SOLIDARITY WITH THE WORKERS AND YOUTH OF THE MAGHREB (NORTH AFRICA) IN STRUGGLE!

DOWN WITH THE DICTATORIAL AND REPRESSIVE REGIMES!

A UNITED FRONT AGAINST THE IMPERIALIST FRENCH STATE THAT IS BACKING THEM!

Already in 2008, the Maghreb (North Africa), a victim of massive destitution and unemployment, had known ennormous popular mobilizations, especially the strike by the miners of Gafsa-Redeyef, mobilizations that were brutally repressed. But this time, it is a real uprising.

Tunisia: The police assassinated more than 50 demonstrators with lead bullets in the streets of Kasserine, Thala, Reguab… Algeria: In five days, several people dead and 800 wounded.

After the attempted immolation on December 17, 2010, by a young college graduate, forced to work as a street vendor, whose goods the police confiscated, thousands of workers and young people demonstrated in several cities of Tunisia. The protest that began against the price hike turned into a directly political mobilization: “Ben Ali, get out!”, “Down with the dictatorship!” were heard in all the demonstrations. The demonstrators attack police stations and the gendarmes, the places and symbols of the power that decreed the state of siege. As a sign of the enormous surfeit and growth of the anger of the workers and youth, numerous trade unionists appear, several from the structures of the UGTT, the only union headquarters, whose leaders are tied to the regime, participating in the front line of the uprising. On Wednesday, January 12, the regional UGTT of Sfax, the economic capital of the country, called the general strike. The powerful mobilization of Tunisian youth terrifies the regime to the point that it closed all the school establishments, from the primary schools to the universities. The rebellion now reached the capital, Tunis. Ben Ali tries to say something; he has just decided to dismiss the Minister of the Interior, to order the release of the people who had been arrested since the beginning of the rebellion and to open an inquiry about the corruption of some public officials. It is hardly likely that this will be enough to stop the turbulence. This is the biggest social crisis in a quarter century.

In Algeria, although the demonstrations and the explosions of recent days are still not comparable to those of 1988, Bouteflika’s government remembers the great mobilizations that moved Cabilia in 2001, and from the beginning it avoids confrontations, in view of the growing anger. The mobilization began with the rejection of the uncontrolled rise in prices of essential products, and now the young people confront the forces of repression comprehensively, in opposition to unemployment, low wages and the destitution caused by capitalism. The national bourgeoisie divides up the enormous oil profits, and the government heavily taxes essential food products. Numerous actions of solidarity with the workers and young people of Tunisia have already taken place in France (Paris, Marseilles, etc.). Hundreds of participants shouted “Freedom in Tunisia,” “Ben Ali, gangster, get out!” and also “Ben Ali, murderer! Sarkozy, accomplice!”

The organization of massive, united mobilizations in all countries against these reactionary and corrupt regimes is of the first importance, to help the workers and youth throw them out and replace them with governments of their own.

Ben Ali’s ties, both with the French governments of the right and of the left are very well known, but those ties they keep with Bouteflika’s regime are no less important.

These autocrats reign over the Maghreb (North Africa) as lord and master, by repression, as they rot in corruption, through frauds, crushing through terror and imprisoning as a way of making an example. They enjoy the docility of the French bourgeoisie, the silence of the communications media and the support of Sarkozy, still hoping to keep a part of his colonies in Africa. Such is the aim of the Union for the Mediterranean, the 2008 agreements in the field of nuclear energy and defense or the appointment of Raffarin “as coordinator of special” French-Algerian “collaboration.” Despite the independence of its former colonies, French imperialism is the main plunderer and oppressor in the region.

To fight against these regimes is also to fight against our own bourgeoisie. We have everything to gain here, in France, from the development of this movement in the Maghreb. Every blow against one of these regimes also strikes Sarkozy and the big French bosses.

Now, both the Sarkozy-Juppé government and the European Union describe themselves as neutral as regards the parties, the Tunisian government and the demonstrators; they condemn “the acts of violence” and state that it is necessary to be “careful” in facing a situation that they pretend not to know very well! In reality, they are doing everything to save Ben Ali. They are the very ones who are impeding immigration; they are repressing and pursuing undocumented immigrants.

But the solidarity that the workers of France can offer the demonstrators of Tunisia and Algeria consists of:

· Popularizing and supporting their political struggles and the struggles for their demands;

· Participating massively in the solidarity demonstrations, actions and meetings organized in numerous cities;

· Demanding the legalization of all those without papers, the end of expulsions, the closing of the detention centers, the repeal of all the anti-immigrant laws.

For the CTR, the fight to support the Tunisian and Algerian demonstrators must be the axis of the public activity of the NPA, centrally fighting against the complicity of Sarkozy and the “Democrats” of the Socialist Party & Co. with Ben Ali. In addition to united calls for solidarity, it is a matter of really mobilizing the whole party, all the female and male militants, to assure the success of the meetings and to take initiatives. It is crucial that the party’s leadership addresses the French, Algerian and Tunisian working-class and democratic organizations in France, to organize united mass mobilizations in all the large cities of the country.

UNCONDITIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH THE HEROIC STRUGGLE OF THE WORKERS AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE MAGHREB (North Africa)!

NO MORE REPRESSION! RELEASE OF ALL THE DEMONSTRATORS! BEN ALI, BOUTEFLIKA: MURDERERS! SARKOZY: ACCOMPLICE!

Paris, January 12, 2011

To contact us: [email protected]

CTR website: http://collectiftrnpa.wordpress.com/