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

diminishing trickle. At the national level, social negotiations now take place only onceevery three years, on government initiative, and they focus almost exclusively on wages.Outside these meetings, there is no institution for negotiation. Furthermore, we know theambiguous role played by the UGTT. At the business level, dialogue has been greatlyimpoverished. The Business Committee, which enjoyed financial and technical autonomyfrom the employer, the Health and Safety Committee and the Joint Commission (inelections to which the union took an active role) were abolished and replaced by asingle substantially weakened organisation (the Joint Business Committee). 151 It has noautonomy from the entrepreneur and the union is not involved or even consulted inhis election. In terms of work organization, recruitment, compression, and closure, it isthe bosses’ unilateral power to decide which prevails. In free zones, finally, where labourrelations are based solely on fixed-term contracts, structures of dialogue are difficult tocreate. So if we are move from a situation of inertia in which decisions are imposed fromabove to a real dialogue, we must simultaneously rethink the role and functioning of theadministration and the place of unions in the economic, political, and social landscapeof Tunisia. For now, the UTICA, which had been fully aligned with the party and had swornallegiance, through its chair, to Ben Ali, is in total disarray and indeed non-existent. TheUGTT, for its part, is torn between a base and some of its structures that are urging socialprotest, a de-legitimized management, the culture of compromise of the bureaucracy,and government pressure. The temptation to get involved in politics (an ephemeralpresence in government and in the higher courts) is counterbalanced by the fear ofbeing trapped by politics. The essential thing, however, is being ignored: internal powerrelations, the potential and scope of social mobilization (the element that is driven bytrade unionists, and the ‘wild’ element), the capacity of the UTICA to exert pressure whenit is itself in crisis, and that, of course, of the government. Reorganization will take placerapidly, and obviously, no one knows the outcome. But the existence of a genuine socialdialogue requires above all that power relations, modes of negotiation, the passing onof demands, their means of transmission and the operation of intermediary bodies beredrawn.II.2.B.e. For an analysis of the political economyFinally, it seems to us crucial to reflect on one thing if there is to be any real considerationof economic and social rights, and more broadly of the requirements of democratisation:we need, that is, to reflect on the political economy itself, in other words on the impossibilityof separating out distinct spheres, those of the economic and the political spheres.82What is striking, after all, in the analysis of the ‘miracle’ and in the interventions of donors,is the generalising of dualistic analyses that deal separately with politics and economics.At European level, this position is farcically exaggerated, in spite of the assertion (uniquein international forums) of the indivisibility of rights. On the one hand, political questionsare asked, in this case with a strong commitment to supporting the democratic process,human rights, civil liberties... and, on the other hand, economic and social affairs151 This transformation and the creation of the Joint Business Committee were brought about by theamendment of the 1994 Labour Code: law 94-29 of 21 February 1994.