tunisia after 14 january and its social and political economy - Refworld

II.2.B.c. Taking into account the balance of power in the economic sphereAny reconsideration of the modes of government specific to the Tunisian model alsorequires that the political dynamics at work in the reforms and in the implementation ofeconomic and social policies be taken into consideration and, thereby, that the shiftingbalance of power can be altered so that the conditions of subaltern populations, ofthose who have expressed their frustration and despair, will actually be improved. Afterall, general statements in terms of the consideration of ‘economic and social rights’ thatshould be included in the new Constitution do not, of course, guarantee anything, andreflect a very great degree of naivety... or a choice of continuity rather than a cleanbreak.In fact, current power relationships have the paradoxical result of increasing inequalityrather than reducing them even where there seems to be apparent progress. It goeswithout saying that demands over wages and working conditions are completelylegitimate: the decline of living standards because of stagnant wages and the risingcost of living over the past fifteen years, and the development of insecure conditionsof employment and labour flexibility have contributed to the intensification of socialtensions and economic hardships among the working classes in Tunisia. However, the waythese demands have been taken into account is problematic. Indeed, employees havereceived wage increases in sectors where the UGTT was strongest, and not (or very little)in the manufacturing sectors and small structures where working conditions are actuallythe most problematic but where UGTT is weak or even absent.This situation may seem paradoxical, but it makes sense insofar as the single union mainlydefends its own members and has always been historically positioned as a political actor. 147In the current struggle, the UGTT has been more anxious to show its strength, to respond toits base and win influence in the political arena so as to count for something and affectthe balance of power, than it has behaved as a social actor representative of a generalinterest attentive to the popular demands of the demonstrators. Its management hasalso sought to ‘whitewash’ its huge participation in the way the regime controlled work, inthe policies of job insecurity and pressure on wages, by trying to force wages higher. 148 Thisimmediate pressure on certain sectors rather than others has thus increased inequalityin the productive sector itself but also and especially among those with jobs (who haveseen their situation improve) and those who do not. Moreover, wage increases in the civilservice and public corporations and parastatals necessarily come at the expense of otherways of spending the budget, such as investments in disadvantaged regions. Here again,the effect of inequality is increased. This does not mean that the demands of workers80147 On the UGTT, see R. Zghal, ‘Hiérarchie et processus du pouvoir dans les organisation’ (pp.237-250)in Elites et pouvoir dans le monde arabe pendant la période moderne et contemporaine (Tunis: LesCahiers du CERES, Série Histoire n°5, 1992) and ‘Nouvelles orientations du syndicalisme tunisien’, Mondearabe, Maghreb-Machrek, n°162, October-December 1998, pp.6-17; S. Zeghidi, ‘L’UGTT, pôle central dela contestation sociale et politique’ (pp.13-61) in M. Ben Romdhane, Tunisie : mouvements sociaux etmodernité; S.Hamzaoui, ‘Champ politique et syndicalisme’, Annuaire de l’Afrique du Nord, vol. XXXVII,1999, pp. 369-380; S. Khiari, Tunisie, le délitement de la cité, and ‘Reclassement et recompositions ausein de la bureaucratie syndicale depuis l’Indépendance. La place de l’UGTT dans le système politiquetunisien’, dossier La Tunisie sous Ben Ali on the CERI website, www.ceri-sciences-po.org/kiosque/archives/déc.2000.148 Interviews, Tunis, March 2011.