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| A Product of Tunisia’s 1960s Resistance Continues to Protest | A Product of Tunisia’s 1960s Resistance Continues to Protest |
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| TUNIS — WhenFathi Ben Haj Yahia seeks to explain Tunisia’s troubled transition since its revolution overthrew nearly 60 years of dictatorship four years ago, he offers a parable. | TUNIS — WhenFathi Ben Haj Yahia seeks to explain Tunisia’s troubled transition since its revolution overthrew nearly 60 years of dictatorship four years ago, he offers a parable. |
| “If Marx and Freud landed today in Tunisia, they would rewrite all their theories,” he said, letting out a belly laugh at the thought. “The situation here is so Kafkaesque.” | “If Marx and Freud landed today in Tunisia, they would rewrite all their theories,” he said, letting out a belly laugh at the thought. “The situation here is so Kafkaesque.” |
| School director, former political prisoner, Marxist pamphleteer, writer and thinker, Mr. Yahia said Tunisia would confound the great philosophers, but he nevertheless lamented that Tunisia’s political theorists had failed to forge something new out of the popular uprising of 2011 that led the Arab Spring. | School director, former political prisoner, Marxist pamphleteer, writer and thinker, Mr. Yahia said Tunisia would confound the great philosophers, but he nevertheless lamented that Tunisia’s political theorists had failed to forge something new out of the popular uprising of 2011 that led the Arab Spring. |
| “We did not know how to begin; we had no Che Guevara or Khomeini,” he said ruefully. Instead, he said, Tunisians pulled a leader, President Beji Caid Essebsi, 88, from the “drawers of history.” | “We did not know how to begin; we had no Che Guevara or Khomeini,” he said ruefully. Instead, he said, Tunisians pulled a leader, President Beji Caid Essebsi, 88, from the “drawers of history.” |
| A political activist since the age of 15 when he was caught up in the student protests in Tunis of the late 1960s, Mr. Yahia has led a life of resistance and opposition through five momentous decades in the Middle East: student protests, Palestinian training camps, torture and imprisonment under dictatorship and years of exile and exclusion from government institutions. | A political activist since the age of 15 when he was caught up in the student protests in Tunis of the late 1960s, Mr. Yahia has led a life of resistance and opposition through five momentous decades in the Middle East: student protests, Palestinian training camps, torture and imprisonment under dictatorship and years of exile and exclusion from government institutions. |
| He is the author of “Prison Does Not Exist ... We Always Return Home: Fragments of a History of the Left Under Bourguiba,” one of the most critically acclaimed accounts of opposition and imprisonment under the dictatorship of Tunisia’s first president, Habib Bourguiba. It’s a compelling, often funny description of his activism that illuminates the past but also much about his country today. | He is the author of “Prison Does Not Exist ... We Always Return Home: Fragments of a History of the Left Under Bourguiba,” one of the most critically acclaimed accounts of opposition and imprisonment under the dictatorship of Tunisia’s first president, Habib Bourguiba. It’s a compelling, often funny description of his activism that illuminates the past but also much about his country today. |
| He sees the problems of the Middle East through the prism of colonialism and interference from the world’s big powers. “We find ourselves at impasses, in dilemmas that are beyond us,” he said. “It is like I tie your shoes in 36 million knots and say, ‘Go on, untie them,’ and then reproach you for not being capable and not having the ability to untie them.” | He sees the problems of the Middle East through the prism of colonialism and interference from the world’s big powers. “We find ourselves at impasses, in dilemmas that are beyond us,” he said. “It is like I tie your shoes in 36 million knots and say, ‘Go on, untie them,’ and then reproach you for not being capable and not having the ability to untie them.” |
| At 62 he remains an energetic rebel who questions with humor. “I am a Marxist who plays truant,” he said gleefully, an agnostic who dwells frequently on the idea of God. | At 62 he remains an energetic rebel who questions with humor. “I am a Marxist who plays truant,” he said gleefully, an agnostic who dwells frequently on the idea of God. |
| Born in Bab Souika, the working-class heart of the capital, Tunis, he grew up straddling the cultured world of his father, who was a writer and eminent educator, and the poverty of his neighborhood friends. | Born in Bab Souika, the working-class heart of the capital, Tunis, he grew up straddling the cultured world of his father, who was a writer and eminent educator, and the poverty of his neighborhood friends. |
| “So there was already a rebellious side, a feeling of injustice of the first degree that you find among adolescents,” he said. “Then in the less disadvantaged area, I had friends who were into culture, who had money to buy newspapers which talked of Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad. It was the time of the unfurling of black militancy, and it was also the time of the Palestinian resistance. Around that time, and before Palestine, it was also Vietnam.” | “So there was already a rebellious side, a feeling of injustice of the first degree that you find among adolescents,” he said. “Then in the less disadvantaged area, I had friends who were into culture, who had money to buy newspapers which talked of Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad. It was the time of the unfurling of black militancy, and it was also the time of the Palestinian resistance. Around that time, and before Palestine, it was also Vietnam.” |
| He added, laughing, “At that age one needs to forge heroes, and it was not Batman or Spiderman.” | He added, laughing, “At that age one needs to forge heroes, and it was not Batman or Spiderman.” |
| There are two reasons a young man is drawn into political activism, he writes: to please the girls and to gain status among his peer group. He says he attended his first political meeting only at the urging of a stunningly beautiful girl. | There are two reasons a young man is drawn into political activism, he writes: to please the girls and to gain status among his peer group. He says he attended his first political meeting only at the urging of a stunningly beautiful girl. |
| Drawn into political activism, he joined an underground socialist movement called Perspectives, disseminating pamphlets and organizing strikes. He escaped the first wave of arrests when he was at Tunis University in 1973, slipping away to France thanks partly to a friendly neighborhood policeman. | Drawn into political activism, he joined an underground socialist movement called Perspectives, disseminating pamphlets and organizing strikes. He escaped the first wave of arrests when he was at Tunis University in 1973, slipping away to France thanks partly to a friendly neighborhood policeman. |
| In Paris he studied at the Sorbonne and pitched deeper into militancy. He traveled with a group of students to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon to train with Palestinian guerrillas in October 1974. The aim was for self-defense because their movement back in Tunisia was being decimated by arrests, he said. “There was a tendency in the group about how far we should allow ourselves to be arrested.” | In Paris he studied at the Sorbonne and pitched deeper into militancy. He traveled with a group of students to the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon to train with Palestinian guerrillas in October 1974. The aim was for self-defense because their movement back in Tunisia was being decimated by arrests, he said. “There was a tendency in the group about how far we should allow ourselves to be arrested.” |
| He is lightly mocking about the idea of a group of leftist students starting a popular revolutionary army in Tunisia. But he writes about how the Palestinian cause then held a fascination and romanticism for “youth the world over.” His episode in the Bekaa Valley inspired “an emotion that made me feel I was living the most beautiful hours of my life.” | He is lightly mocking about the idea of a group of leftist students starting a popular revolutionary army in Tunisia. But he writes about how the Palestinian cause then held a fascination and romanticism for “youth the world over.” His episode in the Bekaa Valley inspired “an emotion that made me feel I was living the most beautiful hours of my life.” |
| Fired up, he crossed back into Tunisia clandestinely with a friend to try to replenish the ranks that had been depleted by all the arrests, only to be detained himself five months later. | Fired up, he crossed back into Tunisia clandestinely with a friend to try to replenish the ranks that had been depleted by all the arrests, only to be detained himself five months later. |
| His youthful activism gives him a ready understanding of the thousands of young Muslims — a high proportion of them Tunisian — who have run off to fight in Syria and conduct terrorist attacks at home, including the massacre of 38 tourists at a beach hotel in June. He attributes their disaffection to a broken education system and a lack of opportunity that leaves a young man sitting at home “feeling like an insect.” | His youthful activism gives him a ready understanding of the thousands of young Muslims — a high proportion of them Tunisian — who have run off to fight in Syria and conduct terrorist attacks at home, including the massacre of 38 tourists at a beach hotel in June. He attributes their disaffection to a broken education system and a lack of opportunity that leaves a young man sitting at home “feeling like an insect.” |
| “There’s something particular to Muslims. When I read, I feel the behavior of a people who lived a glorious past — in our consciousness, not in our experience — so we feel it keenly,” he said. “And now in a quest to find that honor, there is a voraciousness to find it again and seize it once more.” | “There’s something particular to Muslims. When I read, I feel the behavior of a people who lived a glorious past — in our consciousness, not in our experience — so we feel it keenly,” he said. “And now in a quest to find that honor, there is a voraciousness to find it again and seize it once more.” |
| He endured five years of torture and incarceration in Mr. Bourguiba’s notorious prisons and recounts the experience with devastating humor, an attitude he learned from his father, who loved to collect verses of Arab humor. | He endured five years of torture and incarceration in Mr. Bourguiba’s notorious prisons and recounts the experience with devastating humor, an attitude he learned from his father, who loved to collect verses of Arab humor. |
| He opens the book with a rare account of coming face to face with Mr. Bourguiba when four leftists were brought from their cells to the presidential palace. The dictator was considering a general release of leftists and wanted to see the leaders for himself. | He opens the book with a rare account of coming face to face with Mr. Bourguiba when four leftists were brought from their cells to the presidential palace. The dictator was considering a general release of leftists and wanted to see the leaders for himself. |
| Mr. Yahia describes Mr. Bourguiba, by then infirm and of wandering mind, yet nonetheless terrifying, as he toured the room, chiding his ministers for torturing prisoners and then telling the prisoners that they deserved a few slaps. | Mr. Yahia describes Mr. Bourguiba, by then infirm and of wandering mind, yet nonetheless terrifying, as he toured the room, chiding his ministers for torturing prisoners and then telling the prisoners that they deserved a few slaps. |
| Released in 1980, Mr. Yahia, like all political prisoners, was banned from work in public institutions, so he left again for France, where he earned a living as a translator. | Released in 1980, Mr. Yahia, like all political prisoners, was banned from work in public institutions, so he left again for France, where he earned a living as a translator. |
| He returned to Tunisia in 1987 and has spent his life since on the sidelines, first running a sandwich shop and then working for the last 20 years as the director of a private primary school. He wrote for the Communist Party daily, which was eventually legalized, raising questions and poking fun through 23 more years of dictatorship after Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali overthrew Mr. Bourguiba in a coup. | He returned to Tunisia in 1987 and has spent his life since on the sidelines, first running a sandwich shop and then working for the last 20 years as the director of a private primary school. He wrote for the Communist Party daily, which was eventually legalized, raising questions and poking fun through 23 more years of dictatorship after Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali overthrew Mr. Bourguiba in a coup. |
| Though Tunisia is now free, he is not satisfied. Mr. Yahia criticizes its political leaders and theorists, not least on the left, for failing to develop a new vision. | Though Tunisia is now free, he is not satisfied. Mr. Yahia criticizes its political leaders and theorists, not least on the left, for failing to develop a new vision. |
| The country has fallen back on two trends of political thought, he said. One is a nostalgia for the authoritarian statism of Mr. Bourguiba (conveniently forgetting the bad parts of his dictatorship), while the other is Islamism, which after being banned for so long has tapped a huge reservoir of feeling. | |
| The left, despite Tunisia’s powerful unions, remains small and radical, focused on strike action. Mr. Yahia watches with some yearning the large social movements of Latin America. | The left, despite Tunisia’s powerful unions, remains small and radical, focused on strike action. Mr. Yahia watches with some yearning the large social movements of Latin America. |
| “That common denominator in which people can recognize themselves, in a fiction, in a hope, that draws people towards a horizon: That has not taken place here yet,” he said. | “That common denominator in which people can recognize themselves, in a fiction, in a hope, that draws people towards a horizon: That has not taken place here yet,” he said. |