Since 2010 the Arab world has flared up with Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Mali all racked by revolt. These conflicts coalesced with those of Iraq and the unfinished struggle of the Palestinians for nationhood. This activity covers the Middle East and a large arc of North Africa from the east to the west. Other neighbouring countries like Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Sudan, Nigeria, Chad and the, Central African Republic are embroiled. Refugees flee and armed groups cross over borders made porous as central governments lose control of the peripheries of their nations. The people, forces and factions are many and they represent nationalities, tribes, political parties, religions and sects or combinations and alliances of these elements.
The beginnings of the Tunisian uprising have been widely publicised with flash points ignited by public atrocities inflicted by the police, and army. With over a half century of turmoil, Yemen has been described as a failed state, an economy unable to support its people. Situated on the Arabian Peninsula it has been a source of unresolved internal conflict since the 1960s.There are various rebellious forces. The sectarian divide is acute and there are significant Shia rebel forces. Al-Qaeda and ISIS has groups operating there. There is one U.S. drone attack a day in Yemen. The assassinations are worked out once a week in White House meetings of the U.S. President and his security chiefs. Yemen’s powerful neighbour, Saudi Arabia has long been overtly and covertly interfering in its affairs. This has culminated in the bombardment and invasion in March 2015 by Saudi Arabian, and other Gulf state armed forces to remove the Houthy forces who have seized power in the capital Sanaa, following the fall of the Yemeni President
Libya was once described by US figures as “beyond the axis of evil”. It was picked off in 2011, after a brief reconciliation and dalliance between its leader, Muammah Gadhafi and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair with US President George W. Bush. Gadhafi offered oil deals and co-operation against Al-Qaeda in return for political rapprochement, investment and trade deals. When Blair and Bush tired of dallying with him, they began a campaign for “human rights” and threatened war. Our own Colonel Blimp, Foreign Minister (at the time) Rudd rattled the sword and urged action against the Gadhafi government. After many threats and meetings, the US (in particular Hilary Clinton), the UK and Europeans, in particular former French President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed and funded the insurrection. With Special Forces on the ground and air cover supplied by NATO and the French Air Forces; the Gadhafi regime was dissembled in a bloodbath that left the tens of thousands dead and injured. Eight years later Libya is a chaotic collection of tribes and regional groups each with its militia. Forces allied to Islamic State have carried out atrocities there. The central government is powerless; its national sovereignty severely diminished a supplicant to imperial demands of the U.S., U.K and NATO.
Bahrain, like Yemen is situated uncomfortably close to Saudi Arabia. There were a number of uprisings by an impoverished Shia population in Bahrain, against a Sunni monarchy. Saudi armed forces were brought in to quell the revolt. Egypt has been an important source of inspiration, heat and light for Middle East. The corrupt US crony, Mubarak was ousted from his eternal presidency. His brutal prisons were filled with a range of people from progressives to jihadists and rendition victims of the USA. The long established semi- underground Muslim Brotherhood won a slight majority in a later election. A well organised and concerted internal and international press campaign alleging corruption and incompetence combined with a large upwelling of popular discontent in the form of demonstrations and occupations brought the Muslim Brotherhood President Mursi down in July 2013. Then the Egyptian military stepped in to take control. Mursi and top Muslim brotherhood officials were arrested. There was a massacre of Brotherhood supporters by the military- at least 50 people were shot. Many thousands were jailed or disappeared. The Brotherhood was accused of being too close to Hamas, the Palestinian Muslim organisation. The Mursi government was accused of wielding power without democracy. They prevented changes that would have allowed the organisation of independent trade unions and workers organisation. The Mursi government could not deal with its huge deficit and sought $12 billion loans to refinance its debts. The U.S., Saudi Arabia and Qatar abandoned the Mursi government. After the military takeover the U.S. resumed its military aid and supplies to the Egyptian military and very soon money started flowing again. Old Mubarak era figures regained their prominence.
The Muslim Brotherhood represents reactionary theocratic elite. Although it had some credibility by standing up to British rule in the colonial era as well as providing a religious based charity network for people in Egypt. Its leadership lost closeness with the urban masses long ago by its deep social conservatism and its embrace of monopoly capitalism. The Financial Times of London reported that “throughout its nine decades, the Brotherhood has encouraged its members to enter the professions and commerce. A number of them have built up huge fortunes in the real estate, food, textile and health sectors” There are a variety of forces involved in Egypt class, political, religious, regional, urban and rural. Some have a vision; others want to retain old shackles of religion, others to manage the shackles to another form of servitude to the cronies of imperialism (the old “partner” the USA). Egypt is in ferment and its people are having a fast- moving political education. It is a cultural pivot in the Arab world that cannot be ignored by the other people of the region.
When the major battles ended in Libya and Bahrain; fighting broke out in Syria. The U.S.A., Britain, France and the rest of NATO began threatening Syria with sanctions, arming Syrian militias. China and Russia resisted interference in Syrian affairs in the UN Security Council. Many countries of the Third world supported Syria against this outside aggression. Billions of dollars of money and arms has poured into armed Syrian anti-government groups from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and NATO. Two thousand Tunisian troops plus Al-Qaeda, ISIS and other foreign armed jihadist groups are at work in Syria attacking the government. The Syrian Government faced with blockades and sanctions is reliant on friends like Iran, Russia and Lebanese Hezbollah. The sectarian nature of the violence has become alarming even to some so- called human rights spokesmen for the imperial powers. But this was nothing until the arrival of Islamic State; a sectarian Sunni based force that came to prominence in January 2014. It arose out of a faction of Al-Qaida in Iraq. It attracted support from disaffected Iraqi Sunnis and anti-government Syrian Sunni forces. I.S. also has received support from thousands of foreign fighters from every continent. Islamic State has control of a large area of northern Iraq and Syria. It made a symbolic media point of bulldozing the fence of the Iraq /Syria border which was devised in 1916 as the Sykes-Picot Line formally known as The Asia Minor Agreement . This secret agreement divided the former Ottoman Empire up in to British and French spheres. Islamic State is in part a response as it rejects all modern borders and states. Declaring itself a caliphate with authority over Muslims worldwide.
The classic tactic of divide and rule inside countries and between countries is employed by the imperialist powers, the USA, NATO , supplicant states like Saudi Arabia and their attack dog, Israel.
It sets ethnic group, religions and sects within religions against each other when previously national governments have precariously tried to restrain inter-communal tensions from reaching boiling points. These have been achieved by allocating some political roles or powers to some groups or alternating the presidency. Sometimes local autonomy has calmed independence tendencies. Some more advanced thinkers can see the dangers posed by unleashing these tensions. There may be spill over and unintended consequences. The war in Syria washed over into Lebanon and Turkey where local Sunnis, Shia, and Alawites have organised to support their brethren across borders. Similarly, the Kurds are flexing their nationhood. Their populations span Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. They have had a protracted struggle for independence and gained concessions in Turkey and Iraq. Presently some Kurdish groups in Syria are operating as a local governmental authority.
No surprise that reactionaries flock together to suppress peoples’ rebellion. They all stand to lose if the mass outbreaks show sustained momentum, cohesion across class, ethnic and religious divides and if they develop mass support. This is a slow and torturous path. Old prejudices fuelled by recent atrocities and repression are hard to shake off. Yet the common path of poverty unites them more than they now realise.
The only solution for the nations of the
Middle East and the nations of the world is to throw off the heavy yoke of
imperialism that is choking national aspirations to fit in to the investment
plans of Wall St, London, Paris and Frankfurt and then plan a path to national
independence and complete sovereignty. This can be accomplished by the
politically most advanced groups- the disadvantaged who have nothing to lose
with the end of their moribund societies. It is the workers and peasants of the
Middle East who suffer most acutely in resource rich countries looted for their
oil wealth by the big powers. The role allocated for so many of them is as a
source of cheap labour, petroleum and
gas supplies. Their industries and economies are undeveloped often locked out
of Europe and the US markets. The high unemployment rate and lack of jobs see
many fleeing to Europe or other 1st World countries. Some people can
see the potential of the future, the recognition of necessity and a future without the hegemony of imperialist
powers.
