ARTSPEAK: NEGOTIATING REVOLUTION.

When we think of revolutions, most people visualise the cataclysmic events of the 1789-1799 French Revolution, the barbarism of which has been sanitised as 'liberte, egalite, fraternite' (liberty, equality and brotherhood). The French Reign of Terror inspired Russia's 1918-1922 Red Terror, which sought to eliminate political dissent, opposition and any other threat to Bolshevik power.

These revolutions, with the reprisals and counter-revolutionary actions that followed, came to be seen as a threat to progress. Market democracy was proposed as an alternative to people power, but quickly morphed into a market economy, building up wealth in the hands of a few.

George Lawson disagrees that revolutions should be consigned to history. Instead, he proposes the idea of a negotiated revolution. Instead of 'a fight to the finish, comes a process in which the old regime and revolutionaries together negotiate the destruction of the old order and the birth of a new nation.'

China, whose Great Leap Forward of 1958-1961, and the 1966 Cultural Revolution, where Red Guards had to be reined in from creating complete civil disorder, settled upon a negotiated revolution with Revolutionary Committees made up of rebels, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and old cadres, to return the economy to stability.

The best example of a negotiated revolution in modern history is that of South Africa. After decades of Apartheid, a peaceful transition was achieved, with no bloodshed, and reprisals were avoided by Truth and Reconciliation Committees.

While people are often fearful and sceptical of change, it is often not only necessary but also inevitable

Despite the spontaneous violence that marred the partition of India, it was in essence a negotiated revolution. The end of Britain's largest colonial enterprise, and the creation of two nations, was achieved at the discussion table.

Further back in history, a remarkable negotiated revolution was established by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Sulah Hudaibiya, a contract of peace between the believers of Madina and the non-believers of Makkah, was a preamble to the general amnesty offered to all who had plotted against Islam, as the Prophet rode into Makkah on his favorite camel Al-Kaswa in 630 AD. He referred to the Prophet Yusuf who...