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TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
Latest news:
Since today's afternoon (local time) police is attacking (incl. tear gas) anti-gov't protesters in the capital Tunis, after hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister's office to pressure the interim 'national unity' government to step down.
Protesters had begun gathering at gov't buildings since last night, in contravention of a curfew. When they surged through a police picket, tensions spiked and the police fired tear gas to clear the crowd.
Angry resisting protesters threw stones and smashed police vehicles during the clash.
Reuters also reported that several windows of the finance ministry building had been broken.
Before the skirmish, protesters said the situation outside the buildings was "very, very tense as they spent the night outside... They were told by security forces to leave the area, and tension mounted for some time", al-Jazeera reported in the morning from the site of the protest.
The protesters announced: "We'll continue our sit-in struggle for as long as it takes, until we topple the government!"
More tension is expected in the capital, as members of the national unity government cabinet, which includes members from both the RCD (ousted President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali's party) and the opposition, are expected to hold a meeting at the government buildings being surrounded by the protesters.
"Thousands, we've been told, will gather ... in this area to prevent the government of national unity, particularly the ministers... [from] starting their business," al-Jazeera correspondent reported before the clashes.
Since Y'day morning more than thousand activists, but also "ordinary" people (many are from Sidi Bouzid, a bleak city in central Tunisia where the so-called "Jasmine revolution" over poverty, corruption and political repression was sparked a five weeks ago) who had been driven to the capital in a "Freedom Caravan" surrounded the PM's building in central Tunis.
For more (updated) news please check out LabourStart!
A call for (int'l) solidarity:
For more info please check out:
☞ Rage Against the Machine Supports Guitar-makers Strike (Clash, 1.12)
☞ 콜트콜텍 + 문화행동
Related article:
Last Saturday's (1.15) Statement by the Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia (full text version):
For freedom, democracy and social justice
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 loose, the people do not let it go “… Finally, the masses have realized 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 characterized 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 Communist Workers' 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, organization 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 Communist Workers’ 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.
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=7544
One week ago ICC(*) published the following "breaking news":
The S. Korean ruling class tears aside the veil of its “democracy”
We have just received news from Korea that eight militants of the “Socialist Workers’ League of Korea” (Sanoryun) have been arrested and charged under South Korea’s infamous “National Security Law”.1 They are due to be sentenced on 27th January.
There can be no doubt that this is a political trial, and a travesty of what the ruling class likes to call its “justice”. Three facts bear witness to this:
• First, the fact that South Korea’s own courts have twice thrown out the police charges against those arrested.
• Second, the fact that the militants are charged with “forming a group benefiting the enemy” (ie North Korea), despite the fact that Oh Se-Cheol and Nam Goong Won, amongst others, were signatories of the October 2006 “Internationalist Declaration from Korea against the threat of war” which denounced North Korea’s nuclear tests and declared in particular that: “the capitalist North Korean state (...) has absolutely nothing to do with the working class or communism, and is nothing but a most extreme and grotesque version of decadent capitalism's general tendency towards militaristic barbarism”.
• Third, Oh Se-Cheol’s speech leaves no doubt that he opposes all forms of capitalism, including North Korean state capitalism.
These militants are accused of nothing other than the thought crime of being socialists. In other words, they stand accused of urging workers to defend themselves, their families, and their living conditions, and of exposing openly the real nature of capitalism. The sentences required by the prosecution are only one more example of the repression meted out by the South Korea ruling class against those who dare to stand in its way. This brutal repression has already targeted the young mothers of the “baby strollers’ brigade” who took their children to the 2008 Candlelight demonstrations and later faced legal and police harassment;4 it has targeted the Ssangyong workers who were beaten up by the riot police who invaded their occupied factory.
Faced with the prospect of heavy jail sentences, the arrested militants have conducted themselves in court with exemplary dignity, and have used the opportunity to expose clearly the political nature of this trial. We reproduce below a translation of Oh Se-Cheol’s last speech before the tribunal.
Military tensions in the region are on the rise, following the provocative shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in November last year and the killing of civilians by the North Korean regime’s canon, answered by the despatch of an American nuclear aircraft carrier to the region to conduct joint military exercises with the South Korean armed forces. In this situation, the statement that humanity today faces a choice between socialism and barbarism rings truer than ever.
The propaganda of the US and its allies likes to portray North Korea as a “gangster state”, whose ruling clique lives in luxury thanks to the ruthless repression of its starving population. This is certainly true. But the repression meted out by the South Korean government to mothers, children, struggling workers, and now socialist militants shows clearly enough that, in the final analysis, every national bourgeoisie rules by fear and brute force.
Faced with this situation we declare our complete solidarity with the arrested militants, notwithstanding the political disagreements we may have with them. Their struggle is our struggle. We address our heartfelt sympathy and solidarity to their families and comrades.
http://en.internationalism.org/node/4172
* "International 'Communist' Current"
Related contribution (2008.8.31):
http://blog.jinbo.net/CINA/1600
TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
1. Today's news:
The announcement of a new 'unity government' by Mohamed Ghannouchi, the Tunisian "prime minister", has been met with massive anger by thousands of protesters, who say too many members (incl. the new "PM") of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's party remain in power.
The "PM" announced that the former defence, foreign, interior and finance ministers will keep their key posts in the new government formed after the public uprising led to the flight of President Ben Ali.
Today's mass protests in Tunis and several other cities forced (until now) three new ministers to resign.
The General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), which played a key role in protests against the North African state's ousted president, refused to recognise the new government.
Today in the morning at an extraordinary meeting UGTT has decided "not to recognise the new government," Ifa Nasr, union spokesman, said a short while ago.
In Tunis, riot police fired tear gas and clashed with protesters during a rally against the new government in the centre of the capital.
For more updated news please check out LabourStart and the Al-Jazeera Special "Uprising in Tunisia"!
2. "For freedom, democracy and social justice!", statement by the Tunisian Communist Workers' Party (PCOT), Jan. 15:
In its statement issued in Tunis PCOT renewed its invitation to the opposition to convene a national assembly backed up by renewed coordination, at national and local level, of support for specific and concrete demands so that the movement does not run out of steam.
“The popular protests are still ongoing, no one can predict either their length nor development. Tunisia entered a new phase in its history characterised by the rise of the people and their desire to regain freedom, rights and dignity.”
This raises the responsibilities of the opposition, especially its most radical wing, to find new policy solutions for a program providing a plan for overall change in Tunisia said the party.
Listing the most important and immediate issues as the release of all prisoners; bringing to account those responsible for repression, plunder of property and the killing of citizens, the repeal of all security restrictions and the restoration of freedoms and legality, frteedom of expression, organization and assembly the party called for immediate measures ‘for the world of work: income security, health and immediate recognition of trade union rights and the independent organisation of the unemployed and the precariously employed.
“The Workers’ Communist Party will remain, as it has always been, on the side of workers, deprived and poor, first in line for a new order in Tunisia, for freedom, democracy and social justice.”
Y'day and also today, despite massive police terror, tanks and curfews, the...
TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
...goes on!!
Here a brief summary of yesterday's "events" reported from the "front line":
- Interior minister, Rafik Belhaj Kacem, dismissed.
- Prime minister announces release of all those arrested during recent protests.
- Heavy armed police units stormed the headquarter of the trade union (UGTT).
- Mass demo (aprox. 30,000) in Sfax, attacked by "security forces" with tear gas and life ammunition.
- Hatem Bettahar, assistant professor (a French citizen) shot dead – by a gov't sniper in Douz.
- Protests in Hammamet (important tourist destination). At least one or more dead; police station burned.
- Ruling party headquarters in Dar Chaabane (Nabeul) on fire.
- Army increasingly visible on the streets of Tunis and other cities.
- Hamma Hammami (Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia), arrested.
- Former political prisoner Lamari Ahmed arrested.
- Abdelwahhab Maatar, lawyer for rapper El Général, reportedly arrested.
- Headquarters of ruling party in Sfax said to be on fire.
- Curfew declared in Tunis and the suburbs from 8pm until 5.30am...
Related articles/reports:
☞ Deaths in Tunisia despite curfew (al-Jazeera, 1.13)
☞ Tunisia's youth finally has revolution on its mind (Guardian, 1.13)
☞ Tunisia: The Brink of Revolution (al-Bab, 1.11)
TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
Today's news from the "front line":
Tunisian protesters, many of them are now organized in several "People's Resistance Committees"(PRC) say they will continue demonstrating over unemployment, mass poverty and against the dictatorship in the North African country despite the government's deadly crackdown on them.
PRC announced they will hold mass rallies across the country for the next three days, starting today.
The trade union, General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) has also said it will call a general strike in several southern cities in response the police brutality, i.e the state terror.
Protests have been going on across Tunisia for almost a month now. The UGTT says more than 70 people have been killed in clashes with government forces since the last weekend.
"It's chaos here in Kasserine after a night of violence, sniper fire, theft and looting of shops and homes by policemen in civilian clothes," said Sadok Mahmoudi, an activist of the UGTT regional union describing yesterday's situation there. This story was corroborated by other witnesses.
"The number of killed has exceeded 50," Mahmoudi said, citing a report obtained from the medical staff at the regional hospital of Kasserine, where the bodies were transported.
This comes as UGTT has called on Tunisian President(resp. the dictator!!) Ben Ali to order an independent inquiry into the deaths of demonstrators. But the call was rejected by the regime!
Meanwhile, according to sources of the People's Resistance, in the last hours thousands of heavy armed Soldiers in APC and backed by tanks were deployed in the centre of Tunis after the People's Rebellion spread to the capital's center.
Almost at the same time "the gov't sacked the interior minister and announced it would free protesters", AFP reported a short while ago.
"It's a People's Uprising"
Like that Sihem Bensedrine, spokesperson for the banned National Council fot Freedom in Tunisia(CNLT), described the current developments in Tunisia in her today's interview with the German newspaper die tageszeitung.
Fear has changed sides in Tunisia. For years the Tunisian population, its youth, its workers, its mothers were paralysed by fear of repression. Political lethargy was the rule, revolt the odd exception. Now things have turned upside down. Defiance of the brutal regime, its state, its spies, its media, its ruling party, its police and its army has become the rule during the four weeks of the uprising which has shaken Tunisia. Today's main slogan on the streets of the north African coutry:
"We do not fear you any more!"
The movement has not been subdued by persecution, imprisonment, torture and killings. Nevertheless the regime continues to kill, maim and torture the best of its youth. Last weekend alone, the orgy of repression reached a new climax as 20 protesters were killed by the forces of repression. Yesterday the police fired live ammunition into the crowds in Tala, Kasserine and many other cities in Tunisia, incl. its capital Tunis, killing at least 11 more people (according to Tunisian human right activists at least 50 protesters and activists were killed since the beginning of the uprising).
Al-Masry Al-Youm (independent Egyptian media organization): "In Tunisia, young people, the poor, thousands of workers and many other members of the civil society are leading an uprising that will go down in history as an important struggle for improved social, economic and political conditions."
Since exactly one week more than 30 janitors and cleaning personnel - representing 170 mainly female irregular workers in their 50s and 60s - have been holding a sit-in protest in the main building of Seoul's Hongik University, demanding the school withdraw the collective termination of their employment contracts (more background info here and here!).
But despite the support by KCTU and several (student) solidarity groups, they have not only sympathizers among the student body of Hongik University... as you can see/read here (describing last Thursday's ugly incident, explained by Tae-Jun Lee):
In the picture, Hongik University's student body president(the man who wear a blue jacket) is breaking into and trying to interrupt the rally.
He said, "Student are studing now, so this loudness interrupt their concentration. External forces(he is constantly describing the peple who band together about this problem to this expression.) should be banned to get into the school and interfere the problem. Irregular workers, just wait and keep quiet, and we student will solve the problem." But until now, they have done nothing for the laborer, on the contrary they plainly opressed the laborer's protest like this picture showing...
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