After six years of attempting to unify, the General Union of Tunisia’s Students (UGET) – the largest student organization in Tunisia – ended up with three executive offices to run it, as a result of the internal power struggle between its different political components.
Up until this past April, UGET was stumbling under the weight of its inner conflicts, and it is probably the only organization that failed to hold its conference after the fall of Ben Ali’s regime, mainly due to ruthless political conflicts.
Two conferences and two presidents
After six years of attempting to unify, the General Union of Tunisia’s Students (UGET) – the largest student organization in Tunisia – ended up with three executive offices to run it, as a result of the internal power struggle between its different political components.
Up until this past April, UGET was stumbling under the weight of its inner conflicts, and it is probably the only organization that failed to hold its conference after the fall of Ben Ali’s regime, mainly due to ruthless political conflicts.
Two conferences and two presidents
UGET’s inner conflict became so intense that two conferences were held at the end of last May. The first conference was organized by leftist and national student groups, most notably the Radical Unionists Faction. It chose the slogan of “Restoring the Status of the Student Movement” and elected Ms. Amani Sasi as its secretary general.
At the same time, another student group formed by the Communist Youth Union (UJCT) – the youth arm of the leftist Workers’ Party – held the ‘Construction Conference’ leading to a second office headed by Wael Noor.
Some members of the old executive office consider both conferees illegitimate and underline UGET’s legitimacy, pending the holding of a unifying conference.
On the surface, the dispute is technical in nature and related to the conference’s timing and form, but in reality it is caused by deep political differences over vital issues, primarily UGET independence from all political parties and its relationship with the government.
A member of the old executive office Shaker Awadi, who is taking part in a unification initiative, believes that both conferences violate UGET regulations in form and aggravate the crisis and serve the interests of the UGET enemies in content.
“The interference of certain political groups that have no interest in seeing the student movement unified and the struggle between the different political parties outside the university have made things reach this point,” he explained.
Mutual accusations
Amani Sasi says her group succeeded in holding a conference away from party quotas in which students took part through grass-roots elections. “UGET is an organization that cannot be tamed for electoral purposes and we support all unification initiatives that are not politically motivated,” she added.
As for the accusations leveled against her group of coordinating with the Ennahda Party, Sasi said: “Those who are accusing us of coordinating with Ennahda should observe the stands we took because we were the first to confront attempts made by Ennahda’s students to assume control of the university on many occasions.”
“Our program is clear: restoring the status of the student movement, achieving social gains for all students and confronting those who try to penetrate our organization,” she stressed.
“We have the right as a party to be inside UGET and the issue of politicization is just a scarecrow used in the past by Ben Ali,” Wael Noor said.
“I am not a member of the UJCT leadership and I will dedicate my time to the UGET general secretariat. I am the secretary-general of all students and I will keep the same distance to all of them,” he added.
“Our program is to restructure UGET and hold a conference within one year. There will be a summer gathering to examine the possibility of repairing the fracture inside UGET,” Noor concluded.
Parties on line
UGET’s crisis cast its shadow upon the political scene, which is far from being less complicated. Political parties are split between those who support one of the conferences and those who support the unification initiative launched by six members of the old executive office.
Abdel Naser Uwini, a leading member of the Popular Front (PR), was present at the opening of the first conference, although PR’s official position was to only recognize the second conference, which raises questions about the real political situation inside PR.
However, the situation inside the Union for Tunisia was more coherent. This union is the most influential force inside the opposition, which comprises liberal and centrist parties; namely, Call for Tunisia, Democratic Path, Republican Party, Socialist Party and Patriotic Democratic Labor Party.
The stands taken by components of this union were also marked by hesitation and fluctuation. While the Democratic Path students chose to participate in the second conference, the students of the Republican Party and Socialist Party withdrew and declared that they supported the old executive office.
At the same time, Call for Tunisia expressed concerns about UGET’s inner crisis and said it supported all unification efforts.
Leaderships are to blame
“After the leftists and democrats in general were defeated in the October 2011 elections, and after the glimpse of hope brought by the recently formed political fronts, I consider both conferences to be a setback,” said Suhail Nabilsi, a founder of the UGET Veteran Association.
“UGET’s inner conflict is a struggle outside history and all bets are worthless in light of the threats to the gains achieved by Tunisian society,” he claimed.
“It is terrifying and shocking that PR, which undertook to unify the democratic movement, has failed to restore the UGET integrity and I believe that PR’s political leaderships and all the democratic powers are to blame,” he concluded.
Until its last days, Ben Ali’s regime waged a fierce war to silence the student movement and the most prominent victims were members of UGET and the Islamic-oriented General Tunisian Union for Students (UGTE), which was licensed in 1988 before being banned in the early 1990s, following the conflict between the regime and Ennahda.
UGET maintained its minimum stream of light during the darkest hours of political isolation, which took its toll on UGET’s internal situation because it was forced to be a political safe house for the then outlawed parties.
Pending the outcome of the unification initiative and the initiatives of the UGET two factions, the situation will remain hanging and the next academic year seems full of bets.
Observers believe that the Ministry of Higher Education – supervised by a leading member of Ennahda, Moncef Ben Salem – will deal with the situation by excluding both opposing teams from any negotiation process on the pretext that their differences should be resolved first.
Due to its close relations with Ennahda, UGTE is expected to have certain facilities, which will make it a fierce rival to UGET because the latter has failed to settle its internal differences.
