Tunisia: the protests continue (from an arab marxist site)

[freepalestine]

Tunisia: the protests continue

Marxy.com



In Defence of Marxism (http://www.marxist.com/tunisia-protests-continue.htm), January 11, 2011

This article, written by the comrades of Marxy.com (http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/thumbnails/10184_uprising_tunisia.jpg), the Arab website of the IMT, gives a full account of the development of the Tunisian uprising, its roots, the hypocrisy of imperialism, and discusses the methods of struggle and the programme needed to take it to a victorious conclusion.

The earthquake!


http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/thumbnails/10184_uprising_tunisia.jpg (http://www.uruknet.info/images/stories/tunisia/uprising_tunisia.jpg)

For the fourth week straight, Tunisia is continuing to witness a popular mass movement. The uprising began in the region of Sidi Bouzid in the center of western Tunisia on December 17th, in solidarity with young Muhammad Bouazizi, who set himself on fire in protest against the confiscation of his fruit stand. Since then, the movement has spread like wildfire to the rest of the cities and regions of Tunisia, and raised multiple demands, first among them the right to work and liberty. These protests have included setting fire to a number of government buildings, as well as the headquarters of the governing party and police stations. The movement has acted as a pole of attraction for various groups in society dissatisfied with the existing system: the unemployed, political and human rights activists, trade unionists, students, professors and lawyers. This proves the seriousness of the movement and its enormous potential.


How similar this glorious mass intifada is to an earthquake! For it has remained as it is, preparing its arrival slowly and silently over decades of apparent calm, and then it exploded. The epicentre was the town of Sidi Bouzid, but its aftershocks, which will open the door to the fall of all the crumbling castles of tyranny, spread rapidly to many other areas.

The repression was unable to stop the movement. On the contrary: the more intense the repression became, the more the popular anger flared up and fresh layers joined the movement and its struggle evolved. In the city of Haffouz (in the province of Sidi Bouzid), students from several campuses organized a demonstration which was joined by many unemployed youth, teachers and workers, and started from the headquarters of the local labour union to reach the headquarters of the government of the department. The protesters demanded the right to work, the equitable distribution of wealth, and general freedom. They also raised slogans in solidarity with the people of Sidi Bouzid and Tala. Reports indicate that demonstrators attacked an office of the forces of repression in the "Al-Saeeda" area in the "Al-Riqab" department in southern Tunisia (37 km from the town of Sidi Bouzid), and the authorities responded by firing live rounds, wounding at least five people.


As protests escalated on Friday, January 7th, the teachers joined the strike call following the earlier strike call issued by the lawyers. The website of the Tunisian Communist Workers’ Party (Alternative albadil.org/ (http://www.albadil.org/)) published a report about the spreading of the protests to Al-Hareesah, Al-Kal’a Al-Khusba and Tajeryoun in Kaf province. It also reported protesters in the city of Makthar (in the north-west, 160 km from Tunis, the capital) blocking the main streets of the city with tyres and rocks and continuing confrontations with the police. The demonstrators also set fire to the city hall and destroyed the adjacent building, a government registrar, as well as a number of other government offices.


The city of Boruiz (in the north-western province of Siliana) also saw protests break out on the initiative of the students of secondary and preparatory schools, during which there were clashes between the protesters and the forces of repression who attacked them. There were intense clashes on the night of Thursday the 6th of January, between the unemployed youth and the security forces that used tear gas grenades and rubber bullets. This drove the demonstrators to burn tires and set fire to the mayor’s office, the building of the ruling party, a branch of the peasants’ union, a part of the city hall, and one financial institution, as well as to deface the November 7th monument. A crowd of unemployed youth continues to occupy the provincial headquarters, demanding their right to work. The same thing was experienced in the city of Kairouan, which is considered one of the most important Tunisian cities (about 160 km from Tunis), where protests broke out at the initiative of the students and teachers at the Aqaba institute in Kairouan.



Protests also spread to Sousse province (70 km south of the capital, and 300 km north of Sfax), where in the city of Enfidha the students from the secondary and preparatory schools came out to the street last Friday morning to support the people of Sidi Bouzid and the city of Tala, and trade union sources stated that major security reinforcements had arrived from Sousse to control the situation.


In the province of Jendouba (far north-west, 200 km north of Tunis), in the border city of Ghardimaou, a mass rally was organized with the participation of the students of the Youth institute and the Ghardimaou institute and the other preparatory schools. The procession witnessed the intervention of the police forces, and the students responded by pelting them with rocks. Trade union sources reported that the security forces used tear gas grenades against the protesters.


In the city of Bou Salem, students from the Shareh Al-Bi’a institute came out in a demonstration after the strike that the teachers carried out on Friday morning, which brought out a significant section of Shareh Al-Bi’a. Students from the Bou Salem secondary school, however, were banned from leaving their school, with the gates of the institute being locked.


In the province of Kasserine (in the center of western Tunisia, at a distance of about 228 km from the capital) a student protest which began from the city’s schools took over the streets and turned into clashes between the police (who used their batons and tear gas grenades) and the unemployed youth and students. Eye-witnesses said that in the city of Fériana a massive march was held on Friday morning which took over the streets of the city, punctuated by confrontations with the forces of repression, with the demonstrators burning the offices of the ruling party and the municipality.
The working class city of Sfax (275 km south of Tunis) also witnessed a mass march which began from the Ali Al-Nouri preparatory school and went to the Mustafa Al-Fourati secondary academy before ending at the at the Abul Hasan Alakhmi Biskra institute, despite the road blocks set up by the forces of repression.


In the city of Jebeniana, for the fifth consecutive day, there have been clashes between students of the January 18 academy and the forces of repression that are surrounding the campus to prevent the students from coming out onto the street, but the latter have failed in attempts to storm the school and arrest student activists.



According to a statement of the Union of Communist Youth of Tunisia, on the 7th of January:

"Many colleges in the capital Tunis and other cities have witnessed, since the return to classes on Monday, January 3rd, a series of movements in solidarity with the social movement in Sidi Bouzid and elsewhere in the country, coming from the General Union of Tunisian Students through the general assemblies, slogans and red symbols graffitied on the walls, and protests in front of the center of the "campus security" which have led to clashes with the political police in more than one location, the most serious of which is the clash at the April 9 college in the capital and in the arts college in Sousse beginning on the 4th of January.




"The police faced down every outbreak of the movement with total brutality - using tear gas and batons and all manner of abuse from which no one was spared amongst the students, faculty and staff. As happened in the arts college in Sousse, where after the blind police repression, amongst the number of wounded we are told of Wael Nawar, Munther Aqiq, Iman Malih, Qais Al-Bazzouzi and Mourad Ben Jeddom who had to be taken to the emergency room, where they continued to be surrounded in the confines of the hospital, despite the presence of many civil society activists who were there to break the siege around them.

"On the other hand, the police arrested some freedom fighters, amongst them a union leader of the General Union of Tunisian Students, Wael Nawar whom police violence left with a broken leg and who was abducted from his house on the morning of January 6. He was held in custody in the police station where he was once again subjected to beatings and torture before being referred quickly to be tried without the knowledge of his family and lawyer on multiple charges. Some of the charges date back to two old cases that have been following him for a while, now plastered with new charges against the backdrop of the latest developments."


It is worth remembering that these latest developments are not isolated, neither at the domestic nor regional level. From the point of view of the domestic situation, this intifada comes in the context of a mighty rise of conflict in the class struggle in Tunisia. The country has experienced a series of outbreaks of heroic struggles over the past three years, which faced violent repression, the most notable of which was an uprising in the mining area of Gafsa (http://www.uruknet.info/revolt-mining-area-gafsa-tunisia.htm) which broke out spontaneously against the results of a skill test required to obtain a job in one of the big companies and developed to become a protest against corruption and the lack of job opportunities. And these protests continued for many months through rallies, sit-ins and strikes, during which two were struck dead and an unspecified number were wounded as a result of barbaric repression, in addition to dozens of arrested who are facing unjust sentences after sham trials.


And in August 2010 the situation exploded again in the south-east in protest against the closure of the "Ras Al-Jadeer" commercial border crossing which is shared with Libya. There were violent clashes in "Bin Qurdan" during those protests which resulted in many injuries amongst the demonstrators and the repressive apparatus arrested more than 150 people.

At the regional level, specifically in the Maghreb region, these movements follow the overwhelming mass struggle of the working class and toiling masses in Morocco and Western Sahara and Algeria.

Tunisia and the Maghreb region as a whole have entered the stage of revolutionary storms. These movements in which the leading role is being played by the unemployed youth, the teachers and students, are an anticipation of the rising of the workers which Tunisia and the region in general will experience sooner or later. The movements of the youth are an accurate barometer of the extent of the pressures which are building up in the depths of society. The winds of change have begun to blow the leaves of the mighty tree: the unemployed youth, the students and the teachers, and it will inevitably shake the roots: the working class. The time has come where the old mole of the revolution which has been digging underground for decades shall pop his head up, and the whole world will leap to their feet and shout with joy: "well dug old mole!"



Forms of the struggle


The movement broke out, as we noted above, against the backdrop of the young Bouazizi lighting himself on fire, and this incident was followed by the attempts of other youths to commit suicide themselves, in separate regions of Tunisia. This tragic incident is evidence of the extent of the frustration and discontent that is accumulating in the depths of the youth, because of the reality of terrible poverty, unemployment, exploitation, and of being gagged for decades by a blood sucking ruling layer. Just as it is also evidence of the barbarism of the capitalist system which imposes on young people miserable and unbearable conditions, pushing them to prefer death by drowning in the sea in a desperate attempt to escape to Europe, or suicide, or drowning in the swamp of crime and drug addiction.


And when they rise up for their political rights, the dictatorial regime does not hesitate from firing live rounds at the chests and backs of the protesters, and many victims have fallen so that the system of private property and capitalist exploitation is defended.

To the families of these youth, who committed suicide in despair and in protest, and to the Tunisian working class in general, we extend our deepest condolences on the deaths of these martyrs for freedom! We regret losing them in such a way. What a heavy loss that some of the best, most educated and qualified youth of the region, are pushed to resort to suicide!

We understand the motives that drove these youth to this method of protest, and we place full responsibility for this on the system of oppression, the dictatorship of the capitalist system. However, we do not think this is the correct method for protest and struggle. While we oppose these forms of protest, we do so because we consider them not conducive to the goal of overthrowing the capitalist system and eliminating hunger and unemployment.

The struggle against unemployment, poverty and oppression requires of us, the workers and youth, to organize our ranks in revolutionary workers’ parties. To organize our struggles through democratically elected workers’ councils and popular councils. And to organize in the trade unions to fight a revolutionary class struggle through general strikes and armed uprising and other forms of popular revolutionary struggle in order to bring down the capitalist system which is responsible for all we suffer from exploitation, unemployment and oppression.


The position of imperialism

The imperialist powers considered the Tunisian dictatorial regime to be their star pupil, and this is why they never stopped praising it as "a model for the region and beyond" as David Walsh, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs in the Bush administration, put it (Al-Horria (http://www.alhorria.info.tn/?ID=105&page=article&article=7194)). And it wasn’t so long ago - November 2010 - that the current American ambassador noted the excellent relations between Tunisia and the United States of America (Tribune Mediatique (http://www.tribunemediatique.com/?p=1151)). And in the same vein, Newsweek issued a study which ranked Tunisia first place on the continent of Africa as a part of its list of the "100 best countries in the world"!


This is why the imperialists have never stopped giving support and everything required for the suppression of the Tunisian people and the perpetuation of its slavery to domestic and foreign capital. Even when the popular mass uprising broke out beginning from the area of Sidi Bouzid and it was met with fierce repression by the dictatorial regime, resulting so far in the killing of two martyrs and an unknown number of wounded and arrested, the imperialist powers preferred to cynically stand by for more than two weeks in the hope that the dictator would be able to crush his people. The French foreign ministry, in its regular press conference on Friday, used the phrase "we are watching the situation closely" when referring to developments in Algeria, whereas no comment was forthcoming on the situation in Tunisia. And when two bloggers and activists who were arrested on Thursday, France has refrained from asking publicly for their release. (Now! Lebanon (http://www.nowlebanon.com/Arabic/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=228259))


But the intifada continued despite the repression, if it wasn’t even lit further aflame by that very repression. And so imperialism changed its stance in the same way that a snake changes its skin. And so American imperialism manoeuvred yet again: "the US State Department summoned the Tunisian ambassador in Washington and expressed concern about the handling of the protests by the Tunisian authorities … and the restrictions on freedoms." (Al-Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A292E580-48F2-4A6F-8F7B-89B3EE5D82B7.htm))
But the workers and youth of Tunis must be sceptical of these hypocritical pronouncements. Imperialism is the main ally of all the dictatorships in the region, it provides them with the weapons they kill us with, and it encourages them to remain perched on us. It is our enemy, not our friend, it is the primary enemy for the peoples of the whole world: in Iraq, Palestine, Venezuela and everywhere, and so we must not place any confidence in these lies, we must not be fooled by these reactionary manoeuvres. We must fight the attempts to sow illusions amongst our ranks, especially the illusion that we can rely on imperialist powers and their international institutions to stop the repression. An end to the repression can only come from our revolutionary struggle, the workers, the poor, and the youth, to bring down the regimes of oppression and exploitation, the agents of imperialism.


On the other hand it is our duty to orient towards the working class across the whole world, by issuing a call, for all those who share with us the reality of oppression and an interest in a better tomorrow, to stand with us and come out in solidarity with our struggle. Already signs are appearing and growing of a labour solidarity movement supporting our struggle, and it will gradually gain strength. No reliance on imperialism - yes to internationalist workers’ solidarity!


The task of revolutionary worker activists

In order that these heroic struggles and heavy sacrifices are not be in vain, the militant activists, workers and revolutionaries need to organize themselves. The trade unionists and revolutionary working class activists need to put forward within the movement a transitional program springing from the most burning demands of the masses and expanding their horizons continuously by connecting them to the goal of elimination the root of injustice and oppression: the dictatorship of capital.


Recently, comrade Hamma Al-Hammami, the spokesman for the Tunisian Communist Workers’ Party, in a speech that he published on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwgHffCxh04&feature=player_embedded), said the following about the movement and its demands and perspectives:


"the masses want freedom, they do not want the shuffling around of ministers, they want freedom, freedom of association, freedom to protest, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression; they want to put an end to injustice, they want respect and dignity… The unemployed want action against unemployment, they want unemployment compensation, they want free treatment, they want free public transportation. People want concrete action against the high cost of living. They want to improve wages and income."




And this is correct! These demands and other democratic demands, "participation in the planning of the economy and the struggle against corruption, etc…" are what should be condensed, developed, and brought together in a program of struggle.


Of course we must raise the banner of a people’s trial for all those responsible for the killings and repression against the revolutionary masses, and all those responsible for plundering the wealth of the country, beginning with the criminal Ben Ali and the Mafia gang that surrounds him.


We must propose a program of struggle for the right to a job for all (women and men), work which is decent, stable and appropriate to the skills and training of the worker. No more precarious and limited contract labour, yes to permanent, stable and appropriate job contracts. Reduction of the work week to 35 hours, without loss of pay. And faced with the layoffs and corporate restructuring, working hours should be divided amongst all the workers without loss of pay! The demand should be raised for unemployment subsidy which is equal to the minimum wage, until a job appropriate to their qualifications and skills is provided. With social security and free public transportation provided for unemployed workers.


We must put forward the demand of raising the minimum wage, at the national level and in all sectors, without exception, with the imposition of the sliding scale of wages whereby wages rise in proportion to any increase in prices. And the elimination of wage discrimination on the basis of sex or age: same work, same pay! And limit the wages of state officials so that any official – anyone – is paid no more than the average workers’ wage.


We must raise the demand for the overthrow of the dictatorial capitalist system and its replacement with a system of workers’ democracy, based on the nationalization of the most important companies, placing them under the control and management of the democratically elected workers’ and popular councils. Expropriate the expropriators!


This is how the mass intifada can be given a clear way forward, and we can ensure that the sacrifices were not in vain. This is how the Tunisian working class can avenge its martyrs and build its own system, where all the unemployment, exploitation, oppression, hunger and nightmares will be things of the past!

Editorial Board of Marxy.com (http://www.uruknet.info/weblinks/middle-east/marxy.com.htm) – the Arab website of the International Marxist Tendency
Saturday, January 8th, 2011




:: Article nr. 73814 sent on 11-jan-2011 22:28 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=73814 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=73814)</I>

[freepalestine]

Around 50 killed at Tunisia jobless protests


Tuesday 11 January 2011
by Our Foreign Desk




A human rights federation charged today that around 50 people have been killed in the riots that erupted over the weekend in Tunisia.


International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) president Souhayr Belhassen said FIDH had the names of 35 people killed and that "the total figure is somewhere around 50, but that's an estimate."


Ms Belhassen said the death toll had "increased tragically" since weekend protests in the Regueb, Thala and Kasserine areas and so many had been wounded that "they can't be counted."

Before these riots the death toll was estimated at four, including two suicides.
The Paris-based FIDH, which unites 164 human rights groups, has followed events in Tunisia closely through a network of local monitors since protests broke out last month.

The unrest started when an unemployed university graduate set himself on fire in protest after police seized vegetables he was trying to sell to make ends meet.

More fierce riots over joblessness and the rising cost of living erupted at the weekend, triggering a draconian crackdown by Tunisian authorities.

On Monday the government temporarily shut all of its secondary schools and universities as it tried to gain control.

And Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali went on national television and announced a plan to create 300,000 jobs over two years in the developing country.

Mr Ben Ali also blamed rioters for what he called "terrorist acts."

Protesters have attacked public buildings and set cars on fire during more than three weeks of unrest, while police have shot at rioters several times.

Amnesty International urged authorities today to "ensure the safety of protesters and instruct security forces to act with restraint and not to use excessive force against them."

Senior Amnesty activist Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui said: "The authorities claim they acted in self-defence but the rising death toll and the images of demonstrations suppressed by the security forces cast serious doubt on this version of events."


Amnesty condemned the authorities for trying to impose a media blackout on the protests by blocking internet access and closing the email accounts of online activists.

At least three bloggers are known to have been arrested: Hamadi Kloucha, Slim Amamou and Azyz Amamy, whose blog and Facebook page have been offline since he covered clashes in Sidi Bouzid.

Ms Sahraoui urged authorities to "immediately release those detained solely for trying to speak out, including the three bloggers."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/99660

[freepalestine]

Clashes erupt in capital Tunis despite government freeing those detained during ongoing protests over unemployment.[etc etc]

Last Modified: 12 Jan 2011 13:57 GMT





The Tunisian president has sacked his interior minister after a deadly wave of violent unrest engulfed the capital, Tunis, for the first time.
Rafik Belhaj Kacem, who was responsible for the police force which has been widely criticised for its ruthless response to the protests, was dismissed on Wednesday.
But the dismissal did little to douse public anger immediately and hundreds of protesters emerged from a souk, or market, in the capital and hurled stones at police at a key intersection on Wednesday. Officers responded with volleys of tear gas, driving the protesters to disperse into adjoining streets. Stores in the area were shuttered.
It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries or arrests. Two army vehicles were posted at the intersection, which is right by the French Embassy.
In another neighbourhood in central Tunis, hundreds of protesters tried to reach the regional governor's office but were blocked by riot police. And at the main national union headquarters, police surrounded protesters who tried to break out. Tensions also erupted along the edges of the capital.
Armoured vehicles rumbled through Tunis and troops took up positions at major intersections and the
entrance to the Cite Ettadhamen quarter where rioters burnt vehicles and attacked government offices late on Tuesday.
It was the first rioting in the capital since protests over unemployment erupted in mid-December, turning violent in the west of the country at the weekend when security forces opened fire on demonstrators.
The government said 21 people were killed in three days of unrest in the western Kasserine region, and that security forces acted in self-defence, but labour unions and rights groups said more than 50 were killed.
Meanwhile sources told Al Jazeera that five people had been killed in fresh clashes between protesters and security forces in the south.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011112123527251937.html

[freepalestine]

Soldiers on the streets as Tunisian violence reaches capital

</U>Reuters




</B>

</U></I></B></STRONG>Troops protect embassies and state buildings in Tunis as protesters criticise unemployment, corruption and repression


January 12, 2011


Soldiers have been deployed in the centre of Tunis amid violent unrest that officials say has killed 23 people. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/11/tunisia-jobs-protests).

In a Tunisian provincial town that was the scene of some of the worst clashes at the weekend, witnesses said a large crowd had gathered to demand the resignation of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and that police were nowhere to be seen.

Protesters are angry about unemployment, corruption and what they say is a repressive government. Officials claim the protests have been hijacked by a minority of violent extremists who want to undermine Tunisia (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/tunisia).
The protests have been continuing for nearly a month and are the worst in the north African country for decades. They are being watched closely in other Arab countries with potential for social unrest.

In the strongest US statement on the violence to date, state department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington was "deeply concerned by reports of the use of excessive force by the government of Tunisia".

On the main avenue in the capital two military vehicles were parked opposite the French embassy and two soldiers with weapons were patrolling in the street, a Reuters reporter said.

A short distance from central Tunis two Humveee vehicles were parked at the entrance to the state television headquarters with two armed soldiers in helmets and flak jackets outside.

Late on Tuesday police fired into the air to disperse a crowd ransacking buildings in a Tunis suburb. There were no reports of any casualties.

Officials said the civilian deaths – almost all of them in clashes in provincial towns over the weekend – came as police fired on rioters in legitimate self-defence.
Two witnesses said that several thousand people had come out on to the streets in Gassrine, about 120 miles from Tunis, to protest (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/protest) against the government and its crackdown on the protests.


People were chanting "Go away Ben Ali," one witness, Mohsen Nasri, told Reuters by telephone.
"There are about 3,000 people here protesting," said a second witness. "There are no police, they have fled to their barracks."



:: Article nr. 73828 sent on 12-jan-2011 17:35 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=73828 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=73828)</I>

[Red Eagles]

footage from tunisia revolt



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[freepalestine]

Curfew ordered in Tunisian capital

By Tom Eley


>WSWS (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/tuni-j13.shtml) January 13, 2011



The Tunisian government ordered a total curfew over Tunis and its suburbs to last from 8 p.m. Wednesday until 6 a.m. on Thursday morning, after riots and demonstrations against high unemployment, government corruption, and spiraling prices hit the capital city. The wave of protests began weeks ago in regional towns and cities.


Police fired tear gas in the city center against hundreds of demonstrators, who responded by hurling stones. International correspondents in Tunis—who report heavy censorship from the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Al—say that the military has been deployed in critical spots in the city and its suburbs. According to Al Jazeera, five protesters were killed in Tunis on Wednesday, among them a university professor.


The military presence is reportedly most concentrated in Tunis’ suburb of Ettadhamen, west of the capital, which was the site of rioting the night before.


In the coastal city of Sfax, tens of thousands responded to a call for a general strike Wednesday. The Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that two protesters were killed by police in the city of Douz, while Deutsche Welle put the number killed there at four. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reports that in the tourist city of Tozeur the municipal building was set ablaze.


All schools and universities remain closed indefinitely. Football matches had earlier been banned. Extensive efforts by the government to hack into Tunisians’ e-mail and Facebook accounts have been all but confirmed, according to Danny O’Brien of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "All the evidence points to a state-controlled" hacking operation, he said.


Prime Minister Ben Ali made no public appearances on Wednesday, increasing speculation that his 23-year-old regime may be nearing its end. The Egyptian newspaper El Wafd has reported that his wife and children have already fled for the United Arab Emirates, and the New York Times reports that other Ben Ali relatives have also hastily departed.


There are unconfirmed reports that the military has resisted Ben Ali’s orders to break up demonstrations, and may be preparing a coup. According to Tunisian opposition sources, army chief General Rashid Ammar was removed for failing to carry out orders, and was replaced by Ahmad Shabir, head of the Tunisian secret service.


Since they began nearly one month ago, demonstrations have resulted in an official death toll of 21. The real number is far higher. According to a local union representative, at least 50 were killed in the city of Kasserine in one night of rioting last week. The victims were reportedly shot by police snipers. In spite of the bloodshed, Kasserine was the site of another protest on Wednesday, according to El Pais.


The government took steps to mollify popular anger on Wednesday, but these too failed to head off the protests. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi dismissed Interior Minister Rafik Belhaj Kacem, and decreed that most prisoners arrested during the demonstrations would be freed. He also announced the formation of a commission to investigate "excesses committed during the troubles" and "the question of corruption and faults committed by certain officials."


The Interior Ministry under Kacem had earlier defended the bloody police repression in Kasserine, claiming that only four "attackers" were killed and that "police used their weapons in an act of legitimate defense."


Repression continues under Kacem’s replacement as interior minister, Ahmad Faria, who after assuming office quickly ordered the arrest of Hama al-Hamami. Al-Hamami was jailed until 2002 for the formation of an illegal party, the Tunisian Workers Communist Party.


The riots in Tunisia began in the middle of December after Mohamed Bouazizi, a university graduate who worked as a street vendor, set himself on fire to protest police seizure of his fruits and vegetables. The 26-year-old Bouazizi died from his injuries on January 4.


News of his action spread via e-mail and social networking sites, escaping police censorship and triggering protests across the country.


Demonstrations were first concentrated in the nations’ poorer eastern and southern regions, but they have spread to the wealthier coastal cities and now to Tunis itself, prompting a number of European countries to issue travel advisories.


The spread within Tunisia of the protests, which have been called a "bread Intifada," and the eruption of similar demonstrations over price increases in neighboring Algeria, have raised fears that that seething social anger may ignite in other pro-western regimes in the region, including critical US allies Morocco, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

On Wednesday, the Libyan regime of Moammar al-Gadaffi announced that it would suspend all taxes on foodstuffs and other basic commodities in a bid to head off rioting spreading from Algerian and Tunisia, both of which border Libya to the west.


The conditions that have given rise to the events in Tunisia—"high levels of unemployment, soaring food and fuel inflation and corruption in [the] ruling class," in the words of the BBC—are common throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and, for that matter, Europe and North America.

By all accounts, the demonstrations in Tunisia are the spontaneous eruption of the impoverished masses. There is no evidence that Islamic fundamentalists or "terrorists"—who Ben Ali proclaims to be responsible— have played any significant role.



The established trade union federation, the UGTT, a long-time Ben Ali ally, has only in recent days hinted at support for the demonstrations. After formally opposing them, the UGTT is now trying to place itself ahead of the storm erupting from below, calling a series of city-by-city general strikes. Citywide strikes are slated for Kairouan and Jendouba today, and for Tunis on Friday.



With the prospect that the Ben Ali regime may collapse growing by the day, every effort will be made by pro-capitalist forces in Tunisia, including the UGTT, to replace it with a government that will continue to carry out the dictates of Washington, Paris, and the international finance industry.



The US and the European powers may already be preparing for a post-Ben Ali Tunisia. "The United States is deeply concerned by reports of the use of excessive force by the government of Tunisia" said US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday issued her first tepid criticism of the government response, expressing concern over the "deaths of mostly young people who were protesting." The European Union issued a statement criticizing the regime’s "disproportionate response."






:: Article nr. 73853 sent on 13-jan-2011 18:51 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=73853 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=73853)</I>

[freepalestine]

Tunisia protests: Live bullets fired in central Tunis
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12180738

(and video )
Tunisian police to stop using live fire at protests

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12187222




http://www.breakingnews.com/filter/tunisia-protests


more capitalist bs news

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011113192110570350.html

[ckaihatsu]

CLASSWAR: ILC Urgent Communiqué on Uprising in Tunisia -- January 13, 2010


FYI: In case people are not getting even a taste of truth thru the
'usual channels' (I do not generally pass along this stuff because I
do not support groups whose strategy is reform of the present
'business union' setup in the Western imperialist World).

This crisis WILL be visited upon all the rest of us, soon enuff. So
pay attention to what's going on in the Maghreb.


-- grok.






----- Forwarded message from ILC <[email protected]> -----

From: ILC <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:27:56 -0800
Subject: ILC Urgent
Communiqué on Uprising in Tunisia -- January 13, 2010
To: Recipient List Suppressed: ;
Message-Id: <a[email protected][192.168.2.100]>

INTERNATIONAL LIAISON COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140
Tel. (415) 641-8616; fax: (415) 626-1217
email: [email protected]
website: www.owcinfo.org
PLEASE EXCUSE DUPLICATE POSTINGS
----------

International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
Urgent Communiqué
January 13, 2011

The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC) condemns
the repression against the youth, workers and people of Tunisia, who have
risen up against oppression, the high cost of living, and corruption.

The ILC sends its support to the workers, youth and people of Tunisia and
their organizations, particularly the General Union of Tunisian Workers
(UGTT), which has spearheaded the mobilization.

The ILC calls on the labor movement and workers' organizations worldwide to
express their solidarity with the workers, youth and people of Tunisia, and
to demand an end to the brutal repression.

The bloody and corrupt regime of dictator Ben Ali, supported by the
European Union and the IMF, has faithfully applied their plans and dictates
in the context of the Association with the European Union, to be completed
in 2011, which aims to make Tunisia a "free trade" zone.

Immersed in misery, without any perspective, the youth and working class of
Tunisia, reclaiming their unions for struggle, are rising up across the
country to defend their very right to exist.

During several days, union activists of the UGTT have been killed under the
bullets of police repression. Men and women united, workers, youth,
lawyers, artists, academics ... hundreds have been injured, beaten, jailed.

Spontaneously in dozens of cities, the population went to the local
headquarters of the UGTT to express their opposition to Ben Ali. For the
first time in 25 years, one can hear the chants in the Tunisian
demonstrations of "Down with Ben Ali!"

The police repression has been systematic. At Kasserin and Thala dozens of
people have been killed. Police snipers have sown panic in the
demonstrations.

In Tunis, trade unionists were reading to leave their union's headquarters
to take to the streets, but they were soon driven back by police tear gas.

On Sunday, January 9, the UGTT local affiliate in Sfax issued a call for a
regional general strike. With only a few exceptions (hospitals and many
bakeries), the strike was followed 100%. In Sfax, 30,000 workers and youths
demonstrated in the streets. A Jenduba on January 12, there were 12,000
people demonstrating in a city of 30,000 inhabitants.

The mobilizations are sweeping every corner of the country, including the
suburbs of Tunis itself. In several cities the police were forced to
retreat or withdraw in the face of the relentless population. The curfew in
the greater Tunis metropolitan area has been largely ignored as the
protests continue to swell.

In the south, particularly in Kasserin, hundreds demonstrated,
appropriating the city buses to travel to Thala, where they violated the
22-out-of-24 hour curfew and forced the police to withdraw back to their
stations.

The government-run television channel, a mouthpiece for the propaganda of
General Ben Ali, filmed scenes of looting, staged by the police in
civilian clothing who infiltrated the demonstrations, to justify the
repression.

But in Thala, Kasserin and Sidi Bouzid, the youth set up Neighborhood
Committees to organize their marches and expel the provocateurs from their
mass protests.

Last week, on several occasions members of the military brandished their
weapons against the Public Order Brigades after the people took refuge
behind these brigades. The movement is so deep it has caused the dismissal
of the General Staff of the Army.

At the time of this writing, very violent clashes are taking place between
the police and the army, on one side, against tens of thousands of
demonstrators in Nabeul, Tunis, and Sfax and other cities and towns.

The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples calls on
workers' organizations the world over to express their solidarity with the
workers and people of Tunisia, and in particular with the UGTT trade union
federation.

- For an immediate halt to the repression against the workers, people and
youth of Tunisia;

- Respect democratic freedoms in Tunisia;

- Meet the just social and political demands of the Tunisian workers and
people;

- For an immediate lifting of the siege of the UGTT headquarters in Tunis!

Algiers - Paris,
January 13, 2011, 4:10 p.m.

signed/

- Louisa Hanoune, General Secretary of the Workers Party of Algeria
- Daniel Gluckstein, National secretary of the Independent Workers' Party (POI)

Coordinators of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples









----- End forwarded message -----

--
The Financiers & Banksters have looted untold trillions of our future earnings.
Their bureaucratic police & military goons are here to make us all pay for it.
Forever.
Well FORGET THAT. Let's get it *ALL* back from them -- and more.

**Socialist revolution NOW!!**

Build the North America-wide General Strike.
TODO el poder a los consejos y las comunas.
TOUT le pouvoir aux conseils et communes.
ALL power to the councils and communes.

And beware the 'bait & switch' fraud: "Social Justice" is NOT *Socialism*...

[theAnarch]

Ben Ali has Fled!



Tunisia's long-standing president has left the country amid violent protests and the prime minister has taken over control of the government.
"Since the president [Zine El Abidine Ben Ali] is temporarily unable to exercise his duties, it has been decided that the prime minister will exercise temporarily the [presidential] duties," Mohammed Ghannouchi, the Tunisian prime minister, said on state television.
Ghannouchi is now the interim president. He cited chapter 56 of the Tunisian constitution as the article by which he was assuming power.
Maltese air traffic controllers have told Al Jazeera that Ben Ali is bound for Paris, though the Maltese government has denied any knowledge of Ben Ali's plane having stopped in Malta after having left Tunis.
In his televised address, Ghannouchi vowed to respect the constitution and restore stability, and called on citizens to "maintain patriotic spirit ... in order to brave through these difficult moments".
He also vowed to carry out inflation and unemployment redressal policies "exactly" as they had recently been announced by Ben Ali.
Ayesha Sabavala, a Tunisia analyst with the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, told Al Jazeera that with President Ben Ali out of the country, there are "only ... a few people ... capable of [running the country] within the RCD [the ruling Rassemblement Constitutionel Démocratique party], and Ghannouchi is an ideal candidate".
http://www.revleft.com/mritems/imagecache/218/330/mritems/Images/2011/1/13/201111313551834784_20.jpg (http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/tunisia/)Follow Al Jazeera's complete coverage (http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/tunisia/)
Abdel Karim Kebiri, a former senior adviser to the International Labour Organisation, told Al Jazeera that "the people will be happy" with Ben Ali's departure.
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra said the days events were a "political earthquake" and "something unheard of".
He said that it was also as yet unclear what role the army was playing in matters, as it was reportedly moving towards the capital to "take charge of the situation from the security forces, which are seen by Tunisians as a main problem for its long record of human rights abuses".
Violent unrest
Friday's developments come following weeks of violent clashes across the country over unemployment and rising food prices.
Matters came to a head in the capital, Tunis, on Friday, as police tear-gassed protesters gathered outside the interior ministry building. Witnesses said police used batons to disperse the crowd, but the protesters insisted they would not leave until Ben Ali steps down.
Sabavala opined that Ben Ali's exit will "certainly lessen these protests, but whether they completely stop - the only way that is going to happen is if the interim government immediately starts implementing plans to address the issues that have been at the core of these protests".
"Simply bringing in an interim president, and especially one who has been close to Ben Ali ... is not going to be enough," she said.
"Logically, there is bound to be a lot of distrust, because Ghannouchi is part of the very close inner circle ... of Ben Ali. Past promises that have been made [by that government] have not been kept."
State media earlier reported that Ben Ali had imposed a state of emergency in the country and promised fresh legislative elections within six months in an attempt to quell the wave of dissent sweeping across the country.
There were also reports that the airport in Tunis had been surrounded by troops and the country's airspace has been closed. Air France, the main international airline into and out of Tunisia announced that it had ceased flights to Tunisia following that announcement.
State TV also reported that gatherings of more than three people had been banned.

Ben Ali had been in power for the last 23 years. On Thursday, he vowed not to seek re-election and reduce food prices in a bid to placate protesters.
But the pledges seemed to have little effect as fresh street protests erupted on Friday.
The unrest in the country began on December 17, after a 26-year-old unemployed graduate set himself on fire in an attempt to commit suicide. Mohammed Bousazizi's act of desperation set off the public's growing frustration with rising inflation and unemployment, and prompted a wave of protests across the country

[Magón]

wZEDYtq2sL0

[Dimentio]

Probably a military coup. The question is what would happen now.

[Iraultzaile Ezkerreko]

The Military took over. Ben Ali fled the country and the Prime Minister is now President. Let's hope the people keep this up and we see a real revolution.

[freepalestine]

Tunisian president quits after violent protests
Published yesterday (updated) 14/01/2011 21:26
http://www.revleft.com/vb/images/ViewDetails/Eng-1.jpg http://www.revleft.com/vb/images/ViewDetails/Eng+1.jpg





Smoke rises from fire left after clashes between security forces and demonstrators
[AFP/Fethi Belaid]

by Mohamed Hasni and Hamida Ben Salah

TUNIS (AFP) - Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali quit on Friday after 23 years in power and fled the north African state as the authorities declared a state of emergency following deadly protests.

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi announced on state television that he had taken over as interim president, after a day of violent clashes between rock-throwing protesters and riot police in the streets of central Tunis.

"I call on Tunisians of all political persuasions and from all regions to demonstrate patriotism and unity," Ghannouchi said in a solemn live address.

Government sources told AFP that Ben Ali had left the country but it was not immediately clear where he was headed.

Ben Ali had promised on Thursday to stand down at the end of his mandate in 2014 and said the prices of basic foodstuffs would be cut.

Ghannouchi announced after another day of violence Friday that the government had been sacked and elections would be held in six months.

Scene: Anger boils over in the streets of Tunis

Ben Ali's dramatic departure came after several tumultuous weeks in which a protest over high food prices and unemployment in central Tunisia escalated and spread across the country, with anger against the president spilling into the streets.

"We just want democracy," 24-year-old Hosni, his face wrapped in a Tunisian flag against tear gas, said during riots ahead of the president's departure.

Tarek, 19, an engineering student with a rock in one hand and a metal bar in the other, said: "Our president has promised a lot. They're empty promises."

Protesters even descended on the interior ministry in Tunis, one of the symbols of 74-year-old Ben Ali's iron-fisted rule, where they openly chanted for his swift departure and paid tribute to the "blood of the martyrs".

"I've never seen anything like this. This is our chance. We'll never have another chance like this," said Adel Ouni, a 36-year-old diplomat, observing the protest, adding: "This is a social revolution."

Tunisian authorities then declared a national state of emergency, banning public gatherings and imposing a strict curfew across the country.

"The police and the army are authorised to fire on any suspect person who has not obeyed orders or fled without the possibility of being stopped," said a government statement carried by the official TAP news agency.

The army meanwhile took control of the main international Tunis Carthage airport and airspace was shut down, an airport source said.

In earlier comments on TAP, Ghannouchi said the president had decided "to dismiss the government and call early elections in six months".

The statement said the decision had been made the day before, but there had been no mention of the government's dismissal in Ben Ali's national address Thursday although he did take a swipe at his lieutenants for "deceit".

But the apparent concessions did little to stem the calls for change with the chant of "Ben Ali Out!" echoing at demonstrations across the country.

"This is a demonstration of hope," Moncef Ben Mrad, editor of an independent newspaper, said at the protest in Tunis earlier on Friday.

"It is the birth of a people who demand more freedom and that the families that have looted the country return the wealth and are called to account."

Speaking at a news conference in Paris, Tunisia's main opposition parties, both legal and banned, had demanded Ben Ali step down in favor.

According to a Paris-based rights group, 66 people have been killed since mid-December in the worst unrest faced in Ben Ali's rule, about three times higher than the official toll.

Although Ben Ali had called on Thursday for an end to live firing by his security forces, medical sources said 13 people had been shot dead on the same night in the Tunisian capital and suburbs.

In a bid to quell the unrest, the president had promised in his national address that he would not seek another term in office and vowed to liberalize the political system.

Addressing other complaints, he also pledged to lower the prices of basic commodities such as milk, bread and sugar, and lift restrictions on the Internet.

With the tensions mounting, the leading tour operator Thomas Cook said it was evacuating more than 4,000 holidaymakers from the Mediterranean nation including from Germany, Britain and Ireland.

France became the latest in a list of European countries to advise its citizens against travel to Tunisia.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/Default.aspx

[freepalestine]

Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali forced to flee Tunisia as protesters claim victory

Angelique Chrisafis and Ian Black,




http://www.uruknet.info/pic.php?f=14a-tunisian-demonstrator-h-008.jpg (http://www.uruknet.info/pic.php?f=14a-tunisian-demonstrator-h-008.jpg)

A Tunisian demonstrator holds a placard reading "Game Over" during a rally in front of the country's interior ministry. The president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, has relinquished power after weeks of protests. Photograph: Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images



January 14, 2011

• Tunisian PM Mohamed Ghannouchi declares temporary rule
• Sarkozy refuses refuge to Ben Ali, French media reports



Tunisia (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/tunisia)'s president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/zine-al-abidine-ben-ali) fled his country tonight after weeks of mass protests culminated in a victory for people power over one of the Arab world's most repressive regimes.
Ben Ali was variously reported to be in Malta, France and Saudi Arabia at the end of an extraordinary day which had seen the declaration of a state of emergency, the evacuation of tourists of British and other nationalities, and an earthquake for the authoritarian politics of the Middle East and north Africa.


http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2009/10/22/1256211437260/President-Zine-El-Abidine-005.jpg

Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's ousted president. Photograph: Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images



French media reported tonight that President Nicolas Sarkozy had refused refuge to Ben Ali, although it was denied any request had come from him.


In Tunisia, prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi announced he had taken over as interim president, vowing to respect the constitution and restore stability for Tunisia's 10.5 million citizens.

"I call on the sons and daughters of Tunisia, of all political and intellectual persuasions, to unite to allow our beloved country to overcome this difficult period and to return to stability," he said in a broadcast.

But there was confusion among protesters about what will happen next, and concern that Ben Ali might return before elections could be held. "We must remain vigilant," warned an email from the Free Tunis group, monitoring developments to circumvent an official news blackout.

Ben Ali, 74, had been in power since 1987. On Thursday he announced he would not stand for another presidential term in 2014, but Tunisia had been radicalised by the weeks of violence and the killings of scores of demonstrators.

Today in the capital police fired teargas to disperse crowds demanding his immediate resignation. The state of emergency and a 12-hour curfew did little to restore calm. Analysts said the army would be crucial.

Tonight , soldiers were guarding ministries, public buildings and the state TV building. Public meetings were banned, and the security forces were authorised to fire live rounds.
Tunis's main avenues were deserted except for scores of soldiers. Protesters who had earlier been beaten and clubbed by police in the streets still sheltered in apartment buildings. Army vehicles were stationed outside the interior ministry.


Opposition leader Najib Chebbi, one of Ben Ali's loudest critics, captured the sense of historic change. "This is a crucial moment. There is a change of regime under way. Now it's the succession," he said.He added: "It must lead to profound reforms, to reform the law and let the people choose."

Al-Jazeera television, broadcasting the story across an Arab world which has been transfixed by the Tunisian drama, reported that a unnamed member of Ben Ali's wife's family had been detained by security forces at the capital's airport. Hatred of the president's close relatives, symbols of corruption and cronyism, has galvanised the opposition in recent weeks. Tunisians were riveted by revelations of US views of the Ben Ali regime in leaked WikiLeaks cables last month.


Ben Ali's western friends, adapting to the sudden change, asked for a peaceful end to the crisis. "We condemn the ongoing violence against civilians in Tunisia, and call on the Tunisian authorities to fulfil the important commitments ... including respect for basic human rights and a process of much-needed political reform," said a White House spokesman.




:: Article nr. 73900 sent on 14-jan-2011 23:23 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=73900 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=73900)</I>

Link: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/tunisian-president-flees-country-protests</I> (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/tunisian-president-flees-country-protests)

[freepalestine]

Z1Jkg3qFMV0

[freepalestine]

Tunisian poet Echebbi's words hold warning for tyrants of Arab world

</U>Peter Beaumont


</B>
http://www.uruknet.info/pic.php?f=15-tunisia-protests-large570.jpg (http://www.uruknet.info/pic.php?f=15-tunisia-protests-large570.jpg)</U></I></B></STRONG>Dictatorial regimes face sudden and shocking challenge to authority as words of a famous Tunisian poet prove prophetic

January 15, 2011

One of Tunisia (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/tunisia)'s most famous poets, Abou al-Kacem Echebbi, whose face adorns the 30-dinar note, is best known in the wider Arab world for several verses that warn tyrants they will face bloody insurrection. "Who grows thorns will reap wounds," Echebbi wrote – a line that the country's dictatorial president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/zine-al-abidine-ben-ali), might be reflecting on in his place of exile, Saudi Arabia.
He may not, however, be the only leader in the region to be doing so. For what has happened in Tunisia, a country which Ben Ali and his cronies controlled since he seized power in 1987, has a message for other regimes whose democratic credentials are less than shining. While it is not clear what Tunisia's path will be after Friday's insurrection, the complaints of the protesters are familiar across the region and have also, in some cases, prompted demonstrations. Algeria, home to an often restless young population, has seen protests about unemployment and food prices which began on 5 January and prompted a harsh crackdown. In Jordan, which saw demonstrations last week in five cities, the calls were very similar. There, too, the country's leader was assailed with demands to resign.
Nowhere has the link between the removal of Ben Ali and other countries been clearer than in Cairo, where on Friday night protests were held by opposition members outside the Tunisian embassy. Their message was explicit: President Hosni Mubarak should follow Ben Ali's example and leave his country, too.
The complaints of angry Tunisians are not surprising. What has shocked observers was how fragile the ousted president's police state proved when confronted by a political uprising.
They have realised that, on 17 December, when a desperate 26-year-old graduate turned vegetable seller set fire to himself and prompted the protests that brought down the Tunisian president, an alienated young man became a symbol of the powerless against the corrupt and powerful.
It is something many ageing autocrats in the region may face in the near future. And, with it, the prophetic realisation of Abou al-Kacem Echebbi's words.



:: Article nr. 73942 sent on 16-jan-2011 00:28 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=73942 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=73942)</I>

Link: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/15/tunisia-poet-tyrants-arab-world</I> (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/15/tunisia-poet-tyrants-arab-world)

[freepalestine]

Not Twitter, Not WikiLeaks: A Human Revolution

</U>Jillian C. York


</B>
http://www.uruknet.info/pic.php?f=15-protesters-demonstrate-against-tunisian-president-zine-al-ab.jpg (http://www.uruknet.info/pic.php?f=15-protesters-demonstrate-against-tunisian-president-zine-al-ab.jpg)</U></I></B></STRONG>
January 14, 2011

Beginning this afternoon, shortly after (former) president Ben Ali fled Tunisia (http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011114172228117723.html), I started getting calls about the effect of social media on the Tunisian uprising. I answered a few questions, mostly deferring reporters to friends in Tunisia for their side of the story, and then settled in for the night…only to find rantings and ravings about Tunisia’s "Twitter revolution" and "WikiLeaks revolution" blowing up the airwaves.
Like Alaa Abd El Fattah (http://twitter.com/#%21/alaa/status/26111913482002432), I think it’s too soon to tell what the true impact of social media was on the events of the past few weeks. I also think it’s a bit irresponsible of Western analysts to start pontificating on the relevance of social media to the Tunisian uprising without talking to Tunisians (there are notable exceptions; Ethan Zuckerman’s piece (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/14/the_first_twitter_revolution?page=0,0) for Foreign Policy is spot on, Matthew Ingram does a nice job of opening the debate here (http://gigaom.com/2011/01/14/was-what-happened-in-tunisia-a-twitter-revolution/), and Evgeny Morozov’s analysis–which starts with this great piece (http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/14/first_thoughts_on_tunisia_and_the_role_of_the_inte rnet)–is ongoing).
But for each thoughtful, skeptical piece, there is yet another claiming the unknowable. In this piece, for example, Elizabeth Dickinson of Foreign Policy writes (http://wikileaks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/13/wikileaks_and_the_tunisia_protests?sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4d2fb0630bc13672,0):

Of course, Tunisians didn’t need anyone to tell them [about the excesses of the first family]. But the details noted in the cables — for example, the fact that the first lady may have made massive profits (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/12/17/greed_is_global?page=0,4) off a private school — stirred things up.
By all Tunisian accounts, WikiLeaks had little–if anything–to do with the protests; rather, the protests were spurred by unemployment and economic woes. Furthermore, Tunisians have been documenting abuses by the Ben Ali regime and the first family for years, as Zuckerman notes. In fact, Dickinson seems to realize this herself, and yet for some reason still attempts to argue that WikiLeaks was a catalyst in the unrest.
Andrew Sullivan, who praised Dickinson’s piece, seems to have decided for himself (http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/01/could-tunisia-be-the-next-twitter-revolution-ctd.html) that social media was used as a tool for organizing:

The core test is whether Twitter and online activism helped organize protests. It appears they did, even through government censorship. Wikileaks also clearly helped. So did al Jazeera, for those who see it entirely as an Islamist front.
I’m not sure by what means such an idea appeared to Sullivan, but I haven’t heard it said yet–not once–by a Tunisian. Until I do, I’ll remain skeptical (though Sullivan’s praise of Al Jazeera is welcome).
http://jilliancyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Screen-shot-2011-01-14-at-11.39.18-PM-300x134.png (http://bandannie.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=2006)
Now, I’m not about to discount social media’s relationship to the Tunisian uprising. For one, it most certainly played a huge role in getting videos, photos, and news out to the world–and not just to a public audience, but to news organizations as well. Al Jazeera–which had some of the best coverage of Tunisia over the past few weeks–relied heavily on sources gleaned from social networks for much of its print work, as did other organizations. Tunisian blogs and news sources–such as Nawaat and SBZ News–filled in the gaps left by the mainstream media’s shoddy reporting of the events. And speaking from personal experience, I was able to connect a lot of Tunisians–some of whom I’ve never met in real life–with journalists because of our connections on Facebook and Twitter.
But to call this a "Twitter revolution" or even a "WikiLeaks revolution" demonstrates that we haven’t learned anything from past experiences in Moldova and Iran. Evgeny Morozov’s question–"Would this revolution have happened if there were no Facebook and Twitter?"–says it all. And in this case, yes, I–like most Tunisians to whom I’ve posed this question–believe that this would have happened without the Internet.
The real question, then, is would the rest of us have heard about it without the Internet? Would the State Department have gotten involved early on (remember, their first public comment was in respect to Tunisian Net freedom)? Would Al Jazeera–without offices on the ground–have been able to report on the unfolding story as they did? Most importantly, would any of that have mattered?
Social media may have had some tangential effect on organization within Tunisia; I think it’s too soon to say. No doubt, SMS and e-mail (not to be mistaken with social media) helped Tunisians keep in touch during, before, and after protests, but no one’s hyping those–e-mails and texts simply aren’t as fascinating to the public as tweets. In fact, assuming SMS and e-mail did play a role in organizing (and again, I don’t doubt they did — Tunisian’s Internet penetration rate may be only 33%, but its mobile penetration rate is closer to 85%), then we ought to be asking what it is about social media that is unappealing for organization? Could it be the sheer publicness of it, the inherent risks of posting one’s location for the world to see? Given the mass phishing of Facebook accounts (http://cpj.org/internet/2011/01/tunisia-invades-censors-facebook-other-accounts.php), it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Facebook were seen as risky (Gmail accounts were also hacked, however, which undoubtedly led some to view digital communications in general as risky).
I am incredibly thrilled for and proud of my Tunisian friends. This is an incredible victory and one unlikely to fade from popular memory anytime soon. And I am glad that Tunisians were able to utilize social media to bring attention to their plight. But I will not dishonor the memory of Mohamed Bouazizi–or the 65 others that died on the streets for their cause–by dubbing this anything but a human revolution.


source (http://jilliancyork.com/2011/01/14/not-twitter-not-wikileaks-a-human-revolution/)



:: Article nr. 73949 sent on 16-jan-2011 02:01 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=73949 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=73949)</I>

:: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website.

[freepalestine]

Tunisia hit by widespread looting

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201111521341179388.html

[Tommy4ever]

*sigh*

The looting is something we just have to accept I guess. When order starts to break down many people just start thinking about what they can steal.

[the last donut of the night]

*sigh*

The looting is something we just have to accept I guess. When order starts to break down many people just start thinking about what they can steal.

Or we can see a bit through the media lens and doubt that it's "looting" that's going on. I don't doubt that it has, but Al Jazeera is no revolutionary media organization, and the title itself is deceiving: "Tunisia Hit by Looting". It implies that looting has just smacked Tunisia in the face and paralysed all of its inner workings. I really doubt so.

[Lord Testicles]

*sigh*

The looting is something we just have to accept I guess. When order starts to break down many people just start thinking about what they can steal.

People will start to "loot" out of necessity and the "looting" will probably be limited to businesses and the wealthy since generally the poor have nothing worth looting, it's hardly something to lament.

[theAnarch]

there was also one report that said the pro Ben Ali militias were doing a good bit of the looting.

and there were also workers who spacificly targeted Buisnesses owned by the Former dictator and his family.

[BIG BROTHER]

http://www2.socialistorganizer.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=421&Itemid=1

A FEW NOTES ON THE OPEN REVOLUTIONARY PROCESS IN TUNISIA
Written by I.S. of the Fourth International
Monday, 17 January 2011
A Few Notes on the Open Revolutionary Process in Tunisia
-- International Secretariat of the Fourth International

* * *

1 .- It is a revolutionary process that has led to the fall of Ben Ali.

For weeks there were huge mobilizations of youth, workers, and people directed against the regime and its institutions.

Faced with the inertia of the central leadership of the UGTT [union confederation], many union affiliates, but also local unions and at least 7 regional union councils of the UGTT were at the initiative of the powerful mass demonstrations and rallies.

Faced with the provocations and the militia violence of the regime, many district committees were formed to protect and organize the workers and people. In some cases, such as Kasserin, the martyr city where the repression was the heaviest, the local administration, the police, and all the regime's institutions were smashed, leaving the city in the hands of the population and its committees. It was an indication of the depth of the revolutionary process that would bring down this regime.

The slogan of the mass "Bread and Water -- Not Ben Ali!" expresses the movement of Permanent Revolution linking workers' demands and the democratic sovereignty of the nation.

2 .- The depth of this revolutionary process is first and foremost a blow to the imperialist world order.

Young people have stood up against a dictatorial regime implementing all the plans of the IMF and EU on the basis of the free trade Association Agreement. It is a warning to all regimes in the pay of imperialism -- and in particular to all the Arab regimes in the pay of imperialism. It is a breath of fresh air for all the peoples of this region and particularly for the Palestinian people faced with the treachery of these governments, particularly that of Ben Ali, which collaborated with the Zionist state.

It was with the aim of preserving the general stability in the region and to preserve the Tunisian regime, that the Army General Staff and ruling circles in Tunisia -- in close consultation with imperialism -- agreed to sacrifice Ben Ali. The proclamation of the curfew, the deployment of the army (with the withdrawal of the Police and militia, which were responsible for the deaths), the appointment of the Prime Minister as Acting President and his invitation to meet with opposition parties (most of which exist only abroad) on behalf of the "constitutional transition", expresses the search for a preservation plan in a renovated form of national unity.

3 .- For us, as IVth International, this poses as an immediate and concrete matter the question of the Constituent Assembly.

It is a not a question of a distant perspective or of general propaganda. It is an immediate and fundamental demand that gives a concrete expression to the revolutionary mass movement that has aimed at putting an end to this regime and to organize itself on its own axis. Putting an end to this regime means the dissolution of all anti-democratic, reactionary and dictatorial institutions of the pro-imperialist regime. It means abolishing the rump parliament. It means free elections to a Constituent Assembly that will define the future of the country.

This movement toward the independent organization of the working class is embodied in the dynamic process whereby the workers reclaimed their sector unions, and their local and regional union UGTT councils -- all of which played such an essential role in structuring the revolutionary mobilization of the masses and must therefore be a central component of the Constituent process.

This movement is embodied in the forms of organization such as neighborhood committees formed primarily by workers and youth to defend themselves and to organize the day to day struggle, and which contain the seed of the new society that will replace the old regime.

It is against any idea that a process of dual power could be further developed and become the backbone of a Constituent Assembly that imperialism and the ruling circles in Tunisia are doing everything possible to preserve the current regime by "renovating" it. In their struggle to overthrow the regime, the workers, youth and masses sought to create independent organizations (reclaiming the UGTT branches for struggle, the neighborhood committees) in opposition to the dictatorial institutions in the service of imperialism. These are the key to new situation.

For us as the IVth International, without making it a prerequisite, the Constituent Assembly, meaning the affirmation of the sovereignty of the nation, requires a break with imperialism: a break with all the agreements with the IMF and EU; a break with all the military treaties under AFRICOM. It means the renationalization of all the main sectors of the economy.

It is the working class and its organizations that are the backbone of the struggle for a sovereign nation. This only underscores the lack of a political representation of workers and the oppressed.

It is on this line, that the Tunisian section of the Fourth International is fighting and on this line that the Liaison Committee of Tunisian militants of the Fourth International are preparing their declaration.

-- January 15, 2011

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The brutal truth about Tunisia

Bloodshed, tears, but no democracy. Bloody turmoil won’t necessarily presage the dawn of democracy

By Robert Fisk, Middle East Correspondent




Monday, 17 January 2011

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/dynamic/00536/1-SPLASHPIC_536084t.jpg (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/the-brutal-truth-about-tunisia-2186287.html?action=Popup)

AP




What's left of the face of ex-president Zine el- Abidine Ben Ali stares out from a torn poster in Tunis yesterday

The end of the age of dictators in the Arab world? Certainly they are shaking in their boots across the Middle East, the well-heeled sheiks and emirs, and the kings, including one very old one in Saudi Arabia and a young one in Jordan, and presidents – another very old one in Egypt and a young one in Syria – because Tunisia wasn't meant to happen. Food price riots in Algeria, too, and demonstrations against price increases in Amman. Not to mention scores more dead in Tunisia, whose own despot sought refuge in Riyadh – exactly the same city to which a man called Idi Amin once fled.


If it can happen in the holiday destination Tunisia, it can happen anywhere, can't it? It was feted by the West for its "stability" when Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was in charge. The French and the Germans and the Brits, dare we mention this, always praised the dictator for being a "friend" of civilised Europe, keeping a firm hand on all those Islamists.

Tunisians won't forget this little history, even if we would like them to. The Arabs used to say that two-thirds of the entire Tunisian population – seven million out of 10 million, virtually the whole adult population – worked in one way or another for Mr Ben Ali's secret police. They must have been on the streets too, then, protesting at the man we loved until last week. But don't get too excited. Yes, Tunisian youths have used the internet to rally each other – in Algeria, too – and the demographic explosion of youth (born in the Eighties and Nineties with no jobs to go to after university) is on the streets. But the "unity" government is to be formed by Mohamed Ghannouchi, a satrap of Mr Ben Ali's for almost 20 years, a safe pair of hands who will have our interests – rather than his people's interests – at heart.



For I fear this is going to be the same old story. Yes, we would like a democracy in Tunisia – but not too much democracy. Remember how we wanted Algeria to have a democracy back in the early Nineties?

Then when it looked like the Islamists might win the second round of voting, we supported its military-backed government in suspending elections and crushing the Islamists and initiating a civil war in which 150,000 died.


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No, in the Arab world, we want law and order and stability. Even in Hosni Mubarak's corrupt and corrupted Egypt, that's what we want. And we will get it.

The truth, of course, is that the Arab world is so dysfunctional, sclerotic, corrupt, humiliated and ruthless – and remember that Mr Ben Ali was calling Tunisian protesters "terrorists" only last week – and so totally incapable of any social or political progress, that the chances of a series of working democracies emerging from the chaos of the Middle East stand at around zero per cent.

The job of the Arab potentates will be what it has always been – to "manage" their people, to control them, to keep the lid on, to love the West and to hate Iran.


Indeed, what was Hillary Clinton doing last week as Tunisia burned? She was telling the corrupted princes of the Gulf that their job was to support sanctions against Iran, to confront the Islamic republic, to prepare for another strike against a Muslim state after the two catastrophes the United States and the UK have already inflicted in the region.

The Muslim world – at least, that bit of it between India and the Mediterranean – is a more than sorry mess. Iraq has a sort-of-government that is now a satrap of Iran, Hamid Karzai is no more than the mayor of Kabul, Pakistan stands on the edge of endless disaster, Egypt has just emerged from another fake election.

And Lebanon... Well, poor old Lebanon hasn't even got a government. Southern Sudan – if the elections are fair – might be a tiny candle, but don't bet on it.
It's the same old problem for us in the West. We mouth the word "democracy" and we are all for fair elections – providing the Arabs vote for whom we want them to vote for.

In Algeria 20 years ago, they didn't. In "Palestine" they didn't. And in Lebanon, because of the so-called Doha accord, they didn't. So we sanction them, threaten them and warn them about Iran and expect them to keep their mouths shut when Israel steals more Palestinian land for its colonies on the West Bank.

There was a fearful irony that the police theft of an ex-student's fruit produce – and his suicide in Tunis – should have started all this off, not least because Mr Ben Ali made a failed attempt to gather public support by visiting the dying youth in hospital.

For years, this wretched man had been talking about a "slow liberalising" of his country. But all dictators know they are in greatest danger when they start freeing their entrapped countrymen from their chains.

And the Arabs behaved accordingly. No sooner had Ben Ali flown off into exile than Arab newspapers which have been stroking his fur and polishing his shoes and receiving his money for so many years were vilifying the man. "Misrule", "corruption", "authoritarian reign", "a total lack of human rights", their journalists are saying now. Rarely have the words of the Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran sounded so painfully accurate: "Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpetings, and farewells him with hootings, only to welcome another with trumpetings again." Mohamed Ghannouchi, perhaps?

Of course, everyone is lowering their prices now – or promising to. Cooking oil and bread are the staple of the masses. So prices will come down in Tunisia and Algeria and Egypt. But why should they be so high in the first place?

Algeria should be as rich as Saudi Arabia – it has the oil and gas – but it has one of the worst unemployment rates in the Middle East, no social security, no pensions, nothing for its people because its generals have salted their country's wealth away in Switzerland.

And police brutality. The torture chambers will keep going. We will maintain our good relations with the dictators. We will continue to arm their armies and tell them to seek peace with Israel.
And they will do what we want. Ben Ali has fled. The search is now on for a more pliable dictator in Tunisia – a "benevolent strongman" as the news agencies like to call these ghastly men.

And the shooting will go on – as it did yesterday in Tunisia – until "stability" has been restored.
No, on balance, I don't think the age of the Arab dictators is over. We will see to that.





http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/the-brutal-truth-about-tunisia-2186287.html

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[YOUTUBE]2E8_
is the leader of the communist party still in jail in there??


aljazeera:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXvbiTMXfkc

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Tunisia: reject the farce of national unity – continue the revolution until victory

by Jorge Martín






Marxist.com (http://www.marxist.com/tunisia-reject-farce-of-national-unity.htm), January 18, 2011



As soon as Ben Alí was on the plane to Saudi Arabia on Friday, January 14, ousted by the mass revolutionary movement of the Tunisian workers and youth, the Tunisian ruling class and its imperialist puppet masters started manoeuvring to make sure that they remained in control of the situation.


http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/thumbnails/10219_nawaatorg-14_January_2011.jpg (http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/tunisia/nawaatorg-14_January_2011.jpg)
14 January. Photo: Nawaat.org



They were intent on not allowing power to slip from the corridors of parliament and the presidential palace to the streets where the masses were celebrating the flight of the hated dictator. It was crucial for them above all to ensure the maintenance of "constitutional order". Articles 56 and 57 of the Constitution were invoked and different figures were put in charge with lightning speed, trying to form a new government as soon as possible. First it was Ben Ali’s Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, quickly replaced by the speaker of the parliament, Fouad Mebazaa, who then, in turn, proceeded to ask Ghannouchi to have talks with all political forces in order to form a national unity government charged with calling elections.


Talks were frantic during the whole weekend. From the point of view of the ruling class this government had to fulfil two aims: 1) to ensure the continuity of the old regime, 2) to do it by pretending that it was "new" in order to gain some legitimacy on the streets where the Tunisian people had carried out the revolutionary overthrow of Ben Alí. For this purpose a number of figures from the "loyal opposition" were included as a fig leaf.


Meanwhile, the remains of Ben Ali’s hated police force and secret services were roaming the streets in unmarked cars, shooting at civilians, organizing looting and generally attempting to create a mood of chaos, violence and fear from which they hoped to benefit. An amazing 120,000 people were employed by the police in a country of just over 10 million inhabitants, controlling all aspects of everyday life and spying on the population on a massive scale. Many of those are still loyal to the dictator, armed and fighting for their own survival.


Starting on Friday night, the Tunisian people started to organise to fight back against them. In neighbourhoods around the country groups of men, women and children armed themselves with sticks, stones, knives and whatever else they could get their hands on and set up barricades and roadblocks to protect themselves, revealing a sharp revolutionary instinct.


One eyewitness described the situation: "Every single corner had a collection of men, young boys and even a few women brandishing all sorts of weapons (except guns). They had built barricades out of random trash to block traffic and were standing around them." These peoples’ committees fought, and on many occasions defeated, the ministry of interior forces who were terrorizing the population: "These terrorists were armed with automatic weapons and driving around in cars, and we were all on foot armed only with axe handles, knives and badly constructed barricades," the same eyewitness explained.


Some of these committees also started to undertake tasks of ensuring the provisioning of food as well as maintaining public order. Elements of dual power started to emerge. In Bizerte, one of the epicentres of the revolution, the army went to the neighbourhood committees and told them that they were taking over, but the committees said they were staying and the army had no other alternative but to accept. The same was true throughout the country, as army soldiers collaborated with the committees to maintain order and fight the police and ministry of interior forces.


Last week during the revolutionary events that led to the ousting of Ben Ali, there were already many reports of fraternization between soldiers and lower ranking officers and the workers and youth on the streets. As a matter of fact, Ben Ali was forced to withdraw the Army from the streets of the capital and replace them with the police for fear of the soldiers joining with the people.


During every real revolutionary movement cracks appear within the state apparatus, and particularly the army which is a conscript army drawn from the people. Some generals at the top of the Tunisian Army probably realized that they could not use the soldiers against the people and therefore understood that Ben Ali was finished and decided to switch their allegiance. General Rachid Ammar is reported as having refused an order for the soldiers to fire on the demonstrators and was removed from his command by Ben Alí. This has added to the popularity of the Army amongst the population.


http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/thumbnails/10219_methalif-roadblock.jpg (http://www.marxist.com/images/stories/tunisia/methalif-roadblock.jpg)
Road block. Photo: methalif.blogspot.com



It is not unprecedented for Army officers to play a role in revolutions, particularly in the absence of a revolutionary party with strong roots amongst the working class. This was the case during the Portuguese revolution in 1974. For a brief period of time general Spinola took over control of the situation, pretending to be a friend of the revolution, only to be removed as the revolution moved further to the left. The same Spinola was to attempt a coup against the very same revolution he had pretended to be a part of.1 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m74045&hd=&size=1&l=e#sdfootnote1sym)


The workers and youth of Tunisia should be very wary of any such false friends of the revolution. These false friends are behaving as they are only because the balance of forces has swung massively in favour of the ordinary working people. They will lean towards the masses in order to win their confidence, only to betray them later.


In Tunisia as in any capitalist country, the army as an institution is a capitalist body, created in order to defend the interests of the ruling class, however much it attempts to present itself as defending the people and the nation. Workers and youth should have no trust in Army generals. However, the lower ranks are much closer to the masses in social composition and background. With these layers – ordinary soldiers and lower ranking officers – the masses should build and strengthen their links. Soldiers and revolutionary officers should form their own committees and these should be linked to the committees in the workplaces and the neighbourhoods. They should denounce those officers involved in corruption and repression under Ben Ali and remove them from the institution.


As news of the new "national unity" government started to emerge, workers and youth were back on the streets. In Bizerte, Sfax and other places there were demonstrations on Saturday, some of them marching on the headquarters of the hated RCD ruling party and setting them on fire. In Bizerte the people defeated the Ben Alí militias and set their motorbikes on fire. There was a growing feeling that the revolution was being stolen from them.


Even before the actual composition of the new government had been announced demonstrations were being called for in the capital and most regional capitals for Monday. In Tunis a militant crowd of thousands gathered outside the offices of the UGTT trade union and then marched towards the Ministry of the Interior (Video (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=179569372083437)). Similar demonstrations took place in Sfax (Video 1 (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1810212699514) and Video 2 (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=133527450045420), Video 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JPY524ANLo&feature=youtu.be&a)), Kasserine, Monastir (Video (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=178005788904792)), Bizerte (Video 1 (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=164066606972665) and Video 2 (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1676344280755)), Jendouba, etc. In many cases these demonstrations were organized by and rallied from the regional headquarters of the UGTT union. "The revolution continues, down with the RCD" was the common slogan. "They cannot steal the revolution from us," said Abdel Haq Kharshouni, one of the protesters quoted by the Financial Times, "we do not want to be ruled by tyrants anymore." In the capital, the demonstrators were met with riot police with water cannons and dispersed. (Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iveCMXSgAvU)).



Finally, late on Monday 18, the composition of the new government was announced. Ministers from the old Ben Ali government kept all key positions including the Prime Minister and the ministries of Defence, Interior, Economy and Foreign Affairs. A few figures from the legal opposition were given token ministries: Moustapha Ben Jaafar, from the socialdemocratic "Forum démocratique pour le travail et la liberté" (FDTL) getting the Health Ministry, Ahmed Ibrahim, from the former Communist Party Ettajdid was given Higher Education, and the head of the liberal PDP Najib Chebbi was appointed as Minister for Regional Development.


As usual the former Stalinists and reformist leaders play the worst role of all. These are all parties which were legal under Ben Ali; some had representation in parliament and played no role during the insurrection. Significantly, when Ghannouchi announced the new government, he was flanked by Abdallah Kallel, former Minister of the Interior, well known for implementing brutal repression and directly responsible for the torture of thousands of political opponents. A number of figures from "civil society" were thrown in for good measure to try to increase the authority of the new government amongst the masses, including a blogger who had been arrested, a barrister, human rights figures, a cinema director, etc. Three representatives from the UGTT trade union were also included in the new government, in recognition of the need for the ruling class to get some support amongst the workers.



The Communist Workers Party (PCOT), illegal up until now, has correctly denounced this government as a manoeuvre to maintain the Ben Ali regime without Ben Ali. The PCOT has also called for the spreading of the committees and for the convening of a Constituent Assembly.
The only other party not to have been invited to this "new" government is the Islamist En Nahda, also illegal under Ben Ali. However, its leaders have declared they would be ready to join such a government. At the same time, it has been reported that one of the leaders of En Nahda, just released from prison, was present at the anti-government demonstration in Tunis this morning. The Islamists, who play no role in the actual revolution, are now attempting to win support by presenting themselves as more consistent democrats. These are not friends of the revolution, but just cynically trying to take advantage of it to promote their own reactionary views.


This new government does not have the support of the revolutionary masses. They quite rightly see that they made the revolution and now a government is being formed which is mainly made up of those they fought against, people who were part of the Ben Ali government right until the end, who are co-responsible for the 80 people who were killed by the regime during the insurrection. The fact that a few "oppositionists" who did not play any significant role during the movement are being included does not change anything.

The promises of freedom for all political prisoners, freedom of expression and democratic elections do not change anything. The people fear that their victory on Friday is being stolen in front of their own eyes. A young unemployed worker summarized the feelings of the people: "It is as if Ben Ali was still here. The people from this government never had the courage to say 'enough’ to Ben Ali. They want to steal our revolution. They did nothing to remove him. They should go!"


A new and powerful wave of anger is building up from below. This morning (Tuesday January 18), new demonstrations took place, including a few thousand in the capital, 10,000 in Sfax (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JPY524ANLo) (where a general strike has been called for tomorrow), thousands in Sidi Bouzid, 1000 in Regueb (population 7,000), thousands in Kairouan (http://24sur24.posterous.com/sidibouzid-video-today-anti-rcd-prosts-in-kai), 3,000 in Kelibiaand also 500 in Kasserine. In Tataouine the demonstrators ransacked the headquarters of the RCD. There were also demonstrations, numbering thousands, in Beja (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=119637294774827), in Gabes (http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=194981193849966), in Mahdia, Hamma, Gafsa, Feriana, Kairouan, Zarzis, Kelibia, etc. Many of this demonstrations were organised by or rallied at the headquarters of the regional and local unions of the UGTT. One observer put it this way: "the Tunisian population feels that the Revolution is being driven away from its ideals.

The main view of the opposition is that the people who made the revolution are not represented and that by keeping the RCD on board, and even at the steering wheel, the former regime is perpetuating itself." This forced the UGTT national leadership today to announce that it does not recognize the new government and that it is withdrawing from it, this less than 24 hours from its formation!


The national leadership of the UGTT is not known for its radicalism. Last week it met with Ben Ali and welcomed the promises he made in a last desperate attempt to save his skin. On Sunday they went on national TV to distance themselves from appeals for demonstrations on Monday and called on all workers to report back for work and "re-establish normality". If they have now been forced to make such a statement it means that the pressure coming from the rank and file of the trade unions and from the regional unions must be very strong and they fear losing their positions. Even the former communist party Ettajdid, which has joined the new government, issued a statement saying that their participation in it was conditional on a number of demands, including the removal of all RCD ministers!


As part of the unfulfilled tasks of the revolution, workers and ordinary trade union members should organise the democratization of the trade union movement and the cleansing of the UGTT of all those who collaborated with the Ben Ali regime. Workers require unions that are genuine expressions of their interests. This means elections in the workplaces must take place, and a new leadership must be prepared to take over.


The next few hours and days will be crucial. The workers and youth of Tunisia have shown great courage and revolutionary determination. They must not allow the revolution to be taken away from them. They should rely only in their own forces, the forces that brought down Ben Ali. The Committees which exist in the neighbourhoods should be maintained and should link up through elected representatives at a local, regional and national level. Similar committees should be set up in the work places, within the ranks of the Army, amongst the students, etc. These are the only bodies that are legitimate representatives of the revolutionary people and which should be tasked with convening the Constituent Assembly. None of the politicians from the old regime can be trusted as the masses correctly understand.



The slogans of the day should be: Down with the national unity government! For a revolutionary constituent assembly based on the committees! Fraternisation with the army ranks and setting up of soldiers’ committees! The UGTT should call a general strike to enforce the will of the people! Trial and punishment of those responsible for repression under the Ben Ali regime! Expropriation of the wealth of the Trabelsi clan! The revolution continues; the workers and youth should remain vigilant!


The Ben Ali regime was not only a dictatorship, but a capitalist dictatorship. This is the reason why France, Italy, the US and the rest of the imperialist powers supported Ben Ali right until the very last minute. We also note that the Socialist International has decided to remove the RCD from its ranks, an embarrassing decision which shows that when it comes to imperialism the social democratic leaders always play the same imperialist tune.


If the revolution is to be taken to its logical conclusions, and the demands for work and dignity are to be fulfilled, the wealthy of the Tunisian capitalist class, the banks, industries and companies which supported, backed, financed and benefited from the dictatorship, must be expropriated. Only in this way, can the wealth of the country created by working people be put under the control of this same working people in order to fulfil the needs of the population. The aspirations of the Tunisian masses can only be genuinely satisfied through a social, as well as a political revolution: a socialist revolution.




Notes:

1 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m74045&hd=&size=1&l=e#sdfootnote1anc) See The Portuguese Revolution (http://www.uruknet.info/History-old/portugal1974.html), by Alan Woods, June, 1974; The Revolution in Portugal (http://www.uruknet.info/History-old/portugal75.html), by Ted Grant, May 1975; andWorker's History - Portuguese Revolution 1974 (http://www.uruknet.info/History-old/portugal74.html), by Phil Mitichinson, May 1994 for a detailed analysis of the 1974 Portuguese revolution and the role played by such figures.



:: Article nr. 74045 sent on 18-jan-2011 19:48 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=74045 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=74045)</I>








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Revolution in Tunisia… just the beginning

Camille Boudjak




the commune (http://thecommune.co.uk/2011/01/19/revolution-in-tunisia-just-the-beginning/), January 19, 2011

Camille Boudjak reflects on the revolutionary movement in Tunisia


Ben Ali, the dictator who once terrorised the Tunisian population, was forced to flee the country on the evening of Friday 14th January. Chief of state for 23 years, a kleptocrat and dictator, he spent six hours on a plane first trying to reach the France of his friend and supporter Sarkozy, then Malta and finally being welcomed by the reactionary Saudi monarchy.



http://thecommune.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/burnpolice.jpg?w=300&h=200 (http://thecommune.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/burnpolice.jpg)





At the time of writing the Tunisian population have still not won anything as regards their aspiration for freedom, nor the working-class demands against poverty and unemployment which in late December sparked the insurrection in the impoverished Sidi Bouzid region. The army patrols the streets and the cops of the Ben Ali regime continue to spread terror. No-one knows the future: the international history of our class is rich in betrayed and lost revolutions, but already the revolution in Tunisia represents a historic event.




For reasons of geography and common language, the Tunisian revolution marks the start of a new era in the Arab world. Neighbouring Algeria has also recently seen an upsurge of anger, expressed in riots in poor suburbs across the country. On 14th January as Ben Ali fled, thousands of workers protested in Jordan against price rises. The next day in Yemen a thousand students demonstrated through the streets of Saana to welcome the revolution in Tunisia and call for similar revolutions across the Arab world. From Egypt, also marked by working-class revolts in recent years, particularly in the textile industry; to the UAE where migrant building workers have launched a powerful strike over pay in spite of repression; to Morocco where there are numerous workers’ and students’ demonstrations; there is not a single Arab country whose eyes are not turned to Tunisia.




Often people only speak of a "democratic revolution" in Tunisia, but we must question the class nature of the revolution. It started in Sidi Bouzid with a young unemployed man, dying of poverty, setting himself alight. It is a revolution against the dictatorship but also against unemployment and price rises, a revolution against poverty. Much as the recent insurrectionary riots in Algeria started in the poor suburbs, the revolution in Tunisia was created in the heart of the working class, with ferment already brewing in the Gafsa miners’ struggle. It was often the grassroots militants of the UGTT, the main workers’ organisation in Tunisia, who organised the protests, even if the bureaucracy collaborated with the regime.




Although less covered by the media than the riots, the revolution in Tunisia has also been marked by the traditional weapon of the working class, the strike. For example in Sfax, apart from the hospitals and bakeries, 100% of workers went on strike on 9th January. These strikes affected many sectors, in particular call centres outsourced by France-Télécom, Orange and SFR. It was the working class which launched the struggle and pulled behind it all the other parts of the population who wanted an end to the Ben Ali regime, linking strikes with insurrectionary demonstrations. There is nothing surprising in this: in Tunisia like elsewhere the working class is the only revolutionary class, with "nothing to lose but its chains".




The revolution in Tunisia is a thousand miles from the "colour" pseudo-revolutions like in Ukraine or Georgia, false revolutions where everything was decided in advance and, supported by demonstrations, one faction of the ruling clique replaced the other. The dozens and dozens of deaths mean it is impossible to call the 2011 Tunisian revolution a "velvet revolution", much as it was impossible to speak of such an outcome to the Iranian revolutionary crisis of 2009. This working-class aspect of the revolution worries not only North African and Middle Eastern leaders, but also those of Europe.




A few days before the fall of Ben Ali, the French Foreign Minister proposed sending aid to the regime to help it repress the revolt. The primary concern of the French state was of course to defend the interests of French capitalists who profited from a cut-price working class muzzled by the Ben Ali dictatorship.In turning him away, in spite of its tradition of welcoming fallen dictators, the French state showed its contempt for its pawns who fail to keep order. As long as the profits flow into bourgeois pockets and the order necessary for exploitation is maintained, the French state is not bothered with the nature of the regime. In Ivory Coast, for example, having militarily intervened to protect Gbagbo, French imperialism nonetheless continues to support Outtara. THe French state only supported Ben Ali as long as he could keep power.


In the case of a real revolution, and not just a palace coup, revolutions are often strengthened and radicalised with the departure of a dictator, as in the case of Nicholas II in Russia in 1917 or the Shah of Iran in 1979. On Sunday 16th January, after the fall of Ben Ali, 1,500 people in the small town of Regueb (population 8,000) demonstrated, chanting "We did not revolt to get a unity government with a cardboard opposition". On Monday 17th fresh demonstrations broke out in Tunis, repressed by jets of tear gas, and in the working-class suburbs the residents organised themselves in self-defence against the cops and Ben Ali’s thugs, establishing district committees. The next day saw calls to demonstrate in Tunis and Sousse against the new government, with the slogan "the dictator has fallen, no more dictatorship".




The "Tunisian revolution", which is already more than a Tunisian matter, seems far from over. Although Ben Ali is gone, all the apparatus of his dictatorial state remains in place. The "national unity government" is 85% composed of members of the RCD, Ben Ali’s party, his former ministers and his yes-men. The members of the "opposition" brought into government are for the most part members of the former legal, official opposition, as well as one member of the Ettajdid (ex-Communist Party), which was banned even after having long supported Ben Ali. Of course there are promises and there is talk of freedom of the press and of parties; political prisoners like Hamma Hammami have been freed; and elections are promised to take place within six months.
With the fall of Ben Ali, the new government will of course make some concessions.



The history of revolutions in Russia, Germany and Iran, for all their distinctions, show how the bourgeoisie can retreat in the face of pressure and abandon its most loyal servants; but if it can keep power and maintain its state apparatus in whatever form, it will do all it can to crush a working class who dared to revolt. Democratic illusions and alliances with this or that faction of the bourgeoisie in the name of "democracy", "the nation", "anti-imperialism" have always cost the workers a heavy price in blood. Once the revolutionary movement has begun, the only possibility is the victory of one class and the crushing of the other.


An abridged version of an article from www.communisme-ouvrier.info (http://www.communisme-ouvrier.info)


:: Article nr. 74077 sent on 19-jan-2011 19:32 ECT


www.uruknet.info?p=74077 (http://www.uruknet.info/?p=74077)

[Iraultzaile Ezkerreko]

http://socialistworker.org/2011/01/20/what-next-in-tunisia

Good round up of what has happened and what is being said about the future by the opposition.

[freepalestine]

What's next for Tunisia?
Gary Lapon and Alan Maass





Tunisian protesters call for leaders of the former ruling party to be excluded from the new government (Nasser Nouri)


SocialistWorker, January 20, 2011


THE STRUGGLE over the future of Tunisia is continuing in the days following the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years of brutal and corrupt rule.

The cabinet for a supposed "unity government" met for the first time on Wednesday, but it was without ministers representing the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT, by its French initials) and several opposition parties, who resigned over the presence of numerous officials from Ben Ali's old regime in the new government.

While the cabinet met, hundreds of protesters rallied in the capital of Tunis, demanding that members of Ben Ali's Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) be excluded from the government. The demonstration was smaller than previous days, but represented a continuation of the mass mobilizations that forced Ben Ali to flee late last week. As demonstrator Salem Ben Yahia, a filmmaker and former political prisoner, told the Guardian:

We don't want our revolution hijacked. We forced a dictator out the door, and now he's come back in the window. His old ministers are still in a majority in this transition government, and that has to change. Police have already shot at us and beaten us to stop us protesting, but we come back again like a tide.

The true character of the "unity government" is evident at the very top. The president is Fouad Mebazaa, the former speaker of parliament, and Mohamed Ghannouchi remains prime minister. Both men were members of the RCD. They attempted to distance themselves from Ben Ali by resigning from the party on Tuesday, and Mebazaa promised "a complete break with the past" in his first televised speech as president the next day. But that won't fool protesters.

The announcement of the new government the day before was greeted with anger. In addition to Mebazaa and Ghannouchi, RCD leaders were left in charge of the ministries of interior, defense, foreign affairs and finance. Members of moderate opposition parties and three UGTT officials were given minor posts, such as the ministries of health and regional development. The Tunisian Workers' Communist Party and Islamist parties were excluded.

Demonstrations erupted anew. According to the New York Times, more than 1,000 people marched down the main road of the capital, chanting, "Citizens and martyrs, the government is still the same...We will protest, we will protest, until the government collapses!" Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets, but the demonstrations continued in different parts of the city into the night.

A member of the moderate opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), outraged that PDP leader Ahmed Najib Chebbi had accepted a post in the new government, reportedly told Chebbi: "The people, who bled and died for us and our children, need to decide! How can the murderer [Ghannouchi] be our leader today?"

The three UGTT ministers led the resignations from the government the same day it was announced--and the union federation held a general meeting that decided to withhold recognition of the government, according to reports. As British socialist Richard Seymour commented on his Lenin's Tomb blog:

The significance of this is clear. The political elite, the ruling class it is integrated into, and in all probability a phalanx of EU and U.S. diplomats wanted a constitutional lash-up that would preserve the same basic pyramid of control, with some more inclusive, and slightly more representative, structures...

The ruling class is clearly weak and divided, its institutions of repression unable to keep control. In some cities, the population has been able to effectively take full over. No government that does not include organized labor in some capacity will have any legitimacy.

What happens next will depend on the continued mobilizations by union members, left-wing organizations and others, which pressured the UGTT leaders and opposition figures to leave the government.

Mebazaa and the government will attempt to masquerade as opponents of the old regime. As the cabinet met on Wednesday, 33 members of Ben Ali's family were arrested on suspicion of "crimes against Tunisia," according to local television reports that showed images of gold and jewelry seized in raids. But, of course, RCD members like Mebazaa were collaborators with the Ben Ali kleptocracy until last week.

The struggle will continue to drive out members of Ben Ali's party from the government. Another looming question is that of elections. The new government will have to hold them, but will they take place under the old constitution that cemented the power of Ben Ali's regime?

Rached Ghannouchi, leader of the banned Islamist party Hizb al-Nahda, gave voice to a widely supported sentiment for a new constitution in an interview with the Financial Times:

The [current] constitution was a tyranny. The state was reduced to one man, who had in his hands the executive, judicial and legislative powers and was not accountable to anyone. How can such a constitution point towards building a democratic system, even as a starting point?

The first step of building a democratic system is to build a democratic constitution. For this, we need a founding council for rebuilding the state, one in which political parties, the trade unions and the civil society join. This council will rebuild the democratic constitution and will be the basis for building the democratic system.

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RATHER THAN focus on the struggle over the composition of the new government, much of the Western media coverage of Tunisia since Ben Ali's ouster has revolved around sensational reports of "chaos" and "rioting." But the calls from the media and political leaders--as well as from establishment voices in the Arab world--for "stability" don't address who is really behind the continuing violence: loyalists among Ben Ali's paramilitary police.

Over the weekend, after the dictator fled Tunisia for Saudi Arabia, members of Ben Ali's militia committed acts of terrorism against civilians, with snipers seizing government buildings and banks to fire on civilians and even units of the military--sections of which appear to have broken with Ben Ali and the police apparatus that defended his regime.

Rather than be intimidated by this reign of terror, ordinary Tunisians armed themselves with clubs and set up ad-hoc self-defense groups, manning barricades to defend their neighborhoods and round up Ben Ali's thugs. This is a significant development, as bodies of popular defense challenge the state's monopoly on the use of force and provide a glimpse of the ability of masses of people to ensure their safety in the face of state violence.

According to the Guardian:

[T]he full horror of repression over four weeks of demonstrations is beginning to emerge. Human rights groups estimate at least 150-200 deaths since December 17. In random roundups in poor, rural areas, youths were shot in the head and dumped far from home so bodies could not be identified. Police also raped women in their houses in poor neighborhoods in and around Kasserine in the rural interior.

Meanwhile, ordinary Tunisians have targeted businesses owned by members of Ben Ali's family and that of his wife, Leila Trabelsi, who reportedly stole $60 million in gold from the treasury before fleeing the country with her husband.

This comes after years of corruption and looting that enriched a tiny handful of elites connected to Ben Ali and his wife at the expense of the majority of Tunisians. According to Juan Cole on his Informed Comment blog, a U.S. State Department cable revealed by WikiLeaks estimates that "50 percent of Tunisia's economic elite were related in one way or another to [the couple]."

The blame for the violence today lies squarely at the feet of Ben Ali and his family, the paramilitaries, and his former colleagues in the RCD who now lead the "unity government."

To call for "stability" under an interim government headed by a party that oversaw more than two decades of corruption and human rights abuses is to ask the Tunisian people to acquiesce to injustice and surrender the gains they sacrificed so much for.

Furthermore, it would be absurd to trust leaders of Ben Ali's own party to oversee a "transition to democracy" or to investigate the wrongdoing for which their party is responsible--never mind to look out for the interests of the Tunisian people who, until a few days ago, they were openly engaged in repressing.

When Western leaders talk about "stability," they mean the return of conditions that are favorable to Western business interests. For the last two decades, "stability" in Tunisia has meant worsening economic inequality, sharp increases more recently in food prices and unemployment, and a repressive security state that denied ordinary Tunisians any semblance of human, civil or democratic rights.

It was "instability"--caused by the Tunisian people rising up against injustice--that finally toppled the Ben Ali dictatorship.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

EVEN MORE worrisome to the U.S. and other Western powers than what is happening inside Tunisia is the threat that the uprising will be contagious--and infect with the spirit of rebellion those living under oppressive Western-backed dictatorships in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and elsewhere.

The news of Ben Ali's overthrow rocked the Arab world. Millions of Arabs know the same problems that the Tunisian people rose against: rising costs of food and other necessities, high unemployment, endemic poverty and repressive dictatorships. In addition, they live under regimes that support, openly and behind the scenes, not only the U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, but Israel's crimes against the Palestinians.

As one Egyptian put it in a Twitter post: "Every Arab leader is watching Tunisia in fear. Every Arab citizen is watching Tunisia in hope and solidarity."

Beyond the region, too, the Tunisian uprising represents a popular reaction against the economic policies of neoliberalism that have immiserated workers and the poor across the world.

One immediate spark for the struggle in Tunisia when it began in mid-December--as for protests in neighboring Algeria and in Jordan--was rising food prices, which are due in no small part to speculation by wealthy commodities traders in the West. As Canadian socialist David McNally put it, "[T]he massive spike in food prices is directly connected to the turmoil in the world economy that has been raging since the outbreak of the financial crisis of 2008."

Similar speculation was at the root of food price increases that sparked rioting in more than two dozen countries in 2008, including Egypt, which saw an extensive trade union struggle develop at the same time.

Meanwhile, in the Global North, workers and students in Europe took to the streets by the millions last year to oppose austerity measures that are the result of the same economic crisis.

Resistance to the effort on the part of capitalists worldwide to impose the costs of the economic crisis on the masses of workers and the poor is what ties the heroic struggle in Tunisia not just to those of people across the Arab world, but to the fight of workers and the poor everywhere.







:: Article nr. 74105 sent on 20-jan-2011 18:02 ECT


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