April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

Wage increases achieved in the public sector, after years of struggle and
strikes remain derisory. And as these increases have not even been
implemented everywhere, they are already eaten up by soaring prices. In
the private sector, the situation is even worse. To go shopping and feed
one’s family has become a daily challenge; for the increasing number of
people with no job, it is an impossible task. The insecurity of life and
rampaging misery have convinced most Algerian people that the public
measures of price controls are absolutely useless, and give total freedom
to speculators and monopolies to increase relentlessly their profit margins
on the backs of the poorest, including small shop keepers and market and
street vendors. In the streets of the working class neighbourhood of Bab El-
Oued in Algiers, which has become a symbolic bastion of the protests,
people kept repeating, “50% wage increase for the cops! And what about
us?” Indeed, the only sector which has benefited recently from a
significant wage increase has been the police, in a conscious attempt by
the State to increase the reliability of its armed forces amid growing
prospects of social disturbances.
Fearing losing control over the situation, an urgent meeting of ministers
last weekend agreed a number of measures to reduce the price of sugar
and cooking oil. But this will hardly be enough to appease the situation,
even less the huge hatred against the regime. Indeed, even if the rising
cost of living has become a critical concern and one of the decisive triggers
of the recent revolt, the reasons for the anger are much more profound.
What the youth are expressing in the streets is part of a general
discontent. “Expensive life, no decent housing, unemployment, drugs,
marginalisation”. That’s how the inhabitants of Oran, the second biggest
Algerian city, are summing up the reasons of their protests.
There as elsewhere, this cocktail of factors, framed by a police state
which muzzles any serious opposition, and protects the clique of rich
corrupt gangsters in power, constitutes the background of recent events.
Social inequalities between the poor and the ruling elite have grown in
proportions not seen since independence. While Algerian GDP has tripled in
the last ten years, the gigantic revenues from oil, responsible for most of
this growth, have only served to fill the pockets and bank accounts of a
tiny minority, close to the ruling clan, while the majority of people
increasingly suffer from under-nutrition, or even famine. The increasing
cases of money laundering and corruption affecting all sectors and at all
levels of decision-making, have contributed to highlight the continuous
hijacking of the country’s wealth for the benefit and luxurious life of a
few.
Reported by the newspaper, El Watan, a young demonstrator marvellously
summed up the situation: “Nothing will hold us back this time. Life has
become too expensive and famine is threatening our families, while
apparatchiks are diverting billions and are getting rich at our expense. We
do not want this dog’s life anymore. We demand our share in the wealth of
this country.”
Youth in despair
In 2001, young Algerian protestors facing live ammunition shouted to the
police: “You can not kill us, we are already dead”. The same “nothing to
lose” spirit is fuelling the present rebellion of the youth. Indeed, no
perspective is on the offer for a generation that is particularly hardly hit
by huge levels of unemployment, and reduced to day-to-day survival
activities. Officially, unemployment affects 21.3% of young people
between 16 and 24; the reality is probably even worse, as all the statistics
are completely falsified by the authorities, with some even estimating that
60% of the active population below 30 are without work. Even a large