08) THE TUNISIAN UPRISING: A GREAT VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE

Excerpts from the Jan. 16 declaration by the Tunisian Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party

The Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party greets the people of Tunisia for the prodigious work which it carried out by taking part in the general uprising whose first spark burst in Sidi Bou Zid with the martyrdom of young Mohammed Bouazizi, and which led to the fall of the dictator Ben Ali.

     This uprising was truly a popular general movement, initiated by the people and carried out by the people. Today, after the escape of the tyrant and the fall of the most extreme elements of his system, the Party makes a point of stressing the following tasks and urgent points:

1. To mobilize all forces to bring to an end the plundering and terror being carried out by the criminal gangs in the service of the most extreme sectors of the Ben Ali regime.

2. To support and widen the "Citizens' Civil Defence Committees" which have been formed in the districts to protect the citizens and to ensure the safety of people and goods.

3. To mobilize all the means of the State to restore safety, so that the army and police force can return to barracks.

4. To quickly create a national commission of inquiry on the recourse to the shootings with live rounds; to pursue the persons responsible; to replace the prefects, under‑prefects.

5. To quickly create a national commission of inquiry on corruption and illegal enrichment, and to give it all the necessary means to pursue those who acted in a manner to expropriate goods the acquired in an illegal way and of restoring all seized goods to their owners.

6. To quickly create a national committee of democratic foundation, to break with the iniquitous system which prevailed from 1955 to 2011, and to found a new system that will guarantee freedom, guarantee transparent elections, and consolidate the progressive gains that the people obtained by virtue of the struggle.

7. To demand that the provisional Government answers the claims of the protest movement of the people and the youth for coordination with the trade‑union centre (UGTT) and the living forces of the country, and shuns the diktats of the European Union about the liberalization of the economic exchanges and services.

8. To demand that the provisional government recognizes the Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party immediately, as well as all other parties and civil organizations.

9. To call upon the provisional Government to cut the bonds between RCD party and the State, and to immediately restore to the public domain the goods which this party seized.

10. To demand that the provisional government offers all necessary facilities to the Union of Students, the trade union of the journalists, the association of the magistrates and the league of human rights so that they provide structure to the citizens, and maintain the destiny of the country in the hands of Tunisians, far from the interference of the foreign hegemonic forces.

11. The Party declares that it will exert, in the connection of the provisional government, a policy of positive critical opposition.

12. The Party affirms that it will continue to consolidate its relationships with all national, democratic and progressive forces within a framework of the struggle against imperialism, Zionism and reaction, for national sovereignty, democracy and progress.

     The Party thanks all those in the Arab world and the in whole world who supported the struggle of our people and thus helped it to carry out this great victory.

     (While not a Marxist-Leninist party, the Tunisian Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party has warm relations with the South African Communist Party, and attended the 2nd Conference for Democracy in Africa and the 1st Forum of Left movements in Africa, organized by the SACP.)

(The above article is from the Feb. 1-14, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)