This morning a treacherous and obscurantist hand was raised to a assassinate the left leader and activist, comrade Chokri Belaïd, secretary general of the Parti des patriotes démocrates unifié [Party of United Democratic Patriots] and one of the leader of the Popular Front. This assassination follows the warning given by Belaïd, speaking clearly and with revolutionary audacity, of the gravity of the political situation and the escalation of political violence clearly inspired by the Ennahda movement and its cowardly henchmen, its terrorist militias and its criminal leaders. A situation marked by political agitation and excommunication through the pulpits of the mosques, the media, party meetings and political declarations against all opponents, and notably against the leaders of the Popular Front with all its components.

Whether this crime was planned by the Salafist criminals or by the militias of the so-called “leagues for protection of the revolution”, it represents a clear message to terrify the people and the radical opposition as a whole, still capable of offering alternatives. But also to smother the free voices which lift the veil on the process of derailing of the revolution, of betrayal of the people and of mortgaging of the country to the circles of the Gulf and the imperialists; a process of conspiracy against the Arab revolutionary process which benefits the criminal movement of Ennahda and the traitor government who alone have an interest in stifling this raised voice.

This political crime carried out against one of the symbols of the left movement in Tunisia – as well as the Popular Front – known for his political and legal activism against the dictatorship since the 1980s, represents a dangerous turn in the process of derailment and liquidation of the revolution. It reminds us of the assassination of the leader Farhat Hached, but at the same time portends the end of Ennahda’s reign in the dustbin of history.

After having led the country into acute crisis and a political impasse, the government is now leading it towards chaos; it has no political l legitimacy after being implicated in political terrorism and having shown its inability to guarantee the safety of citizens. Worse still, the government incites the liquidation of activists and shoots them down in cold blood; it has no way out after having repressed, tortured and used bullets against unarmed citizens; its scandals have left a lasting impression.

Let the blood of comrade Chokri Belaïd unite us to overthrow this government in the regions, in the centres of sovereignty, in all the state institutions, in the particular the institution of the Ministry of the Interior and the Constituent Assembly!

Get rid of the governors and delegates and elect activist local bodies to create a situation of dual power!

We call together for civil disobedience and the general strike with the sole perspective of bringing down the regime!

LGO, Tunis, 6 February, 2013