Tunisian Workers' Communist Party

Not to be confused with Tunisian Communist Party.

Tunisian Workers' Communist Party حزب العمال الشيوعي التونسي
French name	Parti communiste des ouvriers de Tunisie
Leader	Hamma Hammami
Founded	3 January 1986 (1986-01-03)
Headquarters	Tunis, Tunisia
Ideology	Communism Marxism-Leninism
Political position	Left-wing
International affiliation	International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle)
Official colours	Red
Constituent Assembly	3 / 217
Website
albadil.org
Politics of Tunisia Political parties Elections

The Tunisian Workers' Communist Party (Arabic: حزب العمال الشيوعي التونسي‎, Ḥizb al-‘Ummāl ash-Shuyū‘ī at-Tūnisī ; French: Parti communiste des ouvriers de Tunisie), also known by its French acronym PCOT, is a Marxist-Leninist political party in Tunisia. Its general secretary is Hamma Hammami. It was outlawed until the Tunisian Revolution, when in a failed attempt to shore up the state framework it and another banned party were invited to participate in a National Unity government.^[1] Subsequently the party and other opposition elements refused this attempt to co-opt the ongoing^[2] revolution by installing a government composed at its senior levels by associates of the former regime.

It was founded on January 3, 1986 and has a youth wing the Union of Communist Youth of Tunisia (UJCT).

Amnesty International reports that in 1998 five students were charged with belonging to PCOT and given 4 year prison sentences after student demonstrations.^[3]

After their involvement in the uprising against Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, PCOT held their first conference as a legal party on July 22-24, with up to 2000 attending^[4]. Removing the word "communist" from the party's name was among the topics debated. In the end, party spokesperson Abed Jabbar Bdouri stated the party decided “not to make any changes since we’re currently too busy with the electoral campaign”.^[5]

In the 2011 Constituent Assembly election, the candidates of PCOT's electoral formation ran by the name "Revolutionary Alternative" (Arabic: البديل الثوري‎ al-badīl ath-thawrī) and won 3 of the 217 seats, in Sfax, Kairouan and Siliana ^[6]

PCOT is a part of the International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle).

References

1. ^ "Anti-government protests continue in Tunisia during official mourning period" World Socialist Website
2. ^ Jorge Martin, "Tunisia: the revolutionary initiative of the masses continues," In Defense of Marxism, (21 January 2011).
3. ^ "Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999 Tunisia" (Press release). http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/hrtunisia99.html. Retrieved 2011-01-28. 
4. ^ "Tunisia: Left group holds first legal congress in 25 years". Green Left Weekly. 2011-07-30. http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/48356. Retrieved 2011-11-11. 
5. ^ "How Communist is Tunisia's Communist Party?". Tunisia Live. 2011-10-11. http://www.tunisia-live.net/2011/10/11/how-communist-is-tunisias-communist-party/. Retrieved 2011-11-11. 
6. ^ http://themoornextdoor.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/studies-vii-the-pcot-and-electoral-performance/ Retrieved 2011-11-03

External links

	Tunisia portal
	Politics portal

• Official PCOT site
• "Let Us Make the Awakening of the Movement our Central Task," La Forge: Organ of the Communist Party of the Workers of France (April, 1997) (Document released on PCOT's 11th anniversary).
• "Interview with Hamma Hammani on the situation in Tunisia," La Forge: Organ of the Communist Party of the Workers of France (September 1997).
• Hamma Hammami, Tunisian Communist Workers Party, "Tunisia: For a Constitutional Assembly to Lay the Foundations of a Democratic Republic," (Tunisia, 15 January 2011). [Retrieved from MRZine 28-01-2011].