The protests continue¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter, written by the editorial board of the Marxist website Marxy.com on 8 January 2011, provides a detailed, militant chronicle of the Tunisian uprising as it entered its fourth week, framing it as a revolutionary earthquake whose epicentre was Sidi Bouzid. The core argument is that the spontaneous mass movement, ignited by Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation on 17 December 2010, is not an isolated outburst but the culmination of decades of suppressed class struggle, now entering a phase of revolutionary storms across the Maghreb. The text insists that the movement’s enormous potential lies in its capacity to draw in diverse layers—unemployed youth, students, teachers, lawyers, and trade unionists—and that its leading role is being played by the youth, who serve as a barometer for the inevitable rising of the working class.
The chapter offers extensive evidence of the protests’ geographical spread and intensity, cataloguing clashes, arson attacks on government buildings, ruling party headquarters, and police stations in cities including Ouled Haffouz, Makthar, Bouruois, Kairouan, Enfidha, Ghardimaou, Kasserine, Sfax, and Jebeniana. It draws on reports from the Tunisian Communist Workers’ Party and the Union of Communist Youth of Tunisia to detail police brutality, including live fire, tear gas, beatings, and arbitrary arrests, citing specific wounded activists such as Wael Nawar, who was abducted, tortured, and charged. The chapter situates the uprising within a historical context of previous struggles, notably the 2008 Gafsa mining uprising and the August 2010 protests in Ben Guerdane, and links it regionally to mass struggles in Morocco, Western Sahara, and Algeria.
A notable polemic targets the method of self-immolation as a form of protest. While expressing profound solidarity with the despair driving such acts, the chapter argues they are not conducive to overthrowing the capitalist system, advocating instead for organisation into revolutionary workers’ parties, trade unions, and democratically elected councils, employing general strikes and armed uprising. The fiercest polemic is directed at imperialism. The text excoriates the United States and France for initially praising the Ben Ali regime as a “model” and for remaining silent during the first two weeks of repression, only shifting to hypocritical expressions of concern once the uprising proved unstoppable. It warns Tunisian workers and youth against any illusion that imperialism can be an ally, insisting it is the primary enemy, and counterposes internationalist workers’ solidarity. Finally, the chapter outlines a transitional program for revolutionary activists, drawing on a speech by Hamma Hammami of the Tunisian Communist Workers’ Party, demanding democratic freedoms, unemployment compensation, a sliding scale of wages, a 35-hour week, and the overthrow of the capitalist dictatorship in favour of workers’ democracy based on nationalised industry controlled by elected councils.