The poor exploited people of Morocco once again rises in mass protests for decent living conditions. They are taking to the streets, carrying out the most massive demonstrations of the last years. The epicenter of the demonstrations is the northern region called “Rif” (a former Spanish protectorate), particularly the city of Alhoceima. Also the protests have expanded to the cities Nador and Tanger and throughout the rest of the country, reaching important cities such as Rabat (the capital city) or Casablanca.
What happens is that the living conditions in Morocco are terrible: starvation, unemployment, impossibility of getting jobs and having to resort to vending, the abuses of the police that asks for bribes, the corruption of a state apparatus that fills the pockets while millions of Moroccans live in misery, the plundering of two imperialist powers such as Spain and France that steal all the wealth with their local employee, king Mohamed VI.
The masses are marching today to conquer the same demands they had in the 2011 uprisings. Those were the demands of the entire Maghreb and Middle East, for which a single chain of revolutions of that region broke out. The terrible conditions that the Moroccans are living today show that none of these demands were met. The monarchic regime made just some cosmetic reforms that didn’t change the life of the exploited at all.
The new revolutionary mass wave that we see today started in October last year, since Mouhcine Fikri’s (a fish vendor) was murdered. Huge demonstrations covered the entire country. The government promised compensations, reforms, improvements and to punish the ones that killed Fikri. Nothing has been achieved. That’s why the masses tend to come out to the streets again, mostly in Rif, where Firki comes from.
In that place, “Harak al Shaabi” (the popular movement) was born and took the place at the front of the demonstrations. Its leader and public figure is Naser Zafzafi, who quickly turned into a personality and public face of the protests. The protests became stronger as entering May this year. By Mid May, the demonstrations in Rif were enormously attended and daily.
Both the imperialist powers and the world left made efforts to hide those protests that were happening in Morocco, because in those struggles it is shown that the exploited are fighting for bread, dignity, against the government, the state, the bourgeoisie and imperialism, and there is no fight between “terrorist religious tribes” as the reformist left said.
Imperialism wants only the counterrevolution to be seen: the massacre, the destruction of cities as in Syria, the action of its different agents, the propaganda about ISIS terrorism as a big excuse to justify that counterrevolution… The struggle of the masses in Morocco is a slap in the face to all those plans of imperialism and its agents.
To deal with these mass demonstrations, king Mohamed VI ordered the Muslim clerics (Imams) of Rif to lecture the masses for not continuing with the protests. So on Friday May 26th, in the mosques, the clerics preached “khutba” (Friday’s sermon) telling the masses that it was not correct to come out to protest but to seek dialogue and trust the government.
Zafzafi interrupted one of the clerics while he was speaking in the most important mosque of Alhoceima. He cried: “you are not religious but politicians; you don’t serve God but the king” and all the people that were in that mosque turned against the cleric, who ran away to the police demanding Zafzafi’s arrest for violating the right of preaching religion.
That moment, Zafzafi managed to escape, although he had an arrest warrant upon him. Also, king Mohamed VI commanded to forbid every protest. He sent the police and paramilitary gangs with sticks and machetes to clash with the masses that were marching on the streets. With its armed forces, he imposed a siege on Rif. Every road was blocked and nobody could get in or out by land, air or sea.
The clampdown was brutal. There was a week and a half of hard clashes. Tens and tens of wounded. Zafzafi was found by the king’s repressive apparatus and was arrested together with other 70 leaders of the protests.
However, such a strong repression had a contrary effect to that expected by Mohamed VI. The masses came out by thousands in the entire Rif against repression and to demand the liberation of their leaders. Even today they are on the streets, also clashing against the repressive forces.
The demonstrations against repression also took place in several cities across the country. They all suffer from the same miserable conditions and want to put an end to the corrupt monarchic regime that starves them. In Rabat, the capital city, the centre of the city was full. In the whole Morocco the feeling was the same: against the repressive dictatorial regime of the monarchy, for a decent life… that is to say the demands of 2011 that were not met.
What is happening in Morocco is that the revolutionary struggle of 2011 comes back. The tragedy is that it’s coming back in moments when in Egypt the counterrevolutionary dictatorship of Al Sisi is settled, Libya is partitioned, in Syria the revolution is resisting in the last trenches and when Yemen is being slaughtered and devastated. This uprising of Morocco happens when in Europe the working class is bearing over its shoulders the whole crisis thrown by the imperialist powers, thanks to the actions of the treacherous leaderships.
That’s why this mass uprising in Morocco seems isolated. But it is not, since the energy of the masses is not yet exhausted. The working class was not taken out of the scene for a whole historical period yet. It has suffered defeats, yes, but the last word hasn’t been said. The working class in Morocco shows that there are still more rounds. This is fresh air for all the workers of Maghreb and Middle East that see a setback in their revolution after so many martyrs while they haven’t achieve any of the demands. It is a revolutionary blow against the US bombings that kill civilians (not ISIS) in Raqa and Mosul. It is a blow to the massacres of Al Assad and Putin that are still ongoing in Syria. It is a blow on the attacks of Zionism on the Palestinian masses stealing their lands and imprisoning their fighters. It is a blow to the brutal regimes such as that of Egypt or Tunisia that keep on filling their prisons with thousands and thousands of political prisoners.
The “democratic measures” implemented in the 2011 revolutions were just deceptions to divert this great revolution at the same time the fascist stick was striking. Morocco is full of political prisoners of the 2011 uprisings. In Tunisia there is something similar happening. The dictatorial regime of Bouteflika in Algeria is still intact. In Egypt, after democratic traps, there is today a terrible dictatorship of Al Sisi. There are massacres in Syria and Yemen…
Against what the whole social imperialist reformist left is saying -repeating old social democrat recipes- this capitalist system cannot develop any “democracy”. Everything it concedes with the left hand it takes it back (and more) with the right hand in the next period.
In Morocco, since 2011 king Mohamed VI made a few small concessions. In April this year, he changed the prime minister to show a government change. He tried to stop the demonstrations that were generalized to the entire country. Nevertheless the Morrocan masses have seen too many cosmetic reforms throughout the years and are not willing to believe in any more.
The government of king Mohamed VI and the bourgeois parties; the regime of corrupt public officials that fill their pockets while the people plunge into misery; the Spanish and French imperialists that command the government, the king and the murderous officer’s cast of the army, won’t bring any solution to the sufferings of the masses of the region, whether in Rif or in any other region of Morocco.
That’s why we need to raise again the demand of THE PEOPLE WANT THE DOWNFALL OF THE REGIME. This war cry was loud in 2011 in the whole region and now it comes back again in Morocco. The fight as in 2011 for bread and freedom comes back, this time to recover a revolution that was stolen with democratic deceptions.
DOWN WITH THE DICTATORIAL REPPRESSIVE MONARCHY!
OUT WITH ALL THE CORRUPT PUBLIC OFFICIALS OF THE REGIME!
JUSTICE FOR MOUHCINE FIKRI!
IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ALL THE POLITICAL PRISONERS! Free Nasser Zafzafi and all the fighters of the Popular Movement! Free all the “February 20th” movement and all those imprisoned for the 2011 uprising!
Let the demonstrations expand to the entire Morocco! General strike now!
For this, we need to expel the entire trade union bureaucracy that is sold out to the king and the bourgeois parties.
Fight as in the beginning of the revolution in the whole Maghreb and Middle East… to have bread, work, a decent life, but this time expropriating the bourgeois property and imperialism and putting all the resources to guarantee a decent life to the people.
Let the Moroccan government fall! Out of Morocco the plunderers Borbon Spanish kings! Out with the imperialist France!
For a government of the workers and the oppressed, based on their mobilizations and self determination organs!
Open the road for the assemblies of employed workers, unemployed workers, vendors, poor peasants and all the subjugated sectors that enter the fight!
Let Morocco be the spark that sets on fire the revolution again in the entire region, confronting as a single class the same enemies that today want to end up settling their counterrevolution.
Abu Muad
