Burkina Faso

Over the last few days, the events in Burkina Faso have been moving at lightning speed. Just weeks before elections were due to be held, the most reactionary wing of the regime, the Presidential Protection Regiment (RSP), overthrew the transitional government in a coup. This has interrupted the country’s so-called transitional period and it has thrown the regime into complete chaos.

Burkina Faso’s Presidential Protection Regiment (RSP) has carried out an overnight coup in the capital Ouagadougou.

The revolutionary overthrow of Blaise Compaoré on 31 October 2014 was a fundamental turning point for Burkina Faso. It brought an entire country to its feet. It released pressures which have been accumulating for decades. After being under the jackboot of the Compaoré counterrevolution for 27 years, the masses of the “Land of the Upright People” have dramatically entered the stage of history. The transitional government which filled the gap left by Compaoré’s departure has been a regime of turmoil and crises. At bottom, this is as a result of pressures from the mass movement. Now, after months of turmoil, the ruling class is desperately trying to channel the situation into some kind of bourgeois democratic order. But the elections, scheduled for 11 October, will change nothing fundamental for the masses. It will only serve as a new stage for the struggle.

The situation in Burkina Faso has been moving at lightning speed since the revolution erupted on Thursday, 30 October. Not only did the revolutionary masses overthrew the hated Blaise Compaoré, but also his hand-picked successor, general Honoré Traoré, just a few hours later. Since then the regime has been reeling. Meanwhile, the military tops, some reactionary elements within the opposition and the major imperialist powers have been scrambling to hatch some kind of a deal to pacify the masses and restore some sort of bourgeois normality.