From En Marcha
Central Organ of the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador
#1524, February 25 to March 3, 2011
Tunisia: Creation of the Committee for the National Congress to Safeguard the Revolution
Friday, February 11, all forces of the opposition to the Ghannouchi
government met to form a Committee for the National Congress to
Safeguard the Revolution (CNSR). This is a new and important step for
the development of the Tunisian revolution. These forces include 10
left-wing, democratic and nationalist parties that were already
reunited in the “January 14 Front”, and other parties such as the
Islamic Ennadha and the Congress for the Republic, and also – which is
very important – the union UGTT. Associations of lawyers, journalists
and writers have joined this initiative. Altogether 28 organizations
have signed on to this project. It asks the present interim president
to recognize the legitimacy of the Committee and therefore of the
Congress that it will convoke, and also the right (of the Committee) to
examine all the decisions of the government, and also to reject them.
It also demands the dissolution of the three commissions formed by
Ghannouchi’s government, one to investigate the violence, another on
corruption and embezzlement under the dictatorship of Ben Ali, and a
third on political reforms. These commissions are led people close to
the dictator Ben Ali and his party the RCD (which has already been
dissolved). The committee demands that those three commissions be
replaced by others created by the CNSR.
Samir Hammouda, representative of the Communist Party of the Workers of
Tunisia (PCOT) in France, stated: “In reality it is the formation of a
counter-power. It is still not what the “January 14 Front” demands,
concretely the designation of a popular provisional government by that
Congress. It is a compromise among the 28 forces of the opposition,
which allows the revolution to develop. Either the president accepts
it, which would allow it de facto to adopt measures to advance, or the
president denies the legitimacy of the Congress and its platform. This
would further sharpen the contradictions even more, which would further
stimulate the revolution. The meeting of February 11 decided to create
the Committees to Safeguard the Revolution at all levels, regional and
local. Strikes, demonstrations and meetings are multiplying in Tunisia,
the CNSR is becoming popular and the people are organizing themselves
in local committees. The revolution is increasingly being structured.”
On Saturday, February 12, the “January 14 Front” held a large meeting
in the Palace of the Congress of Tunisia, a large room with 5,000
seats, all of them filled, and with more than 1,000 people who could
not enter. The room overflowed with enthusiasm, people shouted slogans
with enthusiasm… the spokespersons of the different components of the
Front called on their members to join and participate in the formation
of the Committees of the National Congress to Safeguard the Revolution,
as well as the local and regional Committees of the “January 14 Front.”
Baudouin Deckers
February 15, 2011
Click here to return to the April 2011 index.