Anti-worker violence in Tunisia

This is an AFP video on the workers’ movement in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia.

By Antoine Lerougetel:

Islamist thugs attack Tunisian unemployed workers’ protest in Sidi Bouzid

29 August 2012

Police stood aside last week as hundreds of Salafist thugs attacked workers and youth in Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia. The town, whose revolt began the revolution of 2011 that toppled Tunisian dictator President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and launched the “Arab Spring”, has again become a centre of opposition to the right-wing government of the Islamist Ennahda party.

The thugs attacked Sidi Bouzid on the night of August 23-24, wounding at least seven people. Witnesses told AFP that the assailants, radical Islamist militants, came in buses at night and attacked around 15 houses in the Aouled Belhedi district. Fighting continued until dawn. The police did not intervene to stop the clashes, “to avoid aggravating the situation.”

Undeterred, the next day youth mounted a sit-in outside the regional education authority to demand jobs.

Australia: Police attack picketing building workers: here.

Police have commenced an operation to break a picket line at a major Melbourne building site after the Grocon construction company flatly rejected a call by the Fair Work Australia (FWA) tribunal for a two-week “cooling off” period: here.