![]() ![]() Pressed by its more militant local branches and fearful of losing the support of its base, the UGTT mobilised ever greater numbers of activists in a growing number of cities, including Tunis. Initially hesitant, the principal trade union, the Union générale des travailleurs tunisiens (UGTT), soon after assumed the leadership role. The uprising spread both geographically and politically. In the wake of his death, young demonstrators took to the streets in the south and centre of the country, demanding jobs, economic opportunities and better educational and health services. His suicide quickly came to embody far wider grievances notably, it was widely reported and believed by most demonstrators that Bouazizi was a university graduate. The distress triggered by these socio-economic, generational and geographic disparities was epitomised by the self-immolation, on 17 December 2010, of a young, unemployed, vegetable seller, from a small town, who was supporting his sister’s university studies. The unemployment rate was climbing, especially among the young and university-educated. ![]() Notwithstanding the so-called economic miracle, vast expanses of the country had been systematically neglected by the regime. In hindsight, Tunisia possessed all of the required ingredients for an uprising. It will have to serve the nation well today as it confronts major challenges – namely, balancing the desire for radical political change against the imperative of stability finding a way to integrate Islamism into the new political landscape and tackling immense socio-economic problems that are at the origin of the political revolution but which the political revolution on its own is incapable of addressing. This politically activist tradition served the nation well during the uprising, as workers, the unemployed, lawyers and members of the middle class coalesced into a broad movement. There are many reasons for this, but the most significant lies in the country’s history of political activism and social mobilisation, which decades of regime repression never fully stifled. It is also the country where the democratic transition arguably has the greatest chance of success. ![]()
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