In the past days, Tunisia has
witnessed rapid developments, the most important of which was the
announcement by Prime Minister, Mohammad Al-Ghannoushi, that he was
taking over temporarily as President due to Ben Ali’s inability to carry
out his duties, and the announcement of a state of emergency in all
areas of the country. We publish here a translation of an Arabic
language article published on marxy.com as the dramatic events in
Tunisia were unfolding.
In the past days, Tunisia has
witnessed rapid developments, the most important of which was the
announcement by Prime Minister, Mohammad Al-Ghannoushi, that he was
taking over temporarily as President due to Ben Ali’s inability to carry
out his duties, and the announcement of a state of emergency in all
areas of the country. We publish here a translation of an Arabic
language article published on marxy.com as the dramatic events in
Tunisia were unfolding.
The following are the latest developments in Tunisia:
Events have been moving at an incredible speed in Tunisia. Yesterday
the old dictator gave his last speech, where he made a series of
promises, and a series of veiled threats. After this, reports rolled in
affirming that the masses had no confidence in these promises and
continued the protests even more fiercely. This morning Reuters received
reports of shots fired near the headquarters of the Interior Ministry.
There were also tear gas grenades fired against demonstrators in the
capital Tunis. Despite the dictator’s statement yesterday that he was
putting a stop to shooting at demonstrators, the killing did not stop
throughout the night and this morning, which caused the death of
thirteen martyrs last night in Tunis and its suburbs, as confirmed by Al
Jazeera from hospital reports.
But all these promises and all this repression did not lead to the
suppression of the popular revolution. For the dictator decided to play
his last cards when he announced the dismissal of the government and the
calling of early elections (in six months). But the masses continued
their struggle which provoked a military coup when the army’s forces
spread everywhere and announced a state of emergency in all corners of
Tunisia and took control of the airport and closed Tunisian airspace,
after helping the dictator and some of his family to escape the revenge
of the people.
This is when Mohammad Al-Ghannoushi named himself President of
Tunisia and announced that he would meet with representatives of
political parties to form a new government. The trade union bureaucracy
and the leaders of the reformist parties are even more terrified than
their bourgeois masters, and instead of adopting independent class
tactics, with independent class slogans and an independent banner, here
they are jumping onto the bourgeois train, singing with one voice the
song of the “national unity government”, i.e. the government of the
bourgeoisie and its murderers.
And the forces of the secret police and the fascist militias continue
to wreak havoc in the country, as they attack the masses and loot the
homes of the workers, in order to create a picture whereby the
alternative to dictatorship is chaos. These desperate attempts have not
frightened the masses but have only served to accelerate the formation
of neighbourhood committees of defence, and the secretary general of the
General Union of Tunisian Students, Shaker Al-Awadi, told Al Jazeera
that there are popular committees being formed in every neighbourhood.
Did Marx not say that the revolution needs the whip of the
counterrevolution to move forward? From the moment of the overthrow of
the dictator Ben Ali, imperialism abandoned him like a rabid dog and let
him fall. The United States announced that “the Tunisian people have
the right to choose their leaders”! Obama announced that he “praises the
bravery and the dignity of the Tunisian people”, and France refused
entry to his plane! And the forces of the Tunisian police arrested some
of the members of the Trabelsi family before they could leave from Tunis
airport!
There is no doubt that the speed at which events are unfolding will
make the heads of some dizzy, and this is natural because during
revolutionary periods, events which normally wouldn’t happen for decades
and decades are concentrated in very short periods of time. Hence, the
bourgeois analysts have all proven that they are unable to foresee
anything, whether in politics or economics, as it wasn’t too long ago
that they were claiming that Tunisia was the calmest and most stable
country in north Africa.
In comparison, the Marxists were able to foresee these events much in
advance, and understand and identify the perspectives for their
development. We predicted in our article The Tunisian Spring that:
“This movement signals, from our point of view, the end of an era
characterised by an apparent stagnation of the class struggle, and is an
expression of the accumulation of many explosive factors. It is the
beginning of another stage of mass movements that sooner or later will
overthrow the regime of tyranny and exploitation in Tunisia once and for
all.”
And this is not, of course, because we have a crystal ball. It is
because we have a scientific worldview, whose validity in interpreting
developments and ability to present an alternative to change them, have
been proven by more than 150 years of experience.
The reformists, as usual, at the service of the regime
The moment the old dictator Ben Ali fell, the reformists,
prostituting themselves as could be expected, immediately got into bed
with the new regime, in the same way they used to lie with the old one.
And they rushed to offer their services to the ruling class to help it
save its system in return for some crumbs from the cake of the regime
and some privileges. And of these reformist parties, the Movement of
Social Democrats is perhaps the most willing to prostitute of all. Not
so long ago, this party was greeting “the celebration of the Tunisian
people with honour and pride of the twenty-third anniversary of the
transformation of the 7th of November which was led by the president,
[Zein Al-Abidein Ben Ali]”! And on their website they declared that on this:
“national occasion the ‘Electronic Future’ published special files
highlighting the importance of the great steps taken by our country
thanks to the strategic decisions of the leadership at all levels of
development which have made Tunisia surge amongst the developing
economies and which have opened up big prospects for the future, filled
with optimism under the shadow of the wise leadership of the president
[Zein Al-Abidein Ben Ali]”!
Neither was it so long ago when they were urging “the parents of the
youth to call for calm and dialogue”. And on president Ben Ali’s speech,
in which he described the protests as criminal and described the masses
as terrorists and explicitly called for them to be killed, this is what
they had to say:
“this situation has provoked feelings of sensitivity, sympathy,
responsibility, at the very tops of the pyramid of the regime, which is
consumed with the issues of the country’s citizens and youth of this
country, and the questions of employment and the pressing societal
issues, and which has all the facts and is keeping a watchful eye.”
And they added that:
“the president of the country spoke the language of honesty, realism
and truth and his speech formed a break in the middle of these events
which pulls the carpet out from under those people who rush to
hooliganism and chaos and tears from them their veil of cheap
‘solidarity’ and reveals their real hidden intentions, to throw the
country into a crisis created by them… but this crazy scenario will
not pass… because the country has established laws which protect it
within the confines of its democratic pluralistic path, and its social
development policies, which the president is keen to give a fresh push
forward to, are a priority.”
And they urgently called on the masses to:
“understand president Ben Ali’s developmental approach on the other
hand, which is to ensure that the country does not become reliant on
others, and does not sink into mounting debts…”
They then make an about-turn in a statement of the Emergency National Council which met on Friday 13 January, when they declare:
“With all respect towards the spirit of the innocent victims… a
decision to pursue all those involved in corruption, bribery and theft
of the national funds”.
And they demanded the formation:
“…of a national unity coalition government which would work to
create the necessary climate to meet international standards for
carrying out early elections before the end of this coming year.”
And if we’re quoting these long passages, it is to keep a historical
record of the positions of these criminals who are now trying to rob the
revolution of its fruits, to turn it into a means to win positions and
privileges for themselves within the regime. We find the same thing with
Ettajdid ("Movement for Renewal") which was not known for any
serious opposition to the dictatorial regime. But the moment they saw
the dictator flee from the country they released a statement on Friday
January 14th, demanding their rightful role in the regime and
a share of the crumbs from the cake. Despite the fact that the prime
minister, Mohammad Ghannoushi, is one of the old cabal, and despite the
mass popular protests demanding his removal, Ettajdid gives him legitimacy and demands from him:
“…consultations with the factions of the serious opposition and the
General Union of Tunisian Workers and the components of independent
civil society in order to arrive at a consensus for the formation of an
executive body that includes all factions to manage the process for
political reform and democratic transition.”
And the “Progressive Democratic Party” in earlier times opened what
it called “a window for the beginning of a political solution” through
“a collection of thoughts which create a roadmap out of the crisis”
which called for a government of national emergency which can implement a
plan to find 300,000 jobs for the unemployed by working with the
different layers of society, particularly the youth.
“The secretary general of the Progressive Democratic Party, Maya
Jribi, said in a statement that Tunisia is in even more need than ever
before of comprehensive reform and the formation of a government of
national unity, noting that the new government will fight against
corruption and to guarantee the independence of the judiciary and
prepare the road for holding early legislative elections overseen by an
independent electoral body. And she also called for constitutional
amendments to guarantee the peaceful transition of power, and the
restoration of order to avoid anarchy.”
Workers, these are your enemies, for all of them want their share of
the booty. Workers, these are your enemies, for all of them want to
extinguish the revolution and retreat behind closed doors to divide up
the power and privileges.
The bankruptcy of reformism is clear, not only because they have
become so used to bowing that they have forgotten how to do otherwise –
for when there was a dictator they put themselves at his service, and
they were always in the service of the capitalist system – but also
because they spent decades preaching social peace and negotiations, and
speaking out against the revolutionary struggle of the masses. And
because they achieved nothing serious at all: for they achieved neither
democracy nor bread, nothing. Whereas one month of the revolutionary
mass movement was enough for the downfall of the dictator, and the
achievement of gains not just in Tunisia, but outside its borders as
well!
And now after the dictator has fled, here they are falling over each
other in a scramble for the gains so they can take them for themselves
and give a new opportunity to the existing system and its executioners.
Working class of Tunisia, revolutionaries, we must not allow our
enemies to steal our revolution from us, we must not allow them to cash
it into their bank accounts. We have given tens of martyrs and all the
other victims; we must continue the revolution until the destruction of
the system of exploitation and murder, so that the nation and its wealth
can belong to all!
No trust in the agents of the old order, no trust in its state, or
its courts, or its laws! It was and remains an apparatus for repressing
us and killing us and taking our freedom, it can never be in our
service. We must establish our own state, or own courts, or own laws, we
must work to elect our own representatives to democratic workers’ and
people’s councils, in the poor neighbourhoods, the factories, the
unions, the colleges and the villages, from amongst the advanced
revolutionary elements who distinguished themselves during the course of
the revolution.
The role of the army
As we predicted in a previous article, the army organized a coup to
save the regime from overthrow. And the country is now under the
absolute control of the jack boot. This was the objective consequence of
the lack of consciousness and organization amongst the ranks of the
working class. The army is a critical element in the fate of every
revolution, and it has a critical role in the current revolution as
well, which makes the discussion of its position now of utmost
importance to develop the perspectives of the revolution and the
position that we the workers must take.
When the ex-dictator ordered the army to intervene to crush the
people, the leadership of the army refused, and this is what pushed him
to dismiss the army chief of staff general Rashid Amar. There were also
confirmed reports of the army fraternizing with the protesters, and even
protecting them from the assaults of the police forces. And this is
what won this institution an important authority amongst the ranks of
the demonstrators.
But we must never forget that the institution of the army is not
above the classes, we must not forget that it was always a tool in the
hands of the ruling class for the repression of the protests of the
workers and poor. Ben Ali himself is a legitimate son of this repressive
institution. And the highest leadership in this institution belongs to
the ruling class.
Therefore, no trust at all in the army as it is now, with the same
old hierarchy and with the same old leadership and structures. No trust
except in our own power. We must not allow the military clique to abort
our revolution and replace one general with another general (clear or
veiled).
But on the other hand, we have, within this institution, our brothers
and our sons, the regular soldiers, who come from our ranks and share
with us the reality of persecution and poverty. And to them we must turn
with fraternal appeals which ask that they too elect their officers and
purge the army of all the fascists and enemies of the people, so that
they can join the ranks of the revolution and aid in the formation of
militias of the armed people, overseen and controlled by the trade
unions and the popular councils.
We need now to complete the revolution, to the very end. For half a
revolution is a complete mistake! We must not accept anything less than
the expropriation of the property of the expropriators, and at their
head are the families of Ben Ali and Trabelsi and the gang around them.
We must not accept anything less than the expropriation of the property
of imperialism which propped up the dictatorship and cooperated with it
in keeping down the revolutions of the nation, and place it under the
control of the working people.
Source: Marxy.com
