Tunisia

On the morning of Thursday, July 25, left wing nasserite Constituent Assembly member Mohamed Brahmi was assassinated outside his home in Tunis. A protest general strike has been called by the UGTT union, while the Popular Front has called for mass civil disobedience to bring down the government and disband the Constituent Assembly.

Emna, a young Tunisian revolutionary, talks to In Defence of Marxism about the contradictions within the Tunisian Revolution and how they are reflected concretely on the ground.

From the March 26th to 30th the 13th World Social Forum took place in Tunisia. Tens of thousands of activists from hundreds of organisations around the world came together in workshops and meetings on the campus of the university to discuss solutions to the social problems of the world.

On the morning of February 6th, the prominent left wing leader Chokri Belaïd was assassinated in front of his house in Tunis. Thousands have taken to the streets, attacked offices of the ruling Ennahda party, which they consider responsible for the assassination, and a general strike has been called for tomorrow, February 8th. This could be the incident that sparks a much needed second revolution, two years after the overthrow the hated Ben Alí regime.

Clashes between  protesters and the armed forces continue as the Tunisian town of Siliana enters the fourth day of a general strike led by the UGTT trade union federation. The clashes which have led to more than 300 injured have become a focal point for people all over Tunisia.

One year after the revolutionary overthrow of Ben Ali, Tunisia faces a wave of strikes, regional uprisings, sit-ins and protests of all sorts. For hundreds of thousands of Tunisian workers and youth who bravely defied the bullets of the dictatorship to get jobs and dignity nothing has fundamentally changed.