The People's Spring

The 2011 outburst of uprisings by the Arab peoples caught the world's attention. But can the 'Arab Spring' live up to the hopes invested in it? Amin's incisive analysis shows that although this 'spring' coincides with the 'autumn' of capitalism, the current Arab uprisings are primarily anti-imperialist and not anti-capitalist movements. To take control of shaping their future, Arab peoples need to avoid a retreat into Islamisation, to unify in a positive and genuinely new alternative for secular democracy, and struggle alongside other people against both capitalism and imperialism.

If workers in the imperial centres also to rise up the resulting alliance could lead to a transition towards socialism. Alternatively capitalism's decline could pull humanity into widespread barbarity. There are powerful forces pulling in this direction: the US/NATO project for military control of the planet, the decline of democracy in the imperialist countries and the rejection of democracy by religious fundamentalists in countries of the South. The 2011 uprisings offer a glimpse of an alternative future. But the challenge is huge, not only for the Arab and Islamic world but also for all the radical left, in the South and the North. The events currently taking place become comprehensible, enabling us to face up to their challenges, only in the light of understanding them in the long term.