Morocco: 300,000 March for Economic and Social Justice

Calling for greater economic and social justice, more than 300,000 working people marched in Casablanca, Morocco, to protest official indifference to reduced consumer purchasing power and increasingly degraded public services.

In a strong show of union solidarity, workers filled the streets Sunday after a joint call to action by the Democratic Confederation of Labor (CDT), the Democratic Federation of Labor (FDT) and the Moroccan Labor Union (UMT).

Moroccan workers and their unions are united in their demands for the government to respect its April 26, 2011, commitment to enforce the Labor Code, respect freedom of association and abolish Article 288 of the Penal Code that results in jail terms and fines for striking workers.

The 2011 agreement helped bring an end to the social chaos rocking Morocco in the early days of the Arab Revolutions of Dignity and paved the way for orderly reform. Since then, workers have seen little progress. The marchers also called on the government to engage in genuine social dialogue with the workers and their unions to raise wages, increase employment opportunities for young people, eliminate precarious and temporary work, address unemployment and reform the education sector and the state pension.

Regional Arab trades unions in Bahrain and Tunisia backed the march, and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) issued a declaration in solidarity with the workers.