Noubir Amaoui ( ar, مُحمَّد نوبير الأُموي; November 1935 – 7 September 2021) was a Moroccan trade unionist. He founded the Democratic Confederation of Labour and served as its Secretary General from 1978 to 2018.

Biography

Noubir Amaoui was born in the village of Melgou in the region of

Ben Ahmed Ben Ahmed (Moroccan Arabic: بن أحمد) is a town in Settat Province, Casablanca-Settat, Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the ...

in the

Settat Province Settat is a province of Morocco in the Casablanca-Settat Region. The province had a population of 956,904 people in 2004. The Wali (governor) of the region is Bouchaib El Moutawakkil. The major cities and towns are: #Ben Ahmed # El Borouj # Gui ...

. In 1975, Amaoui joined the

Socialist Union of Popular Forces The Socialist Union of Popular Forces ( ar, الاتحاد الاشتراكي للقوات الشعبية, translit=Al-Ittihad Al-Ishtirakiy Lilqawat Al-Sha'abiyah; zgh, ⵜⴰⵎⵓⵏⵜ ⵜⴰⵏⵎⵍⴰⵢⵜ ⵏⵉⵖⴰⵍⵍⵏ ⵉⴳ� ...

and founded its trade union, the Democratic Confederation of Labour, three years later. He was elected Secretary General of the Confederation on 26 November 1978. In June 1981, he called for a strike and was imprisoned following the Casablance bread riots. This helped to give him legitimacy within Moroccan trade unions. In 1992, in an interview with Spanish newspaper '' El País'', he described Moroccan government ministers as a "gang of thieves". For this, he was sentenced for two months due to "insults and defamation" against authorities. He was pardoned by

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Hassan II Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People * Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scotti ...

after fourteen months. In 2001, he founded the National Ittihadi Congress alongside his friend, Abdelmajid Bouzoubaâ. In June 2011, following the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and econo ...

, he called for a boycott of the

2011 Moroccan constitutional referendum A referendum on constitutional reforms was held in Morocco on 1 July 2011. It was called in response to a series of protests across Morocco that began on 20 February 2011 when over ten thousand Moroccans participated in demonstrations demanding ...

, saying that "the draft Constitution strengthens what has always been in place in the past and does not answer not to what was promised". In November 2018, he left his position as Secretary General of the Democratic Confederation of Labour after 40 years. He was replaced by Abdelkader Zaër. Noubir Amaoui died on 7 September 2021 at the age of 85.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amaoui, Noubir Moroccan trade unionists 1935 births 2021 deaths People from Casablanca-Settat