[Peace-discuss] Fw: ChicagoIWW Digest, Vol 66, Issue 10

[David Johnson]

> From: "EIT-ILC" <eit.ilc at fr.oleane.com>
>
> Subject: ILC Urgent  Communiqu? on Uprising in Tunisia -- January 13, 
> 2010"
>
> Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:10:51 +0100
>
>
>
>
>
> *International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples*
>
> *Urgent Communiqu?*
>
> *January 13, 2011*
>
>
>
> The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC) condemns
> the repression against the youth, workers and people of Tunisia, who have
> risen up against oppression, the high cost of living, and corruption.
>
>
>
> The ILC sends its support to the workers, youth and people of Tunisia and
> their organizations, particularly the General Union of Tunisian Workers
> (UGTT), which has spearheaded the mobilization.
>
>
>
> The ILC calls on the labor movement and workers' organizations worldwide 
> to
> express their solidarity with the workers, youth and people of Tunisia, 
> and
> to demand an end to the brutal repression.
>
>
>
> The bloody and corrupt regime of dictator Ben Ali, supported by the 
> European
> Union and the IMF, has faithfully applied their plans and dictates in the
> context of the Association with the European Union, to be completed in 
> 2011,
> which aims to make Tunisia a "free trade" zone.
>
>
>
> Immersed in misery, without any perspective, the youth and working class 
> of
> Tunisia, reclaiming their unions for struggle, are rising up across the
> country to defend their very right to exist.
>
>
>
> During several days, union activists of the UGTT have been killed under 
> the
> bullets of police repression. Men and women united, workers, youth, 
> lawyers,
> artists, academics ... hundreds have been injured, beaten, jailed.
>
>
>
> Spontaneously in dozens of cities, the population went to the local
> headquarters of the UGTT to express their opposition to Ben Ali. For the
> first time in 25 years, one can hear the chants in the Tunisian
> demonstrations of "Down with Ben Ali!"
>
>
>
> The police repression has been systematic. At Kasserin and Thala dozens of
> people have been killed. Police snipers have sown panic in the
> demonstrations.
>
>
>
> In Tunis, trade unionists were reading to leave their union's headquarters
> to take to the streets, but they were soon driven back by police tear gas.
>
>
>
> On Sunday, January 9, the UGTT local affiliate in Sfax issued a call for a
> regional general strike. With only a few exceptions (hospitals and many
> bakeries), the strike was followed 100%. In Sfax, 30,000 workers and 
> youths
> demonstrated in the streets. A Jenduba on January 12, there were 12,000
> people demonstrating in a city of 30,000 inhabitants.
>
>
>
> The mobilizations are sweeping every corner of the country, including the
> suburbs of Tunis itself. In several cities the police were forced to 
> retreat
> or withdraw in the face of the relentless population. The curfew in the
> greater Tunis metropolitan area has been largely ignored as the protests
> continue to swell.
>
>
>
> In the south, particularly in Kasserin, hundreds demonstrated, 
> appropriating
> the city buses to travel to Thala, where they violated the 22-out-of-24 
> hour
> curfew and forced the police to withdraw back to their stations.
>
>
>
> The government-run television channel, a mouthpiece for the propaganda of
> General Ben Ali, filmed scenes of looting, staged by the police in 
> civilian
> clothing who infiltrated the demonstrations, to justify the repression.
>
>
>
> But in Thala, Kasserin and Sidi Bouzid, the youth set up Neighborhood
> Committees to organize their marches and expel the provocateurs from their
> mass protests.
>
>
>
> Last week, on several occasions members of the military brandished their
> weapons against the Public Order Brigades after the people took refuge
> behind these brigades. The movement is so deep it has caused the dismissal
> of the General Staff of the Army.
>
>
>
> At the time of this writing, very violent clashes are taking place between
> the police and the army, on one side, against tens of thousands of
> demonstrators in Nabeul, Tunis, and Sfax and other cities and towns.
>
>
>
> The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples calls on 
> workers'
> organizations the world over to express their solidarity with the workers
> and people of Tunisia, and in particular with the UGTT trade union
> federation.
>
>
>
> - For an immediate halt to the repression against the workers, people and
> youth of Tunisia;
>
>
>
> - Respect democratic freedoms in Tunisia;
>
>
>
> - Meet the just social and political demands of the Tunisian workers and
> people;
>
>
>
> - For an immediate lifting of the siege of the UGTT headquarters in Tunis!
>
>
> Algiers - Paris,
>
> January 13, 2011, 4:10 p.m.
>
>
>
> signed/
>
>
>
> -* Louisa Hanoune*, General Secretary of the Workers Party of Algeria
>
> -* Daniel Gluckstein*, National secretary of the Independent Workers' 
> Party
> (POI)
>
>
>
> Coordinators of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
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> End of ChicagoIWW Digest, Vol 66, Issue 10
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