(Updated Jan. 24) Tunisia:`All Arab dictators are shaking on their thrones' -- Left and Arab voices on the insurrection

[For more on Tunisia in revolt, click HERE. Scroll down for earlier reports and analysis. ]

UGTT demands dissolution of 'unity government'

Statement of the National Administrative Commission of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) issued on January 21, 2011 (first published in English on MRZine).

1. The General Union of Tunisian Workers is a national organisation necessarily interested in political affairs, given its history of struggle during the colonial epoch and the period of the construction of the modern state, considering the dialectical links among economy, society, politics, and culture in the process of development, but out task has become more urgent than ever.

2. The UGTT National Administrative Commission recalls that the withdrawal of UGTT ministers from the government is due to the government's failure to respond to the conditions set by the UGTT Executive Office in its 15 January 2011 statement, a position whose correctness has been proven and which corresponds to the demands of masses of demonstrators and the rest of the civil and political society.

3. In view of massive demonstrations across the country demanding the dissolution of the government and rejecting the participation of RCD representatives in it; also in view of numerous resignations in response to the rejection by various political parties and currents; and because of the urgent need to restore the confidence of all in order to proceed to the effective preparation for the reforms that have been announced; the members of the UGTT National Administrative Commission demand the dissolution of the government and the establishment of a "national salvation" coalition government which responds to the demands of demonstrators, political parties, associations, NGOs, and all the people.

4. The National Administrative Commission decides, with a view to effectively taking part in a commission for political reforms, to create trade union committees composed of experts and specialists to work out UGTT proposals on political, economic and social reforms necessary for the establishment of democracy, as well as transparent elections to ensure the freedom of choice, to lay the foundations for a parliamentary government, and to permit dissemination of accurate information. Moreover, the UGTT demands that members of its National Administrative Commission be represented in the commission of inquiry on the killings of innocent citizens during demonstrations, to bring those responsible for them to justice, and be also represented in the commission of inquiry on corruption and other crimes.

5. The UGTT calls upon all workers to oppose all attempts to disrupt the normal functioning of institutions and to obstruct their return to normal activity, as well as to be on guard in defense of our achievements and to ensure the continuation of necessary mechanisms for the management and conduct of daily functions, in order to preserve the vital interests of the people and to avoid the vacuum that does lasting damage to workers and citizens.

6. The UGTT reaffirms its commitment to continue to wage the legitimate struggle, whether by striking or demonstrating peacefully, until the government is restructured according to the conditions set by the UGTT, which correspond to the demands of all segments of the political spectrum as well as of the people.

7. The UGTT demands that the 14th of January be proclaimed as national holiday, for the public and private sectors, for civil service, and for all the sectors of people.

8. The UGTT urgently appeals to all trade unionists and workers to preserve the unity of their organisation in order to ensure the continuity of the struggle and achieve the workers' demands, in interaction with the demands of protesters and the general public, and to remain vigilant against all attempts to split our ranks and to divide the unity of our decisions at this sensitive stage in the history of our country.

Long live the struggle of our brave people on the path to dignity in Tunisia.

Tunis, 21 January 2011
Secretary General bdulsalam Jarad

* * *

January 20, 2011 – Juan Cole's Informed Comment reports that stung by continued protests against the Rally for Constitutional Democracy (RCD) party of deposed president Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali, the members of that party in the interim cabinet all resigned from it on the morning of Januray 20. The president and prime minister had earlier left the party.

The government also announced the freeing of all political prisoners and the unbanning of political parties. Tweets are saying that people are gathering to chant and sing in protest on Bourguiba Avenue. Crowds are smaller than last week, but people are still coming out to demand removal of RCD ministers.

Swiss banks have frozen Ben Ali’s accounts, and the government has seized the Zitoune Bank of Ben Ali’s son-in-law, as well as arresting members of Ben Ali’s clan.

Morning Star on January 20 reported that the Tunisian army fired a barrage of warning shots in the capital on January 20 as demonstrators converged on the headquarters of the ruling party. The party has dissolved its decision-making core following a wave of departures by ministers desperate to keep their government jobs. Protesters climbed over the RCD offices in Tunis and dismantled the sign bearing its name, carrying off pieces of its red lettering.

Outside the gates of the party headquarters, the army fired rounds into the air, scattering some protesters in the noisy but peaceful crowd. The building was being protected by an army tank in addition to numerous lorries and troops.

The crowd of protesters swelled to at least 2000 people, many chanting "The people want the government down!" Others waved loaves of bread to symbolise their demand for cheaper food.

In a sign of the difficulties facing the interim government one minister, a former member of the ruling party, resigned on January 20. Four other ministers, three of whom were former opposition activists named to the unity government, resigned earlier in the week. Members of the interim government who belonged to the ruling party quit the party on January 19. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi and interim president Fouad Mebazaa had already quit the RCD earlier in the week. Following the resignations the party dissolved its central committee, which will continue to be run "provisionally" by its secretary-general Muhamed Ghariani.

In another attempt to ease tensions the interim government has released all the country's political prisoners.

National television reported that least 33 members of Ben Ali's family had been taken into custody as they tried to flee the country. Prosecutors are investigating overseas bank accounts, real estate and other assets held by Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other relatives.

The revolution continues?

By Dyab Abou Jahjah

January 18, 2011 – Abou Jahjah commentsتعليقات أبو – The regime led by Prime Minister and now acting president Mohammed Ghannouchi is playing its last card today in Tunisia. That last card is the RCD (Rassemblement constitutionnel démocratique, the party of the former dictator). After the formation of a so-called “national unity government” yesterday, and after that the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT,the largest trade union in the country) supported and even participated in it with three ministers, alongside three opposition ministers (from the legal opposition under the regime) many thought that the Tunisian revolution ended up with a compromise. A compromise that left a bitter taste in the mouth of the Tunisian people and especially the youth who started this revolution and were determined to sacrifice in order to see it through.

[Update January 18: Several ministers have withdrawn from the unity government due to the inclusion of several hacks from the former ruling party, the RCD, in the government. The ministers who have left are UGTT leaders, apparently under pressure from protesters demanding an end to the RCD's role in government. Junior minister for transportation and equipment Anouar Ben Gueddour resigned along with labour minister Houssine Dimassi, and minister without portfolio Abdeljelil Bedoui. The three ministers are all members of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT). They announced their withdrawal after the UGTT refused to recognise an administration that contains eight ministers from former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's discredited regime. Health minister Mustapha Ben Jaafar of the opposition Democratic Forum for Work and Freedom also resigned. It was not immediately clear if the resignations could bring down the government, which has 40 full and junior ministers. UGTT members and supporters took to the streets today and called for a general strike, constitutional changes and the release of all imprisoned union leaders.]

After knowing the composition of the government and the fact that it included even the minister of interior of the regime who can be held responsible among others for the killings, the revolutionary sentiment exploded again. Arab nationalists, Islamists and radical leftists, but above all normal Tunisians with no political agenda except their determination to have a clean break with the past of repression decided to challenge this government and demanded the outlawing of RCD and  the formation of a salvation government that even breaks with the constitution and rewrites it.

These are revolutionary demands by all means and many people did not take them yesterday. However, people who know the high level of political awareness that the Tunisian people possess also knew that action will follow. Today all over the country demonstrations are erupting forcing the UGTT to retreat from the government and to embrace the revolutionary demands cited above. In many places the popular committees clashed with the police and shoot outs were reported.

Tunisia will decide its direction in the coming days, maybe hours. Will it be a revolution that goes all the way or a compromise between a revolution and a regime that will keep many contradictions under the surface and will sooner or later lead to another clash.

‘Illegal' opposition leaders excluded from 'national unity' government

By Yasmine Ryan

January 18, 2011 – Al Jazeera Blogs – For all the talk of unity, two opposition parties have been excluded from the national coalition government that was announced January 17, with no immediate prospect of being integrated into what is being portrayed by some as a democratic opening.

The Communist Workers’ Party of Tunisia (PCOT) is one of those parties. Simply being a member of the PCOT has for many years meant the danger of facing a prison sentence.

Hamma Hammami (pictured, right), the party’s spokesperson, was only freed from prison on Friday. "This is a national government which has nothing national about it,” Hammami, told Al Jazeera. “It’s intended to conserve the old regime in power with all of its authoritarian institutions in place.”

“This is why people are taking to the street with a new slogan ‘we don’t want the RCD’”, he said, referring to one of the slogans taken up on Monday’s protests.

For Hammami, like many other opposition leaders, former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s hasty departure is nowhere near enough. He called for “the party of Ben Ali” to be disbanded completely, along with all its “repressive apparatuses”. He called for a provisional government to be established to help pave the way for the transition towards a truly democratic republic.

The communist leader also had words for the Tunisian Islamist movement. He argued that the uprising, which had its one month anniversary on January 17, was a secular one, and called on the Ennahdha party to accept this and not to bring “polemics over theology” into the conversation.

“We want to keep the people united over these aspirations”, Hammami said. “We’re calling on other parties not to divide the people.”

As for Tunisia’s largest Islamist party, it is not only not included in the government. Its leader is being denied the right to return to Tunisian soil. Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of al-Nahda, announced on January 15 that he would be returning to Tunisia from his exile in London to join the unity government.

But Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi said today in a statement that there’s no way his namesake – no relation – can come back to his homeland unless a 1991 prison sentence is lifted.

Tunisia: Statement of the National Administrative Commission of the Tunisian General Union of Labor

The struggle for legitimacy

By Dyab Abou Jahjah

January 17, 2011 – Abou Jahjah commentsتعليقات أبو – In Tunisia, a new government is being formed under the leadership of the RCD (the party of the fallen dictator) and the participation of some legalised opposition parties. All parties that were illegal under the old regimes are being excluded and this is stirring up a lot of controversy among parts of the Tunisian population who feel 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 on the steering wheel the former regime is perpetuating itself. On the other hand the pro-coalition voices are stressing the fact that this is only a transition necessary to avoid plunging the country in chaos.

While some would argue that now that the revolution has deposed the tyrant the country must seek reconciliation, and they also argue that the RCD has hundreds of thousands of members and excluding them would exclude important segments of society. However, most of these members were in the RCD not for an ideology or a vision, but because a party card was synonymous of personal advancement under the old regime. I wonder if the RCD will have more than few thousands hard core Ben Ali loyalists if things are left to take their natural course.

But even if the RCD would be a real party with real supporters base, it is now the duty of these people – if they want national reconciliation – to distance themselves from the past and its crimes by changing their party name and going to the opposition.

Why should national reconciliation be the responsibility of the oppressed, many rightly ask. And they also believe that the best strategy to use now is a transitional committee representing all currents of the people and its trade unions and excluding the RCD as such, while including some independents who are not far from it and that this committee should lead the country into transition towards a free and fair election where all the chances of all the parties are equal.

It is in my opinion the United States and the France that have certainly played a role in convincing parts of the mild opposition to support this government in order to guarantee continuation of the old economic structure and its integration as a service economy for France, plus the political and military alliance with the US and NATO.

The risk is that this government will not be so transitory after all and will only serve as an excuse to win more time and allow intelligence services and regime loyalists to work on their strategy to take back control of the country, albeit under another leader who will govern slightly different than Ben Ali but will be just as autocratic and corrupt and pro-Western.

This is a real risk and the people started protesting against this government today and in Tunis the governmental police used tear gas against the demonstrators.

Tunisia:‘All Arab dictators are shaking on their thrones'

By Dyab Abou Jahjah

January 16, 2011 – Abou Jahjah commentsتعليقات أبو – The Tunisian revolution continues to dictate its own logic on all levels. After attempts by regime leftovers to spread chaos by several techniques (cars driving through the streets shooting at people and houses, randomly destroying infrastructure, etc.), the Tunisian people have organised themselves in committees that have spread all across the country in every neighbourhood and in every city and started patrolling the streets and protecting the people. Popular committees even chased the militias of the old regime and in one case in a shoot out a martyr fell and two militiamen were executed by the people.

There are reports of Israeli activity in Tunisia in support of the counter revolution, also of infiltrators sent in from Libya to sabotage. It is not clear yet if this is a pattern or independent isolated cases.

On the political level the leftovers of the old regime are still officially in power and they are negotiating with the fake opposition that always served as decoration for the regime. However, the popular committees and the trade unions and the real opposition are all working on changing this and translating the revolution into political effects.

I believe it will not take long before a political road map will be drawn towards preparing elections. It is important to note that elections according the old regime will not bring about change, so the real opposition and the people are demanding changing the constitution first and then going towards election.

The Arab regimes are shaking and the Arab people are euphoric even in places like Oman and the Emirates. On Twitter, the Saudi youth are also showing support to the Tunisian revolution and expressing shame for their country receiving the tyrant. The Egyptian regime is delaying measures that were planned to lift state [subsidies] for some basic goods, and Qadafi expressed his regret and said the Tunisians should have kept Ben Ali for life. Qadafi is clearly nervous about a real revolution on Libyan border unlike his own phony one.

On another level, the Egyptian opposition is now more convinced that the answer is the street and nothing else. This revival of the revolutionary ideal is universal all over the Arab world. In Algeria there are reports of three cases of citizens setting themselves on fire, one of them is reportedly dead. Egypt and Algeria are looking to be the two Arab countries with the most resonance of what happened in Tunisia.

Hezbollah saluted the Tunisian revolution and asked all Arab leaders to draw conclusions from it. Internationally, the French and the Americans issued statements that reveal a high level of hypocrisy. They always supported the old regime knowing very well of its nature as Wikileaks revealed and now they cannot sell us their so-called support to the people’s choices. They do not like to see revolutions unless they are orchestrated by the CIA and the CIA-financed NGOs like in Ukraine, Georgia and Lebanon. This is a real revolution and therefore they feel unsettled about it.

Some quick notes on the Tunisian revolution

By Dyab Abou Jahjah

January 14, 2011 – Abou Jahjah commentsتعليقات أبو -- From day one it was clear this is a revolution that is not about bread only, it was also against dictatorship and corruption. The revolution was supported by all segments of society. Poor, middle class and even upper middle class. Especially the middle class showed its claws the last days in Tunis. Many friends of mine who live there and who are university students or employed in good positions were in the street also taking tear gas and bullets. The youth played an important role in all this and cell phones combined with Facebook connected through proxy services was the media of the revolution.

The trade union played the role of the momentum regulator and political indicator. It was clear that as long as the trade union (UGTT) keeps on declaring strikes that the battle is on, and that was the signal to the people to stick to the streets. Yet we cannot say that the trade union led the revolution, it rather synchronised with it especially the last crucial two days.

On the political level there was no single party or current that played a major role. The traditional opposition that is mainly in exile tried to coordinate and even thought of a government in exile. But the momentum of the revolution was even too fast for such plans to materialise.

The people had no leader but itself. This however posed a problem for the revolution as to how to organise transition of power. Who will take over. There were only three options, an exile government, but that would be only on the long run, a military coup, or that some figure from the regime institution will take over. Now it seems that the two last options are still open.

Ghanoushi the prime minister is from within the establishement but it is very likely that he will be in power for few days only, some believe few hours. Rumours about General Ammar taking over and appointing the speaker of the house Elmbazaa as caretaker until elections are organised in 60 days are now circulating within the ranks of the army and the political scene.

As for possible attempts by the regime to regenerate itself, this can maybe done through creating mayhem and chaos in the streets. Reports of violence, looting, and arson are widespread at these moments. But whether this can lead to a counterrevolutionary sentiment is very unlikely. Also because people realise that these are the downsides of any revolution, there is no birth without pain….

As for the repercussions on the Arab world and beyond. They are paramount. All Arab dictators are now shaking on their thrones. Especially in the Maghreb countries, but also Mubarak in Eygpt will have a sleepless night. The Arab peoples saw and know for sure what a people can do. They saw another Arab people bring down the harshest of dictators in less than a month. All what is needed is unity and determination to go all the way. This will certainly lead to the revival of revolutionary dreams among the Arab oppressed classes (middle class and masses) and will start the dawn of democracy.

Also the Americans and the Zionists but also France are nervous today, their best friend in the area was kicked out. And the people is heading to govern itself in Tunisia with its own agenda with all the anti-imperialistic and anti-Zionist elements of that. A free democratic Tunisia will not only be a model for democracy for all Arabs, it will also be a safe haven for revolutionary powers and a place of support for the resistance against Israel and the US. The international alliance against empire hegemony will have another member.

Tunisia is a beautiful country that has a very highly educated people, very critical and very vocal. Tunisians are both Maghreb and Machrek, they look like all Arabs and they talk like all Arabs, they can form the core of the Arab people for liberation. Tunisia can play the role that Egypt is no more willing or able of playing. In the age of democracy and freedom, Tunisia must export its revolution, but before all, Tunisia must consolidate it and bring it to its happy end by building a system based upon freedom, equality, diversity and citizenship. A real state of law and a model to follow. I for one believe that Tunisians are the best among all Arabs for this task. We will all watch and learn.

[Dyab Abou Jahjah is founder and former president of the Arab European League. These article was first published in his blog Abou Jahjah Comments.]

Protesters demand end of ruling party

January 17, 2011 – Morning Star – About a thousand people rallied in central Tunis today to demand the abolition of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party. Demonstrators shouted: "Out with the RCD" and "Out with the party of the dictatorship!" as police fired volleys of tear gas to break up the protest.

Monji Amari, one of those protesting on Bourguiba Avenue, said: "We are here to say 'No'. We have had enough of this party of power. We do not want to see them any more. Together with Ben Ali they are responsible for the situation that we are in now."

Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi was a close ally of Mr Ben Ali and began talks with opposition parties on January 16 to form a national unity government. Sources close to the talks said the current interior and foreign ministers will stay.

Najib Chebbi, founder of the opposition Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), is set to become regional development minister in the new government, while opposition leaders will also get the education and health jobs.

Any public gatherings are banned under a state of emergency declared by the ousted premier on Friday just before he resigned and fled. Riot police used water cannons and tear gas today in an attempt to prevent protesters from marching on the RCD's headquarters.

"With our blood and our soul we are ready to sacrifice ourselves for the martyrs", they chanted, referring to the 50 people who were killed in clashes that led to Mr Ben Ali's downfall after 23 years in power.

There was another rally in Sidi Bouzid, a city in central Tunisia that was at the heart of the protests that erupted against Mr Ben Ali's regime in mid-December last year. People there chanted: "Bread and water and no RCD!" A rally was also held in the nearby town of Regueb. Shops in the centre of Tunis remained shuttered today and police were deployed in force.

A semblance of normal daily life returned in other areas of the capital where shops, petrol stations, pharmacies and supermarkets reopened. Many people went back to work and others rushed to buy scarce items like bread, fish and milk.

Hundreds of stranded tourists were still being evacuated from the country and foreign airlines gradually resumed the flights that were halted when Tunisian airspace closed amid the upheaval.

1. The success achieved so far is only half of the way and the other half is achieving the wanted democratic change and implementing it on the ground.

2. The democratic change cannot spring from the same party, the figures, the institutions, the apparatuses and the legislations that maintained the dictatorship and deprived the people from basic rights for more than half a century, 23 years of which under Ben Ali.

3. The interim president is one of Ben Ali’s clique and a president of an appointed body which does not represent the people in any aspect whatsover, and the plan to hold presidential elections in 60-days time has no purpose but to maintain the continuation of the dictatorial regime through one of its former leaders.

4. The most dangerous of what could happen now is robbing the Tunisian people of their victory and their legitimate ambitions for freedom and a diginified existence and sacrifices through preserving Ben Ali’s regime without Ben Ali and through forming a democratic decor around it.

5. The democratice change, with its political, economical, social and cultural dimensions, requires a real end of the repressive regime by taking a direct step which consists of forming a provisional government or any other body that has excecutive powers and undertakes the task of organising free elections for a Constitutional Assembly which would establish the bases of a real democratic republic in which people would enjoy freedom, social equality and national dignity.

6. All the forces, whether they are political organisations, unions, human rights groups, cultural organisations, organised or non-organised and the people, who have played an effective and decisive role in toppling the dictator, have the task to decide on Tunisia’s future, and no one could replace them in their negotiations or contatcs with the authority.

7. It is of a high urgency that the democratic forces form a national and unified body to carry out the democratic change and has the tasks to protect the gains of the revolting Tunisian people and to negociate with the authorities to yield power to the people in a peaceful way

8. All the democratic forces all over the coutry have to unite in organisations, committees, or local, regional and sectorial councils in organising the popular movement and to undermine the manoeuvre of reaction and the acts of looting and vandalism perpetrated by hidden groups aiming at spreading fear among the citizens, threatening their safety and scaring them of a democratic change to compel the people to surrender to the repressive apparatuses.

9. The armed forces, which consists in the main of the sons and daughters of the people are required to provide safety for the people and the motherland and respect people’s aspirations towards freedom, social jutice and national dignity, which requires lifting the state of emergency as soon as possible so that it doesn’t become an excuse that prevents the Tunisian people from continuing their struggle and achieving their goals.

For a provisitional government

For a constitutional assembly

For a democratic republic

Hamma Hammami

Workers Communist Party of Tunisia

http://www.albadil.org/

All the victory to the Tunisian Revolution; the forefront of the revolution in the North of Africa and the Middle East

By Al Mounadil-a

January 15, 20100 – An Arab tyrant is finally fallen by a popular revolution. After 23 years of tyranny, robbery and oppression, the dictator Ben Ali fled in a humiliated and disqualified way under the cries of the revolutionary Tunisian people: “Ben Ali, get out!”

Since 1987, Ben Ai accompanied by the great rotting and venal bourgeois; especially the families of his wife and his kinsman, the Trabelsi’s and Materi’s, have always believed that the devices of police and investigations [150.000 policemen without counting the army and the other forces of repression; the first rank in the Maghreb by one policeman for each 27 Tunisians] are enough for him to continue robbing Tunisian fortunes, humiliating its people and starving them. Ben Ali’s regime was a brilliant pupil of the global financial institutions and basically of the French imperialism that cynically condoned on the dictatorship of Ben Ali for the sake of their share in the Green Tunisian Pie and which spoke a lot about the "Tunisian Miracle"; the Hong Kong of the North of Africa. This was before being awake on a true miracle whose heroes are the victims of Ben Ali and the World Bank policy.

It is a January 14th Tunisian Revolution that triggered from Sidi Bouzid, a month ago, after the young Mohamed El-Bouazizi fired himself as a protest against unemployment and indignity. It is the fire that turned into a popular flame which increasingly spread to all over Tunisia and rocked the pillars of the rulers. From one demonstration to another, from a barricade to another and from a martyr to another; the uprising was flourishing and growing, and resolutely made its way towards the palaces of the Carthage torturer demanding the head of the old dragon.

It’s got what it wanted. The old tyrant fled in panic. It is an important and great victory for the Tunisian laypeople and all the peoples of the Great Maghreb and the Arab Amazigh region and for all the oppressed and exploited people all over the world. It is an Arab, Amazigh and African proof that the will of the people is indomitable, and that the revolution is not just illusions of radical dreamers living out of date. The revolution is the blood and flesh running in the streets of Tunisia. Let all the reactionaries shuddered everywhere because the infectious revolution is inevitable.

The Tunisian revolution has made a huge step forward, but the fate of the revolution has not been decided yet, and still has a lot of rubbish to sweep. The enemies of the revolution have not yet received the decisive defeat, and the dragon of the counter-revolution is more than the head of an old tyrant. It has a political system that is fully supported by all the reactionary forces of the world. It is a groggy and shaky system, but it has not yet lost the hope to escape from the grip of the street that throttles her. It still has in its command the mouldiest police devices in history. It is a corrupted system and the revolution will not succeed in achieving the hopes of the Tunisian laypeople if it has not been bombed and replaced by the temporary government representing the revolutionary people. A government of the workers, poor peasants and all the laypeople that oversees the election of a constituent assembly setting the rules to conduct the country at all levels.

The revolutionaries and the revolutionary people are not to wait for an interim government, but they have to seek to form worker and popular councils in factories, neighbourhoods, schools and also in the barracks. The councils are to be at the local to the national level and elected with the possibility to remove any delegate at any time. They should be a revolutionary power to run the country and a revolutionary shield in the face of the counter-revolution and its propaganda, repression and games. And the future of the revolution is based on the formation of these worker and popular councils and on their gain of the armies or at least some of them to their side. The arming of the revolutionary people regulated on councils is the guarantee to push the revolution forward and protect it from any foreign interference.

 Do not trust those who remained from the gang of Ben Ali! Beware of liberal political forces that are very eager to ride on people’s victory! All the power to the revolutionary people! This is the slogan that should unite all Tunisian revolutionaries.

 For a second, third, fourth, and fifth Tunisia! Against the tyrannical regimes sponsoring division! For a Great Democratic United and Socialist Maghreb! These are the slogans that should unite the revolutionaries in the Great Maghreb.

 All the victory to the Tunisian Revolution; the forefront of the revolution in the North of Africa and the Middle East.

Almounadhil-a

[Al Mounadil-a is an Arabic-language website of the Fourth International, published by the Moroccan section.]

The social and democratic revolution is on the march!

By Fathi Chamkhi, Tunis

January 15, 2011 – International Viewpoint – The Tunisian popular masses have just erupted onto the political scene in a spectacular fashion! They have succeeded, after 29 days of a social and democratic revolution, in driving out the dictator Ben Ali! This is a great victory!

It is a great day for us all, which we share with all those who are fighting against the world capitalist order! Above all, we have re-conquered our dignity and our pride, which for a long time had been ridiculed and dragged through the mud by the dictatorship. Now, we have a new Tunisia to build: free, democratic and social.

But right now the counterrevolution is on the march! Ben Ali has fallen from power but his regime, although destabilised and weakened, is trying to maintain itself in place. The Destourian party/state is still there, and so are its liberal capitalist economic and social policies.

This regime, which is presented as an example of a “star pupil” by the international financial institutions, this regime which bled the Tunisian popular masses for 23 years, for the benefit o f an international capital that is greedy for profits, while enriching a minority of families, grouped around the government and organised in gangster clans, must go. That is what we want!

We refuse the attempt that is under way aimed at confiscating our revolution. This operation is being presented under the formula of a “government of national unity”, with which this illegitimate regime is trying to hang on to power.

At the same time, the defeated regime has unleashed its over-armed militias, including the personal guard of Ben Ali, which are sowing terror in the big cities of the country, in particular in Tunis and its suburbs. Groups coming from the disinherited and famished masses are also taking advantage of the current chaos to help themselves in the supermarkets: in particular Carrefour and Geant. Bands of looters are positioning themselves along the principal roads of the country, making it dangerous to travel! Basic products are starting to be in short supply or are non-existent: bread, milk, medicine …

The regime, which has demobilised the police force in the cities and the National Guard in the countryside, is letting all this happen, taking advantage of the chaos to impose its own solutions. The introduction of the curfew and the deployment of the army – which lacks manpower and which has never had to face this kind of situation before – do nothing but worsen the fear, since it is during the night that the armed militias act! Everywhere, citizens are trying to organise their own defence, often in coordination with the army. Thousands of “popular citizens’ defence committees” are being set up to defend the population.

Only the establishment of a provisional government, without any representative of the Destourian regime, which will have the responsibility of preparing free and democratic elections, regulated by a new electoral code, for a constituent assembly, will be able to allow Tunisians take control of their destiny again, and to establish, in their country, an order that is just and beneficial to the mass of the population.

If the people aspire one day to live, destiny can only yield to their will!

[Fathi Chamkhi organizes RAID (Assembly for Alternative International Development)-ATTAC and the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM) in Tunisia.]

Statement by the Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia

January 15, 2011 – Socialist Unity – Tunisia has lived since December 17, 2010, the day when the current popular revolt against unemployment, exclusion, poverty, cost of living, the shameless exploitation, corruption, injustice and tyranny began. These popular protests started in the city of Sidi Bouzid and have since extended to all parts of the country. Poverty and tyranny, endured in the city, are a general phenomenon that affects all the Tunisian people. The rage and indignation is the same throughout the country.

The police and dictatorial regime of President Ben Ali attempted to crush the people’s uprising using misinformation, deception, lies and the brutal repression of the police who fired on the people, killing unarmed demonstrators. This was done with the intention of suppressing the protests quickly and preventing their spread to the rest of the country. These methods failed. Instead they have fueled protests that have extended their range, and drove the demonstrators to turn what began as simple social demands to political demands on the issue of freedom and power. Even when Ben Ali delivered his speech on the twelfth day of the revolt to promise that he would allow elections, nobody believed him and the masses responded that the protests would continue.The placards and slogans put forward by the masses in revolt, from south to north, are clear evidence of the long process of political awareness which has taken place in the minds of Tunisians over the last twenty years of the reign of Ben Ali.

Slogans such as: “Work is a right, band of thieves”, “Hands off the country corrupt band”, Work, freedom, dignity”, "Liberty, freedom and non-life presidency“,”Down with the party of thieves, down with the torturers of the people“,”Ben Ali lose, the people do not let it go“.

Finally, the masses have realised that they are being ruled but not represented and that the system represents “a band of thieves”, a handful of families who have plundered the resources of the country, sold its resources and its people to foreign capital, which deprives people of their liberty and their rights, using the brute force of the state apparatus, which has been transformed into a “state of families”, to humiliate, subdue and intimidate the people and discourage them from fighting.

Tunisia has been turned into a national prison in which torture and repression was used to terrorise the people. The people demand change in the belief that the aspirations to freedom, democracy and social justice can not be achieved under Ben Ali. The masses involved in the struggle, in the intifada, no longer want dictatorship, and have embarked on a new process in Tunisia.

Tunisia needs a new democratic government which represents the national and popular will of the people and represents its own interests. And a system of this type cannot emerge from the current system and its institutions or its constitution and its laws, but only on its ruins by a constituent assembly elected by the people in conditions of freedom and transparency, after ending the tyranny.

The task of a People’s Council is to draft a new constitution that lays the foundations of democratic republic, with its institutions and its laws. The popular protests are still ongoing. No one can predict either their duration or their development. Tunisia has entered a new phase in its history characterised by the rise of its people and their desire to recover their freedom, rights and dignity.This raises the responsibilities of the opposition, especially its most radical wing, to find new policy solutions that place as an immediate priority the requirements of the Tunisian people for a program providing a plan for overall change in Tunisia. The opposition, consisting of all the forces involved in the intifada, has been invited to close ranks for democratic change and to form an alternative to tyranny and dictatorship.

The Workers’ Communist Party renews its invitation to convene a national assembly of the Tunisian opposition in order to confront the issue as quickly as possible. Also renewed has been an invitation to come together to coordinate at national and local level support for the  popular movements, and to work towards a set of concrete demands so that the movement does not run out of steam. Among these demands the most immediate are:

1. An immediate end to the dictatorship’s campaign of repression against the people.

2. The release of all prisoners.

3.  The arrest and prosecution of all those responsible for repression, the plunder of property, and murder.

4.  The repeal of all restrictions on civil liberties, free expression, organisation and assembly. The adoption of immediate economic measures to alleviate unemployment and poverty. We demand income security, health care and the immediate recognition of trade unions.

The Workers Communist Party will remain, as it has always been, on the side of the workers, the poor and all those at the forefront of a new order in Tunisia.

For freedom, democracy and social justice.

http://www.albadil.org/

Tunisian Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party: Immediate tasks in Tunisia

Statement by Khaled Falah, Tunisian Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party

January 15, 2011 – First of all, our party intends to remain in opposition, and not to enter the next government, although two of our allies in the Alliance for Citizenship and Equality plan to take part in a government of national unity (namely the Ettajdid Movement and the Democratic Forum).

[Editor's note: The Mouvement Ettitjad (Renewal Movement) emerged from the Tunisian Communist Party, which dissolved in the early 1990s. Ahmed Brahim, the secretary-general of the Ettajdid won support from the Workers Communist Party of Tunisia and the Socialist Party – both clandestine – for the presidency in 2009.]

Our tasks:

1)      To neutralise the criminal gangs which are indulging in plunder and aggression, and which are like a kind of “tontons macoutes” of the old regime;

2)      To support the creation in each district of Citizens’ Committees for Civic Defence to defend people and property from these “tontons macoutes”

3)      To require the return of the police force and the army to their barracks as soon as possible, and the end of the curfew and the state of emergency;

4)      To create a commission of inquiry to locate the persons who were responsible for the use of live rounds [against civilians during the uprising];

5)      To create a commission of inquiry with the power to expropriate the beneficiaries of corruption and illicit enrichment;

6)      To create a national commission on total reform of the electoral code, the press code and the law concerning political parties;

7)      To secure the legalisation of the Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party and other civil organisations.

Tunis, January 15, 2011.
 
[Khaled Falah is a member of the founding committee of the Tunisian Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party. Web site: http://www.hezbelamal.org/siteanglais/index.htm.]