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ROHSTOFFEXTRAKTIVISMUS IN LATEINAMERIKA UND DEM MAGHREB
POLICY BRIEF
Extractivism and political instability in the 
Tunisian Gafsa mining basin 
Chakroun Hajer 
University of Kassel  
info@extractivism.de|www.extractivism.de
No 5 | 2024
EXTRACTIVISM POLICY BRIEF – NO 5 |2024 
| The Author
Chakroun Hajer, doctor of political science at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of Tunis El Manar University, is a 
fellow at the Extractivism.de project (University of Kassel).  
DOI: 10.17170/kobra-2024052810222
Extractivism Policy Brief is an Open Access online publication downloaded freely at www.extractivism.de. Readers 
are free to share, copy, and redistribute this document in any medium or format for any purpose, even 
commercially, according to the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Germany (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). 
Conditions imply that no changes are made to the text, and writers and the www.extractivism.de project are 
referenced correctly as the original. Extractivism Policy Briefs publish on social-economic, cultural, political, and timely 
topics concerning extractivism in both regions. Extractivism.de team is responsible for reviewing, fact-checking, 
editing, and publishing the final policy briefs. The opinions expressed in each publication are exclusive of the respective 
authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the project. Extractivism.de cannot be held liable for any 
consequences concerning a policy brief following its publication.  
© Extractivism.de, 2024, All rights reserved. 
 
EXTRACTIVISM POLICY BRIEF – NO 5 |2024  
| IN SHORT 
  
DE 
 
EN 
• In the mining region of Gafsa in Tunisia, the phosphate industry has long played a central role.   
• Despite its economic significance, the way in which resources were exploited led to social unrest and protests against unequa l  
development.  
• The social movements, particularly the uprising of 2008, reflect the conflict over jobs, economic participation, and regional  
development.  
• The impact of this unrest shows that despite short-term measures, the basic development model in the Gafsa mining area 
remains unchanged and sustainable, balanced development is needed. 
FR 
 
 
ES 
• Im Bergbaugebiet von Gafsa in Tunesien spielte die Phosphatindustrie lange eine zentrale Rolle.   
• Trotz wirtschaftlicher Bedeutung führte die Art der Ressourcenausbeutung zu sozialen Unruhen und Protesten gegen ungleiche 
Entwicklung.  
• Die sozialen Bewegungen, insbesondere der Aufstand von 2008, spiegeln den Konflikt um Arbeitsplätze, wirtschaftliche Teilhabe  
und regionale Entwicklung wider. 
• Die Auswirkungen dieser Unruhen zeigen, dass trotz kurzfristiger Maßnahmen das grundlegende Entwicklungsmodell im 
Bergbaugebiet von Gafsa weiterhin unverändert bleibt und eine nachhaltige, ausgewogene Entwicklung notwendig ist.  
• La industria del fosfato ha desempeñado durante mucho tiempo un papel central en la zona minera de Gafsa, en Túnez.   
• A pesar de su importancia económica, la forma en que se explotaban los recursos provocó malestar social y protestas contra un 
desarrollo desigual.  
• Los movimientos sociales, en particular el levantamiento de 2008, reflejan el conflicto en torno al empleo, la participación 
económica y el desarrollo regional. 
• El impacto de este malestar demuestra que, a pesar de las medidas a corto plazo, el modelo básico de desarrollo en la zona 
minera de Gafsa sigue siendo el mismo y se necesita un desarrollo sostenible y equilibrado. 
• Dans le bassin minier de Gafsa en Tunisie, l'industrie du phosphate a longtemps joué un rôle central.  
• Malgré son importance économique, le mode d'exploitation des ressources a provoqué des troubles sociaux et des protestations 
contre un développement inégal.  
• Les mouvements sociaux, notamment le soulèvement de 2008, reflètent le conflit pour l'emploi, la participation économique et 
le développement régional. 
• L'impact de ces troubles montre que, malgré des mesures à court terme, le modèle de développement fondamental dans la 
région minière de Gafsa reste inchangé et qu'un développement durable et équilibré est nécessaire.  
 
EXTRACTIVISM POLICY BRIEF – NO 5 |2024  
1 
| Introduction 
Extractivism is a particular type of high-capacity natural 
resource extraction, carried out in ways that have 
significant socio-environmental impacts. The extracted 
material is intended for export as raw materials in raw 
state, or having undergone a first transformation. This is 
a relatively new concept, first introduced in Brazil in 
1970 to refer to the intensive exploitation of forests by 
large landowners in such a way as to endanger 
biodiversity. Over time, more and more researchers 
have been studying this concept, which has been applied 
to a number of sectors, including the mining sector 
which is the subject of our research. The work of 
Eduardo Gudynas (2013) stands out among these 
researchers. 
Extractivism has been at the root of several social 
movements around the world, threatening political 
stability in several regions. The issue of the Gafsa mining 
basin in Tunisia is a case in point. In 2008, Tunisia 
experienced violent demonstrations in the Gafsa mining 
basin which monopolized phosphate production. These 
social movements were the most brutal in 
contemporary Tunisian history. They lasted over six 
months and destabilized the rule of Ben Ali (Tunisia's 
former president). The local population demanded their 
right to employment, their right to sustainable and 
equitable development and their share of the phosphate 
rent. The research aims to examine the scope of these 
social movements, enabling an exploration of their 
socio-economic causes, the actors involved and their 
different strategies. This investigation will also facilitate  
an assessment of the decisions taken by the political 
authorities to ease tensions. Finally, the impact of these 
social movements on the State’s economic policy and 
political stability can be evaluated.  
 
| Extractivism and social movements in Gafsa mining basin  
Ever since its discovery by Philippe Thomas in 1885, the 
phosphate resource has been the object of intensive 
extraction by the French colonial authorities. Raw 
phosphate was exported to European countries, notably 
France.  After independence, Tunisia pursued the same 
policy. Indeed, the phosphate sector has become one of 
the pillars of the Tunisian economy. In 2010, it 
accounted for 3.3 percent of GDP, i.e., 9 percent of 
exports (Ministère de l’Économie des Finances et de la 
Souveraineté industrielle et numérique, 2022). 
(Extraction revenues are channeled into the national 
budget). The sector is dominated by two state-owned 
companies: La Compagnie des Phosphates de Gafsa  
(CPG), established in 1897, and Le Groupe Chimique 
Tunisien (GCT), created in 1992.
Social movements in Gafsa: socio-economic reasons 
The area under study comprises four delegations 
located in the southern part of the Gafsa governorate, 
which contains most of the country's phosphate 
reserves. These are Redeyef, Métlaoui, Moularés and 
Mdhila. Since the 19th century, phosphate mining has 
been the dominant activity in the Gafsa mining basin, an 
arid zone with low rainfall, where agricultural activity is 
limited to grazing. The area is characterized by a high 
poverty rate and an unemployment rate that is double 
the national rate. CPG, a state-owned company, has 
monopolized phosphate mining in the Gafsa mining  
 
basin. It has also played an important social role in the 
region, providing many of the social services needed by 
the local population, not to mention the number of jobs 
it has created. However, in 1986, with the 
implementation of the structural adjustment plan, the 
company mechanized its mining operations, converting 
them to open-pit mining. As a result, more than half of 
the workforce was freed up for reasons of profitability 
and competitiveness on international markets. It has 
also abandoned its social role, leading thus to a mood of 
animosity.  Indeed, while its sales continued to rise, CPG 
continued to disengage itself from the local population. 
This explains the protests against this capitalist trading 
system, which concentrates on wealth accumulation for 
the benefit of the centralized state, marginalizes the 
 
EXTRACTIVISM POLICY BRIEF – NO 5 |2024  
2 
local population and takes little interest in regional 
development (Allal, 2010).
Social movements in Gafsa: diversity of actors and unity of claims
These movements began spontaneously following the 
announcement of the results of the CPG recruitment 
contest. Unemployed young people considered that the 
recruitment results had been falsified, and union 
officials were accused by the population of having 
appointed their relatives. These movements were ill-
organized at first, but gradually a number of leading 
figures emerged. They started in Redayef, then soon 
spread to the rest of the region. Although the protests 
were peaceful, they eventually turned riotous when the 
police intervened. Initially, it was young unemployed 
graduates who went on hunger strike at the local UGTT 
headquarters in Redayef to protest against the contest 
results and demand their right to employment.  
Gradually, other actors joined these protesters: 
workers, young graduates, widows of workers who lost 
their lives in the mines, women whose children were 
arrested during the riots, students expelled from their 
high schools which had closed their doors, the 
unemployed, trade unionists, associations and civil 
society structures and even representatives of opposing 
political parties, since it was an election year. 
The Gafsa mining basin was in a state of agitation, with 
all actors protesting against nepotism, clientelism, 
marginalization, social injustice and the management of 
phosphate resources, which instead of bringing wealth 
to the region, has been the cause of its marginalization. 
The protesters claimed their right to employment with 
the CPG as well as their right to a share of the company's 
income (Chouikha and Geisser, 2010). 
 
| The relative impact of social unrest in the Gafsa mining basin  
On July 16, 2008, President Ben Ali put an end to these 
movements by convening the members of the Gafsa 
regional council for an extraordinary session at the 
presidential palace in Carthage, with the aim of resolving 
the region's problems. However, the decisions that were 
taken failed to meet the expectations of the local 
population, which explains the persistence of the same 
demands after the 2011 revolution. 
 
An unchanging development model
This unaltered development model also seemed 
unchangeable. Firstly, because the Gafsa mining basin is 
totally dedicated to the mining industry. In fact, 
agricultural land is extremely degraded and rainfall is 
very limited. Secondly, the tourism sector is 
underdeveloped. Indeed, the region does not seem to 
attract promoters, and even those who have had the 
courage to settle in there have not helped solve the 
problem of unemployment, because the population 
prefers to work for the CPG, which pays its workers well 
and grants them substantial social benefits. Secondly, 
the government succeeded in setting up a national 
political economy based on control and clientelism. In 
fact, it created tools that enabled it not only to 
"redistribute wealth", but also to establish a 
dependency attitude towards the State. These tools 
include the 21-21 fund, aimed at integrating jobseekers 
of all ages and levels, the 26-26 solidarity fund, which 
intervened in marginalized regions to reduce poverty, 
and the Banque Tunisienne de Solidarité, intended to 
finance young graduates and help them set up their own 
businesses. On a regional level, we would mention the 
mining center's reorientation and development fund, 
whose aim was to assist and support promoters in 
carrying out their projects. It should also be noted that 
another "redistribution" mechanism specific to the 
Gafsa coalfield region has been developed. At the time, 
as part of the modernization of the CPG, the regional 
branch of L’Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT) 
participated alongside the CPG in the amicable selection 
of people to be hired. Initially, certain social criteria had 
 
EXTRACTIVISM POLICY BRIEF – NO 5 |2024  
3 
to be met.1 But little by little, this prerogative, in the 
hands of a few multi-positioned executives of the 
national trade union center,2 gave rise to another form 
of politico-economic clientelism. In fact, these regional 
UGTT officials recruited their relatives without regard 
for previously agreed criteria. In this way, a social class 
was created that benefited from the existing system and 
development model, and would defend this system and 
ensure its continuity even after the fall of the political 
regime in 2011.   
 
A disastrous socio-economic situation 
Several factors are behind the economic and social 
decline in the Gafsa mining basin. Firstly, the 
international financial crisis, which had repercussions at 
national level and left the State unable to keep its 
promises to the local population of the mining basin. 
Secondly, the persistence of a corrupt development 
system based on clientelism and nepotism. Finally, the 
failure of several projects that were created in the Gafsa 
mining basin.3 Therefore, the situation continued to be 
regressive and triggered the 2010 protests. Sit-ins, 
strikes and endless demonstrations have led to a decline 
in phosphate production and even paralyzed this key 
sector of the national economy. However, successive 
governments have resorted to the short-term solution 
of recruiting job-seekers to ease the tension. This 
solution was very costly for the CPG, which was 
threatened with collapse. Indeed, a surplus wage bill can 
only reduce productivity. 
A change in the situation is deemed necessary, because 
the current social peace is only temporary. Carrying on 
recruiting jobseekers in return for this peace will only 
delay the outbreak of protests and increase the burden 
on the CPG, which is already in difficulty. The arrival of 
the new government, now equipped with the necessary 
means under the new constitution, is considered 
opportune for a reevaluation of both the development 
model and the governance of phosphate resources in 
the region. Indeed, the incident in the Gafsa mining 
basin highlighted the economic, social and political 
interdependence between the local and national scales. 
A sustainable4 and equitable development model must 
be put in place, one that takes into account the needs of 
the local population and the specific characteristics of 
the region, a development model that is capable of 
creating wealth and allowing the region to benefit from 
the advantages of the phosphate resource. Otherwise, 
this wealth would become a disaster for the region, and 
the local population would jeopardize it instead of 
safeguarding and promoting it.  
Moreover, the culture of good governance within CPG 
needs to be strengthened by training company staff in 
good governance practices. It is also necessary to create 
a climate of trust among the local population. To achieve 
this, CPG is called upon not only to strengthen the role 
of the Board of Directors by appointing independent 
directors and representatives of local communities and 
civil society to its Board of Directors, but also to promote 
transparency and fight corruption, by strengthening 
accountability and the public reporting system. The local 
population must be recognized as partners in regional 
development. They can no longer be sidelined or forced 
to abide by strategic choices and decisions taken 
without their prior consent.
| Conclusion  
 
The development model based on phosphate extraction 
in the Gafsa mining basin has led to the marginalization 
of the region and the exclusion of the local population. 
This model may have created jobs in the region, but it 
did not create wealth. The population felt neglected and 
 
1 Priority was given to the children of the company's workers, victims of an industrial accident.  
2 Such is the case of the regional secretary of the UGTT, who was at the same time a deputy of the RCD and CEO of the CPG.  
3 70 projects were given up for multiple reasons. radio.tn/archives/41695. 
4 Taking into consideration the economic, environmental and social dimensions. 
saw its local wealth expropriated by a company, or even 
by a state that had "neglected" it. This led to a feeling of 
frustration that gave rise to the 2008 uprising. Despite 
the decisions taken to develop the coalfield region and 
the promises made by those in power, the situation did 
 
EXTRACTIVISM POLICY BRIEF – NO 5 |2024  
4 
not improve, providing the fertile ground for the 
outbreak of the revolution on December 17, 2010. After 
12 years, the situation is no better, with phosphate 
mining constantly paralyzed by protests from the local 
population, who are still claiming their share of the rent. 
Even though an equitable and integrated development 
model is needed, its implementation is still stumbling. 
 
| References
Allal, A. (2010). « Réformes néolibérales, clientélismes et 
protestations en situation autoritaire. Les mouvements 
contestataires dans le bassin minier de Gafsa en Tunisie 
(2008). » Politique africaine 117: 107-125. 
Chouikha, Larbi and Geisser, Vincent. (2010). « Retour sur la 
révolte du bassin minier. Les cinq leçons politiques d’un 
conflit social inédit. » L’Année du Maghreb VI : 415-426. 
Gudynas, Eduardo. (2013). « État compensateur et nouveaux 
extractivismes : ambivalence du progressisme en 
Amérique latine. » Alternatives Sud 20: 49-66. 
Ministère de l’Économie des Finances et de la Souveraineté 
industrielle et numérique, Direction générale du Trésor. 
(2022). « Tunisie veille sectorielle. » June 8, 2022. 
https://www.tresor.economie.gouv.fr/Pays/TN/veille-
sectorielle. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
| The Project 
The collaborative research project extractivism.de links the Universities of Kassel and Marburg. The 
project scrutinizes the extractivist development model and proposes new economic, political, and 
sociological conceptions of extractivism. It preliminarily focuses on Latin America and the Maghreb 
patterns. The project researches the conditions under which these patterns affect the persistence 
and transformative capacity of extractivism and its respective institutional settings. Finally, it explores 
how extractivism affects cultural processes and habitual routines and questions under what 
conditions and how far the development model extends into institution-building and social practice, 
i.e., everyday life. 
The project aims to understand extractive societies not as deviants from the Western trajectory of 
development but in their own logic and their own particularities. The project, therefore, combines a 
strong empirical focus with theoretical work. It links both broad field research and data gathering of 
primary data and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of available secondary sources with a 
stringent transregional comparison. It develops methods in cross-area studies and investigates 
whether and why similar patterns of social change emerge in different areas and world regions 
despite significant cultural, social, or religious differences. Finally, the project intends to translate the 
findings for politics, society, and development cooperation. 
Please visit www.extractivism.de for further information.  
  
 


Extractivism and political instability in the Tunisian Gafsa mining basin

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