Tunisia

Tunisia: "everyone is promising everything"

Oussama, of Ligue de la Gauche Ouvrière (LGO, Workers’ Left League) in Tunisia, spoke to Ed Maltby. At its first meeting, the Haute Instance — the body overseeing Tunisia’s first open election — decided to put back the provisional date of 24 July. This was for a purely technical and logistical reason. The new [provisional] date is 16 October. The League were for moving back the date. There are other parties still in favour of 24 July, like Ennahda [Islamist party], and the Progressive Democratic Party, who are still contesting the decision. These parties are ready for the elections. They have...

New repression in Tunisia – support the workers' movement!

See details of emergency protest against police repression here . Since Thursday 5 May, the Tunisian police have been carrying out a campaign of repression against demonstrators, on a scale not seen since the overthrow of Ben Ali on January 14. The Tunisian police, who are still commanded by old-regime loyalists, charged and beat demonstrators, including children. Police in black balaclavas shot huge quantities of tear-gas into crowds. As far as we know, no activists were arrested – just beaten. Leftwing activists and journalists were targeted in particular, and publishing houses were raided...

Tunisia: we should push for a workers' government

On 24 February there was the movement that we call here “Casbah 2” — more than 300,000 people demanding that Ghannouchi go. On 27 February Ghannouchi and the other Rally for Constitutional Democracy (RCD) ministers resigned. Everybody demanded a “technocratic” government to lead the country “administratively”. But in my opinion the far left committed an error in demanding a “technocratic” government. The January 14th Front [a coalition of left groups] made the mistake of not advancing the demand for a workers’ and popular government. The new government has come to satisfy the popular demand...

More interviews with Tunisian activists

Mounjia Hadfi is a women’s rights activist and Marxist based in Tunis. Under the dictatorship, and today, we see patriarchal attitudes every day. Part of that has to do with our culture here in Tunisia, even in spite of our legal victories such as the banning of polygamy in 1950 and laws guaranteeing the right to abortion and so on, which were passed in the 1970s as part of the population planning policy. But sexist mentalities and oppression persist. Many women have even internalised these attitudes! We must unveil all the forms of oppression and all the sexist attitudes which exist. We see...

On the streets of Tunis

I arrived in Tunis just after the army had prevented a third Casbah sit-in, aimed at extracting fundamental democratic reforms from the third government, under the octogenarian Sebsi. The movement was in something of a lull, but there were tanks and razorwire all over the city centre, periodic clashes with the police, and new graffiti appearing every day: “Down with repression”; “The women of Tunisia are free”; “Down with Sebsi”; “Secularism”; “Free at last”. The revolutionary movement in Tunisia is still ongoing. Despite the fact that press freedom has not yet been fully won, the Tunisian...

An ongoing revolution

Interview with Jalel Ben Brik Zoghlami, a lawyer and one of the leaders of the Ligue de la Gauche Ouvrière (LGO – Workers’ Left League). He was formerly a leader of the-Organisation Communiste Révolutionnaire (OCR, Revolutionary Communist Organisation, Tunisian section of the Fourth International). He was interviewed by Jan Malewski on 19 February 2011, before the fall of the Ghannouchi government. Since December 2010 the Tunisian masses have overthrown the dictator Ben Ali and given the signal for revolt throughout the Arab world and beyond. Back in November, this would have seemed impossible...

Two interviews with Tunisian left activists

Ed Maltby recently visited Tunisia and interviewed a number of Tunisian left activists. "Thank-you Facebook" (graffiti on wall in Tunis) Maher is a facebook activist and blogger. The role of internet activism in the fall of the regime began before the revolution. We organised a collective online called "anti-ZBA" [ZBA are the initials of Zinedine Ben Ali]. That group's role was to support the demonstrations and prepare people for action. We were in a dictatorship which blocked information from people. It closed all the doors of expression, especially of the internet. For people in Tunisia...

Tunisian left organises

Loumamba, an activist in the Ligue de la Gauche des Travailleurs (Left Workers’ League), spoke to Ed Maltby There are around 100 in the LGT; it was re-founded recently. Our major implantation is in grassroots unions organising in education, the post, phosphate mining, petrochemicals. There is a struggle within the revolution between a moderate current and a radical current. We are co-ordinating this latter current, which has been mobilised by radical left activists and which has existed for a long time. Popular committees still exist in towns and villages and they are protecting the gains of...

Strikes, fatwas and repression

The Tunisian Ministry of Defence has asked all reservists to report to barracks from 16 February. That may indicate a crackdown against the bubbling workers’ movement is being prepared by the transitional government. In Tunisia, class struggle is continuing. Strikes and protests are breaking out in many different sectors of the economy as groups of workers take advantage of the relative political freedoms. On 13 February, the new Tunisian foreign minister, Ahmed Ounaies, resigned following strikes by workers in the ministry. The strikes were sparked by Ounais’ complimentary remarks about the...

"Already people in Iraq are taking to the streets"

Nadia Mahmood from the Worker-communist Party of Iraq spoke to Solidarity about the impact of the upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt on Iraq and the whole Middle East. This version of the interview is longer than the abridged version in the printed paper. These two great revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt are opening a new arena in the entire world. They have a huge impact and influence on the people in the Middle East in general and all over the world. The victory of the revolution in Tunisia and Egypt has forced all western governments to abandon one of their loyal allies, under the pressure of...

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