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

from the Tunisian revolution: “The people want to overthrow the regime!”
Despite the heavy police presence, students were able to make the police
temporarily retreat. This was followed by an assault on the students by the
riot police, injuring about 100 young people.
This came after a week of youth riots that shook many parts of Algeria at
the beginning of this year - the ending of which gave the impression of a
“false start”. There has also been a poor attendance at the regular
Saturday demonstrations organised against the regime in Algiers. This
could be explained by the presence, within new initiatives for “change”,
of former personalities and ministers involved in previous governments.
After this, many commentators rapidly jumped to conclusions, declaring
that Algeria had somehow “escaped” the domino effect and wind of
revolution from neighboring Tunisia and Egypt.
Superficially, this might seem true, since a mass political movement
against the regime is not yet on the agenda. But a look below the surface
of things gives a sharply different picture. Significantly, the General
Secretary of the National Liberation Front (FLN, part of the ruling
alliance), recently declared, “we are not hit by what is taking place in the
other Arab countries, but nothing says that we are safe”, arguing that
“only the reinforcement of the internal front, unity and national cohesion
can protect us against such developments”.
The weakness of political opposition in Algeria clouds, in fact, a sharp
radicalisation on the social front. According to Algerian paper ‘El Watan’,
March 2011 saw a new record level of social protests in the country.
Working class anger has been expressed by industrial actions in virtually
every sector of the economy, the numerous local protests and sit-in
actions by unemployed people to demand jobs, as well as the important
mobilizations of university students for several weeks. This could be the
prelude to mighty movements of an unprecedented scale, that could
rapidly take on a political character. This is somewhat confirmed by the
growing cracks appearing inside the state apparatus and ruling circles. The
fact that Algerian President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has not addressed the
nation since last October indicates that behind the scenes, big tensions
and manoeuvres are taking place.
Regime in fear
“The huge presence of police officers in the capital gives you an idea of
how frightened the regime is of its people.”, recently commented a
blogger activist interviewed by Al Jazeera. The confidence of the masses,
though still profoundly affected by the trauma of the 1990s civil war, has
been notably boosted by the removal of the state of emergency adopted
on 22 February. This concession has been interpreted by the majority of
the people as an open testimony of the regime’s fear of mass,
revolutionary movements.
Actually, it is the majority of the population which is in a constant “state
of emergency”. The French newspaper ‘Le Monde’ already reported in
March that“One after another, the various sectors are moving into action:
yesterday the railwaymen, today the doctors, tomorrow the fishermen.
Students, unemployed, women’s rights activists, communal guards...
Collectives are springing up like mushrooms in an Algeria hit by an
unprecedented fever of demands. On Tuesday in Algiers, even the blind
have joined the social protest to defend their rights.”
The new series of strikes has even affected sectors which usually see little
protest, such as the judiciary system (with a six-day strike movement by