Soaring Prices Spark Protests in Morocco

The Democratic Confederation of Labor announced the organization of “mass” protests that will roam the streets of various major Moroccan cities in response to the continued wave of high prices, and over what it described as the “restriction” of the Moroccans’ right to strike, and the government’s denial of its commitments in social dialogue.

The DCL announced an intensive struggle program at the beginning of the new year, calling on the largest labour syndicates in Morocco—in a statement—including regional and local unions, confederations, national associations, and female and male activists to participate strongly and responsibly in this struggle in protest against the Makhzen government’s continued “undermining of human rights and social gains, its violation of the social dialogue agreement, and its evasion of negotiations on the fair and legitimate demands of workers and employees.”

The same syndicate explained that among the reasons for organizing protests on Sunday, were “the continued high prices, the destruction of purchasing power, and the imposition of prices in favour of the lobbies controlling the markets, in addition to the insistence on undermining the constitutional right to strike, restricting syndical freedoms, and legitimizing further exploitation of the working class.”

The reasons for the protest, according to the same statement, are due to “the destructive reforms of retirement and the labour law and the encouragement of flexibility and fragility in work, in a blow to the consensus methodology that the government has committed to, by adopting the draft right to strike with restrictive contents, relying on its parliamentary majority in a matter that concerns society with all its forces and organizations, which contradicts the constitution and international conventions.”

The syndicate’s escalation comes after it meets with the Minister of Economic Integration, Small Businesses, Employment and Skills at the beginning of this week. This meeting ended with adhering to its position of rejecting the draft law on strikes and emphasizing the continuation of the struggle for the syndical right and the right to strike.

The “Democratic Confederation of Labor” called on all its activists and components to continue mobilizing to implement all the struggle stations within the framework of the “Front for the Defense of the Right to Strike” and to prepare for all upcoming battles, including the national protest and the general strike expected later.

The Moroccan Front Against the Retirement and Strike Laws renewed its commitment to the “absolute” rejection of the “criminalization” of the right to strike, describing the draft as an “enslavement law that strips the working class and all wage earners of any means to defend their rights, gains and demands.”

These protests coincide with sit-ins and strikes organized by syndicates in the education and health sectors, under the same confederation’s banner, against the government’s continued “deaf ears” policy in dealing with the working class file.

These protests come in a general context of increasing popular anger due to escalating economic challenges, in light of the government’s continued disregard for syndicates’ demands.

These movements are expected to constitute a new test of the relationship between the Makhzen government and the syndicates at the beginning of the new year, amid indications of its inability to contain the crises sweeping the Kingdom on more than one level.