Tunis Tram Boycott

The Tunis tram boycott (Arabic: مقاطعة ترامواي تونس‎‎ muqāṭa'a tramway tūnis) (French: boycott des tramways tunisois) was a mass protest which began in Tunis on 9 February 1912. For more than a month, Tunisian Arabs refused to ride on the city trams until a series of demands were met. The boycott, though unsuccessful, is considered an important step in the development of the Tunisian nationalist movement.

The boycott took place in an atmosphere of high tension between the Arab population of the city and Italian settlers, just two months after the violent riots and attacks of the Jellaz Affair. The murder cases arising from the Jellaz Affair had not yet gone to trial. Tunis was still under martial law and the Young Tunisians were under constant attack in the press.

Much of the tram system in Tunis had been run by an Italian firm, Florio Rubattino, until it was taken over by the French Compagnie des tramways de Tunis. Most of the personnel however remained Italian. The Italian drivers were particularly disliked by the Tunisians, for what they felt was a generally rude and hostile attitude, as well as reckless driving in busy areas of the city.

The boycott began on 9 February 1912, after a tram driven by an Italian knocked down and killed an eight-year-old Tunisian Arab child at Bab Saadoun. Tunisian observers claimed that the driver was drunk and had struck the child deliberately. Protesters demanded that the operating company, the Compagnie des tramways de Tunis, should pay damages. Until it did so, protesters declared that they would boycott not only the trams, but all Italian-owned businesses. The protesters also demanded that all Italian workers should be dismissed from the company, and that Tunisian and French workers should earn equal pay.

The company rejected all the protesters' demands, and the boycott was pursued with great discipline. According to the newspapers, the company was losing a thousand francs a day as a result. This was the first time in North Africa that the indigenous inhabitants had attempted this kind of collective action, and the rigour with which it was pursued was very troubling to the French authorities.

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Wikipedia