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The Left Wing Turn to Human Rights in Tunisia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2024
Abstract
This article explores the turn to human rights of Tunisian Maoist activists in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many of these Tunisians later became human rights activists. I argue against prevailing views that ideological changes toward human rights in the late 1970s were the result of paradigmatic ideological shifts or the demise of socialist, anti-imperialist thinking, or an outcome of international human rights norm diffusion. Doubt or loss of faith in some or all parts of Marxism-Leninism led to a diversity of ideological transformations that were complex and hybrid. Drawing on interviews with former Tunisian Maoists, as well as on their writings, the article outlines the political and ideological environment in which they operated. It describes their solidarity work for political prisoners and explores their encounter with Amnesty International as well as the Tunisian League for Human Rights in its first years of existence, showcasing how multiple approaches to human rights existed among the activists.
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References
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13 Feminist groups, migrant worker organizations, and other left-wing groups that stemmed from the same period will not be addressed in this article.
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17 Idriss Jebari, “‘Illegitimate Children,’ the Tunisian New Left and the Student Question, 1963–1975,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 54, no. 1 (2022): 3.
18 Author interview with AT section leader, later an ordinary member of AI and LTDH, 20 March 2021, Hammamet, Tunisia. All those quoted in this article remain anonymous to underscore that the recorded interviews are placed in a context chosen by the author and not the interviewees.
19 AT member, later cofounder of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (al-Jamʿiya al-Tunisiya li-l-Nissaʾ al-Dimuqratiya; Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates or ATFD), 21 December 2021, Tunis.
20 Author interview with AT member, later LTDH member and cofounder of the National Council for Freedoms in Tunisia (al-Majlis al-Watani li-l-Hurriya bi-Tunis; Conseil National pour les Libertés en Tunisie or CNLT), 5 February 2020, Tunis.
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22 For the early history of Perspectives, see Abdeljelil Temimi, al-Dawr al-Siyyasi wa-l-Thaqafi li-Birsbiktif wa-l-Birsbiktifiyyin fi Tunis al-Mustaqilla (Tunis: Fondation Temimi pour la Recherche Scientifique et l'Information, 2008); Burleigh Hendrickson, “March 68: Practicing Transnational Activism from Tunis to Paris,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 44, no. 4 (2012): 755–74; Ayari, Le prix de l'engagement; Abdeljalil Bougerra, Fusul min Tarikh al-Yasar al-Tunisi (Tunis: Perspectives édition, 2019).
23 See Anonymous, “Dieu, comme les chinois sont méchants,” Perspectives, 12 (1967): 10; Anonymous, “Diplomatie des poids et des mesures,” Perspectives, 15 (1967): 20. Idriss Jebari incorrectly dates the shift to Maoism of GEAST members to 1964–65; “‘Illegitimate Children,’” 7. The fact that the decisive organizational turn to Maoism happened in 1967 was confirmed to me during my interviews with Hechim Ben Frej, who took part in the first trip to China, and with three Perspectives members in the 1960s, Khémaïs Chammari, Françoise Valensi, and Hasan Ouardani. On this period see also Michel Camau and Vincent Geisser, “Noureddine Ben Kheder: Entretien” [Noureddine Ben Kheder: Interview], in Habib Bourguiba: La trace et l'héritage, ed. Michel Camau and Vincent Geisser (Paris: Karthala, 2004), 533–49; Gilbert Naccache, Qu'a tu fait de ta jeunesse? Itinéraire d'un opposant au régime de Bourguiba (Tunis: CERF, 2009); Mohamed Charfi (Tunis: Elyazad, 2015).
24 See Anonymous, “La révolution culturelle chinoise: un phénomène éminemment révolutionnaire,” Perspectives 13 (1967): 17–18.
25 See Perspectives 17 (1968), 12–13.
26 See in particular Burleigh Hendrickson, “March 68,” 755–74; Burleigh Hendrickson, “Student Activism and the Birth of the Tunisien Human Rights Movement, 1968–1978,” in Étudiants Africains en Mouvement: Contribution à une Histoire des Années 1968, ed. Françoise Blum, Pierre Guidi, and Ophélie Rillon (Paris: Publication de la Sorbonne, 2017), 235–49. I have argued elsewhere that the group, when using human rights in court, was concerned with constitutional law and not international human rights law. In the public sphere, the group sought to raise awareness of the humanitarian situation of the prisoners and not of international human rights principles; see Marc Schade-Poulsen, “Meanings of the Human Rights Concept: Tunisian Activism in the 1970s,” Journal of Human Rights 2023: 1–18.
27 Werner Ruf, “Le Socialisme Tunisien: Conséquences d'une Expérience Avortée,” in Introduction à l'Afrique Du Nord Contemporaine, ed. Mohamed Chérif, Horst Mensching, and Werner Ruf (Paris: CNRS, 1975), 399–411; Eva Bellin, “Civil Society Emergent? State and Social Class in Tunisia” (PhD diss., University of Princeton, 1993); Michel Camau and Vincent Geisser, Le Syndrome Autoritaire: Politique En Tunisie de Bourguiba à Ben Ali (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2003).
28 Author interview with AT member, later member of LTDH, 3 May 2018, Tunis.
29 Victor Serge, Ce Que Tout Révolutionnaire Doit Savoir de La Répression (Paris: Maspéro, 1970); Doc Thuan, L'indomptable (Hanoi: Edition L.A., 1970); Maria-Antoinetta Macchiocci, De La Chine (Paris: Seuil, 1972).
30 See Fethi Bel Haj Yahia, La Gammelle et Le Couffin (Tunis: Mots Passants, 1970), 161.
31 The exception is one incident in which a pistol was shot in self-defense at policemen by an AT member who feared arrest. This act was condemned by the most members of AT. Jebari, in “‘Illegitimate Children’” (22), suggests that the group had arms hidden inside Tunisia. My interviews did not confirm this information; see also Bel Haj Yahia, La Gamelle et le Couffin, 92.
32 Apart from issues of the journals Perspectives and al-ʿAmil al-Tunsi, this section is based on Groupes d’études et d'action socialiste, Stratégie et tactiques. Débats inédit 1970–1972 (Tunis: Dar Bayram, Outrouhat, 1989); and Aziz Krichen, La gauche et son grand récit (Tunis: Mots Passants, 2019).
33 Vladimir Lenin, What Is to Be Done? Marxists.org, 1902, https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/download/what-itd.pdf.
34 They could find theoretical support for this view in Vladimir Lenin, “Left-Wing” Communism: An Infantile Disorder, Marxists.org, 1920, https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/lwc; and Chinese Communist Party, “A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement: The Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Reply to the Letter of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of March 30, 1963,” Marxists.org, 1963, https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sino-soviet-split/cpc/proposal.htm.
35 Le comité tunisien d'information et de défense des victimes de la répression, “Plateforme du Comité,” 1972.
36 Lettre adressée par un groupe de parents des prisonniers politiques au batonnier des avocats de Tunis, Bulletin du comité d'information et de défense des victimes de la répression en Tunisie, 1975.
37 Hendrickson, in “Student Activism” (246), describes LTDH as a united human rights front of different political strands and suggests that there was a direct connection between the GEAST group and the league. However, the liberals had no organic links with former members of GEAST in the early days of the LTDH.
38 Les Méstiristes, “Déclaration Des Méstiristes,” 1976, Othmani-Lellouche archive, ARCH0105_27.
39 On the role played by Wassila Bourguiba in Tunisian politics, see Noureddine Dougui, Wassila Bourguiba: La main invisible (Tunis: Éditions Sud, 2020).
40 Conseil national pour les libertés, “Déclaration de Presse,” 1977, Othmani-Lellouche archive, ARCH0105_27.
41 Susan Waltz, Human Rights and Reform: Changing the Face of North African Politics (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995), 157.
42 Souhayr Belhassen, “Le droits aux libertés: un interview avec Saadoun Zmerli,” Jeune Afrique, 10 June 1977, 26.
43 The visit resulted in improvement of their detention conditions, free access to books, access to TV, and more frequent family visits; see Anonymous, “Compte Rendu,” 1977, Othmani-Lellouche archive, ARCH0105_26.
44 Author interview with AT section leader, later board member of LTDH, 9 March 2020, Tunis.
45 Political detainees in the Prison of Nador, “Au Comité de l'Appel Pour a Défense Des Libertés Publics En Tunisie,” 24 May 1977, Othmani-Lellouche archive, ARCH0105_27.
46 The review was founded by Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Maurice Merly-Ponty in 1945.
47 Ahmed Othmani, “La Repression en Tunisie,” Les Temps Modernes (1979): 1663.
48 Ahmed Othmani, “Bibliothèque de Borj Roumi,” n.d., Othmani-Lellouche archive, ARCH0105_28.
49 Ahmed Othmani, Sortir de La Prison: Un Combat Pour Réformer Les Systèmes Carcéraux Dans Le Monde (Paris: Editions la découverte, 2002), 13.
50 Ibid., 21.
51 Author interview with AT member, later LTDH board member, 27 February 2022, Tunis.
52 Author interview with AT section leader, later ordinary member of LTDH and AI Tunisia, 20 March 2021, Hammamet, Tunisia.
53 Hannah Arendt, Det Menneskelige Vilkår (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2008), 73.
54 Author interview with AT member and later president of an LTDH section, 7 October 2019, Tunis.
55 Author interview AT leader and later cofounder of AI, 7 October 2019, Tunis.
56 Author interview with section leader of AT, later cofounder of AI Tunisia and LTDH member, 19 November 2019, La Marsa, Tunisia.
57 Author interview with AT leader, later cofounder of AI, 3 April 2020, Jendouba, Tunisia.
58 Stephen Hopgood, Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty International (London: Cornell University Press, 2006), 62.
59 Séan McBride, “Introduction,” in Annual Report 1968–1969 (London: Amnesty International, 1969), 7. Quoting Robert Burns's poem: “And Man whose heav'n-erected face / The smiles of love adorn / Man's inhumanity to Man / Makes countless thousands mourn!” Robert Burns, “Man Was Made to Mourn: A Dirge,” 1784, https://www.robertburns.org/works/55.shtml.
60 Author interview with regular AT member; cofounder and later president of AI Tunisia, 1 December 2021, Tunis.
61 Author interview with AT relative and later cofounder of ATFD, 6 December 2021, Tunis.
62 See also Sandrine Robert, “S'engager Pour Les Droits Humains En Tunisie” (Mémoire de DES; Université Lumière Lyon 2, 2004), 61.
63 Author interview with ordinary AT member, later member of the Committee for the Respect of Freedoms and Human Rights in Tunisia (Comité pour le respect des libertés et des droits de l'homme en Tunisie, or CRLDHT), 12 December 2018, Paris.
64 Anonymous, “Position de 7 Militants,” 1977, Othmani-Lellouche archive.
65 Author interview with AT section leader, later cofounder of AI and member of LTDH, 19 November 2019, La Marsa, Tunisia.
66 Author interview with regular member of AT, later president of LTDH section, 18 November, La Marsa, Tunisia.
67 See al-ʿAmil al-Tunsi 45, “Jaridatuna Tastʾaifu al-Sudura” and “Fi al-Taktik al-Naqabi.”
68 Karl Kautsky, The Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Marxists.org, 1918, https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1918/dictprole/index.htm; Vladimir Lenin, “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky,” Marxists.org, 1918, https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/prrk/preface.htm.
69 Karl Marx, “On The Jewish Question,” 1844, Marxists.org, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/jewish-question.
70 Mohamed Chérif Ferjani, “Laïcité et Droits de l'homme Dans La Pensée Politique Arabe” [Secularism and Human Rights in Arab Political Thought] (Mémoire de D.E.A. en Sciences Politiques, Université Lumière, Lyon 2, 1986), 35, 95. Ferjani was a cofounder of AI Tunisia and later professor at the University of Lyon.
71 Sihem Ben Sedrine, “Individu et Société Dans La Pensée Marxiste” (Mémoire, Maitrise d'enseignement de philosophie, Université de Toulouse, Mirail, 1984), 79. Sihem Ben Sedrine became board member of LTDH, cofounder of CNLT, and later president of the Tunisian Truth and Dignity Commission.
72 See an early declaration of the group Ittijahat Tatawwuri al-Wadaʿa al-Rahina wa ma Tatruhu min Maham by Mohamed Cherif Ferjani, in Le Maghreb 32 (1982): 17–18.
73 Ferid Boufaden, “Constitution d'une Nouvelle Formation Politique Tunisienne: Le Rassemblement Socialiste Progressiste (R.S.P),” Le Maghreb 82 (17 December 1983): 12–13.
74 Khémaïs Arfaoui, “Bayan al-Tʾasisi li- Hizb al-ʿUmmal al-Shuyʿui al-Tunisi,” in 1986 al-Muʿarada al-Radikaliyya wa-l-Sulta Zaman Burjiba wa Bin ʿAli, ed. Khémaïs Arfaoui (Tunis: éd. Thakafia, 2016).
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76 These were Mohamed Charfi and Khémaïs Chammari.
77 Ligue Tunisienne des Droits de l'Homme, “Motion de Droits de l'Homme,” Le Maghreb 44 (1982): 34–35Google Scholar.