The Quest for Social Justice in Tunisia. Socioeconomic protest and political democratization post 2011 (original) (raw)
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Socioeconomic Protests in MENA and Latin America: Egypt and Tunisia in Interregional Comparison
Weipert-Fenner, Irene, and Jonas Wolff, eds.: Socioeconomic Protests in MENA and Latin America: Egypt and Tunisia in Interregional Comparison, London: Palgrave Macmillan., 2020
This edited volume presents a detailed account of the dynamics of socioeconomic contention in Egypt and Tunisia since 2011. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, it analyses what has happened to the socioeconomic grievances that played a key role in the mass mobilizations of 2010 and 2011. The book is based on an original data set of socioeconomic protests in the two countries and on in-depth case studies that cover the two most important types of socioeconomic contention: labor protests and protests by socioeconomically disadvantaged people outside the formal economy. Drawing on a systematic review of comparative research on Latin America, the authors argue that the dynamics of socioeconomic contention in contemporary Egypt and Tunisia reflect a deep-seated crisis of popular sector incorporation. This work promises to enrich the scholarly and the political debates on Egypt and Tunisia, the MENA region and on contentious politics in times of political change. Chapter 10 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-19621-9.
Rights and Politics: Human Rights Action and Socioeconomic Struggles in Tunisia
2018
This paper seeks to examine the dynamics of the relationship between human rights organizations and protest movements struggling for economic and social rights in Tunisia before and after 14 January 2011, the day Tunisia's long serving dictator and former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali lost power and escaped the country. The paper deals mainly with protest movements advocating for better employment policies and opportunities and social movements working to secure economic development rights. The paper focuses on three major movements in three different regions of Tunisia in order to shed light on the nature of relations between civil society activists and other civil society components, especially protest movements, and how human rights actors attempted to mediate between movements, which often lacked a political structure, on the one hand, and a ruling regime lacking stable negotiation and conflict resolution mechanisms in disputes over the distribution of wealth and power, on the other hand. The paper also examines the extent to which human rights actors were able to play a useful role as brokers or defenders of these rights and representing them and their bearers in political and economic contention. Together, the three examples addressed in the paper reflect the complexity of relations within civil society on the one hand, and between the latter and the State in the economic and social spheres, on the other hand.
Contested transformation: Mobilized Publics in Tunisia between compliance and protest
A variety of civil society actors played a major role in the 2011 uprisings in Tunisia that ousted President Ben Ali, but its influence waned in the course of the following transformation process. This article looks at different forms of expressions of contentious politics and non-institutionalized movements, framed here as ‘mobilized publics’, that have intervened in the political process in Tunisia. It proposes that there are significant differences in their respective views on the transformation and the role that they can play in it, and hence the approaches to activism that they chose. Three case studies of mobilized publics – in the field of gender justice, socio-economic justice and transitional justice- are examined according to their different degrees of institutionalization, resources and strategies. The analysis shows how struggles for socio-economic justice and transitional justice have been marginalized and discredited as disruptive by a political elite that wagered on increasing polarization.
The Politics of Protest in Tunisia. Instrument in Parties’ Competition vs. Tool for Participation.
SWP Comments 2015/C 13, 2015
The compromise that was reached between the Tunisian Islamists of Ennahda and old regime players in the fall of 2013 made it possible to adopt a new constitution in early 2014, hold elections by the end of that year, and form a national unity government by February 2015. It also ended a period of intense confrontation in the streets, which had threatened to plunge the country into chaos and civil strife. Yet, protests are liable to rebound, as the parties that have formed the government lack a common vision that could reconcile their mutually hostile grassroots. They have also failed to stem demonstrations for social justice and equitable development in the country’s deprived regions. Sustainable stabilization will require that political parties cease to perceive bottom-up mobilization as a tool they can deploy against adversaries, or as a security threat that needs to be contained. Rather, they should recognize its potential to broaden citizens’ participation and be a corrective that can lead to more effective governance.
Bread, freedom, human dignity : the political economy of protest mobilization in Egypt and Tunisia
2014
deserve my heartfelt gratitude. Institutionally, the EUI and my supervisor Donatella della Porta have provided me with the best environment in which to develop my research that I could have hoped for. Many of its scholars and students have provided valuable feedback along the way and its open academic culture allowed for exploring ideas across disciplinary boundaries. In addition, my jury consisting of Philippe Schmitter, Emma Murphy and Jeff Goodwin, provided insightful and thought provoking comments. Thanks also go to the many people that I have met and interviewed along the way, who have provided their time, insights, and personal stories. My time at the EUI would not have been the same without the many people that populated its halls and became close friends and fellow sufferers through the ups and downs of thesis writing. Amongst the many, special mentions go to Kevin Koehler, who to this day is one of the most inspiring academics and friends I know,
Looking for the Revolution: Fighting for Socioeconomic Rights and Democracy in Tunisia
The paper aims to analyse the political instances produced by protesters during the uprisings of January 2011 in Tunisia (evolved in the destitution and escape of former president Ben Alì), which provoked the beginning of a process of transition in Tunisia. The main aim is to reconstruct –according to Foucault- the contents of the uprisings and the extended ‘practices of liberation’; to follow and analyse the Constitution-making process, and to evaluate the ‘practices of liberty’ and the public space for freedom. The project aims to rebuild the grassroots instances advanced during the protests (the fights for rights) and their reception (or not reception) firstly in the preparatory works of the commissions deputed to handle the political transition, in second instance, in the new Tunisian Constitution. Este artículo pretende analizar las instancias políticas producidas por los manifestantes durante las revueltas de enero de 2011 en Túnez (que dieron lugar a la destitución y fuga del antiguo presidente Ben Alì), que dieron lugar a un proceso de transición en Túnez. El objetivo principal es la reconstrucción –según Foucault- del contenido de las revueltas y las extendidas “prácticas de liberación”, para, a continuación, analizar el proceso constituyente, y evaluar las “prácticas de libertad” y el espacio público de libertad. El proyecto pretende reconstruir las instancias populares que se desarrollaron durante las protestas (la lucha por los derechos) y su recepción (o falta de la misma), en primer lugar en las tareas preparatorias de las comisiones designadas para manejar la transición política, y en segunda instancia, la nueva Constitución tunecina
Mobilization of the Marginalized: Unemployed Activism in Tunisia
Issam Fares Institute Working Paper, 2017
Unemployed protests are the most important form of socioeconomic contention in Tunisia. Calls for employment and condemnations of corrupt recruitment procedures have fueled large-scale protests since the mid 2000s. Despite massive discontent, unemployed mobilization has thus far lacked political leverage. In this working paper, we assess if the dynamics of mobilization in Tunisia can explain unemployed protests’ lack of political leverage. Our study reveals that the majority of unemployed mobilization can be characterized as unorganized and spontaneous. Protest actors raised limited claims, mostly demanding their own employment, and making use of disruptive protests, such as street and railway blockages. The nation-wide scene of unemployed mobilization, on the other hand, is captured by the 2006-formed Union des diplômés chômeurs (Union of Unemployed Graduates, UDC). In this working paper we compare these two forms of activism by the unemployed: those of the UDC and the unorganized unemployed protests, using the Gafsa mining basin as our case study. We have identified two divergent trajectories since 2011. The UDC has expanded its membership, offices, and contentious actions, and increased its levels of organization and professionalism. By contrast, the Gafsa mining basin protesters fragmented, despite an increase in discrete protest events. We try to explain these dynamics by explicating the social meaning of the activists’ grievances. We then compare their mobilization networks before looking at how diverse activists have perceived political opportunities and threats since 2011. Finally, we will try to draw conclusions on the different forms of unemployed activism and their interplay with political change in Tunisia.
Workers’ movements contributed substantially to the 2011 popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Bahrain. Comparing the role of workers before, during and after the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt demonstrates that the relatively successful installation of a procedural democracy in Tunisia owes a great deal to the movements of workers and the unemployed in the uprisings and to their organisational structure and political horizon. Tunisian workers could compel the Tunisian General Federation of Labor (UGTT), despite the wishes of its pro-Ben Ali national leadership, to join them and the rest of the Tunisian people in a struggle against autocracy. Egyptian workers, on the other hand, were not able to force the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF) to support the uprising and had no national organisations and only weak links to intellectuals.
This working paper outlines a research agenda that aims at studying the dynamics and consequences of socioeconomic contention during the current processes of political transformation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region from a comparative perspective that includes an interregional comparison with South America. In doing so, the authors review the state of research on socioeconomic protests in the MENA region, sketch an overall analytical framework and critically discuss the contentious politics approach on which this framework draws on. Finally, the paper presents a multilateral research project that has precisely set out to analyze to what extent and how socioeconomic contention shapes the ongoing process of political transformation in postrevolutionary Egypt and Tunisia.