The countrywide protests ensuing in Morocco against marginalisation and inequality is being taken to international attention as activists plan a showing at the UN global climate summit taking place in Marrakech next week.
Moroccan cities have witnessed the most serious protests since the Arab spring in recent days following an incident in which a fisherman died in an altercation with police. Mouhcine Fikri was crushed to death in a rubbish truck trying to retrieve 500kg of fish allegedly caught out of season which had been confiscated.
“It could have happened to any one of us in Morocco”, said 29-year-old Iman to The Guardian.
“We are not treated as humans by the police or anyone who has any sort of power,” added Yugerten, a 28-year-old student activist, who has been coordinating protests in the city that were attended by thousands last week.
Yugerten said Facebook was the principal means of getting people together. “We cannot ask someone on the street to come along, or talk freely to foreign journalists, but on Facebook we are open, even though we know the authorities are watching us there too,” he said. “But we have to keep going because what we have right now isn’t living.”
When Fikri died, parallels were quickly drawn with Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit seller who set himself on fire after the police confiscated his goods, triggering the Arab spring.
Yugerten explained that this is not a new movement, or one that is seeking to overthrow the government, but part of an ongoing fight for some semblance of democracy. The arrival of thousands of participants for the COP 22 summit is timely.
