Tunisia - working class revolt

[butchersapron]

Formal opposition pulled out of constituent assembly

 

[teqniq]

Tunisia pledges new govt after opposition leader's killing

Tunisia's premier has pledged to form a government of technocrats ahead of new elections, after the murder of opposition leader Chokri Belaid sparked deadly protests and attacks on the ruling party's offices.....Islamist Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said in a televised address after Belaid was shot dead outside his home in Tunis Wednesday that he would form a new, non-political administration ahead of fresh elections.

"I have decided to form a government of competent nationals without political affiliation, which will have a mandate limited to managing the affairs of the country until elections are held in the shortest possible time," he said.

Jebali did not specify that he was dissolving the existing government, nor did he set a date for the reshuffle which must be confirmed by the national assembly.

 

[teqniq]

There's a Live updates thing in the Graun too. The comments are worth a read

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mid...nt-opposition-election-live#start-of-comments

 

[teqniq]

rachshabi: Powerful pic: Besma Khalfaoui, widow of murdered #Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid http://bit.ly/YcmLNf

 

[butchersapron]

Few too many hmmm quotes in this bit as summation.

 

[thedockerslad]

So you just lost interest in these people.

 

[butchersapron]

Pathetic.

 

[thedockerslad]

Pathetic.

 

[sihhi]

Tunisia tomorrow hopefully:

Members of the Turkish community in Tunisia and Tunisian sympathizers will stage a protest this Thursday in font of the headquarters of the UTICA trade union. Erdogan and Marzouki will visit the building as part of the the Tunisan-Turkish Business Forum held there, during which the two countries will sign economic partnership agreements.

Erdogan has previously visited Tunisia. He arrived with a high-level delegation on September 2011, a visit concluded by the signing of the “Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation,” calling for annual meetings at the prime ministerial level.

“High-level visits between the two countries are being carried out on a regular basis; regular consultations and contacts are conducted in almost every area,” said The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its official website.

The Islamist government in Turkey has promoted ties with Tunisia since the January 2011 revolution.

Nawaat have done an article reporting on tax evasion and plant shifting into Morocco by the new-wave 'democratic' Tunisian businesses.

Also heavy use of lock out to transfer production to defeat labour militancy by starvation:-

Depuis, en cette année 2013, les salariés de plusieurs grandes entreprises comme Jal Group, spécialisé dans la chaussure de sécurité à Menzel Bourguiba et Menzel Aberrahmen (4000 salariés), SEA Latelec, filiale du groupe français Latécoère, sous-traitant d'Airbus qui a délocalisé de France une partie de la production de câblage à Fouchana dans la banlieue de Tunis en 2005 pour bénéficier d'une main d'œuvre qualifiée et bon marché ; les 450 salariées du site, presque toutes des femmes, exigent que l'entreprise française respecte le droit du travail tunisien et intègre en CDI les salariées précaires qui y travaillent depuis plus de 4 ans ; les employés de l'entreprise privée SAZEX, (180 salariés) spécialisée dans le conditionnement et l'exportation des dattes, installée à Dégache (gouvernorat de Tozeur) ; tous ces salariés se battent, qui contre le lock out imposé par leur voyou de patron, qui contre des conditions de travail digne de l'esclavage avec des horaires à rallonge en période de flux tendus, des heures supplémentaires non payées et partout une dignité de travailleurs et de producteurs bafouée.

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

I honestly just misread this thread's title as "Tulisa - working class revolt".

 

[sihhi]

Potential economic problems might lead to an Egypt-style economic crisis.

http://main.omanobserver.om/node/170141

 

[teqniq]

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) - A member of Tunisia's opposition People's Movement party says its leader has been shot dead.

Lawyer Khaled Khichi said from the hospital that Mohammed Brahmi was shot dead Thursday morning.

It is the second assassination of an opposition politician following the murder of leftist politician Chokri Belaid in February.

That assassination prompted the resignation of the prime minister and a political crisis that nearly derailed Tunisia's transition.

The government has blamed Belaid's assassination on Islamic extremists.

Brahmi, an Arab nationalist, held a seat in the assembly charged with writing the new constitution.

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, is struggling with a democratic transition after the overthrow of its dictator in 2011.

http://www.nbc29.com/story/22929217/tunisia-opposition-leader-shot-dead

 

[butchersapron]

The Egypt comparisons continue (though i think the WSWS have gone OTT in their direct comparison and other things, mistaking tactical rhetoric for real concrete demands):

Tunisian opposition seizes on Brahmi’s murder to push for Egypt-style coup

Tunisian bourgeois opposition parties, pseudo-left groups and Tunisia’s UGTT (General Union of Tunisian Labor) trade union reacted to Brahmi’s assassination by demanding that the government resign. The UGTT called for a general strike.

Yesterday several pseudo-left groups and associations announced the formation of a National Salvation Front, aimed at forming a “higher national authority for national salvation” to draft a new constitution. They included Hammami’s Workers Party, the Ettakatol movement, the Socialist Party, the Farmers’ Voice and the Arab Democratic Vanguard Party. Their statement also blamed the assassinations of Belaid and Brahmi on Ennahda.

Before identifying any suspect in Brahmi’s murder, the Tunisian secular opposition, including pseudo-left groups like the Popular Front, is seizing on the killing to call for the dissolution of Islamist-led Constituent Assembly (CA) and the overthrow of Ennahda. A number of deputies resigned from the CA after the killing.
Hamma Hammami said, “We call on the Tunisian people to pursue peaceful civil disobedience in all the cities of the republic to bring down the government and the Constituent Assembly and form a national salvation government.

On July 7, four days after the Egyptian coup, Hamma Hammami called for a similar development in Tunisia: “The repetition of an Egyptian scenario is quite probable.” Announcing that the Popular Front would help establish a “road map” to “correct the process of the revolution,” he said. “The dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and of the provisional government will create no constitutional vacuum.”

Hammami’s call to reproduce the Egyptian coup in Tunisia makes clear the reactionary program of the Tunisian petty-bourgeois “left” forces. In Egypt, the army has killed hundreds of protesters since the coup, and is preparing severe austerity measures—such as scrapping food and energy subsidies upon which masses of people depend—in order to balance the budget.

Financial analysts are pointing to the potential for civil war in Tunisia. Anna Boyd, Senior Middle East Analyst at London-based IHS Country Risk, said: “We are likely to see mass protests and counter-protests between secularists and Islamists, involving fighting in the center of Tunis and other urban centers.”

 

[butchersapron]

Army closing down protesters (both pro and anti) now. Politicians waffle on about forming new salvation govt, all using peoples anger to further own aims.

 

[butchersapron]

Tunisia's ruling Islamists accept plan to step down

 

[elbows]

Slight problem with your link.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/82690.aspx

 

[butchersapron]

Cheers, edited above now as well.

 

[butchersapron]

Who Are They and Who Are We? Aspects of the Counterrevolution in Tunisia

Some interesting thoughts, particularly on the idea that a substantial part of the population view secularism as atheism and that their identity is tightly bound up with their religion and that this is then fertile ground for the islamists neo-liberalism to both grow in and from which to engineer the marginalisation of progressive forces. Of course, they don't fully understand that the success of the former has the potential to undermine the social conservatism they want and open a door those elements they want to isolate in the latter. You could end up wit democratic islamism being the door through which all the the things the secularism =atheism types wished to avoid.

 

[eatmorecheese]

http://www.tunisia-live.net/2014/01/21/tunisias-draft-constitution-an-english-translation/

The newly agreed draft constitution.

 

[butchersapron]

Meanwhile:

Tunisia's confident secularists weigh options

Tunisia's secular Nidaa Tounes has pledged to form a government "with those closest" to it as no single political party is expected to win an outright majority in the new parliament.

Based on exit polls and statistical sampling of voting station results by observer groups, Nidaa Tounes looks set to become the largest party in parliament, defeating the Islamist Ennahda that led the government during the transitional period following the 2011 revolution.

"We took the decision in advance that Nidaa Tounes would not govern alone, even if we won an absolute majority," Beji Caid Essebsi, the party's 87-year-old leader, told Al-Hiwar Al-Tounsi television.

"We will govern with those closest to us, with the democratic family, so to speak."

 

[teqniq]

Tunisia: Blogger Convicted by Military Court

A Tunisian blogger has been imprisoned after the Tunis military court sentenced him to a three-year term for “defaming the army” and “insulting military high command” through Facebook posts.

Authorities arrested Yassine Ayari upon his arrival at Tunis-Carthage airport from France on December 24, 2014. On December 25, he appeared before a military judge who informed him that a military court had convicted him in absentia on November 18. In another trial on November 18, the same military court sentenced in absentia Sahbi Jouini, a police union leader, to two years in prison under the same article of the military justice code concerning defamation.

“In a single day, Tunisia’s military court imposed prison sentences on a union leader and a blogger for speech offenses, even though neither was present for his trial,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “This is not worthy of the new Tunisia.”...

 

[teqniq]

Protests have been happening in Tunisia. Riots and police stations burt down.

 

[elbows]

Some more on that here:

Tunisia unemployment protests spread to capital

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Kasserine, said: "People are saying that they took to the streets in 2010 for the sake of a better life, but they feel like they have been abandoned by consecutive governments that took over, and that the only way out is to take to the streets."

Our correspondent saw at least two people about to jump from a high building in suicide attempts, but the pair were rescued.

 

[teqniq]

Yeah people on Twitter are saying it's over the economic situation 'since 2013 nothing has changed'. Apparently also the police are largely trying to avoid confrontation, if true a somewhat novel situation.

 

[J Ed]

Protests have been happening in Tunisia. Riots and police stations burt down.

The Tunisian riot police look very well armed, that could be footage from Ferguson...

 

[butchersapron]

The Tunisian riot police look very well armed, that could be footage from Ferguson...

Given the recent history they may not be as keen as the US cops to kick off too son though - even if one of their number was killed by protesters on wednesday.

edit: remember people like achcar saying this was the still the opening stages of the arab spring, once the underlying contradictions that originally led to the various reveolts that the state and capital attempted to bury with short term or emergency measure reassert themselves then we're back, but on a different - higher? - footing

 

[butchersapron]

So, a curfew, which is ratcheting up tension and leading to mass detentions. Thomas Cook, plus First Choice and Thomson have all stopped any flights into the country.

 

[sihhi]

I am interested in police protests for more pay
Tunisian police protest over pay in new test for government

The figures are quite stark youth unemployment has gone up not down since 2010.

 

[LDC]

dialectical delinquents has a fair amount of Tunisia news in its 'News of Opposition' section...
http://dialectical-delinquents.com/news-of-opposition-5/january-2016/

 

[butchersapron]

Tunisia protester death raises fears of more unrest

A young protester was killed Monday after a national guard vehicle "accidentally" ran him over in south Tunisia, raising fears of more social unrest in a region already rocked by weeks of protest.
The death comes as tensions have risen between protesters and security forces outside the El Kamour oil and gas pumping station.

Protesters have been camping outside the desert installation in the Tataouine region for around a month, blocking trucks from entering, to demand a share of local resources and priority for jobs in the sector.

Dozens of protesters interrupted his speech with cries of "Work! Freedom! National Dignity!" -- a slogan from the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

In January 2016, Tunisia was rocked by some of the worst social unrest since the 2011 protests that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

Far more going on, but this seems key.