By Amira EL-Masaiti
Moroccan police fired water cannons at protesting teachers who were marching toward a royal palace and beat people with truncheons amid demonstrations around the capital Wednesday.
Several demonstrations were held Wednesday, marking exactly eight years after the birth of a Moroccan Arab Spring protest movement that awakened a spirit of activism in this North African kingdom.
Teachers’ unions held a protest outside the Education Ministry in Rabat, the capital, and then tried to walk up an alley toward the nearby royal palace, prompting a crackdown.
Police officers beat several protesters to the ground. Associated Press reporters saw multiple teachers injured, and several who fainted. Ambulances and police cars filled the neighbourhood.
The thousands of protesters, many wearing white teachers’ robes, came from across Morocco to Rabat to seek salary raises and promotions and protest the limited opportunities for low-ranking teachers, who earn an average of 400 euros ($454) a month. They are also angry over temporary government contracts that do not cover health care or pensions.
“We are doing a peaceful march, but unfortunately the police are cracking down on us. Teachers are falling to the ground. Teachers are being insulted. Our message is education. Stop the injustice,” cried out demonstrator Naima Kalaii, who came from eastern Morocco to join the protest.
They chanted slogans and carried signs from the February 20 protest movement, named after the date of the first major nationwide Arab Spring protests in Morocco in 2011.
At that time, tens of thousands took to the streets across Morocco demanding democratic reforms and social justice. Moroccans didn’t bring down a dictator like counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt, but they now regularly hold demonstrations to tackle challenges from water shortages in neglected provinces to sexual violence and police abuse.
Now Morocco sees an average of 48 protests daily, according to the ministry for human rights.
Some participants in the February 20 movement lament the limited results of all this action and the fading promise of the 2011 protests. Some also worry about a return to heavy-handed police response to demonstrations. AP
