Panic in Algiers
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The Algerian capital no longer Sleeps, since the massacre of hundreds of people in the eastern suburb of Haouch Rais. The population is arming itself, for protection against whoever is responsible for the waves of violence in the country. Salhi Chawki As a new wave of violence hits Algeria, Western powers are beginning to doubt whether the Zeroual regime is capable of assuring control, for itself and on behalf of the west, over the regions of Algeria where the fundamentalists are active.
The Algerian elite may have been reassured by the US ambassador, who, in the wake of the latest massacres, confirmed his country's support for "military measures" by the Algerian regime against its Islamic fundamentalist opponents.
But only the elite will sleep safer: Outside a few, well protected rich districts, the people of Algiers now pass the night in their fields or on their balconies, armed in self-defence with stones, axes, kitchen knives and sometimes Molotov cocktails.
The Haouch Rais massacre came after months of systematic attacks on isolated villages in the regions of Tlemen, Média and Blida. Planned massacres, with all the horrible details you have head about. But the urban population was not as worried about this far-off threat as by the dozens of bomb attacks in busy urban settings. Collective panics regularly emptied the busiest streets, and unfamiliar parked cars provoked a huge number of false alerts.
And yet, life went on. The parliamentary election on June 5th was proceeded by thousands of meetings, squeezed in between the bomb scares. And the beaches were packed with people all summer. Privatisation begins
Despite popular distrust, and public accu-------
2 International Viewpoint #293 sations of massive fraud, president Zeroual succeeded in using the June election to give a varnish of respectability to his regime.
Immediately after the results were announced, and before the new government was formed, the most painful parts of Zeroual's neo-liberal reform programme were implemented. A range of enterprises in the construction, publishing and retail sectors were liquidated. The almost total privatisation of the chemical sector was announced, as well as the partial privatisation of the mechanical and electronic sectors. Everywhere, redundancies were predicted or announced.
Coffin-chasers from all over the world flocked to Algiers to divide up the remains of the state industrial sector. Most nationalised companies had been unable to overcome the isolation and withdrawl of foreign investment which began in 1994 when the Armed Islamic Group began attacking foreigners.
A few deals have already been announced. Daewoo will take over a truck factory in Rouiba and a television factory in Sidi Bel Abbes. The Korean group promises to invest $2billion. Pfizer and other pharmaceutical groups have also announced investment plans.
The International Monetary Fund is insisting that land too be privatised, something the regime has been nervous about attempting The IMF also demands the lifting of Algeria's remaining protective barriers
-------around the national economy.
When the government presented this reactionary programme, most of the parliamentary parties, except the Berber minority's Cultural-Democratic Rally (RCD), expressed the population's concerns about the measures called for by the IMF. Ait Ahmed's Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), which used to encourage western economic pressure on the Algerian dictatorship, denounced the interference of IMF Chairman Michel Camdessus in Algerian internal affairs. Many Members of Parliament (MPs) from the government coalition (RND, FLN, Hamas) said they would only support Prime Minister Ouyahia if his government abandoned plans to privatise agricultural land and parts of the education system, and if it reversed the planned closure of a number of enterprises.
Social and labour struggles are again on the increase. After three months of strikes, workers at ENAL are increasing the number of sit-ins. Workers at the Sider metalworking complex in Annaba, near the Tunisian border, challenged management's announcement of 6,000 redundancies. In July, workers at the Rouiba truck factory, facing the loss of several thousand jobs, became the centre of unitary "days of action" involving 30,000 workers in Algeria's main industrial zone, just outside the capital.
This movement of protest grew and spread across the country, but had no spokesperson or organised centre. The UGTA trade
union federation, one of the bases of President Zeroual's new party, only exists during its "negotiations" with the regime, in the name of the working class. But here and there, local union bodies did emerge as the leaders of the protests, like in Skikda (a petrochemical and gas-extraction region) and above all in Rouiba, where the union played a central role in the mobilisation.
Obviously, these were expressions of defensive resistance, by groups of workers threatened by job cuts and the dismantling of the nationalised industries. Their pressure is above all an attempt to stop the flood of redundancies which have been announced. In general, the context of insecurity in the country reduces people's 'militant energy' And economic policies which are dissolving the working class have atomised the workers. Nevertheless, this anti-liberal awakening, late as it is, is an important step in the possible reconstruction of the organised working class, in a way that will prevent the Islamic fundamentalists from capitalising on the wideThe shock of Haouch Rais
These challenges to privatisation, on the ground and in parliament, showed that Algerians were increasingly able to contain the burden of fear under which they live within "manageable proportions." As public security pressures subsided, society began to live again. And to debate matters of great importance.
At this point there was a new series of bomb attacks in Algiers, and a wave of rural massacres, starting in Média and moving past Chréa closer and closer to the capital. Then came the terrible news from Sidi Moussa, an eastern suburb of Algiers itself. More than 400 people had been murdered. Their throats cut. Their bodies mutilated. The young women kidnapped. The cattle stolen.
Then, in the western outskirts of Algiers, on the road to the top-security residences of the elite, 63 residents of Beni Messous village were killed. This was the first in a series of attacks in and near the Bainem forest, normally a popular destination for day-trippers from Algiers.
Panic spread in the villages closest to the capital. In Baraki and Zghara, people from outlying houses began spending the night outside the nearest police station, rather than in their isolated homes. Rumours that the region was being infiltrated by Islamic fundamentalists, usually false, provoked panics.
Under pressure from the agitated population, the police agreed to distribute arms. And this time, without the political selection used in recent years to create the regime's Communal Militias. In Baraki, which already has a sizeable military presence, some 1,000 weapons were distributed to the population.
These new self-defence structures are being created in an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Women and children are moved to safer accommodation, while the men spend the night patrolling, or standing sentry. Most have only sticks and knives. The vigilance is not very effective: sirens wail at the slightest alert, throwing people into confused agitation.
While people used to accuse the army of being responsible for a part of the massacres, you increasingly hear people criticise the army for not having intervened. And in the streets, many people have resumed normal contact with the police, though the army is still distrusted and avoided. Who is responsible?
It is hard to find the truth amid the cacophony of rumours circulating among a traumatised, sleepless population. The massacres themselves leave few witnesses. But it does seem that the army was not responsible for these latest massacres, as many people
Nor does the finger point towards the Communal Militias armed and controlled by the regime. They do seem to have been responsible for some other collective murders earlier this year. But these latest attacks were concentrated in the capital region.
The failure of the armed forces to protect the citizens is not evidence of a machiavelian plan to collaborate in the attacks. No distribution of police forces can protect 28 million people, spread over Algeria's two million square kilometres of territory. And in any case, the protection of the citizens is not the primary purpose of the repressive system. It exists to protect the ruling classes, and ensure
On the other hand, it is not impossible that some milieus, preparing for the privatisation of agricultural land, are trying to drive the peasants off the most fertile land.
The attacks certainly surprised the regime. It seemed to believe that the worst was over. On August 20th, President Zeroual had even announced "the end of terrorism."
The strategy of the armed fundamentalist groups has changed. They used to impose their own, brutal authority on whatever population they could control. But increasingly, their strategy has been to carry out punitive raids against an entire population that they consider to be ettekfir (unbelievers).
In this war against the godless, murder and pillage are justified. And virgin girls and cattle are legitimate booty.
These groups have taken refuge in inaccessible mountain regions like Chréa and Zbarbar. From these base-camps they organise punitive expeditions, local genocides, in order to remind the world that they exist, at a moment when the regime is proclaiming a military victory, and reasserting its political
In this desperate the growing structures of popular self-defence are the only act of civil dignity which can respond adequately to the horror facing Algeria. Armed self-defence is the only way to fight the type of aggression
Algerians are suffering, providing that it can be properly armed and structured. *
Correction
In the past, this magazine has incorrectly described the
Parti Socialiste des Travailleurs as the "Algerian Section"
of the Fourth International. The Leadership of the PST rejects such a description, stating that "reactionary legislation has obliged the PST to abstain from all membership of or affiliation to international organisations."
contents the event
2
Panic in Algiers • Salhi Shawki europe
4
Britain: A democratic advance
• Gordon Morgan
4
Greece: Test case for "anti- terrorist" measures
5 the other Europe
Ireland: Diplomacy clashes with
6 reality • John McAnulty
7
Interview with IRA spokesperson
Javier Soland's "new NATO"
8
• G. Buster africa
10 Mauritius: British colonialism after
Hong Kong • Alain Ah-Vee
10 Nigeria: Hunger strike by Ogoni prisoners americas
11 The lean, mean university
12 Mexico's Lesbian feminist parliamentarian • New federation shakes labor politics (p. 13) •
Massive welcome for Zapatistas in
Mexico City (p.14)
Brazil: Unity in the Workers Party?
14
16 Say "No!" to Nike!
16 Haiti: US firms disinvest
18 Reject APEC, build solidarity
20 Canada: Bigots repelled
• Richard Banner
21 The other America asia
Australia: The new far-right
22 coalition • Norm Dixon
23 The other Asia
24 Indonesia's new labour code •
First PRD Congress
26 Egyptian farmers protest land reform
26
Palestinian refugees protest
UNRWA cuts
27 Ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem
28 Philippines: Who's the culprit for the financial crisis • Sony
Melencio regular features
30 book notes
32 History: Pietro Tresso
• Livio Maitan
33 culture
34 conferences
36 NetWorking • Internet action
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