Tunisia’s
revolution draws breath
A CRUCIAL stage has been reached in the Tunisian
revolution. Promises to hold elections to a constituent assembly on 24
July, to disband the political and secret police, and to outlaw the
party of the former dictatorship have given a breathing space for the
latest prime minister, Béji Caïd Essebsi. Strikes, sit-ins, protests and
blockades continue but the intensity has lessened.
However, today’s brittle calm could be shattered at
any moment by a new upsurge in struggle, further prevarication by the
political establishment or police provocation. The joy which swept
through Tunisia when the dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was forced out
on 14 January has given way to a more sober mood. Those who made the
revolution – the working class, unemployed youth, urban and rural poor,
along with sections of the middle class – remain vigilant. Nothing has
been guaranteed.
Nonetheless, this revolutionary movement – without a
clear leadership or direction – has reached great heights. Within a
month, Ben Ali was swept away after 23 brutal years – and a total of 50
years of authoritarian rule was brought to an end. Workplace, community
and town committees were set up in defence of the revolution. Workers
drove out corrupt bosses linked to the old regime.
Time and time again, the incredible courage and
revolutionary instincts of the workers, youth and poor have been shown.
Hundreds have been killed by state forces, but the determined struggle
continues.
For example, attempts to whip up reaction failed
following a massive worker-led demo in the capital, Tunis, on 25
February. Over the following weekend, the police were unleashed on the
streets for the first time since Ben Ali’s fall. They killed another
four protesters. Plain-clothed police tried to spread chaos among the
crowds and the police hired gangs of youth and other thugs to smash
shops and sow division.
In spite of this counter-revolutionary activity,
such was the magnitude of the protests and outrage at the fierce
repression that the government was pushed back. The then prime minister,
Mohamed Ghannouchi, a Ben Ali stooge, was forced to resign. By mid-week,
the second interim government had collapsed.
The promise of elections has been won only through
relentless mass pressure. But the process is still in the hands of the
establishment, over the heads of the people. There is a scramble to
register political parties. At the time of writing, 45 have been
approved, others await official sanction. They cover a very wide
political spectrum. But the question remains: how can the workers and
youth influence events?
Tunisia’s trade union federation, UGTT, has great
potential power, particularly in the public sector where around 80% of
workers are unionised. Its leadership, however, is thoroughly rotten.
Its rank-and-file activists played a significant role in the struggle
against French colonial rule. After independence, its leadership became
an instrument of the one-party state of the first republic under Habib
Bourghiba. As the regime degenerated further into a mafia kleptocracy
under Ben Ali, UGTT leaders followed suit.
Nonetheless, its ranks are made up of many
principled, courageous, left-wing militants with a long record of
fighting against dictatorship and for workers’ rights, pay and
conditions. Their aim is to replace the current leaders with those who
are combative and accountable at a national congress due in the summer.
It is an essential task.
Among the parties being registered are a number on
the left from various traditions which have emerged from the
underground. The 14 January Front, for example, has brought together
some of them around a few basic demands. The potential was illustrated
when 8-10,000 attended its rally in Tunis in mid-February.
Unfortunately, the front effectively backs the top-down political
process controlled by the establishment. And it has not taken steps to
build a democratic and dynamic campaigning organisation with local
branches and initiatives.
The situation is calling out for a mass party for
the workers and youth or, at least, a platform with which to contest the
elections. Rank-and-file trade unionists could play a leading role in
building active support for such a force which could provide a pole of
attraction if it put forward a radical alternative to the capitalist
formations, or those promoting any kind of reactionary Islamist
programme.
The mass of the population is unemployed or
underemployed and faces huge problems. Officially, unemployment is at
14%, although for young graduates it is nearer 40%. Around a quarter of
Tunisia’s 10.5 million people live on or near the poverty line. The
tentacles of the Ben Ali/Trabelsi mafia still reach deep into the
economy. Western multinationals and their government backers continue to
suck its lifeblood. Large parts of the political establishment and state
machinery remain in place.
From 1987, when Ben Ali took over, an already
distorted economic and social system went off the rails completely.
Family connections and corruption reigned. Privatisation under IMF and
World Bank diktat became a means of redistributing state wealth into the
Ben Ali/Trabelsi family coffers. They took over land. They siphoned off
untold riches into foreign bank accounts.
The economy was opened up to so-called foreign
investment: companies in search of cheap labour. It was a symbiotic
relationship: money from western multinationals lined the mafia pockets;
wealth from the exploitation of Tunisian workers filled the bank
accounts of western big business.
Nearly a quarter of the population is made up of
youth aged 18-25 years. They remain excluded from official political
decision-making. But they have found a voice through mass action. When
the mass occupation ended in the Kasbah, the government square in Tunis,
they promised to return if real change does not happen. Already, there
is rising discontent at the slow pace of change.
Although the party of the former dictatorship, the
RCD, has been dissolved, there is seething anger that some of its
representatives have been given the go-ahead to set up new political
parties. The revolutionary masses want all RCD leaders, including
Ghannouchi, to be imprisoned until proven innocent. They are angered at
the light punishment handed out to the Ben Ali/Trabelsi mafia. They
oppose the repayment of Tunisia’s so-called ‘debt’ to world powers and
agencies (estimated at €577m), and interference by western powers. They
also draw attention to the fact that the political police remains
largely intact, and has been busy destroying incriminating documents.
Ben Ali’s gangster rule also brought about big
disparities between the regions to the detriment of the impoverished
interior. The gap became ever greater and is a source of deep resentment
to this day. Political repression, economic mismanagement and corruption
completely distorted the economy and have led to many bitter disputes.
Protests by unemployed youth demanding transparency
in allocating employment continue to take place all over the country.
Teachers are protesting to demand reemployment following years out of
work because of their union or political activity. A ministerial
commission which is supposed to be dealing with this issue is dragging
its feet.
In Gafsa, in the south-west, the epicentre of many
militant movements, long disputes continue to rage over the allocation
of work in the phosphate mining industry. In Gabès, on the south-eastern
coast, youth began a hunger strike on 14 March, demanding work. There
have also been large protests against environmental destruction from
chemical plants due to the drive for short-term profit.
In Sidi Bouzid, where the revolutionary wave began
with the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on 17 December, a sit-in by
a large number of youth and unemployed has been in place since 28
January. They have raised demands to reopen mines to create jobs, the
development of road and communication infrastructure, to open up credit
to small farmers, and the need for a regional hospital. Rail workers are
demanding an end to the freeze on jobs which has been in place since
1991.
All of these issues and many more point to the
desperate need for a political programme to unite the interconnected
interests of the workers, unemployed youth, urban and rural poor. They
are also a warning, however, of the potential for division of the masses
and/or regions.
The workplace and neighbourhood committees need to
be strengthened to play a decisive role in ensuring that the
revolutionary movement continues. A party or electoral platform is
needed to ensure that the working class, unemployed, urban and rural
poor have a voice in the elections – and to ensure that the constituent
assembly truly represents them.
The workers and youth have sacrificed too much to
allow representatives of the old regime and capitalist class to restore
their domination in society. A struggle is needed to nationalise the
main sectors of the economy, under democratic workers’ control and
management. Only a revolutionary workers’ government would be able to
develop socialist planning in the interests of the vast majority of
people in Tunisia.
Tim Martyn
