The Workers' Party ( ar, حزب العمال, Ḥizb al-'Ummāl; french: Parti des travailleurs) is a

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

. Legalized only in 2011, it participates in the

Popular Front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...

coalition, which is represented in the

Assembly of the Representatives of the People The Assembly of the People's Representatives ( ar, مجلس نواب الشعب ', french: Assemblée des représentants du peuple; ARP) is Tunisia's legislative branch of government. The unicameral Assembly replaced the Constituent Assembly and ...

. The party's long-term leader is general secretary

Hamma Hammami Hamma Hammami ( ar, حمّه الهمامي; born 8 January 1952) is a Tunisian communist, leader a of the Popular Front, spokesman of the Tunisian Workers' Party, and former editor of the party news organ ''El-Badil''. Activities Hammami was ...

. Founded in 1986, the party was known as the Tunisian Workers' Communist Party ( ar, حزب العمال الشيوعي التونسي, Ḥizb al-'Ummāl ash-Shuyū'ī at-Tūnsī, links=no; french: Parti communiste des ouvriers de Tunisie, links=no, PCOT) until 2012. After the rename it remained a member of the

Hoxhaist Hoxhaism () is a variant of Anti-revisionism, anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the anti-revisionist movement, appearing after the Sino-Albanian split, ideological dispute between the Chinese ...

International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle) The International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations ( es, Conferencia Internacional de Partidos y Organizaciones Marxista-Leninistas; abbreviations: ICMLPO or CIPOML) is an international organization of anti-revision ...

History

The party was outlawed until the

Tunisian Revolution The Tunisian Revolution, also called the Jasmine Revolution, was an intensive 28-day campaign of civil resistance. It included a series of street demonstrations which took place in Tunisia, and led to the ousting of longtime president Zine El ...

, when in a failed attempt to shore up the state framework it and another banned parties were invited to participate in a

national unity government A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nati ...

. Subsequently, the party and other opposition elements refused this attempt to co-opt the ongoing revolution by installing a government composed at its senior levels by associates of the former regime. It was founded on 3 January 1986 and has a youth wing the ''Union of Communist Youth of Tunisia'' (UJCT).

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

reports that in 1998 five students were charged with belonging to PCOT and given 4-year prison sentences after student demonstrations. After their involvement in the uprising against

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ( ar, زين العابدين بن علي, translit=Zayn al-'Ābidīn bin 'Alī; 3 September 1936 – 19 September 2019), commonly known as Ben Ali ( ar, بن علي) or Ezzine ( ar, الزين), was a Tunisian politician ...

, PCOT held their first conference as a legal party on 22–24 July, with up to 2000 attending. Removing the word "communist" from the party's name was among the topics debated. In the end, party spokesperson Abed Jabbar Bdouri stated the party decided "not to make any changes since we're currently too busy with the electoral campaign". In the 2011 Constituent Assembly election, the candidates of PCOT's electoral formation ran by the name "Revolutionary Alternative" ( ar, البديل الثوري ''; french: Alternative révolutionaire'') and won 3 of the 217 seats, in

Sfax Sfax (; ar, صفاقس, Ṣafāqis ) is a city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD849 on the ruins of Berber Taparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014), and a Mediterrane ...

Kairouan Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( ar, ٱلْقَيْرَوَان, al-Qayrawān , aeb, script=Latn, Qeirwān ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by th ...

and

Siliana Siliana ( aeb, سليانة ') is a modern farming town in northern Tunisia. It is located at around , 130 km south-west of the capital Tunis. It is the capital of the Siliana Governorate. It is located 4 miles away from Jama where the Battl ...

. Member Chrif Khraief has stated the party was dissatisfied with the result, as "3 seats in the CA doesn't reflect at all the real weight of the party on the streets"; Retrieved 29 November 2011 PCOT issued a statement condemning the use of political donations and electoral violations during the campaign. In July 2012, the PCOT decided to remove the word "communist" from its name to avoid the stereotype associated with this term.

References

External links

"Let Us Make the Awakening of the Movement our Central Task,"
''La Forge: Organ of the Communist Party of the Workers of France'' (April 1997) (Document released on PCOT's 11th anniversary).

La Forge: Organ of the Communist Party of the Workers of France (September 1997). *Hamma Hammami, Tunisian Communist Workers Party

(Tunisia, 15 January 2011). etrieved from MRZine 28 January 2011 {{ICMLPO (U&S) 1986 establishments in Tunisia Arab nationalism in Tunisia Arab socialist political parties Communist parties in Tunisia Formerly banned communist parties Formerly banned political parties in Tunisia Hoxhaist parties International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle) Pan-Arabist political parties Political parties established in 1986 Popular Front (Tunisia)