Like the analysis of most left or progressive parties, Gil Scott-Heron's famous rap, "The Revolution will not be Televised" has been proven outdated by events, though his is still a timeless, classic anthem. Millions of citizens the world over have been witnessing the upheavals in the Middle East and in Africa.
It seems that the effects of what Antonio Negri and Ray Hardt have described as the "Multitude", is in full swing. Actions by large numbers of people, mainly in Africa and the Middle East, unless met with sustained and ruthless violence, are removing once popular leaders who have become corrupt dictators.
The questions these actions raise are profound: What causes these popular leaders to become tyrants? What follows after dictators go? What is the role and the interests of the imperialist powers in these processes? Last, but not least, where are the left and progressive parties in all of this?
The first African Communist, published after the SACP was re-launched in 1953, characterised the African Revolution as the process of African countries liberating themselves from colonialism. A similar process was unfolding in South and Central America, in Asia and in the Middle East.
The patterns of dominance, influence and exploitation cast before WWII were shattered by that conflict of imperialist powers for dominance over the earth's resources. The post WWII patterns were dominated by the Cold War and the struggle between the capitalist "West" and the quasi-socialist "East".
Today, with "really existing socialism" all but a distant memory, with variants of right-wing social democracy dominant in most of Europe, and populist but neo-liberal policied regimes in those previously contested areas of Africa, Asia and South America, the questions that arises as these masses shake off the paternalistic yoke of bondage they have borne since the 1950's, are of profound significance for the world and especially future generations. While this revolutionary process is uneven, full of fits and starts and contradictions, it is clear that these moments are as significant as the French, American and Russian revolutions were.