Interview with a Tunisian revolutionary

Photos: Alhem Belhadj speaking in Paris on 11 February 2011 at meeting organised by New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA).

Paris, 12 February 2011:

I am Alhem Belhadj and I am with the Ligue de la Gauche Ouvriers. It is a part of the January 14 Front.

I think there is a real revolutionary process … Things are going very, very quickly. There is a lot of change. Every day there is some change and there is a big popular resistance.

In Tunisia a problem is we don’t have a big party that can lead but even that was a good thing in a way — each one was responsible to do something. There are a lot of people [working together from different] organisations, and they try and create something together …

Even since before 14 January, there are a lot of regional and local committees to defend the revolution and continue fighting. After the revolution we had a lot of problems with security because we had the police of the overthrown president and the militia of the former ruling party who organised themselves to destabilise the situation and create panic.

In this situation, people in this situation people organised themselves to protect themselves.

Now we have Committees to Defend the Revolution and we see in a lot of regions the emergence of trade union regional committees and local committees, and larger councils.

At first, [after the January 14 overthrow of Ben Ali] they tried to put up a government with a lot of ministers from the régime. But the people refused. Trade unionists from the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail [UGT — Tunisian General Union of Labor] were represented in the government but they left. And the people put real pressure to bring that government down and they brought it down. But the second government, which is presented like the technocrats but I feel that until now it is not a real rupture with the last.

It didn’t do a lot of tasks. It didn’t kick out the former ruling party, it didn’t reorganise the police — it didn’t make a clean break with past. But it put in place three commissions to discuss where we are going, [which] maybe will take six months but we need to be very vigilant …

Protests are still taking place all over even in schools and hospitals. All representatives of power [are being questioned] … There is a real social movement against all power.

A great problem is that in this revolution the Americans were very present, and when the Americans are present it is not a good thing, of course. In this government there are two new ministers who came from the IMF and World Bank and they are in the government to protect these interests.

The first thing this government announced was that it would pay Tunisia’s debt. Until now they don’t explain from where they will have the money to have more social justice … They don’t speak about the debt and they don’t speak about the tasks of the state in improving people’s situation in employment, etc, or in agrarian reform. There is a lot of problems in agriculture in Tunisia.

So, it’s not clear yet. But the profile of people in the new government is not good. That’s why the peoples councils, with trade unionists and people from the Left, have a lot of tasks to demand of the government — things [the government] can’t do.

The January 14 Front is a left organisation. They are against this new government. They say clearly this government can’t do tasks we need. They can’t do a constituent assembly. They can’t do social justice. So we are asking people to organise themselves to do these tasks.

[…]

The January 14 Front is the main opposition to the government in politics but in other organisation there is the UGTT and civil society.

[…]

People are using Facebook, it has a real role. Because [before January 14] we didn’t have the possibility to have meetings … We didn’t have the possibility to have associations to have political parties. It was a way to be together to discuss things while at home. Even when the internet was blocked people found ways to get round it. We had a lot of help from people to do it.

It was a good way to keep informed. The media was not free … There was nothing about the revolution in the Tunisian media. But every Tunisian was informed minute by minute by Facebook, with films, videos, with all details so it was very important. It was a way to ask people to be active. It was very, very important.

[…]

Ennahda could be a big force. It is not a big force now but it could be big force if people don’t work well. Because Ennahda can be near people.

It is the force of the Islamist movement. They are near the people and will give a response to the true problems of the people. If the revolutionary movement don’t do that Ennahda can have a big place.

The other question is: what is US imperialism planning in the region? What is their politics with Islamism in the region. It is a question now and I think it is an important thing to know. It can be a source of danger because they can have an alliance with moderate Islamists but I don’t know what is moderate Islamists — when they are in power they are no longer moderate.