Several university graduates still sit on the ground in front of the state-owned Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas (STEG) in Tunis despite the rain and cool temperatures; weak but determined as they mark day 15 of their hunger strike.

One of the students, Boujemaa Haji, in his twenties, is so lethargic he can no longer stand up but says his dignity is more important than his health.

Several university graduates still sit on the ground in front of the state-owned Tunisian Company of Electricity and Gas (STEG) in Tunis despite the rain and cool temperatures; weak but determined as they mark day 15 of their hunger strike.

One of the students, Boujemaa Haji, in his twenties, is so lethargic he can no longer stand up but says his dignity is more important than his health.

Though a master’s degree holder, Haji works as a guard for the STEG. He has been on a hunger strike since January 4 because STEG refuses to adjust his position according to his degree. “I am ready to continue working as a guard in the company, but I demand that they at least consider my scientific degree so I can have my dignity back,” says Haji. “I am on this hunger strike until they respond to my demands.”

For the past few weeks, Tunisia has been witnessing an unprecedented wave of hunger strikes at a time where many cities are seeing protests demanding employment. The protests started in Kasserine Governorate, in midwestern Tunisia, which is stigmatized by terrorism due to the stationing of militants in its high mountains like Jebel ech Chambi, the country’s highest peak. Hunger strikes under ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali were a means of political pressure to defame his regime.

After the revolution of January 14, 2011, this means of protest continued as a form of social and economic pressure where several unemployed youth staged hunger strikes to demand employment and materialize the principles of the revolution that raised the slogan ‘Work, Freedom, Dignity and Citizenship.’

Haji says a hunger strike has become his last resort in gaining his rights. In much resentment, Haji and his colleagues feel scorned by their company because it refuses to give them jobs in line with their qualifications and ultimately preventing them from advancment in the company.

Secretary General of the STEG Union Abdulqader Jalassi says there is coordination among STEG management, the STEG Union and the government in order to find solutions for the strikers. Five years after the revolution, employment is still an outstanding and crucial issue in light of the high unemployment rate (15.3% or over 700,000 unemployed, including 220,000 graduates).

For several weeks now, more than 28 people who previously belonged to the General Union of Tunisian Students have been on a hunger strike to protest the government’s refusal to employ them, especially since Ben Ali’s regime deprived them of employment because they were leftists. One of those is Majdi Ghali who had his master’s degree in Public Law and International Trade in 2009. He says he staged this hunger strike to protest at the procrastination policy adopted by the government.

Ghali underscores that the health of some of his colleague strikers deteriorated as a result of the hunger strike so they were hospitalized. However, says Ghali, they refuse to stop the strike unless the government employs them.

Another revolution?

Five years after the Tunisian revolution, the social turmoil that fueled the uprising has not improved for its youth; a troubling fact in light of the onslaught of terrorism and its effect on the struggling economy, investment, development, tourism, etc.

The current government, like the ones before, faces severe criticism because of poor performance and a lack of serious programs addressing a hot topic like employment. Ghali argues that the successive governments failed to manage employment  because they continued to depend on the same economic and developmental policy adopted by the former regime. He also warns of possibly increased number of hunger strikes if the social situation continues to deteriorate.

President of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights Abdurrahman Hthili says he understands why some stage hunger strikes, but he warns of their consequences on the lives and health of strikers. Hunger strikes, says Hthili, used to embarrass the regime of Ben Ali’s; this is why on many occasions he responded to the demands of strikers under pressure and criticism of human rights organizations in Tunisia and abroad.

Hthili maintains that staging hunger strikes and mass protests is due to the limited prospects and a lack of access to legitimate rights, especially economic and social ones that directly relate to people’s dignity.

He stresses that the country is currently experiencing a social explosion given the prevailing state of tension among the youth, pointing out that the successive governments did not understand the importance of the social situation, especially employment, which remains one of the hot topics affecting not only young people, but also politicians and new rulers.

He notes that signs indicate that January will be heated because of the government’s failure to respond to development demands, unemployment, illegal migration of youth, school drop outs and suicide.

Although the president announced a state of emergency and a curfew from 8 pm to 5 am, the situation only intensified and the scope of the protests widened to include the entire country. Some protests were also accompanied by riots, burning, theft and looting of shops, and storming into official and administrative headquarters. The situation got even worse when unemployed youths clashed with security forces and threw stones at them, which led to the death of a police officer.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Habib Essid had to cut his official visit to Paris and retutn to Tunisia to preside over an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers to find urgent solutions to the social crisis.

Essid stresses that the government is willing to solve all problems, calling upon citizens to understand the difficulties the country is going through. He also warns of the risks still affecting the country and accuses extremist parties, without naming them, of fanning the situation.