<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/10/we-woke-up-and-you-will-pay-algeria-in-revolt/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/10/we-woke-up-and-you-will-pay-algeria-in-revolt/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">“We Woke Up and You Will Pay!” Algeria
in Revolt</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/nrk7z8j111/"
rel="nofollow">Hamza Hamouchene</a> - April 10, 2019</span></div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content line-height4 reader-show-element"
dir="ltr">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p><span lang="en-US">What is happening in Algeria is
truly historic. The people won the first battle in
their struggle to radically overhaul the system.
Abdelaziz</span><b> </b><span lang="en-US">Bouteflika,
president for the past twenty years, was forced to
abdicate after more than six weeks of street
protests and a re-configuration of alliances
within the ruling classes.</span></p>
<p>Since Friday, February 22, millions of people,
young and old, men and women from different social
classes have taken to the streets in a momentous
uprising, re-appropriating long-confiscated public
space. Historic Friday marches followed by protests
in several sectors (education, health, petrochemical
industry, students, etc) united people in their
rejection of the ruling system and their demands of
radical democratic change.</p>
<p>The two emblematic slogans of this peaceful
uprising — “They must all go!” and “The country is
ours and we’ll do what we wish” — symbolize the
radical evolution of this popular movement that was
triggered by the octogenarian president’s
announcement to run for a fifth term despite dealing
with serious health issues; Bouteflika has not
addressed the nation for nearly six years.</p>
<p>What makes this movement really unique is its
massive scale, peaceful character and national
spread, including the marginalized south. The
movement is also characterized by a significant
participation of women and especially young people,
who constitute the majority of the population.
Algeria has not witnessed such a broad, diverse and
widespread movement since 1962, when Algerians went
to the streets to celebrate their hard-won
independence from French colonial rule.</p>
<p>The uprising caught many by surprise. In early
February, the political mood was still that of
despair and resignation at what the authorities were
preparing to do with the presidential elections
scheduled for April 2019. The generally arid
political landscape resulted from the decimation of
a genuine political opposition within the country
coupled with the repression and/or co-optation of
trade unions and other such civil society actors.</p>
<p>The popular mass protests starting from late
February, however, upturned this status quo and
created huge potential for change and resistance.
When chanting “We woke up and you will pay!” the
people are expressing their newly-discovered
political will. The liberatory process is at the
same time a transformative one. We can witness this
in the euphoria, energy, creativity, confidence,
wit, humor and joy that this movement has inspired
after decades of social and political suppression.</p>
<p><span lang="en-US">This revolution is like a breath
of fresh air. The people have affirmed their role
as agents of their own destiny. Following Fanon,
it </span><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/13/the-legacy-of-frantz-fanon/"><span
lang="en-US">illustrates</span></a><span
lang="en-US"> how, in the midst of the worst
disasters, the masses find the means of
reorganizing themselves and continue their
existence when they have a common objective of
getting rid of their oppressors and emancipating
themselves. </span></p>
<p><b>DOMESTIC PEACE, INTERNATIONAL ACQUIESCENCE</b></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">This decisive awakening on the
part of the people and their growing political
awareness are harbingers of good things to come
and of the stormy days ahead for the profiteering
caste and their foreign backers who have been
scandalously enriching themselves. In the midst of
increasing </span><a
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/wretched-of-sea-algerian-perspective/"><span
lang="en-US">pauperization, unemployment</span></a><span
lang="en-US">, </span><a
href="http://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/27927/Algeria,-an-Immense-Bazaar-The-Politics-and-Economic-Consequences-of-Infitah"><span
lang="en-US">paralyzing austerity, the pillaging
of resources</span></a><span lang="en-US">, </span><a
href="https://www.counter-balance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/energy_colonialism_algeria_eng.pdf"><span
lang="en-US">uneven development and corruption</span></a><span
lang="en-US">, the rationality of the current
revolt and rebellion becomes absolutely clear.</span></p>
<p>First of all, it is important to note that this
eruption of popular anger is the result of an
accumulation of struggles and acts of resistance
that date back to the ‘80s, the most recent examples
being the anti-shale gas uprising of 2015 and the
unemployed movement since 2012 in the Algerian
Sahara.</p>
<p><span lang="en-US">The Algerian uprising should
also be analyzed within </span><a
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/algeria-and-arab-spring/"><span
lang="en-US">the context of a protracted
revolutionary process</span></a><span
lang="en-US"> that has swept across the Arab
region in the last decade, starting from Tunisia
and spreading to Egypt and a dozen other
countries. Obviously, this process has been
fraught with contradictions and has seen ups and
downs, gains and setbacks, which materialized in a
liberal democratic transition in Tunisia and
bloody counter-revolutions and imperialist
interventions in the remaining countries that have
witnessed these uprisings. </span></p>
<p>Nine years ago, Algeria seemed to be immune to this
revolutionary fever and was viewed as the exception
to the rule, despite harboring the same set of
conditions for revolt. At the time, the government
suggested that Algeria already had its “spring” over
two decades earlier, referring to the short-lived
democratic transition following weeks of
demonstrations in October 1988 that forced the
regime to give way to political pluralism and an
independent press. However, these gains in civil
liberties and the “democratic transition” were
aborted by the military coup and the civil war of
the 1990s.</p>
<p>In addition to ongoing forms of repression,
collective memories of hundreds of thousands of
deaths and brutal state violence underpinning the
eradication of the Islamist opposition may help
explain the failure of an uprising to take root in
Algeria during the 2010-2011 period. The spectre of
the civil war and the fear of bloody violence have
been further exacerbated by the intervention in
Libya, the counter-revolution in Egypt and the
carnage and foreign interference in Syria.</p>
<p>Additionally, oil and gas revenues — which prices
peaked in the late 2000s — were used to purchase
social peace domestically and to secure
international acquiescence. Domestically, the
hydrocarbon bonanza was used to pacify the
population and prevent the intensification of
popular anger. Externally, by virtue of being the
third largest provider of natural gas to Europe
after Russia and Norway, and given the dwindling
production in the North Sea and the Ukrainian
crisis, Algeria hoped it could leverage this
position to play an even more important role in
securing Europe’s energy supplies, and by extension
Western collusion and approval.</p>
<p>These factors do no longer constitute a brake on
people’s desire for meaningful change as popular
discontent from below converged with a deep crisis
within the ruling classes leading to the indignation
of the oppressed to burst forth and find its
expression in the streets.</p>
<p><b>A POLITICAL CRISIS AND INTERNAL POWER STRUGGLES</b></p>
<p>Algeria has been undergoing an acute
multi-dimensional crisis for some time now. The
country has been experiencing a political crisis for
decades — in particular since the 1992 military coup
and the ensuing brutal civil war. The origins of
this crisis date back to the colonial era, though
its most recent manifestations are the direct result
of the politics of a parasitic accumulation and
entrenched corruption: a militaro-oligarchic nexus
that denies the Algerian people their right to
self-determination and dispenses with popular
legitimacy for the benefit of domestic and
international capital.</p>
<p>This crisis has been exacerbated by several
factors, not in the least by the ailing Bouteflika’s
general absence from the political stage. The crisis
has been compounded by intra-elite power struggles,
culminating in the fall of Algeria’s long-term king
maker, the Military Intelligence Agency (DRS) Chief
in 2015 and the cocaine scandal of 2018, which led
to the sacking of the head of police, a few generals
and other high functionaries in the Ministry of
Defense.</p>
<p><span lang="en-US">In a context of the failure of
the institutionalized opposition and social
movements to articulate and carry out a viable
alternative, </span><a
href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056244.2016.1213714"><span
lang="en-US">we predicted in 2016</span></a> <span
lang="en-US">that </span></p>
<blockquote>
<p>the slump in oil prices may just hammer the final
nail in the coffin of a rentier, non-productive
and de-industrialized economy that is highly
dependent on oil and gas exports, the main source
of foreign currency…..With the oil prices
plummeting and with foreign currency reserves
(estimated at $179 billion at the end of 2014)
deemed to not last beyond 2016-2017, the 1988
experience could easily be replicated and the
crisis has the potential to escalate into a full
explosion that will threaten the country’s
national security and possibly its territorial
integrity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><span lang="en-US">The recent events come at a time
of an acute economic crisis characterized by
crippling austerity measures following the decline
of oil and gas export revenues, coupled with an
intensification of infighting and divisions within
the ruling elites after the imposition of the
candidacy of Bouteflika for a fifth term at the
helm of the state. </span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">The triad of power consisting of
the presidency, military intelligence (DRS) and
the armed forces’ high command showed its </span><a
href="http://jadaliyya.com/Details/32546/De-dramatizing-Algerian-Politics"><span
lang="en-US">first signs of weakness</span></a><span
lang="en-US"> in 2008 when the DRS started
clashing with the two other centers of power. In
2019 the split was complete, when the decisive
entrance of the people unto the political stage
effectively forced the armed forces’ high command
to distance itself from the presidency. The
military clearly intervened to put an end to
Bouteflika’s reign in order to safeguard the
regime in place.</span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">Such public displays of rivalry
and dispute are symptomatic of the deep-seated
contradictions and instability of the current
ruling block and the crisis of hegemony within it,
which has opened up new spaces for resistance. </span></p>
<p>This is a significant moment in the popular dynamic
that started in February 2019 as this is only one
victory in the long struggle for radical change that
must include the overthrow of Major General Gaid
Salah too; a key loyal figure in Bouteflika’s regime
and a supporter of his fifth term before
backtracking under the pressure of the growing
popular movement. The army leadership is definitely
not to be trusted, as was made clear by Major
General Salah’s initial threats towards movement
before adopting a more conciliatory tone. The
Algerian people need to be more vigilant and
determined than ever in order to halt the
counter-revolutionary forces from hijacking this
historic uprising.</p>
<p><span lang="en-US">Now that Bouteflika resigned, it
is absolutely necessary to implement a truly
democratic transition, and the people should not
yield to calls for applying article 102 of the
constitution, which would allow the leader of the
upper house to take over and to organize elections
in 90 days after the presidency has been declared
vacant by the constitutional council (as the
incumbent is too ill to exercise his functions). </span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">Basically, if applied to the
letter, this will keep the current system in place
and will not guarantee free and transparent
elections. The people are asking for popular
sovereignty which cannot be curtailed by rigid
legalistic and constitutionalist arguments. This
is a unique moment in Algeria’s history to impose
a new revolutionary paradigm, which go beyond
legal and constitutional frameworks in order to
radically challenge the status quo and create a
fundamental break with the oppressive system in
place.</span></p>
<p>There are already several proposals to resolve the
crisis and to initiate a kind of a transition that
will satisfy peoples’ demands and give them back
their stifled sovereignty. The army command must not
interfere with this process and must stick to its
constitutional role of guaranteeing national
security. Algerians did not revolt to replace some
oppressors with others.</p>
<p>For this reason, the balance of forces must be
shifted significantly towards the masses by
maintaining the resistance (marches, occupations of
public spaces, general strikes, etc) to force the
army command to yield to people’s demand for system
change entailing the removal of the entire old
political guard.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<p><b>UNDERLYING ECONOMIC CAUSES</b></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">The economic crisis that lies at
the heart of the current revolt, </span><span
lang="en-US">has been </span><a
href="http://jadaliyya.com/Details/27927/Algeria,-an-Immense-Bazaar-The-Politics-and-Economic-Consequences-of-Infitah"><span
lang="en-US">long in the making</span></a><span
lang="en-US">. By the mid 1980s, Algeria’s
nationalist development program of the ‘60s and
‘70s was deemed to be a failure and the attempt to
disconnect from the global capitalist system was
halted and replaced by a market economy. Similar
to processes occurring elsewhere in the region,
this new orientation entailed the
de-industrialization of the economy, the
dismantlement and privatization of public
companies, deregulation and other forms of
neoliberal restructuring. As a result, a
military-private bourgeoisie nexus took the lead
in shaping Algeria’s socio-economic agenda in line
with the globally dominant neoliberal doctrine. </span></p>
<p>In the 1990s, the Algerian experience was not only
one of horrific civil war but also of forced
economic liberalizations dictated by the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank. It was Algeria’s turn to experiment with the
“Shock Doctrine” by introducing painful and
extremely controversial policies. A course that
entailed the break-up of state-owned companies,
borrowing from the IMF, the initiation of the
import-import bazaar economy, not to mention the
subjugation of the Algerian people to harsh
austerity measures and further surrendering national
sovereignty.</p>
<p>This process of re-linking the national economy to
international capital resulted in the
compradorisation of the ruling elites by aligning
their interests and subordinating national ones to
those of international capital. Yet, by the end of
the 90s, Algeria’s excesses led to its diplomatic
isolation.</p>
<p><span lang="en-US">The Bush administration’s
declaration of a “global war on terror” following
the 9/11 attacks provided a perfect opportunity
for the Algerian ruling classes to garner renewed
Western — and especially American — backing. In
late 2002, president Bouteflika penned a letter,
titled “A Friend in Algeria”, which was published
in the Washington Times. In it, he pledged full
intelligence cooperation and energy security to
the United States. In a nutshell, over the two
decades following the 1992 coup d’état, the
Algerian regime’s reliance on external — as
opposed to popular — legitimacy and support became
the modus operandi.</span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">We cannot fully appreciate the
political situation in Algeria without
scrutinizing foreign influence and interference
and apprehending the economic question from the </span><span
lang="en-US">angle of </span><a
href="https://www.counter-balance.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/energy_colonialism_algeria_eng.pdf"><span
lang="en-US">natural resource grabs and energy
(neo)colonialism</span></a><span lang="en-US">.
This includes the enormous concessions made to
multinationals and the pressures coming from
outside to execute further liberalization in order
to remove all restrictions to international
capital and fully integrate Algeria into the
global economy in a totally subordinate position.</span></p>
<p>The attempts to finalize a new hydrocarbon law in
2019 that will be friendlier to multinationals and
which offers more incentives (read concessions) for
them to invest epitomize this tendency and opens the
way to destructive projects such as exploitation of
shale gas in the Sahara and offshore resources in
the Mediterranean.</p>
<p><b>TOWARDS A TRUE DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION?</b></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">If Algeria continues on this
path of liberalization and privatization, we will
definitely see more explosions of popular unrest
and discontent as a social consensus cannot be
achieved while pauperization, unemployment and
inequality continue. If maintained, the neoliberal
policies will block the democratization process in
Algeria and will end up reinforcing an
authoritarian regime with a democratic façade. </span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">The primacy of the
socio-economic question has been demonstrated by
the Tunisian experience: a neoliberal “democratic”
transition that has not resolved any of the
problems that led to the revolution. It was rather
a dynamic proces</span><span lang="en-US">s </span><span
lang="en-US">that <a
href="https://roarmag.org/essays/tunisia-protesting-austerity-demanding-sovereignty/">crushed</a>
the revolutionary spirit of the people</span><span
lang="en-US">.</span></p>
<p>Democracy means the sovereignty of the people and
cannot be reduced to mere electoralism. Genuine
democracy can only be constructed when it is opposed
to imperialism and its local lackeys in the
comprador bourgeoisie, as well as to neoliberal
capitalism and its dispossessing policies. In order
to achieve genuine national independence, social
justice and true democracy, we cannot separate the
democratic (anti-authoritarian), social
(anti-capitalist) and anti-imperialist struggles.</p>
<p><span lang="en-US">The latter dimension has been
reasserted by a staunch hostility to any foreign
interferences by the Algerian people. They
strongly rejected French complicity with the
ruling factions and disapproved of attempts by the
former Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra to
internationalize the conflict through his trips to
US, Europe, Russia and China.</span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">Following this, it becomes clear
that any transition that will not address
questions of social and economic justice as well
as national and popular sovereignty on natural
resources will be vacuous and will sow the seeds
of future revolts and uprisings. We will
definitely do better than continuing to implement
more of the disastrous economic policies that led
the people to rise up and revolt in the first
place.</span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">After Bouteflika’s abdication a
new chapter has begun in the Algerian uprising; a
chapter where organizations and intellectuals who
are highly conscious and armed with revolutionary
principles ought to bar the way to the rule of the
military and the comprador oligarchy. Slogans such
as “The army and the people are brothers” cannot
be applied to the corrupt generals that benefited
from and upheld Bouteflika’s rule. </span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">The Algerian people — especially
the popular masses — need to be wary of the
interventionism of such actors in order to avoid a
scenario à la Sisi in Egypt. There too, Sisi
claimed that he intervened on behalf of the people
when he executed a coup against Morsi and we all
know what happened after. It could be tactical to
profit from the ongoing internal power struggle
among the ruling elites, but it would be a fatal
mistake to believe that the leadership of the army
would be on the side of the people or their
revolution. </span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">At this time, the organic
revolutionary intellectuals and opposition leaders
and activists need to assume their historic role
of engaging and thinking with the masses,
educating them politically, organizing them and
taking their demands forward. In this respect,
autonomous trade unions, students committees,
unemployed people’s organizations can play an
important role mobilizing people and channeling
their anger. </span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">Some in Algeria are calling for
a three to six months transitional period. This
must be rejected as we need not to rush. Enough
time must be given to the masses to organize
themselves locally and for representatives and
leaders to emerge organically in order to fully
participate in the construction of a radical
democracy. </span></p>
<p><span lang="en-US">Confrontation is at the heart of
every revolutionary practice, so instead of
avoiding it, </span><span lang="en-US">it</span><span
lang="en-US"> is better to prepare and keep
organizing and multiplying spaces for debate and
reflect</span><span lang="en-US">ion</span><span
lang="en-US"> on true democratic alternatives to
the current exploitative and authoritarian status
quo. The masses must continue to mobilize </span><span
lang="en-US">and to</span><span lang="en-US">
reject any foreign intervention. </span><span
lang="en-US">I</span><span lang="en-US">n order
not to miss this historic opportunity, </span><span
lang="en-US">t</span><span lang="en-US">he
democratic transition has to take place upon the
initiative and under the guidance of the people.</span></p>
<p><em>A version of this article first appeared in <a
href="https://roarmag.org/">Roar magazine</a>.</em></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://freedomarchives.org/">https://freedomarchives.org/</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>