Tunisia, 15 years later

Prises de position - Prese di posizione - Toma de posición - Statements - Prohlášení - Заявления

Tunisia has been presented as an example of triumphant « democratic revolution » during the Arab Spring, which began – coincidentally – in Tunisia at the end of 2010 : the self-immolation of an itinerant vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, in protest of the official harassment of which he was a victim, catalysed a series of demonstrations culminating in the fall of the autocrat Ben Ali.

But the working population of Tunisia soon became disillusioned. If the old boss and his clan had been « ejected » and a democratic constitution adopted, the country’s economy remained under the control of a few great families, to whom the new ruling parties were linked ; ergo, the subsequent murmuring about an « Islamo-mafia » capitalism. The social crisis of growing inequality, unemployment, and poverty, fueled by persistent economic difficulties, was contained during those years by a combination of police repression and a new democratic game : nine governments succeeded one another prior to the 2019 presidential election. In this election, disillusionment with the ruling parties, particularly the Islamist Ennanda party – the main party since the fall of Ben Ali – was behind the unexpected and overwhelming victory of a self-anointed fighter against corruption, the lawyer Kaïs Saïed. Under the auspices of ending partisan strife and ensuring political and social stability, the new authorities embarked on a gradual, authoritarian turn, the fruit of which was a constitutional coup in July 2021. Faced with a parliament controlled by the opposition, bolstered by popular support (thousands of his supporters demonstrated in favor of regime change) and the army, Saïed assumed full powers, dismissed the government, suspended parliament, and began drafting a new presidential constitution, etc. The new constitution was adopted in 2022 with a Ben Ali-style vote (over 94% in favor), and Saïed was re-elected president with over 90% of the vote in 2024. But even official figures reveal the indifference and antipathy with which the electoral farce was received : over 70% of the electorate abstained...

Since the coup, repression has been unleashed on opponents, and the number of political prisoners – sometimes imprisoned without trial or convicted under false pretexts – has continued to grow. Opposition leaders have recently been sentenced to decades in prison on charges of « undermining state security » or « terrorism » (1). Leading figures from the intelligentsia and so-called democratic « civil society » were also targeted, with the clear aim of bringing the intellectual petite-bourgeoisie into line. European imperialist powers, Tunisia’s main economic partners, effectively approve of the regime’s authoritarian policies, which ensure a « stability » conducive to business.

Because it does not attack the country’s economic and social structure, the « democratic revolution » is never anything other than a reconfiguration of bourgeois domination – and when it comes to a poor country facing multiple difficulties, this domination inevitably assumes a distinctly autocratic character.

The anti-proletarian nature of Saïed’s regime betrayed itself in February 2023 when the president echoed the racist rhetoric of the French far right about a « great replacement » : he denounced a « conspiracy » aimed at changing the country’s ethnic composition through « hordes of migrants », « sources of violence, crime, and unacceptable acts. » In France, it is Arabs who are targeted ; in Tunisia, it is black Africans. In both cases, the aim is to attribute social difficulties to scapegoats, therefore dividing the proletariat. The president’s statements were immediately followed by deportations of migrants and racist attacks. After clashes in Sfax in July 2023, where migrants were hunted down, several hundred of them were abandoned in the desert near the Libyan border, a practice that has since become commonplace and has led to the deaths of dozens of people.

On May 6, 2024, Saïed accused those who helped migrants of being « traitors and foreign agents ». Activists were arrested and immigrant support associations’ activities suspended. Humanitarian organizations have documented the mistreatment, sexual assault, and rape regularly suffered by migrants (2), including their sale to Libyan organizations (3)...

A convention signed in 2023 was presented as a « strategic agreement » for cooperation between the European Union and Tunisia. In reality, it only materialized on the issue of migrants, with the planned « economic support » dependent on an agreement with the IMF that the Tunisian government has so far refused to sign. The European Union finances police operations at sea and the deportation of migrants, effectively endorsing Tunis’ methods. Tunisia has thus been declared a « safe country », meaning a country to which migrants and asylum seekers can be deported.

The repression has not eluded striking workers, such as the female workers at a shoe factory in Metbassa: 24 were dismissed and sentenced in November 2024 to suspended prison terms after a strike involving several hundred workers. But even this repressive climate does not suffice to maintain capitalist order in a situation of deepening economic and social crisis. Statistics recorded 1,132 « protest actions » (and 33 suicides) in the first quarter of 2025, compared to 474 the previous year (4).

At the end of July, public transport workers staged a widely supported three-day strike after the failure of negotiations between the UGTT and the ministry on wages and working conditions. Following this strike, « conciliation meetings » scheduled for August 4 and 5 in the transport and agricultural sectors were cancelled by the Ministry of Social Affairs. On August 7, several dozen government supporters gathered in front of the UGTT headquarters to demand the dissolution of the union and the arrest of its leaders, whom they accused of corruption. The next day, President Saïed stated that the latter must « be held accountable ». The UGTT responded by organizing a protest march on August 21 against the « aggression » it had suffered. This mobilized nearly 3,000 people. In his speech, Noureddine Taboubi, the union’s secretary general, warned that social unrest was looming and that wage negotiations for the civil service, which had been suspended in May, needed to be resumed.

The authorities clearly have no intention of satisfying the workers ; therefore, they are putting pressure on the union to block the workers’ struggles. The UGTT is not a classist union. It supported Kaïs Saïed’s coup in 2021, and, following presidential threats, cancelled the planned strike in the aviation sector. But proletarians’ growing discontent has forced it to adopt a more belligerent tone in order to maintain its influence, creating tensions with the most collaborationist faction inside the union.

To realize their vital demands in such a perilous situation as confronts them today, proletarians cannot rely on the leaders of the UGTT, who will prostrate themselves – as they have always done – before the authorities. Nor can they rely – unfortunately – on the solidarity of proletarians in the imperialist countries, still paralyzed and disoriented by political and union collaborationism, as evidenced by the « solidarity » of the French Intersyndicale : a simply lamentable communiqué calling on « the French government, and more broadly European decision-makers, to condemn the autocratic excesses of Kaïs Saïed’s regime and to denounce the EU-Tunisia memorandum » (5) : as if these « decision-makers » (?) were not directly complicit in the regime’s iniquities...

In this basic, resistance struggle, proletarians can only rely on their own force as a class.

But tomorrow, when the international struggle of the proletariat is renewed – when it will no longer be a question of merely resisting exploitation or « improving » capitalism through « democratic revolutions », but of overthrowing all bourgeois powers and installing in their place the dictatorial power of the proletariat, indispensable for putting an end to the capitalist system and opening the route to communist society – the solidarity and fighting unity of proletarians of all countries will once again become possible and necessary.

(1) Among those sentenced to between 4 and 66 years in prison, the court included the pro-Israeli French writer Bernard-Henri Lévy (sentenced to 33 years in prison in absentia) without giving any reasons.

(3) https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/19/italy-migrant-reduction-investigation-rape-killing-tunisia-eu-money-keir-starmer-security-forces-smugglerstrimestre-2025/

(4) https://www.agenzianova.com/news/tunisia-1132-azioni-di-protesta-e-33-suicidi-nel-primo

(5) Press release dated 8/21/25 signed by the CGT, CFDT, UNSA, FSU, and Solidaires.

Il comunista - le prolétaire - el proletario - proletarian - programme communiste - el programa comunista - Communist Program