Tunisian's Form Committee to Defend Revolution, Strive for Dual Power

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