Foreign debt versus organised labour: reflections on the UGTT’s stance on IMF loans in post-uprising Tunisia

Abstract

SUMMARY In the wake of the Tunisian uprising in 2010–2011, the IMF vowed to support democratisation efforts, promising a novel approach attuned to the needs of the nation’s most marginalised people. However, IMF loan agreements garnered controversy for their conditionalities, raising doubts about the Fund’s ‘new’ strategy and its austerity-focused plans for economic restructuring. At the centre of the debt-critical movement, the country’s leading trade union organisation – the UGTT – positioned itself as a fierce opponent to the IMF. Against the backdrop of current talks for a new bailout, this briefing revisits the UGTT’s stance on two major loan agreements that Tunisia entered into after 2010.