The Permanent Revolution Must Advance in Sudan!

In December 2018, trying to prevent the economic collapse, the government took emergency austerity measures and the government has sharply devaluated the currency in Sudan. After the subventions were lifted, the rise in bread and fuel prices triggered protests against the hardship, and anger spread across the capital, Khartoum. The Sudanese army overthrew al-Bashir on April 11, but the protesters had announced that they would remain on the streets until passing to a civilian rule.

It sparked mass public protests in December 2018, then the military seized power on the 11^th April of 2019, and Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power since 1993, was overthrown in April 2019. Just like the Sisi coup d'etat in Egypt, the army once again took the strings of order so that masses would not make the regime pay for the brutality, oppression, hunger, and poverty of the decades. 

The deepening economic crisis in Sudan led to the start of mass popular protests in December 2018, and on April 11, 2019, the army seized both the leaderless revolution of the masses and the regime for the sake of the maintenance of the order. The general strike movement, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), called for a strong general strike in May that paralyzed the system. Power had been in the hands of the revolution. Miners, doctors, pharmacists, teachers, civil servants; railways, airports, oil industry, tradesmen… the whole country put a tremendous resistance against the theft of the revolution by stopping life and taking the streets. The masses were coordinated with the union leadership of the SPA, but they lacked the revolutionary party needed for the solution of the problems. Moreover, in Sudan, which had become the beneficiary of warlords, the masses were unarmed and unprotected against the bloody militias. The sympathy of the soldiers to the public could have resulted in a change of sides, but the SPA's limits did not reach this far. Hundreds of bodies were pulled from the Nile River. Vanguard women activists of the revolution were the target of reactionary tribal militias: women suffered a large share of rapes and massacres.

After the overthrow of then-President Omar al-Bashir, the Transitional Military Council was established at the end of August 2019. The remnants of the old regime were put in power: Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), the coalition of 22 bourgeois and petty-bourgeois opposition organizations, came to terms with the army. According to the agreement reached, the temporary administration would rule the country for one more year and a general election would supposedly be held. Even since then, it has been obvious that the FFC, which included elements such as the upper echelons of the army left behind by Bashir's rule, the Islamist Ummah party, and the SPA, would survive.

The negotiations between the military and the civilian wing within the transitional government were blocked, and the promised civilian government elections were postponed to 2023. Throughout 2020, resistance committees organized a series of actions, trying to pressure the government to accelerate the pace of economic and political developments. Tensions escalated after Prime Minister Hamduk and some politicians pushed for a full transition to civilian rule by November 17, in line with the agreement. A protest in Khartoum in October called for the military to seize power. A larger mass, on the other hand, took actions to hold elections as soon as possible and establish democracy. There were also disagreements among the soldiers in Sudan: On September 21, it was announced that a coup attempt by the supporters of Omar al-Bashir had been prevented. Moreover, throughout this process, the economic crisis deepened and the government had agreements with the IMF. Drought has deepened the hunger, prices have doubled with the removal of fuel subsidies; Inflation, which was 367 percent in August, soared to 423 percent in July.

Tribes, fed on war and internal conflicts and thus having strong ties to the army and the regime, also gave efforts to block the process as soon as possible. They were among the groups that milked the al-Bashir government the most. These parasites rightly see the aspirations of the Sudanese Revolution, such as democratic rights and women's rights, as a threat against their privileges. One of these tribal chiefs blockaded Sudan's largest port on the Red Sea with tacit military support, stifling Sudan's access to money, food, and fuel.

The transitional government quickly demonstrated that the order in Sudan was incapable of solving any problems. The revolutionary uprising, which started with the overthrow of the government, has passed into a phase where the permanent revolution is tested: no fundamental problem can be solved without the overthrowing of the order.

Whip of the Coup Once Again

And what was expected happened, on October 25, the army took over the government in Sudan by a coup d'etat. Prime Minister Abdullah Hamduk and ministers of the transitional government were detained. The Council and the transitional government were abolished and a state of emergency was declared. The SPA immediately called for setting up the barricades on the streets, and the nationwide protests turned into a general strike. The resistance committees in the neighborhoods and workplaces took action and brought the revolutionary energy to the streets again. At least 7 people were killed in clashes on the streets. Despite the bloody violence, hundreds of thousands gathered in Khortum on October 30 with the call of the March of Millions. It is known that there are activists who travel from the countryside to the capital for days in order to reach there. What an inspiration such energy, determination, revolutionary spirit!

The capitalist regime in Sudan is giving the people literally nothing. We know that the masses, the majority of which are youth, put their lives on the line because they want a humane life, freedom, and democracy; In a country that has been ruled by sharia law for many years, we witness women's demands for equality express itself first on the street. Unfortunately, these concepts cannot be abstracted from the prevailing order in Sudan (as in other African countries). In front of all these demands, the rulers are like a rock sitting on the road, and it is impossible to move forward without removing this rock from the road. In a society where approximately 60 percent of the population is in poverty, more than half of them are either unemployed or working in the worst conditions, struggling with drought and hunger; It is obvious that the future of Sudan will not change until the ruling classes of the order are overthrown by revolution and capitalism is defeated.

It is naive to think that the current regime in Sudan, which is based on the alliance of interests of a handful of capitalists, warlords, and corrupt high bureaucracy, with the major imperialist powers, could evolve into a democratic parliamentary system with "normal" functioning. This naivety paves the way for the strangulation of the revolution by creating illusions about the rulers and paving the way for the revolutionary masses to cooperate with the reactionary classes.

Armed militias must be established urgently so that the masses do not go through a new massacre in the coming days, and power must be centralized in resistance committees that truly control life, by overthrowing the government without hesitation with an indefinite general strike. Counterrevolutionary forces will not stop there. The weaker rulers will focus on extinguishing the fire of the revolution.

All elements of the order in Sudan must be eliminated. The property of generals, bureaucrats, bourgeois leaders and capital must be confiscated, and the demand for revolution must go beyond the political revolution and focus on the goal of social revolution: Sudan has no choice but socialism. There is no other way to save the country from its terrible poverty, inequalities, and endless conflicts. The way for the heroic workers of Sudan will not be opened until imperialism and all reactionary classes are destroyed on the African continent, that is, until the revolution is permanent.

Africa needs the glory of the permanent revolution!

Working-class to power for bread, land, democratic rights, peace, and equality!