Tunisia – for a national general strike against the Gannouchi government!

23rd January, Caravan of Liberation arrives in Tunis. Photo: Nasser_NouriThe
regional structures of the UGTT had called for general strikes in Sfax,
El Kef, Sidi Bouzid, Jendouba, Kairouan, Siliana, Gabés, Nabeul and
others. The strikes and mobilisations had a common slogan and a united
aim: to bring down the government, which the masses correctly consider
simply a continuation of the hated RCD regime of Ben Ali.

A government suspended in mid-air

Meanwhile, in the capital, thousands of youth, arrived from all
corners of the country as part of the Caravan for Liberation, were still
camped outside the government buildings. Attempts by the riot police on
Monday and Tuesday to remove them had failed. General Rachid Ammar, the
Chief of Staff of the Tunisian Army, who was removed by Ben Ali for
refusing to use the army against the revolutionary movement, also
attempted to get the demonstrators to clear the way and allow the
government to work. Using the enormous authority that the Army and
himself have gained by appearing to be on the side of the people against
Ben Ali, he addressed the crowd.

He told them that their demands were justified and gave them
guarantees that the Army would defend their revolution. He also gave
them assurances that the Army “would respect the constitution” (though
he did not say which one) and asked them, politely, to leave: “I would
love it if this place was to emptied, so that the government can work”.
Without appearing to be too close to the current government of Gannouchi
(the former Prime Minister under Ben Ali), he also added that inside
the government compound that the demonstrators have been surrounding
since Sunday “there are not only Ministers, but also functionaries who
are attempting to make the country work”.

And then he added an ominous warning: “your movement can be
manipulated by other elements, to create a vacuum of power, and when
there is a vacuum of power, the Army would have to intervene”. Neither
nice polite words, nor veiled threats worked. The crowd applauded,
ecstatically; sang the national anthem, praised the army general whom
they see as having sided with the revolution… but remained solidly in
the Kasbah esplanade, blocking the government building. The
revolutionary youth who have marched to the capital have a very clear
idea of why they are there: “The battle will be decided in Tunis. This
is the reason why we have come. The government must be overthrown. They
are like a cancer, which needs to be cleaned out, not a shred can be
left behind" (see video of the sit-in outside the Prime Minister’s office)

This really shows the enormous power of the revolutionary movement at
the present time and the extremely favourable balance of forces. The
Chief of Staff of the Army is forced to go and speak to the people
directly and asks them to please go away and allow the government to
work, and when they refuse there is nothing he can do. Who has power in
Tunisia? The streets or the government and the state?

Inside, having entered through some back door, the council of
ministers met and announced that there was going to be an “imminent
government reshuffle”. But the announcement never came. And 48 hours later,
it still has not arrived. There were also rumours of a “Committee of the
Wise” being formed, but nothing has yet come out of it. This really
shows the enormous difficulties of the Tunisian ruling class (and their
imperialist puppet masters) are encountering in finding a government
which is acceptable to the masses and has some legitimacy. The
revolutionary movement of the workers and youth prevents them from
regaining full control of the situation.

Caravan of Liberation in Tunis, 23rd January. Photo: Nasser NouriOn
Tuesday we saw the first attempts of the counter-revolution to regroup.
Gangs of thugs and militias from the RCD attacked union offices in
Gafsa, Kasserine (West) Béjà (North), Monastir et Mehdia (Centre). In
the mining region of Gafsa a gang of men armed with sticks, knives and
chains, attacked the offices of the regional union and injured a number
of trade unionists present. The Army intervened, firing warning shots in
the air and evicted them from the premises. Also in the capital Tunis, a
demonstration had been called in favour of the national unity
government. This was part of a growing media campaign “against strikes”,
“against chaos”, against “disrupting the economy”, and generally
against “extremist elements within the UGTT”. Showing the real balance
of forces, the demonstration gathered about 200 people and was quickly
dispersed by protesters against the government despite having heavy
police protection (see video).
If the situation is not decisively resolved in favour of the workers
and youth, then such demonstrations might grow and reaction can gain
support in the streets. But at the present time, they are extremely
weak.

Regional general strikes and mass demonstrations

It is in this context that the regional strikes are taking place
today, Wednesday 26, and they could be crucial to force the downfall of
the government. In the statement calling for the strike, the regional
UGTT in Sfax made clear what were the aims of the movement:

This, and the other regional strikes are quite clearly political general strikes for the overthrow of the government,
showing the revolutionary character of the movement of the Tunisian
workers and the extremely advanced character of their demands.

Also very significant is the fact that the regional trade union
structures and the revolutionary committees are increasingly taking over
tasks of the administration of public and economic life. As well as the
examples we have already mentioned in Siliana (where the regional
revolutionary council has expelled the governor and effectively taken
power) and Sidi Bou Ali, the Sfax UGTT also started to make decisions
over the economy. The statement says:

So, not only the unions are calling a political strike to overthrow
the existing government, but also they decided which sectors of the
workers will continue to work under their authority in order to
guarantee basic essential services. This is an answer to all those who
cry and shout about “chaos” and “disruption”. As a matter of fact it is
precisely workers’ power, workers’ control, which can guarantee order,
but revolutionary order, not capitalist order. This was already
demonstrated by the setting up of neighborhood self-defence committees
to maintain order against the RCD and police gangs.

The demonstration in Sfax, the country’s second largest city and the
most important industrial centre was huge, of historic proportions. Some
reports talked of 100,000 demonstrators, and even the bourgeois media
put the figure at “over 50,000”. The mood was extremely radical and
angry as can be seen in these videos (video 1, video 2).

Amongst the slogans which the demonstrators chanted were: “the people
want to bring down the government”, “Tunisia is free – RCD Out!”,
"Tunisia is Free – Down with the government!" and showing a great
awareness of the international repercussion of the Tunisian revolution:
“Thawra hatta’l nasr (revolution until victory) – from Tunis to Cairo”.
Another slogan that was heard on the demo was "Tunisia is Arabic – No
foreign tutelage" and "Tunisia is Arabic – no American tutelage," in
opposition to the visit of US Assistant Secretaryof State for Near East
Affairs, Jeffrey D. Feltman, who is currently in Tunisia. Many suspect
that the US had a hand in the way in which Ben Ali was replaced by a
government packed with his own ministers and there is a deep felt
anti-imperialist anger at the continuing US behind the scenes meddling
to abort the revolution. The demonstration ended with an appeal by the
regional UGTT for the demonstrators to march on Tunis on Thursday 27th, to
join the Caravan of Liberation for the overthrow of the government.
That is also the day fixed by the secondary teachers’ union for their
national strike.

Similar mass demonstrations took place in towns and cities around the country, including Nabeul (video), Kairouan (video), Djerba (video), Kelibia (video), as well as in Tunis, where there were clashes with the police and the presence of provocateurs from the RCD.

The situation, as we have been stressing for a some days, is one
where the workers and youth could take power relatively easily. The
government is suspended in mid-air, forced to enter its own meeting
rooms through the back door, not able to use neither the Army nor the
police to crush the movement and looking desperately for a way forward.
One final push on the part of the revolutionary movement would bring it
down. A nation-wide general strike combined with workplace occupations
and a march on the capital could topple the current weak government. An
appeal to the Army ranks and to the police officers wanting to set up a
union would paralyse the effective force of the capitalist state.

Down with the government! But what is the alternative?

However, in order to bring down the government an answer needs to be
provided to the question: what to put in its place. Here is where there
is more confusion and this confusion and lack of leadership has
prevented the movement from taking power so far.

The legal opposition parties are part of the current government and
they have no authority amongst the masses, as they played no role
whatsoever in the revolution and stayed with Ben Ali right until the
end. The former Communist Party (Ettijdad) is probably the worst of all.
Having conditioned its participation in the government on there not
being any RCD linked ministers, then stayed in the government anyway and
went on to organise rallies and campaign in favour of it! They must
subscribe to the Groucho Marx version of Marxism, based on the motto:
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have
others”!

The leadership of the UGTT, the Executive Bureau, was also in favour
of participating in the government and was forced by the more radical
forces in the Central Administration Council (the Central Committee) to
withdraw its ministers and later on to call for action to overthrow the
government. As we speak, the EB of the UGTT is conducting frantic
negotiations at the UGTT national headquarters with all sorts of liberal
figures, human rights advocates, lawyers, etc, to put together a
proposal for a new government which they will then present to the
interim president Fouad Mebezza for his approval! This is parliamentary
cretinism of the worst sort. The executive of the UGTT is under
enormous pressure from below, from the revolutionary workers and youth
to lead the struggle for the overthrow of the current government.
However, instead of bringing it down through action, the UGTT leadership
wants to ask the current government, politely, to appoint a new one!

But even amongst the most advanced elements of the revolutionary left
in the UGTT and also in the smaller left wing political parties which
were illegal until very recently, there seems to be no clear idea of
what or how to replace the Gannouchi government.

The general strike call of the Sfax UGTT talks of “replacing it with a
national salvation government in which enemies of our people are
excluded.” This is a very good slogan, and one that is similar to that
of the recently formed January 14 Front, which talks of “an
interim government which enjoys the confidence of the people, of the
militant progressive political, social, and trade-union forces, and of
the youth.“ The January 14th Front has been formed mainly by the Party of
Tunisian Communist Workers (PCOT), the Tunisian Patriotic and Democratic
Labour Party, and some smaller left wing, Nasserite and left Arab
nationalist currents.

The declaration of the January 14th Front correctly talks about the need to widen the scope of the committees:

Basically it is calling the revolutionary committees to take power,
to become real soviets. What is missing is the crucial aspect of the
need to link them up at a local, regional and national level, thus
becoming the basis for dual power nationally, not only at a local or regional level as it is already the case in some places.

Amongst the organisations in the Front is the recently created Left
Workers League, which on January 24th issued a statement calling for:
“achieving a Constituent and a people’s democratic workers government,
with a social and economic programme which puts an end to the
neo-liberal approach imposed by world capital.” This is clearly a more
advanced demand, as it defines that the new government should be a
workers’ government, a democratic government and a people’s government.
The formulation is a bit confused, but if what is meant is that there
should be a government that responds to the interests of the
revolutionary masses of the working people who have made this
revolution, then there is no objection.

But, how is such a government to be formed? In our opinion a
revolutionary government cannot be based on any of the institutions of
the old regime, but should be set up on the basis of the existing
revolutionary committees and councils, the regional trade union
structures and workers’ committees in the workplaces. A national
assembly of delegates from these bodies should be convened in the
capital, taking advantage of the presence of the revolutionary youth
from all provinces. They should elect, amongst themselves, a provisional
revolutionary government of national salvation to convene a constituent
assembly within the shortest space of time possible.

In the same way that the revolutionary left within the UGTT has
imposed its withdrawal from the Gannouchi government and the call for
its overthrow, they should force the CC of the UGTT to adopt such a
programme for a national salvation government based on the revolutionary
committees.

Down with the dictatorship and the capitalist system it served

The January 14th Front also calls for the expropriation of “the former
ruling family, their close relations and associates, and all the civil
servants who used their positions to grow rich at the expense of the
people,“ as well as “to renationalise those institutions which have been
privatised”. These demands are absolutely correct, and as a matter of
fact, the expropriation of the properties of Trabelsi clan and all those
associated to it would go a long way in giving such a government
control over the key levers of the economy. If you added to that the
properties of all imperialist powers which supported and benefited from
the Ben Ali regime, then you would have abolished capitalism in Tunisia.
However the Front does not go all the way in calling for a break with
capitalism and instead talks of the need ”to formulate an economic and
social policy which breaks with the liberal capitalist approach”, as if
there was another approach to capitalism which would be nicer to the
workers and the people.

It has to be said clearly that the ruling class is already extremely
worried about the revolutionary movement of the workers encroaching on
the sacred right of private property. This is how a business magazine
described the situation:

The article continues: “Tunisian workers, in companies and public
institutions have brought the revolution to their workplaces” and
“directors and managers of public companies have had to run seeking
refuge, followed by a crowd of vindictive workers”. It concludes: “the
hope of the government and the businessmen is that the movement will
limit itself to those corrupt functionaries linked to the Ben Ali –
Trabelsi clan. But it is not certain that this will be the case.”

If there was a serious appeal on the part of the trade union left,
for workers to occupy the workplaces and implement workers’ control,
such a movement would spread like wildfire. There are already instances
where the workers have demanded the opening of the books of their
companies in order to investigate the corrupt dealings of the Trabelsi
clan. The workers at the tax office have kicked out their directors and
taken over the dossiers which shed light into some of those. The
potential is there for a movement which not only sweeps away the whole
of the undemocratic state apparatus of the dictatorship, but also does
away with the capitalist economic system it served.

Down with the national unity government! For a national general
strike! For a revolutionary government based on the committees and the
trade unions! For a revolutionary constituent assembly! For a
revolutionary socialist Tunisia! For a Socialist Federation of the Arab
World, with full democratic rights to all ethnic, national and religious
minorities!