Confluency (tarafud) between trade unionism, culture and revolution in Tunisia

Book

The book is divided into two main parts, an introduction and a conclusion. It reviews, critically, the key role of Tunisia’s main trade union, UGTT, which was founded in the late 1940s, in social movements, the revolution of 2011 and the transitional period. It also traces the intersections between alternative culture, particularly music and poetry, and trade unionism in the country since the 1920s; and gives an account of the current cultural strategy of UGTT. The book is based on field research in the union archives, interviews with trade union leaders, cultural activists, singers and civil society members. The book engages with analyses the formation of fields of contention, the figure of the unionist intellectual and the complex political and social environment of post-revolution Tunisia. It contends that no proper understanding of the Tunisian process to revolution and transition is possible without an account of the role of unionism in the country over several decades and of its intersections with the culture of resistance and protest. Ronal A Judy writes in the preface to the book: ” Omri’s concept of tarafud, with its rich etymological references—rāfid (tributary stream); rāfida (supporting force, as well as supporting rafter or girder)— provides a suitable analytical concept, confluency, for understanding the UGTT’s activities in striving to engender and now sustain a sociality of contact and conversation as opposed to that of hierarchical dominance and sectarian violence. In that vein, his insightful analysis of the importance of UGTT’s cultural work reveals a sustained long-term project of unionism as a transformative humanizing force of civil society; albeit one that still struggles to address issues of gender and youth.”

Authors: Omri, M

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: Tunisian General Labour Union
• Publication date: 2016-01-01
• ISBN: 9781234567897