Democratic Tunisia can’t stop the revolt of the unemployed

In the eighties, the Bourguiba government, following the IMF’s directions, had bet on the development of tourism and exports, neglecting the inner regions. For this reason, following the rise of grain prices, the city was in the vanguard of the 1984 bread riots, during which 184 proletarians were killed. But the region continued to be ignored during the next two decades of the Ben Ali government.

During the 30 day so-called Jasmine Revolution of 2011, Kasserine, a city of west-central Tunisia, has paid its tribute in blood. More than 50 people in Kasserine died from government snipers positioned on rooftops. The crimes committed in Kasserine by the former regime were never fully acknowledged by the new democratic order, which fuelled the distrust of the population.

On January 12th, high school students staged a revolt and set their school on fire. On the anniversary of the so-called Tunisian revolution, January 14th, a 28 year old recent graduate, Ridha Yahyaoui, during a youth organization protest against their exclusion from a public competition, climbed on a light pole where he was electrocuted, dying two days later.

The masses were moved by against the Ben Ali regime in 2010 by a suicide and another tragic event dragged tens of thousands of proletarians into the streets against an equally ruthless class regime, now cloaked by democracy. At dawn, on January 17th, 500 unemployed young people threw stones at the headquarters of the governorate1 of Kasserine kicking off a new revolt. Police responded with tear gas, but an impressive demonstration passed through the streets of the city gathering thousands of young proletarians and fighting off the attacks of the gendarmerie. Within a few hours the revolt had already spread to the nearby cities of Zouhour and Ennour.

The terrorist methods of the Ben Ali regime continue to be used by the new democratic government against those who fighting to improve their conditions. In prisons and barracks, the National Guard gendarmerie continues to torture systematically. Terror remains the only means available to a bourgeoisie incapable of satisfying the essential needs of the lower classes. Tunisian proletarians have quickly learned the illusory nature of the democratic solution to their problems and are now conscious of the true content of the new constitutional freedoms.

The uprising spread across the country and thousands of young workers came into open conflict with the police in Sfax, Siliana, Mdhilla, Meknassi, Tahla, Fernana, Meknassi, Beja, Jendouba, Sidi Bouzid, Kebilli and Redeyeff. Just two days after the death of Ridha Yahyaoui, 14 of the 24 governorates of Tunisia were engulfed by the revolt. On January 18, a small march also reached the capital.

Meanwhile, the base unions announced a three day strike in the hospital in the town of Ben Arous.

On the fifth day of clashes in Kasserine, January 19, a 6 pm to 5 am curfew was decreed. Clashes across the country occurred on the evening of January 20th and the official report of the Ministry of the Interior details one death and 80 serious injuries among the police.

On the same day the headquarters of the governorate of Tunis was occupied by the UGET student union, which demanded a job for every family. In Carthage, clashes occurred within a few hundred meters of the presidential palace and at night broke out in several suburbs. In almost all of the governorates public offices are closed for security reasons.

On January 20th, there are also riots in the cities of Tozeur, Medenine, Gafsa, Sidi Bouzid, Kairouan, Sfax and Enfidha.

In Kebili, between 20 and 21 January crowds set fire to National Guard offices and, according to reports from a local radio station, police and gendarmerie2 withdrew from the city. The army had to intervene directly to restore order. On 23 and 24 January more minor outbreaks occurred.

The situation is settling down. The Tunisian government eased the curfew, now imposed from 10 pm to 5 pm. Thala, in the governorate of Kasserine, was one of the last towns brought back to order, where there had been major clashes up to January 30th, only then were all the police headquarters returned to State control.

But the fact that the violence has ended does not mean that social peace has returned.

Against Imams, State Unions and Stalinists

In Muslim-majority countries, the Islamist movement has organized and mobilized the masses, starting from the mosques. We saw this during the crisis in Algeria in the early nineties and during the Egyptian revolt against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. Nothing similar has happened in Tunisia, where there was no link between the insurgency and Islamists. And there are no reported episodes in which they are able to dominate the public squares.

In January 2016, in an attempt to recover its members’ confidence and to confuse and divide the proletariat, the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) called a general strike in the governorates of Greater Tunis. The “struggle” was quickly resolved with an agreement with the Employers Association – the Tunisian Union of Industry, Commerce and Handicrafts for a 6% wage increase of in the private sector. But the negotiation had been underlay in December, so it was only formalized an agreement already made.

During the revolt, the UGTT also asked its members to defend government office buildings threatened by “anarchists, thugs and thieves”, it opposed itself against the young unemployed and asked union members to not join in the events threatening the “democratic freedoms of the revolution”.

On January 4th, the UGTT called for a general strike in Education for the 27th of the month: this strike was called off along with a general strike of cultural workers. Even a three day general strike of fuel transport workers, scheduled for the 21st through 23rd of January was cancelled. It was a betrayal of the working class in the name of bourgeois national interest.

In Enfidha, following clashes on January 20, the UGTT has declared a regional general strike for January 26; although on the 25th the union tried to delay the beginning of the strike, facing the prompt response of the city’s proletariat who marched on the headquarters of the union and battled with police until evening. Also in Enfidha on January 26th, the UGTT cancelled a planned strike at the airport, explaining that the revocation was to encourage a “peaceful climate” with the Turkish company that manages the structure as well with the Ministry of Transport.

Some of the right-wing opposition parties have accused the Popular Front, a counter-revolutionary coalition of Social Democrats and Stalinist hacks, of having sent provocateurs among the unemployed. But the Tunisian bourgeoisie knows that the Popular Front is not an enemy. It functions only as a transmission belt between the bourgeoisie and the unemployed movement. Popular Front MP’s were committed to continue the negotiations with the Government, as the official mouthpiece of the Association of Tunisian Managers has defended it’s work for having always been “against any kind of infiltration of criminals, anarchists or any sort of reactionary elements who tried to infiltrate the social movement to push it way from its noble goals”. In addition, the Popular Front “has never ceased to defend the state’s structures and has always rejected bringing down the government”, to the point it was even received by Tunisian President for consultations. It is completely part of the “constructive opposition” to the government and as such, useful to the bourgeoisie in order to maintain the social order.

The proletarian movement must beware of these false friends who are even more dangerous than its avowed enemies. It must seek its political independence from the bourgeoisie and opportunists by giving itself a real class trade union, independent from the state and the employers. Its most combative and resolute elements will identify with the tradition of revolutionary internationalist communism, the International Communist Party. Only then can we challenge capitalism, its poverty and bourgeois terror.

The Independent Trade Unions

Since the January revolt, the unemployed youth movement has started to develop connections with the grassroots unions.

On January 29th a general strike was organized in Sfax, which was strongly supported by the working class in response to the call for action of the unemployed movement demonstrating the possibility of an alliance between employed and unemployed, a prerequisite the class struggle in Tunisia.

On February 1, the base unions called a general strike in the cities of Al Ayoun, Bel Abbes, Feriana and Jedlian in the governorate of Kasserine. On February 2nd, workers from the nearby town of Sebiba responded to the grassroots unions and the unemployed youth movement protests. Local Teacher and Construction trade unions also joined in strikes.

On 4 February, the unemployed movement in the governorate of Al Gafsa announced that it was organizing a march to the border with Algeria.

The same day kindergarten workers of the governorate of Nabeul went on strike, factory workers in Le Kef struck to defend their salaries, as did the hospital workers of Kasserine. Dock workers at the port of Rades in STAM (port of Tunis) began a two-day strike, considered illegal by the Ministry of Transport as well.

On February 8, the UGTT with the support of local unions declared a general strike in Enfidha which declared a 100% participation rate for both the public and the private sectors.

On the same day in Kalaat el Andalus sailors went on strike to demand the reopening of the port and the strike found support with area resort workers. All roads leading to the town were blocked with barricades of burning tires.

On February 14th, the town of Le Kef was drawn into a general strike to the bitter end and was completely blocked. On February 17th, the city was still on strike. Also on February 14th municipal workers in the governorate of Nabeul proclaimed a three-day strike for wage claims.

All these general strikes called by the grassroots organizations at the city level, together with the unemployed movement, demanded that their region be recognized as economically depressed by the Central Government, so it can access special government support funds.

This movement certainly can’t resolve the crisis in these regions. The mosaic of base unions which are often only locally influential isn’t unified enough to organize the Tunisian proletariat for a generalized class against class struggle. Yet these struggles pave the way for all these weak and small economic struggle organizations, to grow and unify in one united union capable of mobilizing the proletariat in an open war against the bourgeoisie on a national scale.