year – the symbolic person among the millions – who came on to the streets in 2011 defying and overthrowing dictators – who had ruled their countries for decades at the point of a gun – with unarmed demonstrations. Such demonstrations spread from the Middle East to Europe and America where they are protesting against the very foundations of capitalist society and corporate greed – banks and financial institutions – that invisibly rule their societies and perhaps the world.

The journal’s choice of the Man of the Year is traditionally a person, group or thing that its editors deem has had the single greatest impact during the past year for better or for worse. It is not necessarily an accolade. Its first choice was Charles Lindbergh the first man to fly across the Atlantic in 1927. Since then there have been illustrious persons such as Mohandas Gandhi and those less admired such as Hitler and even Ayatollah Khomeini who were certainly not to the liking of the editors of the conservative American publication. One year their choice was the Computer

Protestors of 2011
This year’s choice certainly cannot be disputed, the protestors who changed the economy and politics of many Middle East countries and are now posing a threat to the citadels of capitalism which commenced from New York’s Wall Street. In the Middle East changes have taken place and among Western nations Protestors are posing a threat even though the capitalist establishment has tended to shrug it off while attributing the financial crises they are facing to systemic faults in capitalism itself.
How far can this phenomenon which was named the Arab Spring go? It sparked off when the 27-year-old fruit vendor Mohamed Banazizi set him self aflame in protest against the harassment he was subjected to in Tunis. Protests against his self-immolation led to the fall of Benin Ali the Tunisian dictator who ruled the country for 26 years. From Tunisia the revolt spread to neighbouring Egypt which led to the fall of Hosni Mubarak who ruled Egypt for well over three decades and was the most powerful ruler of the region. Mubarak the leader is gone but his military is clinging onto power and the Egyptian Revolution continues with the protestors defying guns, tear gas, pepper spray and truncheons. In neighbouring Libya too protestors were successful in throwing out Gaddafi but this time it required NATO aerial bombing to displace Gaddafi. In Yemen another dictator Saleh is gone but his forces and protestors continue the physical struggle. Worse still is Syria where a near half century dictatorship of the Assads—father and son—has held the people under their jackboots. The son is in the 11th year of his reign as protestors defy his tanks and military to throw him out.

Reasons behind the Arab Spring

Political analysts have yet to pinpoint reasons behind the Arab Spring breaking out almost simultaneously in the Middle East dictatorships.
They were basically rich oil blessed countries where the rulers swam in petro-dollars while the poor had to irk out a living. But they had been complacent in their miserable state for long years. So what activated them?
The demographic structure gave the young an advantage. Some of the Middle Class had been educated in the West particularly in the United States and may have developed a spirit of independence characteristic of American youth. Still others would have been subject to the electronic revolution – radio, television and internet – which may have made them alive to the situation of living in squalor where their countries’ natural resources entitled them to far better lives. Above all youth were unemployed.
The world earlier witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Empire which was partly due to the collapse of the Soviet economy but no doubt would have also been inspired by the propaganda these countries were assailed with by America’s propaganda broadcasts such as that of the VOA. Whatever the reasons may be there has been a quantum jump in the thinking of the Middle East people from the people of the early 20th Century to this day – particularly in the last decade. The days of the present day sheikdoms appear to be numbered and so are the Arab despots backed by the west clinging onto power.

Unthinkable
In America the unthinkable happened. A small group of disgusted Americans affected  by the continuing financial crisis commenced the Occupy Wall Street Movement – an attempt to capture the citadel of American capitalism and the capitalist world. The unthinkable happened; a substantial section of the American population took to the streets demonstrating against American capitalism. Their venom and anger is not so much directed against the Democratic Party administration of President Barack Obama but at the big capitalist institutions – the banks such as J. P. Morgan whose collapse resulted in this crippling financial crisis and this contagion caught up with the rest of the  Western world.
Europe is in a worse financial crisis but mainly due to a financial collapse of its own system. There is now even a threat to the European Monetary Union with Britain threatening to move out. The Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street movement had not inspired European protestors who had taken to the streets – stoning the police, burning vehicles and tyres on the streets and shouting the same slogans as Occupy Wall Street protestors against banks and financial institutions.
While the American and European financial crises are of their own making, unprecedented public protests against the financial and even political systems have a commonality with the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements. The last movement has spread to almost 1000 American cities and it has been estimated that American demonstrators have cost the tax payer $ 22.2 million.

Revolutions and demos
All revolutions begin with street protests but all street protests need not end in revolutions. This may be the fervent hope of the besieged capitalists in the financial bastions of the world.
Demonstrations at Tiananmen Square did not lead to the overthrow of the Communist system. Neither did the Hungarian Revolt of 1958 against the Communist regime nor Prague Spring of Czechoslovakia of the sixties against the Soviet Union. Street demonstrations can only succeed in democracies which are not expected to use brute state power to crush freedom movements. Conservative Republican leaders such as Mitt Romney have been severely critical of these Wall Street protests.
He has called it dangerous class warfare but stopped short of calling a ban on the demos. Other Republicans have made serious objections to attacks on the capitalist system.
The Protest contagion is spreading. In Russia where there have been unprecedented protests against the conduct of the presidential election in which Vladimir Putin was elected. In China too public protests are breaking out regularly and so is it in Iran.
Will these unnamed, unarmed street protestors demonstrating for greater freedom usher in a new World Revolution?