------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 28, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- MASS PROTESTS ROCK ALGERIA By G. Dunkel The Algerian masses, both Berbers and Arabs, came out June 14 in a huge anti-government demonstration--estimates ranged from 400,000 to 2 million. They marched on the National Palace in Algiers until beaten back by water cannons, tear gas and police clubs. They came in trucks, cars and buses by the hundreds of thousands. A group of youth even marched over 120 miles on foot from Amizour. They came at the call of representatives of the Berber regions of Bejaia, Setif, Bordj Bou-Arreridj, Tizi Ouzou, Boumerdes and Bouira as well as the coordinating committees of the universities of Algiers. They called for solutions to Algeria's urgent social and economic problems: jobs for the 80 percent of the youth who are unemployed, housing, clean drinking water and roads. They demanded that the cops come under "the effective authority of democratically elected bodies" and that the military police be immediately withdrawn from all Berber areas. Another major demand was that Tamazight, the Berber language, be constitutionally recognized as an official, national language. Ever since a rebellion broke out in mid-April, after a high school student was beaten to death in a police barracks for protesting the banning of a Berber poetry reading, the Algerian government has attempted to discredit the movement. The government said the Berbers were attempting to divide the country. The protesters, they claimed, were doing the work of the Islamic fundamentalists, who waged a civil war costing 100,000 lives from 1991 until it collapsed last year. The government's position has some gaping holes. Some of the Islamic fundamentalist parties, which spent a decade opposing the government, have now joined it as a result of a peace deal. The Berbers, many of whom carry Algerian flags in their protests, have made it clear that the recognition of their language and cultural rights would not divide but unite Algeria by removing a major "source of frustration." Arabic-speaking communities in the eastern part of Algeria exploded after June 14. Thousands of youths in the working- class sections of Annaba, a major port, poured out into the streets, enraged by television coverage of the Algiers march. They set up street barricades, threw anything they could get their hands on at the cops, and chanted, "We want drinkable water, electricity, roads" and "Long live democracy, we want an Algeria run by civilians, not by generals." Other cities also saw major protests. All the Algerian press agree that most of the country, Arabic- and Berber-speaking alike, is ready to explode. Tensions are at a breaking point. The government, which is basically controlled by the army, can either back down or order the army to drown the protests in blood. But will the soldiers fire on their brothers and cousins, fathers and uncles, sisters and mothers? - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
