On the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the triumphant « bread » intifadha Insistence on struggle and scuffle to complete the revolutionary path
The Tunisian people has fought many militant battles on the path of national freedom and social justice since the direct colonization and continued its militant efforts after the nomination of Bourguiba’s agent reactionary regime, which went down a political and economic path opposing popular masses while being submissive to imperialist dictations and plundering monopolies. These choices plundered the nation’s goods and depleted workers, laborers, and the totality of popular categories. They also widened the gap between classes and seized the people’s right to freedom and dignity. As a result of these choices and while being influenced by the agent regime policies, we witnessed the emergence of the first popular blows and especially the events of 1968 following the falsely-called “the cooperative experience” which scourges were suffered by small-scale farmers and laborers in general. Following that, came along the repression of the student movement that proved to be impossible to be tamed by the regime despite its hopeless efforts: repression, exile and exclusion from education… The crisis of the agent regime hasd been getting worse and thus tried to solve matters by implementing economic and social measures at the expense of an impoverished people and hence came along the workers’ intifadha which has been suppressed by the regime using iron and fire and through prisons, exiles, arrests, pursuits and work layoffs… Hundreds of martyrs from our people were the victims of such repression and therefore the bread intifadha erupted following the accumulation of the previous militant battles and struggles paving the way, at the same time, to subsequent popular blows. The non-popular measures that the regime employed to get out of its smothering crisis through dictation coming from the international monetary fund was considered one of the fiercest weapons plundering the people that directly sparked the outbreak of the January 1984 intifadha.
These measures were mainly: The cancellation of the support fund especially concerning basic goods notably cereals and their derivatives, milk, sugar and oil while increasing the price of many goods; the bread for instance witnessed an increase in price exceeding 100 per cent.
In the aftermath, the people rose up in a massive intifadha since late December against the impoverishment, starvation and exploitation policy. This revolutionary spark started from the south moving towards the north of the country to reach the marginalized impoverished neighborhoods and it targeted the icons of the agent regime along with its institutions. The regime faced it with different repression means amounting to the use of bullets, which lead to hundreds of people getting killed and let us not forget about prisoners, exiles and people laid off from work. The momentum of the valiant intifadha did not stop despite the different forms of repression and the declaration of the state of emergency in the country as well as the use of the army to suppress it. It only stopped when the agent regime had to undo those non-popular and non-national measures.
What the country is living today, in essence, is only seeking to further implement the pillars of the agent regime and a conspiracy on the 17 December/ 14 January intifadha and its goals despite the different scenarios used by the reactionary powers led by imperialism. Walking on a path further depleting the people is happening today and the increase of prices and the promotion of the cancellation of the support fund as well as other measures only reflect the continuity of the use of the same non-national choices. The coup on the people’s sacrifices and demands is happening today under the guise of the so-called democratic transition and electoral legitimacy,which only resulted in a political landscape ruled by reactionary agent political powers seeking to perpetuate the established situation while targeting the national powers as obscurantist and terrorist hands controlled by the imperialism, the enemy of all peoples.
The bread intifadha in 1984, the mining basin protests and the intifadha of 17 December are part of the accumulating chain of militant struggles moving on the path of the next popular revolution. The blood of their heroic martyrs was not in vain; it will inspire us with a continuous and increasing militant expertise and revolutionary prowess, which will certainly prepare for the coming revolution. The oppression and repression machine as well as the attempts to falsify the awareness will not be able to break the people’s will when it is fired up and when it is yearning for freedom, social justice, dignity and human brotherhood despite the fact that reactionary powers succeeded to conspire on the intifad has of our people on all previous occasions as it is also the case after the last intifadha as we are witnessing a conspiracy and a betrayal of its martyrs’ blood. The people will inevitably find the way to his salvation and will become aware of the importance of triumphing over his foes, even the hidden ones, and will move forward towards the revolution in a relentless determination to sweep his enemies while armed with his militant expertise and bitter experiences.
We have to continue on the revolutionary path to realize the valiant intifadha goals to be faithful to the intifadha martyrs and the different militant struggles but also to take on the responsibility of our scuffle. This can only happen through a revolution for national liberation and emancipation.
* Glory to the martyrs of the triumphant bread intifadha
* Glory to the martyrs of the different struggles in the march of our people towards freedom and dignity
* Yes to the continuation of the revolutionary path to be faithful to the martyrs’ sacrifices
* Let us move forward as victory is the ally of peoples
The Patriotic Socialist Revolutionary Party watad
Tunisia
Document Actions
