Marches and “revolutions”: ” “the voice of the peoples ” “

A “red tide” crossed the roads of Tunis on March 29 and (almost) the whole world exulted. It’s the civil, popular response to the attack on the Bardo Museum of March 18, for which the Islamic State claimed responsibility. “Je suis Bardo” is the slogan of peace demonstrators, as in January “Je suis Charlie” was the motto of all those in Europe who showed solidarity towards France, shattered by the terror attack against the offices of the satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo”. A red wave is to be seen across a 21st century city and nobody gets the chills – as might have been the case when red flags were orderly hoisted during the marches of regimes on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain. Times change, and so do the symbols and their explicit and subtle meanings. Just think of how many coloured revolutions we have witnessed over the past 30-40 years, escalating since the year 2000. Thus the high tide of Tunis is a reminder of the Ukrainian orange revolution of 2004, or the green one of Azerbaijan in 2005, the same shade of Iran’s revolution in 2009. Then there are the flowers and the trees. A symbolic case is the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, in 1974. In more recent times there has been the Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003), that of the tulips in Kyrgyzstan (2005), the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon (2005) and back in Tunisia in 2010 with the Jasmine revolution, in the framework of the so-called Arab spring. The examples could go on. To the colours and flowers are added countless other symbols representing equal number of attempts to restore democracy and human rights in various world nations. In this framework it is worthwhile mentioning the “velvet” revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989, or that of the “bulldozers” in Serbia in 200, “of jeans” in Belarus in 2004, without forgetting the “yellow shoes” Revolution in Mongolia, and Saffron, an emblem of freedom in Myanmar (2007). An ordinary object, a season, a museum, a magazine, a slogan can become the “monuments” of a people’s yearning to break out of the doldrums. In the same way, the value of a flag can transcend its very original meaning. Today, the Tunisian flag, just as the crescent moon and the star, symbolical elements of Islamism, were waved also in European and American streets, metaphors of democracy and peace, in opposition to the Caliphate, to its acts of violence, to its brutal repressions in the Middle East and in Northern Africa, to terrorism that it fuels in different areas of the world. In the same way, the EU flag with 12 stars on a blue background has been a unifying element in the Ukrainian EuroMaidan protests. We could equally mention the case of the peace flag, with the colours of the rainbow, that was waved worldwide since the Perugia-Assisi peace march promoted by Aldo Capitini in 1961. Is it still the time of revolutions? Of people taking the streets to make their voices be heard? It evidently is. There are various reasons for this and an even more diverse number of leaders rise to be at the helm of the peoples. But until there are oppressed people, injustice and abuse, hunger and wars, violated rights and freedoms, such organized or spontaneous expressions of contestation, protest, rebellion will continue to take place. The same applies, as we have seen on recent occasions also in Europe, for equally noble causes regarding the respect of democracy and the fight on terror: how many cities were crowded with marches staged in the name of the defense of life or the protection of marriage? In the past months it occurred in Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Warsaw, Bratislava… just to name a few. The “gentle revolutions” that undertake the path of non-violence, of mutual respect, of civil disobedience, of conscientious objection, have been a feature of the past century, thereby counterbalancing wars, political clashes, coup d’état that occurred across Europe and in the rest of the world. Forms, passwords, vitalities of these revolutions have changed across the decades: it would be enough just to mention the Internet and its role – sometimes decisive and other times ambiguous – regarding the transformations of the “revolutionary model” and its popular involvement in recent years. Moreover, the impact of every revolt, protest, march, insurrection, should be gauged in the long term, as there also are missed revolutions, degenerated protests, betrayed springs. It has been the case of Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iran, Ukraine, Belarus, and Putin’s Russia. Real democracy, rights, social justice, economic development, role of cooperation and peace at international level: these are the criteria to measure the success of a revolution. Beyond the colours, slogans and flags.