Gafsa
Gafsa (Arabic قفصة, Qafṣa DMG ) is a city in the center of Tunisia, with around 85,000 inhabitants. It lies north of the Salt Lake Chott el Jerid to an average of 297 meters. The capital of the province of the same name is a traffic intersection between the north and south of the country.
History
Gafsa is the place of the prehistoric site Capsa, who gave his name to the epipaläolithischen culture of Capsien, just like the titular Capsa. The more than 15,000 -year-long history of settlement in this region Bone finds and other traces of human settlement.
During the Second World War the city was bombed several times in 1942 and 1943 by the Germans, while also a part of the Kasbah was destroyed (→ Tunisia Campaign ).
Center of the labor movement
Gafsa is considered a center of the labor movement. Again and again it came here in the 20th and early 21st century to strike and protest movements. In March 1937 miners' strike was brutally suppressed, which 17 miners lost their lives. In 1978 there was a large strike movement. In 1980, there was a local armed uprising, which had the overthrow of then- President goal - officially became a tangle of Libyan state suspected that this later, however, rejected.
2008, a riot -like general strike movement in which there were occupations of corporate property and trade union centers developed in the region. It was directed against social injustice, lack of perspective and environmental degradation. The uprising was put down by force. These events are in the Tunisian opposition movement as a seed of the revolution in Tunisia 2010/2011.
Economy
Gafsa could develop further, which in 1886 discovered occurrences of the most important in the world thanks to the reduction of phosphates. The mines produce more than 6.5 million tons of phosphates annually and transport them by train in the direction of the port of Sfax. Due to the enormous water consumption of phosphate works it comes to the people again and again to water shortages.
In addition, they specialize in Gafsa on the carpet and wallpaper production. However, unemployment is there very large, and many young people there see few prospects for their lives. That is why many prefer to the north of Tunisia.