Uprising, imperialism and uncertainty http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/72342

In an interview with The Real News[/url], Pambazuka editor-in-chief Firoze Manji made the important point that there is far more to the uprisings than just the removal of dictators – there is collective discontent with the whole post-colonial project. Independence and democracy have in reality proved to be myths in the minds of the people:

‘But the real, real thing is and real common thing that everyone faces has been 30 years of structural adjustment programs, 30 years where all social services have been privatized, 30 years where there has been massive accumulation by dispossession. You have the peasantry losing land. You have people migrating to the cities. You have a huge decline in income. And what we have most seriously is not just dispossession of land and of resources and services, but also a dispossession politically.’