The dictator has fallen. Now it is time for the regime to fall!¶
Core Argument¶
The editorial from Marxy.com, written on the day of Ben Ali’s flight from Tunisia, argues that the fall of the dictator is not the end of the revolution but its real beginning. The core claim is that the Tunisian regime—the entire state apparatus of the bourgeoisie—must be destroyed, not merely rebranded. The text narrates the final hours of Ben Ali’s rule: his last speech of promises and threats, the continued killing of demonstrators, the declaration of a state of emergency, and the military coup that secured his escape. Mohamed Ghannouchi’s assumption of the presidency and his call for a “national unity government” are presented as a bourgeois manoeuvre to salvage the system.
The chapter draws on Marxist theory, explicitly invoking Marx’s observation that revolution is propelled forward by the whip of counter-revolution. It cites the formation of popular neighbourhood defence committees as evidence of the masses’ self-organisation, contrasting this with the treachery of the trade union bureaucracy and reformist parties. The polemic is directed squarely at these reformists: the Movement of Social Democrats, Ettajdid, and the Progressive Democratic Party. The editorial reproduces their earlier fawning statements about Ben Ali—praising his “wise leadership” and calling for “calm and dialogue”—to expose their hypocrisy as they now scramble for positions in the new order. These parties are denounced as “criminals” who spent decades preaching social peace and achieved neither democracy nor bread, whereas one month of revolutionary mass struggle toppled the dictator.
The text also addresses the role of the army. It acknowledges that the military leadership refused to fire on protesters and even fraternised with them, but warns against any trust in the institution as it stands. The army is a class instrument; its high command belongs to the ruling class. The editorial calls for regular soldiers—drawn from the working class—to elect their own officers and purge fascist elements, ultimately joining armed people’s militias under trade union and popular council control. Imperialism is also targeted: the United States and France abandoned Ben Ali only when he became a liability, and their property must be expropriated.
The argument culminates in a call for workers’ and people’s councils in factories, poor neighbourhoods, unions, and colleges, and for the expropriation of the Ben Ali and Trabelsi families and their imperialist backers. Half a revolution, it insists, is a complete mistake. The editorial positions Marxism as the only scientific worldview capable of foreseeing and guiding such upheavals, contrasting it with the blindness of bourgeois analysts who had praised Tunisia as the region’s most stable country.