MOROCCO: Recent wave of peaceful protests in Morocco over high living costs and poverty are being organized by grass roots organizations, rather than by trade unions

A recent wave of peaceful protests in Morocco over high living costs and poverty are being organized by grass roots organizations, rather than by trade unions, which used to be the traditional vehicle for organizing such protests and promoting political activity. The trade unions appear to be losing their appeal and their pivotal role in society. Decades of unfulfilled promises have left Moroccans sceptical about the power of trade unions to improve their lives and caused them to turn instead to local groups and aid organisations for reform and a chance to voice their concerns publicly. A recent wave of peaceful protests in Morocco over high living costs and poverty are being organized by grass roots organizations, rather than by trade unions, which used to be the traditional vehicle for organizing such protests and promoting political activity. In only a few years, the number of local associations and support groups in the North African country has quadrupled to 100,000, organising peaceful protests against economic hardship and well as providing residents with practical help such as health care, teaching women to read, building rural infrastructure or giving slum children seaside holidays. Moroccans throughout the country have jumped at the new opportunities for making their demands and voicing their concerns, said Khadija Riadi, chairperson of the Moroccan Society For Human Rights, one of the most influential of Morocco's new civil society groups. "While in the past, protests were exclusively staged in a number of cities, today we can see them them all over the country. Today, everyone is protesting, and, in our opinion, it's a positive development, because the citizens are more aware of their rights and no longer accept the suppression of their rights," Riadi said. "In our Society, we think that this new situation reflects the way we see our struggle for human rights, that it should be the duty of everyone and a struggle by all and not only by an elite. I believe that it's a positive development because the citizens are protesting in a positive and civilised manner to defend their rights," she added. Riadi was speaking at a recent demonstration staged in Rabat in which demonstrators voiced a host of demands including freeing political prisoners, bolstering democratic reform and lowering the prices of food. Morocco faces social woes ranging from mass poverty and unemployment and the need for urgent reforms of education and agriculture, analysts say. Government reforms have bolstered economic growth but have not managed to tackle a widening trade deficit, popular discontent at rising living costs and an increase in activity by Islamist radicals. Rural Morocco is still backward and lacking basic services, insecurity stalks the country's teeming cities and the perception remains that politicians are more interested in power than the people. The increased protests are a sign a new government sworn in last month risks increased social unrest if the cost of living continues to rise and incomes remain depressed. King Mohammed, who enjoys paramount powers ranging from naming prime minister to vetoing laws by the parliament, urged the new cabinet to focus on social and economic reform. Analysts say the government would need to create 400,000 jobs per year over the next five years to alleviate mass poverty and be judged a success. Unemployment stood at 9.4 percent in the second quarter, up from 7.8 a year earlier. Inflation is close to two percent, but the public perceives it as much higher, analysts added. Analysts say the wave of protests could not have taken place before King Mohammed arrived in power in 1999 on a wave of popularity after the iron-fisted rule of his father and pushed gradual democratic reform, while keeping tight control over the levers of power. The potency of civil society groups that call loudly for constitutional reform and stage popular protests contrasts with the unwieldy trade unions, which have failed to to provide Moroccans with the jobs or price cuts they want. Many unions are led by ageing trade unionists whose heyday was during the reign of the young king's father. "Trade Unions have a serious problem. We have trade unions that are not able to produce leaders or meet society's demands. It is therefore natural that the old style of politics has an awkward relationship with the youth," said political analyst Abderrahim Manar Slimi. "I think the Trade Union movement in Morocco cannot carry on as it did in the past. To survive, it should rethink its role, and take on new roles and find new allies so that it can face the new challenges created by globalisation and liberalism," said trade unionist Abdelkader Azri. In another recent protest in Rabat, unemployed teachers broke into the education ministry building demanding jobs. They took off their shoes, their barefootedness symbolising poverty, and held bottles of petrol and lighters, indicating their willingness to set fire to themselves if they were not given work.

ITN Source | November 7, 2007

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