a Paper by Eric Gobe (Researcher, Institut de Recherches et d’Études sur le Monde Arabe et Musulman (IREMAM), Centre
national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Aix-en-Provence, France.)
The year 2008 was marked, in Tunisia, by the Revolt of the Gafsa Mining Basin. The social mobilizations which shook this poor area, located close to the Algerian border, represent the most important protest movement seen in Tunisia since the Bread Revolt of January 1984. Within Tunisia’s authoritarian context, this Revolt of the Mining Basin has shown that significant segments of the Tunisian population were able to voice their protest; at the same time, however, the protest movement, due to the limited support it enjoyed within Tunisian society, was unable to grow, nor was it able to withstand the coercive policy of Ben Ali’s regime.
