Protests are once again shaking Tunisia. A new finance law, which imposes drastic austerity measures on the country’s workers, has sparked a wave of resistance. Put into effect on January 1, this legislation meets the requirements of a $2.9-billion IMF loan by increasing prices on basic goods, reducing public sector employment, and hiking the value-added tax (VAT). The government is repressing the uprising harshly: it’s already killed a protester and arrested 800 others.

Seven years after the successful revolution against dictator Ben Ali, the economic inequities of his system remain. The government projects an image of Tunisian exceptionalism: it embraces Western liberal values, becoming the “modern,” “progressive,” and “democratic” exception within the colonially constructed image of the “Arab world.” This self-presentation is designed to obscure three decades of neoliberal economic policies, undertaken to please the West.

Both the pre- and postrevolutionary governments followed the instructions of Bretton Woods institutions. They privatized a majority of state-owned assets, public institutions, natural resources, and subsidies for fuel and food. The West sees the overthrow of Ben Ali as a “successful revolution,” in contrast to the unfolding wars in Syria, Yemen, and Libya. But the Tunisian working class is still struggling against the nation’s economic reality.