TUNISIA: The End of the Arab Spring?
The popular uprising in Tunisia in December 2010 marked the beginning of the “Arab spring”, a wave of revolution that rocked the entire region, sweeping away the dictatorial regimes of Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt and Gaddafi in Libya and sparking off years of continuing civil war in Syria and Yemen. Still now its repercussions have not died down, as shown by recent uprisings in Sudan and Algeria and renewed mass protests in Lebanon, Iraq and neighbouring countries. In July Tunisia’s government, rotting with corruption and presiding over a bankrupt economy, was elbowed aside by a presidential coup. Does this mark the end of an era of revolution?
Hear Hela Yousfi - a Tunisian socialist and the author of the book "Trade Unions and Arab Revolutions: the Tunisian Case of UGTT", which traces the role of the Tunisian General Labour Union in the Tunisian revolution.