Is the age of revolutions over?

Jayatilleke de Silva

Much conservative thought still dominates the Lankan media, showing the dominance of the West. Such thought is considered axiomatic. No attempt is made to challenge it. Consider an example.

Is the age of revolutions over? Naturally those conservative elements who jubilantly celebrated the "end of history" at the demise of the Soviet Union were quick to answer the above question with an emphatic 'Yes".

It was something to be expected during the heyday of neo-liberalism when Margaret Thatcher declared TINA (There is no alternative). However, now when neo-liberalism reeling under mortal blows delivered by the global financial crisis and the rolling back of neo-liberal formulae by the US, the UK and other developed countries only a cynic could give the same affirmation.

Here, in Sri Lanka, even so-called socialists from pale blue, pink to deep red concur with the neo-liberals. Recently at a meeting to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution a speaker was asked why there were no revolutions since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Beneath the question was a belief that under globalization not only the national state but also its antidote the social revolution would 'whither away.'

Nepalese revolution

The rebuke from the speaker was why they have not witnessed the successful Nepalese revolution in our own neighbourhood that replaced a long-standing monarchy. It is a profound democratic revolution that has taken place in Asia since the defeat of US imperialism in Indo-China. It was the result of a combination of a prolonged armed struggle and a popular non-violent people's uprising.

Apparently revolution has been understood in a narrow sense by many. Though it is necessary a question of state power it does not mean that it should always be associated with violent overthrow of the existing state.

Very often counter-revolutions are associated with more violence and blood baths as it happened in the case of Allende's Chile and in Indonesia during the military take-over by Suharto, not to speak of the recent genocide by Israel in Gaza.

Perhaps, it would be interesting to define what a social revolution is. Even if one keeps aside the classical class based Marxist definition of social revolution one could agree with Professor Jeffrey M. Paige of the University of Michigan that " A revolution is a rapid and fundamental transformation in the categories of social life and consciousness, the metaphysical assumptions on which these categories are based, and the power relations in which they are expressed as a result of widespread popular acceptance of a utopian alternative to the current social order."

Leftward shift

In Latin America a continental social revolution is unfolding at the moment. It is not a national revolution limited to one country as was the case in Cuba. A Leftward shift is distinctly visible in many countries in the Western Hemisphere where popular pro-poor regimes that came to power from the ballot are experimenting on a new form of democracy much different and much participatory and much advanced than what is found in the West with its symbolic voting and uninterrupted rule of the haves over the have-nots.

It is not a question of ballot or the bullet. It is a question whether the masses of deprived people would tolerate the present order or not.

There is much talk that globalization has diminished the role of the state and hence revolution has become redundant. However, the recent crisis has made everyone understand it is not small government but more and more government that is required.

A prominent Minister was reported to have propounded a theory that with the onset of the electronic age, particularly the birth of the Internet and knowledge society classical class struggle is no more valid and socialism has no future.

Solidarity

Perhaps he would have been unaware that the Internet was the most powerful instrument used by the Zapatista rebellion of the Mexican indigenous population to achieve success and international solidarity. In today's world when science, technology and knowledge have become powerful forces of production their further development would undoubtedly bring forth new social forces that would herald future revolutions.

The global movement for social justice, a project that relies much on the Internet, includes heterogeneous social forces that call for a new world order. Ecological crisis is pushing more and more classes into the struggle for social change. The crystallization of these forces in future would surely supply the leadership for a revolution that is both global and local in many countries.