TUNIS — In the low-income Tunis suburb of Kram, the building that once housed the police station was torched and ransacked after President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali fled the country two years ago. Its white-washed walls still bear graffiti reading "The Men of the Revolution in Kram" and (in English) "We are always ready to fight." Awnings colored the red of the Tunisian flag flutter over unglazed windows. Inside, it has the air of a well-kept student squat, and a small television is tuned to a political chat show. Photos show some of the eight young men killed by police bullets in Kram during the revolution.
Kram's self-appointed "Men of the Revolution" meet here twice a week to plan their protests, sometimes coordinating with the umbrella League for the Defense of the Revolution which brings together local "committees to defend the revolution" across the country. These grassroots groups, like Kram's, have vowed to block any attempt by old-regime figures to make a comeback and "divert the revolution from its goals." They are in the spotlight this month after allegations they are merely fronts for thuggish militias that use violence or intimidation against anyone challenging the hegemony of the ruling Islamist party, Nahda.
Rising indignation about the violence allegedly instigated by these committees has come from Tunisia's trade-union federation, the General Tunisian Labor Union (UGTT), and Nida Tunis (Tunisian Call), a new political party headed by Beji Caid Sebsi, Tunisia's interim prime minister through most of 2011. Nida Tunis is squaring up as Nahda's main challenger in the parliamentary and presidential elections due to be held later this year.
In the activists' meeting in Kram's former police station last week, at top of the agenda was a protest timed for the Jan. 14 anniversary of the revolution to "show anger" over the lack of progress in prosecuting those suspected of corruption under Ben Ali. The group is also mobilizing around the detention of a number of local men following the chaotic protests at the US Embassy in Tunis on Sept. 14.
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