L.J.Solidarity
2nd August 2013, 02:55
Last Thursday Mohammed Brahmi, MP for Sidi Bouzid and leader of the nasserist party "People's Movement", a component of the pan-left Popular Front was murdered. This led to a spontaneous general strike in Sidi Bouzid and a nationwide 1-day general strike the day after, called by the UGTT, the strongest union federation in the arab world.
There are/were obvious elements of a revolutionary situation. A kind of self-government council was formed in Sidi Bouzid, supported by the local UGTT. There were calls for the government "Troika" (coalition of Ennahda=Muslim Brotherhood, liberal Congress for the Republic and social democratic Ettakatol) to step down and also for the dissolution of the de-facto parliament, the Constituent Assembly (CA).
Prime Minister Ali Larayedh (Ennahda) reacted by announcing that his government would stay in office and that it would organize elections for a new CA in December.
The UGTT leadership around general secretary Hassine Abassi didn't call for any further action after last week's general strike, prefering to call for a "government of experts" in a common statement with UTICA, the employers' federation and to say nothing about dissolution of the CA. Their "assistance" is probably vital for keeping Ennahda in power, as their government is in total disarray with ministers stepping down and Ettakatol leaving the coalition.
The group of CWi supporters in Tunisia made a leaflet for the general strike which was translated into English and published with some additional info on socialistworld.net (http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/6408)
There are/were obvious elements of a revolutionary situation. A kind of self-government council was formed in Sidi Bouzid, supported by the local UGTT. There were calls for the government "Troika" (coalition of Ennahda=Muslim Brotherhood, liberal Congress for the Republic and social democratic Ettakatol) to step down and also for the dissolution of the de-facto parliament, the Constituent Assembly (CA).
Prime Minister Ali Larayedh (Ennahda) reacted by announcing that his government would stay in office and that it would organize elections for a new CA in December.
The UGTT leadership around general secretary Hassine Abassi didn't call for any further action after last week's general strike, prefering to call for a "government of experts" in a common statement with UTICA, the employers' federation and to say nothing about dissolution of the CA. Their "assistance" is probably vital for keeping Ennahda in power, as their government is in total disarray with ministers stepping down and Ettakatol leaving the coalition.
The group of CWi supporters in Tunisia made a leaflet for the general strike which was translated into English and published with some additional info on socialistworld.net (http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/6408)