‘My name is Ozymandias, King of kings. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’ Faced with the works of twenty-first century capitalism, in particular the nightmare being suffered by the Palestinian masses, despair is an understandable reaction. This famous line by the 19th century poet Shelley, however, does not point towards despair, but to revolution. He describes it inscribed on the pedestal of a broken old statue, once erected to an Egyptian dictator, long since dethroned and his monument abandoned in the desert.
Thirteen years ago, in the ‘Arab Spring’ – the revolutionary movement which swept North Africa and parts of the Middle East – more than one modern day Ozymandias was overthrown. However, because the working class and poor masses did not succeed in taking and consolidating power, the old order came surging back. Current events show beyond all doubt how rotten that order is, and the necessity of bringing it to an end.
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