One of the challenges faced by those who observe the uprisings in extending North Africa and Middle East is not so much read as repetitions of the past, but as original experiments that open up new political possibilities relevant far beyond the region, freedom and democracy. In fact, our hope is that through this cycle of struggle the Arab world to become the next ten years in what was Latin America in the last decade: a laboratory for political experimentation between powerful social movements and progressive governments in Argentina Venezuela and Brazil to Bolivia. These riots have been away a kind of ideological cleansing that swept through the racist of a clash of civilizations that Arab politics relegated to the past. Crowds of Tunis, Cairo and Benghazi demolish political stereotypes that Arabs are limited to a choice between secular dictatorship and fanatical theocracy, or that Muslims are somehow incapable of freedom and democracy. Until that is called "revolutions" to deceive those struggles seem commentators who assume that the advance of the events must obey the logic of 1789, 1917 or some other European revolt of the past.
Current Arab revolutions broke out in connection with the issue of unemployment, and its core consists of young highly educated with frustrated ambitions, a sector of the population that has much in common with students Protest in London and Rome.
While the main requirement in the Arab world focuses on the end of tyranny and authoritarian rule behind this demand is a series of social demands that not only signal the end of dependence and poverty, but also transfer of power to an intelligent and highly skilled population. The abandonment of power by al-Avidin Zine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak or Muammar Gaddafi is only the first step. The organization of the riots remember what we have been seeing for more than ten years from Seattle to Buenos Aires, Geneva and Cochabamba, Bolivia: a horizontal network that has no single central leader. Traditional opponents bodies can participate in that network, but can not direct it. Outside observers have tried to appoint a leader of the Egyptian revolt from its beginning: perhaps Mohamed ElBaradei, perhaps the marketing manager for Google, Wael Ghonim. They fear that the Muslim Brotherhood or other organization to take control of events. What I do not understand is that the crowd can be arranged without a center, that the imposition of a leader or assimilation into a traditional organization would undermine their power. The predominance in the riots of social networking tools such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, is a symptom, not a cause, of that structure. These are the forms of expression of an intelligent population able to organize independently.
While these movements reject the central management should strengthen their claims to link the most active segments of the rebellion to the needs of the vast majority of the population. The uprisings of young Arabs certainly do not point to a traditional liberal constitution is limited to ensure a regular electoral dynamics, but rather a form of democracy suited to the new forms of expression and the needs of the crowd. That should include, above all, a constitutional recognition of freedom of expression.
Moreover, given that what triggered the uprising was not only unemployment and poverty, but also the productive capacity and frustrated expression, especially among the young, a radical constitutional response is to devise a common plan for managing natural resources and social production. This is a threshold that neoliberalism can not pass and questioning capitalism. An Islamic government is completely inadequate to address those needs. Here the insurgency not just about the balance of northern Africa and the Middle East but also for the global system of economic management.
Hence our hope that the Arab world into something like Latin America, inspiring political movements and increase the desire for freedom and democracy throughout the region. Every rebellion, of course, can fail: the tyrants can unleash a bloody crackdown, the military juntas may try to stay in power, the traditional opposition groups are trying to absorb the movements, and religious hierarchies may strive to take control. However, what will not die political demands and desires that were triggered, the aspirations of a younger generation smart in a different life that might give a boost to its capacity.
While these wishes and demands are still alive, the cycle of struggle will continue. The question is what the world will teach these new experiments of freedom and democracy in the next ten years.
© The Guardian, 2011.
Ibarburu Joaquin lyrics.
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