Following the overthrow of Ben Ali in Tunisia, and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, all regimes in the Middle East—whether considered "friendly" or "hostile" by the West—have been challenged by the spreading revolutionary movement.
The great storm of revolt that began in a small town in Tunisia now sweeps from Morroco across thousands of miles of North Africa and the Middle East through to Iran, as this map shows.
The revolts sweeping the Middle East have burst like thunder storms across a region long considered beyond change, carried by people long considered incapable of fighting back.
The light of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the only successful workers’ insurrection in history so far, still burns bright almost 100 years on. Its story contains lessons for all those fighting for change today.
The Egyptian revolution is a blow to all those who think change is impossible. There is an exhilaration to those moments when ordinary people overthrow an old society and start to build a fresh one.
"I think this revolution will carry on. The spirit of the country had been regained and revitalised. People, even if they are in a comfortable position, want to work for the public good.
Leon Trotsky recalls in his memoirs that, immediately after the Russian Revolution of October 1917, Lenin said to him in German, "Es schwindelt"—"It makes one dizzy."
