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Morocco: Candlelight protest against government

May 25, 2018 at 3:34 am

Morocco’s left-wing parties are preparing to hold candlelight protest marches at night on Saturday because of what they described as “deteriorating economic conditions and the decline in media, trade unionism and politics freedom.”

A joint statement issued by several parties including: The Democratic Left Federation (FGD), The Democratic Way, The Democratic Confederation of Labour, The National Federation for Education (FNE), The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH)  and ATTAC Maroc, Thursday, criticised, “the state’s insistence on the implementation of its unpopular and non-democratic policies in response to International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demands and the European and American partnership agreements.”

The statement criticized “the failure of the Moroccan development model reflected in the ranks it occupies at the level of freedom of the press, transparency, education, health and employment,” and stressed that theses will not be solved through criminalizing people’s struggles and the repression of freedoms, arrests and prevention.

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The former president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, Khadija Ryadi, said in an interview with Quds Press, “the protest with candles is an expression of struggle, which is common in Morocco, and reflects a form of popular protest to enhance confidence of citizens in their ability to influence.”

“Demonstration in the street is also an endorsement of the boycotting of some products and goods adopted by the Moroccan people to confront high prices and deteriorating economic conditions,” she said.

Ryadi stressed that “Moroccans have succeeded, by boycotting certain companies, in influencing effectively and communicating their voices to the parties concerned.”

“The Moroccan citizen has not lost anything because of the boycott, because he boycotted one product made by every company. So, this boycott may continue indefinitely,” she added.