After years, the first revolutionary process in an Arabic country is underway. Ben Ali’s Tunisian regime does not know what to do to curb the mobilization of the masses — unleashed because of the rise in prices of basic products — who, after yesterday’s announcements, are demanding his resignation. In Tunisia, a new revolutionary process is taking place, in which the vanguard is not Islamist, a process from below of young college graduates that are unemployed, lawyers, workers from industrial and mining cities, a two-hour general strike called for January 14, among other actions.

This process (followed throughout the region) is going to have an enormous impact on the whole Middle East and North Africa, where autocratic regimes exist and the masses suffer the same social conditions of poverty, destitution and exploitation. In this context, it is significant that, despite the measures of the Jordanian regime lowering the prices of essential foods, this Friday (January 14) new mobilizations have taken place. The corrupt and pro-imperialist governments of the region view the process in Tunisia with worry and they fear the contagious effect.

It will also have an enormous effect on the thousands of Tunisian immigrants and those from the Maghreb that live in France and the rest of Europe. In France, on January 13, the Labor Exchange found itself filled in a act of force not seen for some time, with hundreds of Tunisians, once again raising their heads since they cannot believe what is happening in their country, proud of singing their national anthem again after Independence. There are mobilizations in Marseilles and other French cities and a big demonstration prepared for Saturday (January 15) in Paris.

We shout:

• Long live the Tunisian revolution!
• Down with Ben Ali and all the autocrats of the Maghreb and the Middle East!
• For a Socialist Federation of the Maghreb and the Middle East!

by Juan Chingo, FT-CI, Paris, January 14, 2011