Prices hikes foster discontent | L’Economiste
An outcry has emerged among the trade union movement. A series of go-slows will soon be launched in the various cities and provinces of Morocco. This is what the Democratic Confederation of Labor (CDT) has just announced. The union also announced protest marches and sit-ins starting this Sunday, February 19.
A general strike in the public service will follow, as well as a national protest march. On the eve of this walkout, the CDT union calls on all of its members and citizens to mobilize massively to translate social discontent and denounce all-out speculation. According to our sources at the CDT, this is a series of go-slows aimed at “challenging the worrying levels of price increases for fruit and vegetables, meat, and other consumer products ”.
Furthermore, the executive bureau of the trade union assigns “full responsibility to the Government for the current tension as well as for the unprecedented deterioration of the social situation and the collapse of the purchasing power”. Through these walkout movements, strikers especially want the Government to take its responsibilities and put in place, as soon as possible, a series of ‘‘ measures and mechanisms to relieve the purchasing power and to lower prices’’. According to Ouadie Madih, president of the National Federation of Consumer Protection Associations (FNAC), “the current situation is unsustainable. Moreover, the argument of the cold snap, put forward by the government to explain the vertiginous rises in the prices of fruit and vegetables or even meat, does not hold water. Every year we have a cold snap between the months of December and February. However, prices have never reached current levels’’ . In other words, the cold snap and inflation alone do not explain everything. Moreover, the circuit of plethoric intermediaries certainly contributes to the multiplication of margins, but it does not explain the current price levels for the simple reason that the same intermediaries have always been part of the ecosystem. In fact, there is a combination of several factors: inflation, the cost of transport, soaring diesel prices, low rainfall, the cold spell, the proliferation of intermediaries, but above all speculation at all levels, sloppiness, and impunity. In the opinion of the president of FNAC, the latest decisions made by the Government, which relate to the strengthening of market control, are not enough. Moreover, they will not be able to give the expected effects in the immediate future. For Ouadie Madih, measures had to be taken for several months already. According to the president of FNAC, “ the solution lies in the frequency of systematic, enhanced, and generalized checks throughout the year, 12 months out of 12., and not just on the eve of Ramadan! In addition, any violation, whatever it may be, must be reported in order to set an example and put an end to impunity’’.
Amin RBOUB
