Dear comrades,
on behalf of the Greek revolutionary communists we salute your Congress that convenes at a critical period for the struggle of the Tunisian people and wish you every success in its work.
With revolutionary communist greetings,
The PC of the Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party 1918-1955
Statement by the Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)
Chokri Belaid, a popular, prominent, and tireless fighter for the freedom and independence of Tunisia was assassinated in front of his house on the morning of February 6, 2013. Comrade Chokri was the general secretary of the United Party of Patriotic Democrats (PUPD) of Tunisia and a leading member of the Popular Front, a coalition of democratic and left wing forces including the Workers’ Party (PT) of Tunisia.
The criminal assassination of Chokri Belaid is one among a series of repressive acts and barbaric attacks against the activists of the Popular Front that have been carried out for a while with the backing and support of the Tunisian government led by Ennahda Islamic Party. As Comrade Hemma Hemmami, the spokesperson of the Front and the leading figure of PT stated: “The government as a whole is responsible for this crime”.
The barbaric assassination of Comrade Chokri Belaid reminds us of the gradually increasing offensive acts of the reactionary forces of the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran, soon after they took power, against the advancement of the Iranian Revolution and against the secular and radical left forces in Iran.
Chokri Belaid strongly opposed the “elected” government of Tunisia dominated by the Ennahda Islamic Party, the Party that was put in power through conspiracy, deception, election rigging, and imperialist backing.
The assassination of Chokri Belaid is a vile act that stems from, on the one hand, the weakness and sagging power of the present reactionary rulers in Tunisia and, on the other hand, the advances of the Popular Front. The democratic and revolutionary forces in Tunisia are extending and deepening their influence among the labourers, toilers, deprived masses, and intellectuals. They are holding high the banner of their national-democratic revolution. This has frightened the regime and decaying forces. The assassins not only have targeted Comrade Chokri and PUPD, but also have targeted all democratic and left forces, the trade unions, the women organizations, all secular and progressive institutions. All these forces were and are under the offenses of the dark and reactionary forces backed by the Ennahda movement.
The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) strongly condemns the assassination of Chokri Belaid and expresses solidarity with his immediate family, with the United Party of Patriotic Democrats, and with the United Front. We call on all revolutionary and progressive forces of all lands to condemn the reactionary regime of Tunisia for this despicable act and other ongoing criminal offenses against the people of Tunisia.
The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) supports the struggle of the Tunisian people for the continuation of their revolution. We support the Popular Front, the force that is fighting for deepening the revolution and establishing a national and democratic order. We continue to expose the criminal Islamic regime of Tunisia headed by Ennahda, a regime that is backed by imperialists and the remnants of Ben Ali regime.
The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan) supports the call by trade unions and the Popular Front for general strikes, for dissolution of the government, and for the formation of a new democratic constitutional assembly.
Long Live the Tunisian Revolution!
Down with Imperialism and Reaction!
Long Live International Solidarity!
The Party of Labour of Iran (Toufan)
February 7, 2013
The storm of the unprecedented massive popular revolts – each one with its own particularities – that shook and continue to shake all the Arab countries (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen), shattered the reactionary, oppressive regimes causing alarm to their imperialist patrons all over the world.
These popular revolts, irrespective of how much they will progress, have objectively an antifascist and anti-imperialist character, a fact that deeply worries the great imperialist powers about the future of their neo-colonial domination in these countries and the entire region.
The massive revolts managed to assume massive proportions because they escaped the control of the bourgeois and reformist parties and they have historical significance not only for the people in every country involved but for the entire region. They are also important for the struggle of the European proletariat and the European peoples because they demonstrated how strong and irresistible the power of a people can be, when the struggle attains the necessary massiveness, despite the absence of revolutionary Communist Parties.
These revolts constitute one of the most important, if not the most important, events in the 21st century and it will be recorded as such in the history of class struggle of the peoples against fascism and imperialism and the struggle for the liberation of various countries from the imperialist bondage.
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See also:
From En Marcha
Central Organ of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador
#1524, February 25 to March 3, 2011
While the Tunisian masses continue their sit-in at the Governmental Square at Qasbah (in the capital city), and tens of thousands of Tunisians have marched in Sfax, Tunis, Sidi Bouzid, Jendouba, Nabeul and other parts of the country, to bring down the government of “National Unity", they imposed on us a modified government led by Mohamed Ghannouchi, with clear evidence of the interfering of USA Secretary of State Feltman.
This government is the continuation of the dictatorship and tyranny and was dictated by imperialist forces of America and European countries that have brought our country into what we are enduring now of unemployment, impoverishment and marginalization .
Therefore, the "14 January Front" declares the following:
1 - Rejection of the amended government of “national unity," because it is against the people's revolution and demands and aspirations.
2 – Rejection of all types of tutelage of U.S.A., European or others on the destinies of our people and our country.
3 – For the formation of a "provisional government" acceptable to the people, and that would result from a national conference to protect the revolution, and consists of:
- All political parties, associations and trade union organizations, human rights and cultural organizations and independent personalities, which sponsor the demands of the people's revolution and struggle to achieve them.
- Representatives of the forces which were produced by the revolution in all areas of the country through the councils or committees or associations formed at the initiative of the masses.
- Representatives of Tunisian associations and organizations abroad, which has resisted the dictatorship and supported the revolution in Tunisia.
4. The mission of “The National Congress for the Protection of the Revolution” consists of drafting texts about the provision of complete freedom for the Tunisian people by repealing the laws that prohibit
freedom and ending the implementation of the constitutional articles which negate freedoms and people's sovereignty until the passing of a new constitution.
The tasks of the “provisional government” are the following:
* The managing of daily affairs
* The dissolution of the appointed representative bodies
* The dismantling of the ruling party and its militia, the expropriation of its properties and calling to account the figures who were behind the economic and political crimes.
* The dismantling of the political police apparatus.
* Appointment of provisional officials in the diplomatic corps, the governorates, the delegations and the sectors to carry out the tasks of the transitional period.
* Preparing the election of a constituent assembly in an atmosphere of freedom. This assembly should represent all the vital forces in the country after agreeing on the type of representation in it (the use of proportional representation) in order to avoid exclusion.
* The constituent assembly undertakes the drafting of a new constitution for the modern, democratic and civil Tunisian republic that fulfills the Tunisian people's ambitions of freedom, equality, social justice and dignity.
* In declaring these stances, the 14 January Front warns the
“national unity government” against pursuing any repressive measure towards the sit-in in Al-Qasbah and the protesters all over the country.
The Front calls for the continuation of the mobilisation, defending the masses and and all the democratic political forces as well as all the organisations, groups, associations and independent individuals to continue the struggle to achieve the objectives of the people's revolution, in devotion to their martyrs and will.
Tunisia 28 January 2011
[Translated by Raida Hatoum and Nadim Mahjoub]
The people and the youth of Tunisia have, with their rebellion that at this moment has lasted for several weeks, shaken the dictatorship of Ben Ali. The flight of the dictator is a first victory of the Tunisian people. The rebellion and the victory of the workers and the youth constitute an important example, a rich experience for the peoples of the world.
Once again it is proven that regimens based on the repressive police apparatus, apparently indestructible, can not keep standing, confronted with the force and firm will of resistance of the people and its youth.
The defeat of Ben Alí, that made him flee with his cronies, the end of their privileges, the practical destruction of the party in power (RCD) that during decades directed the country with an iron glove, the liberation of the political prisoners, the exercise of democratic freedoms, like the freedom of the press, of association and of expression, are very important achievements. They are changes unimaginable some days ago.
However, the Tunisian people can advance further on this road. It can strengthen this first victory with measures like: The formation of a provisional democratic government; The organization of free elections of a Constituent Assembly; The elaboration of a new Constitution and the basic laws of the new democratic regimen; Adoption of concrete, economic measures, in favor of the workers, concretely adopting financial measures in favor of the unemployed, union members and political activists; Recognition of all political parties; Demolition of the symbols and the institutions of the late regimen, etc.
The Tunisian people can take this struggle to a new culmination with the victory of the democratic revolution.
These are the immediate tasks that the fraternal Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia puts forward and it is the foundation of the organization ofthe struggle.
The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations, states:
- Our unconditional support for the revolutionary process and the just and legitimate rebellion of the Tunisian people, saluting its victories.
.- We congratulate the activists and the leadership of PCOT' for the decisive role they exercise at the head of the popular fight for freedom, democracy and social justice; we wish them complete success.
Long live the rebellion and the victory of the Tunisian people!
Long live the international solidarity of the workers and of the peoples!
The International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO)
Photo: Humanite, 17/11/2011
Some French politicians are complicit with the regime of ousted Tunisian president Ben Ali. And some are not.
Former PCF national secretary Marie-George Buffet was asked last week by l’Humanite: How do you react to the arrest yesterday morning of Hamma Hammami, of the Communist Workers Party of Tunisia?
Marie-George Buffet. Hamma Hammami was released from the underground a few weeks ago. I just had to phone one of his relatives. The arrest was made with great violence to a child. Ben Ali made statements on job creation, the resignation of the Minister of the Interior and the replacement of police in the streets by the army. However, repression is increasing.
How do you explain the ‘soft’ reaction of France and the EU?
Marie-George Buffet. This confirms the long standing complacency with regard to the Ben Ali regime. On Tuesday, our comrade, Jean-Paul Lecoq (PCF), a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the National Assembly, asked on behalf of (our parliamentary group) the Left Democrats and Republicans for the government, which he asked to take the full measure and act. We were answered in a quite amazing way by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Michèle Alliot-Marie, who said: “that the know-how of our security forces, which is recognized worldwide, enables it to deal with security situations of this type.”
And here l’Humanite reported….
Many French politicians wish that everyone would forget their ‘soft ‘attitude to the Ben Ali regime.
Following the fall of Ben Ali, those who supported him in France and were silent on the regime’s misdeeds are undergoing a sudden conversion. Meanwhile, the opponents of the dictatorship are calling them to account by drawing up a list of the declarations that these people would like everyone to forget (In relation to this, see the edifying website: Ben-Ali-Wall-of-Shame.)
In this concert, some wits have noted a soft attitude on the part of both left-wing and right-wing personalities, and would have us believe that in the final analysis all political parties were equally guilty. All parties? That amounts to forgetting, a bit too quickly, the positions taken by the national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF) up to last June, Marie-George Buffet, who in all her acts and all her declarations over the past years continually condemned the Ben Ali regime and the French authorities’ support for it, while demonstrating her solidarity with Tunisian democrats.
No later than this past summer, a PCF delegation headed by Marie-George Buffet went to Tunisia to meet with Tunisian democratic forces who were subject to an “intolerable” situation, as was emphasized by Jacques Fath, a PCF leader who accompanied Buffet (see l’Humanité, July 12, 2010).
One might also cite Marie-George Buffet’s constant support for the journalist Taoufik Ben Brik, receiving his wife Azza Zarrad when he was imprisoned (see l’Humanité, Feb. 6, 2010) and her meeting in Tunis with the Tunisian League for Human Rights, on November 26, 2008, in “solidarity with the labor movement of the mining region, the young people, the women, and the victims of repression (see l’Humanité, Dec. 3, 2008). Or again the “consternation” expressed by Buffet, a Communist member of the French National Assembly, in a letter to Nicolas Sarkozy, after he congratulated Ben Ali on his re-election. “The police have never stopped harassing the democratic opposition, and journalists have been subject to intimidation,” Marie-George Buffet pointed out, condemning “a head of state elected by manipulation and through fear in a context in which freedom of expression and freedom of association have been stifled.” (see l’Humanité, October 31, 2009)
Translated from l’Humanite Thursday 27 January 2011, by Gene Zbikowski and reviewed by Gene Zbikowski
Affirming our engagement in the revolution of our people which fought for its right to freedom and national dignity and made great sacrifices, including dozens of martyrs and thousands of wounded and prisoners, and in order to complete the victory against interior and external enemies and to oppose any attempts to crush the fruits of these sacrifices, we constituted "the 14th of January Front" as a political framework which will apply itself to the advancement of the revolution of our people towards the achievement of its objectives and to oppose the forces of counter-revolution. The Front consists of national democratic and progressive parties, forces, and organizations.
The urgent tasks of this Front are:
1. To bring down the current Ghannouchi government or any government containing symbols of the old regime which applies an anti-national and anti-popular policy and serves the interests of the deposed president.
2. To dissolve the RCD and to confiscate its headquarters, its property, its financial assets and funds, since they belong to the people.
3. To form an interim government which enjoys the confidence of the people, of the militant progressive political, social, and trade-union forces, and of the youth.
4. To dissolve the House of Representatives and the Senate, all the existing artificial bodies, and the High Council of the Judiciary; to dismantle the political structure of the old regime; and to prepare the election of a constituent assembly within a maximum of one year in order to formulate a new democratic constitution and to found a new legal system to frame the public life which guarantees the political, economic, and cultural rights of the people.
5. To dissolve the political police and to adopt a new policy of security based on respect for human rights and the rule of the law.
6. To bring to justice all those who are guilty of stealing the people's money, all those who committed crimes against the people like repression, imprisonment, torture, and humiliation, whether in the decision-making or in the execution, and finally all those who are convinced of corruption and diversion of public goods.
7. To expropriate the former ruling family, their close relations and associates, and all the civil servants who used their positions to grow rich at the expense of the people.
8. To create jobs for the unemployed; to take urgent measures to grant unemployment benefits and provide greater social security and health care coverage; and to improve the purchasing power for the employed.
9. To build a national economy in the service of the people where the vital and strategic sectors are under the supervision of the State; to renationalize those institutions which have been privatized; and to formulate an economic and social policy which breaks with the liberal capitalist approach.
10. To guarantee public and individual freedoms, especially freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of the press, information, and thought; and to release prisoners and to promulgate a law of amnesty.
11. The Front hails the support of the popular masses and the progressive forces in the Arab world and the whole world for the revolution in Tunisia and invites them to continue their support by all possible means.
12. Resistance to normalization with the Zionist entity, its penalization, and the support for the national liberation movements in the Arab world and the whole world.
13. The Front calls on all the popular masses and nationalist forces and progressives to continue the mobilization and the struggle in all forms of legitimate protest, particularly in the streets, until the proposed objectives are achieved.
14. The Front hails all the committees, associations, and forms of popular self-organization and invites them to widen their sphere of intervention to all that concerns the conduct of public affairs and various aspects of everyday life.
Glory to the martyrs of the Intifada, and Victory to the revolutionary masses of our people!
Tunisia, 20 January 2011
League of the Labor Left
Movement of Nasserist Unionists
Movement of Democratic Nationalists
Democratic Nationalists (Al-Watad)
Baasist Current
Independent Left
Tunisian Communist Workers Party
Patriotic and Democratic Labour Party
Tunisian authorities Friday released opposition figure Hamma Hammami, the leader of the banned Tunisian Workers' Communist Party, three days after arresting him, the party said.
"We've just heard that he's been released. He's at home," party official Adel Thabet told reporters in Paris, after family members had expressed fears for the 59-year-old leftist's life in government custody.
Hammami has been working underground to escape arrest since February last year, but in recent weeks has spoken to foreign media to support the protests against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's authoritarian regime.
On Wednesday his wife, the lawyer Radia Nasraoui, said he had been snatched from his home in Tunis by officers of the political police and was being held incommunicado and without charge.
In the past 24 hours, amid unprecedented protests against his 23-year-long rule, Ben Ali has sent mixed signals: first promising to share political power and halt a violent crackdown, then declaring a state of emergency.
© 2010 AFP
Athens, January 12, 2011
We stand by the side of the Tunisian and Algerian peoples who are once more struggling with their children’s blood against dependence and neocolonial exploitation imposed by the imperialists.
In Tunisia, since 17th December Ben Ali’s “lifelong” regime-puppet of French imperialists has already murdered in cold blood by positioning soldiers on house roofs more than 50 protesters and wounded over a thousand, according to the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (IFHRL). The people and first and foremost the youth cannot stand living in hunger, misery, unemployment, and corruption of the colonizers’ obedient servants, and violent suppression does not scare them. They are taking to the streets more and more massively (workers, pupils, university students, intellectuals) and demand militantly into the streets another life, from the country’s South to Tunis.
In spite of the provocations of the fascist regime, the protesters are not incited by “islamist terrorists.” Contrary, the Left is the one that is heading this all-people’s uprising, and our Movement salutes the leading and heroic struggle of the fraternal Communist Workers’ Party of Tunisia (PCOF), which is in the struggle’s frontline. The fascist regime arrested on 29th December and 12th January, the party’s spokesman Ammar Amroussia and general secretary Hamma Hammami, respectively.
The struggle in Tunisia has led into the street the youth of Algeria as well, which apart from their solidarity, are expressing their own demand for a decent life, without hunger and unemployment, in a country rich in natural resources, where its people is drowning in poverty.
We urge the Greek people who are also suffering from imperialist dependence, the country’s financial bankruptcy, and absolute impoverishment caused by the final demolition of its conquests, to express an internationalist solidarity to the people of Tunisia, as has already been done by the French, Italian, German, Swiss, Canadian anti-imperialists and anti-fascists.
-We demand a stop to the slaughter of the hungry, the slaughter of youth!
-We denounce Ben Ali, the fascist servant of Sarkozy and murderer of his own people!
-We stand by the side of our comrades of the Communist Workers’ Party of Tunisia (PCOT), who are struggling with all the people for the downfall of the regime, for a progressive, democratic, anti-imperialist country, which will satisfy the aspirations of workers, youth and the people!
Immediate release of comrades Ammar Amroussia (spokesman) and Hamma Hammami (general secretary) of PCOT.
The Political Committee of the Movement for the Reorganization of the Communist Party 1918-55
Here is Amnesty's statement:
Hamma Hammami, spokesperson for the banned Tunisian Workers' Communist party (Parti Communiste des Ouvriers Tunisiens, PCOT) was arrested at his home in Tunis on 12 January. Around 20 members of the presidential security unit are reported to have detained him together with his colleague, Mohamed Mzem, a lawyer, and Mounia Obaid, a friend who was later released. Hamma Hammami's family believe he was arrested for speaking to journalists about the protests in the country.
Exposure Comrade Hamma Hammami, the spokesman for the Tunisian Communist Workers Party, upon his return from the French capital this afternoon to a barbaric attack by the political police agents of the Tunis-Carthage Airport. The beat immediately after passing a large number of Customs agents in civilian clothes were beaten and kicked over the whole body and uttered to all kinds of insults and verbal abuse, causing him bruises and several broken glasses and tearing his clothes. It was the attack on Comrade Hamma Hammami bunk, where dozens of agents deliberately police who were mobilized to evacuate the lobby of the airport and prevent many people from going to him so that they can commit their crime dirty free from sight. (...) In fact, Comrade Hamma Hammami pay the price for his bold channels on "the island direct" and "France 24" and called for a boycott of the electoral farce Ben Ali regime is preparing to organize, to struggle for a democratic alternative for the benefit of a real grass-roots groups and ordinary people in our country. 
Official statement of the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia (PCOT)The Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia denounces the fact that its spokesperson Hamma Hammami and his wife, the lawyer and member of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, Radhia Nasraoui, have been subjected to harsh surveillance and to being followed by the political police. And not only Radhia, but her office is subjected to surveillance 24 hours a day by detachments of the political police. The lawyer is followed everywhere and, just as Hamma, is subjected to all kinds of intimidation.
Last March 13, Hamma Hammami was attacked in the middle of Tunis, at 6:15 PM by a group of high police officers who struck her brutally. This took place near the office of other lawyers, to whom Hamma went to denounce the persecution of which he was the victim. The police surrounded the office of that lawyer, Mokhtar Trifi, to prevent anyone from entering. The physical attack on Hamma stopped when a large group came to his defense and prevented the police from continuing to mistreat him.
In the "democratic" Tunisia of President Ali, the friend of Chirac, Aznar, Bush, etc., the political police play a sinister role. One should recall that both Hamma Hammami and his companion Radhia have been imprisoned on various occasions and attacked physically.
Forward with our total solidarity with Hamma and Radhia, as well as our most energetic protest against the tyrannical regime of the Ali Government.
