Tunisia: Thousands protest after attacks on union

The protest was prompted by incidents at the union's offices around the country where during a four-day strike of municipal workers, unknown groups dumped garbage in front of union offices, and in the most serious incidents, the UGTT branch office in Feriana and Menzel Bouzelfa sustained significant damage by fire. The union says that members of Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that won elections in October, are behind the attacks.
 
"They want to terrorize us and instil fear in our hearts to keep us from defending our cause and rights, but we will not let them," said Hocine Abbassi, the secretary general of the UGTT.
 
Ennahda has responded that its members had nothing to do with the incidents.
 
Protesters chanted that the new government had just stepped into the old one's repressive shoes and called for a new revolution.
 
"Citizens, wake up, the government is messing with you!" they chanted.

PSI has sent a support letter to its affiliates in Tunisa, and a protest letter to the Tunisia President Moncef Marzouki (in French). See below.