Guardian Weekly

When revolutionaries end up as dictators, the people pay the price Simon Tisdall

Who betrayed the revolution? It’s a question exercising Cubans after last week’s harsh regime crackdown on street protesters marching for freedom. It’s also a conundrum for other erstwhile liberation movements now wielding power in places as far apart as South Africa, Nicaragua and Palestine. Too often, it seems, the new bosses behave little better than the old bosses they overthrew.

Those on the progressive left face an obvious dilemma when revolutionary causes backfire.

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