Six months after the murder of Chokry Belaid, the Popular Front of Tunisia was struck again by the atrocious murder of Mohamed Brahmi, founder of Popular Current. We condemn this attack on the left, the only force that can give a revolutionary perspective for the Tunisian people.
1. We express our solidarity with the family of the murdered comrade, his party and the Popular Front. We demand the investigation and punishment of perpetrators and political leaders responsible for this crime. Finally, we denounce Belaid’s murder remains unpunished.
2. The Ennahda government has the full political responsibility for the murders of Brahmi and Belaid because it supports impunity. The Troika has not solved the problems of the workers and the people of Tunisia that led to the revolution that toppled Ben Ali. In fact, they did not advance to the break with the old regime (to purge the security forces and justice). Instead, its neoliberal policies worsened social conditions, unemployment and misery of workers and young Tunisians.
3. After the fall of Morsi in Egypt, the Tunisian people began to organize to topple the Islamist government. We support their struggle to reclaim the revolution and put it on the way to meet the needs of young people and workers. However, we must warn against the dangers of military intervention, the army stands as Bonaparte, above social confrontations and try to impose their rules, which have nothing to do with the people’s aspirations. The call of the Egyptian General Al-Sisi for popular support for repression deepened divisions and seeks to gain legitimacy to have carte blanche. The current crackdown against the rank and file of the Muslim Brotherhood opens the door to the repression against the left and the popular forces. The only guarantee for the continuity of the revolution is the permanent mobilization of young people and workers in the fight for democratic and social rights.
4. We believe the only way to respond to the needs of the Tunisian masses is to put the country’s resources in the service of the struggle against unemployment, with public hiring plans, non-payment of the debt and the breakup with the European Union, which protects the interests of multinationals responsible for looting the country. This should link to the deepening of democratic break with the repressive apparatus of the old regime. If the revolution does not advance its social objectives, democratic achievements are in danger, and military intervention will only lead to a setback.
5. The deepening of the revolution is impossible if done with political alliances that do not have a clear plan for the defense of the interests of workers, peasants and the army of unemployed youth abandoned by the policy of the Islamic government. The choice is not just between Islam and secularism, since both can impose a neoliberal policy.
6. This is why we believe that there is no revolutionary perspective with sectors of the former regime, as Nidaa Tounes, or with the formation of a national salvation government. Only a government of the workers, and for the workers with no ties to the old regime or neoliberal Islamism, formed by the revolutionary forces and the labor organizations, political and trade union, can respond to the Tunisian masses.
Istanbul, July 26, 2013
Coordination Committee IWU–FI / ILC — International Workers’ Union–Fourth / International Liaison Committee (Workers Front, Turkey, Internationalist League, Spanish State)
GSI (Internationalist Socialist Group, France)