Over the past month, many Tunisian regions and cities, including the capital, have seen strong popular movements in which the unemployed youth and combative students play an important role.
On January 26, in the light of the deep crisis at the top among the three presidents, thousands of demonstrators laid siege to the parliament to demand the departure of the entire ruling class resulting from the fraudulent elections financed by dirty money. Local general strikes were called by the General Workers Union of Tunisia (UGTT), other professional organizations and political forces that entered the struggle in defiance of the police lockout.
The response of the government and its security forces was to attack the demonstrators with batons and tear gas and arrest thousands of youth and even children.
Brutal repression, mass arrests, torture, and killings did not stop the struggle.
The mobilization has been provoked by the dramatic situation in Tunisia, characterized by high unemployment, poverty and extreme poverty, social and regional inequalities, corruption, violence against women, exclusion from education.
To this must be added the effects of the pandemic, amplified by the policy of the Mechichi government which favours capitalism and leads the country to ruin and growing dependence on imperialism and its agencies, such as the IMF, which are strangling Tunisia with an external debt.
Popular discontent, rage and mistrust of the ruling class are very significant. The working class and the popular masses refuse to pay the cost of the crisis and the debt. They feel betrayed by a whole decade of anti-grassroots and antisocial policies and are increasingly aware that their problems are linked to the current system with which it is time to break.
The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO) expresses its solidarity and resolutely supports the popular movement that is shaking up the social and political order in Tunisia, strengthening the international front in the struggle against imperialism and reaction.
We denounce the counter-revolutionary role played by sectarian and fundamentalist forces, as well as the interference and intrusions of the imperialist powers who are enemies of the independence, freedom and sovereignty of the peoples.
We condemn the campaign of slander and hatred launched by the reactionary forces against the Workers’ Party and its General Secretary Comrade Hamma Hammami.
We hope that the situation will push as many political and social forces as possible into a process of unitary action, building a popular revolutionary front.
Down with the capitalist system, down with the power of the bourgeoisie!
Long live the struggle and international solidarity of the workers and oppressed peoples!
XXVI Plenary Session of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO)February 2021