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<h1 class="reader-title">Welcome to the New Algerian Revolution:
an Interview with Hamza Hamouchene</h1>
<span class="post_author_intro">by</span> <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/omhassan0991/"
rel="nofollow">Omar Hassan</a> - April 29, 2019</span></div>
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<p><em>In 2011, a wave of revolutionary struggle swept the
Middle East and North Africa, often bringing down
dictatorships that had governed for decades. Millions
protested on the streets, occupied public spaces and
demanded “bread, freedom and social justice”. Having
broken through the fear produced by years of
repression, the Arab Spring became an inspiration for
activists across the world.</em></p>
<p><em>Predictably, the existing elites – the military,
big business and the institutional Islamist groups –
refused to accept the democratic aspirations of the
people. Rather than subject their states to democratic
reform, they used all their tricks, including
cooptation and brutal repression, to defeat the
revolutionary movements.</em></p>
<p><em>Yet the conditions that sparked the Arab Spring,
notably the combination of extreme economy inequality
and political authoritarianism, remained unchanged.
While the first wave of the revolutions ended in
defeat, it was sure to be back. In Sudan and now
Algeria, enormous and persistent protest movements
re-emerged late last year with all the same courage
and dynamism. They have toppled their own military
dictatorships, although in both cases the military
remains in power despite the removal of the hated
figurehead.</em></p>
<p><em>Omar Hassan speaks to Algerian scholar and activist
Hamza Hamouchene, coordinator of Environmental Justice
North Africa and co-founder of the Algeria Solidarity
Campaign, about the mass movement sweeping the
country.</em></p>
<p><b>What have the protests in Algeria been about?</b></p>
<p>The mass protest movement started just a few days after
Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s announcement of his intention to
run for a fifth term as president. At first, the
mobilisations were small and localised, but they became
massive. Every Friday from 22 February, millions of
Algerians (some estimates are as high as 17 and 22
million in a country of 42 millions) – young and old,
men and women from different social classes – have taken
to the streets in a momentous uprising, re-appropriating
long confiscated public spaces. These historic Friday
marches have been followed by protests by workers in
education, health, the justice system, the petrochemical
industry, and student and trade union mobilisations,
making the contestation a daily matter.</p>
<p>What started as a rejection of the candidacy of a
physically unfit octogenarian president has transformed
in face of the obstinacy and deceptive ploys of the
ruling elites into a united rejection of the ruling
system, with demands for radical democratic change,
freedom and justice. This revolt is an expression of the
convergence of popular discontent from below with a deep
internal crisis within the ruling classes. Basically,
those from above can no longer rule in the old ways and
those from below can no longer take it.</p>
<p>It is also the expression of decades of profound pain
and anger and a rejection of the repressive
authoritarianism, suppression of freedoms, economic and
social exclusion, endemic corruption and nepotism,
parasitic accumulation and impoverishment, growing
social inequalities and uneven economic development in
the country. There is a lack of horizons, especially for
the unemployed youth risking their lives to reach the
northern shores of the Mediterranean to escape the
despair and the humiliation of being marginalised and
relegated to being Hittiste – the unemployed who ceased
to be stakeholders in post-colonial Algeria. And all of
this taking place in a rich country like ours!</p>
<p>The Algerian uprising is a revolt against dispossession
and plunder. The Algerian slogan, “The people want them
all to go!” (or, more accurately, “The people want them
to be all extirpated!”) is another version of “The
people want to overthrow the system!” – the slogan of
the Arab uprisings in 2010-11. In this respect, what is
happening in Sudan and Algeria is the continuation of a
revolutionary process in North Africa and West Asia, a
process with ups and downs, gains and setbacks, which
materialised in a neoliberal democratic transition in
Tunisia and bloody counter-revolutions and imperialist
interventions in the remaining countries.</p>
<p>The hope is that people in Algeria and Sudan will learn
from the experiences of their brothers and sisters in
other countries and push their revolutions even further
to achieve their fundamental demands of dignity,
justice, popular sovereignty and freedom, and end
decades of political and economic oppression.</p>
<p><b>There have been several videos released online that
demonstrate the creativity and solidarity of the
revolutionary movement in Algeria and elsewhere. Are
there any stories that have highlighted this for you?</b></p>
<p>The revolutionary movement in Algeria released the
boundless creativity of the “popular genius”. 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,
confidence, wit, humour and joy this movement has
inspired after decades of social and political
suppression. Humour and satire can be very subversive.
Algerians demonstrate this in their slogans, chants and
placards reviving and emphasising popular culture. I
have seen and heard so many online and in the streets in
several towns in Algeria. Here are a few I captured with
my phone camera:</p>
<p>“Algeria, country of heroes that is ruled by zeros”</p>
<p>“System change … 99 percent loading”</p>
<p>“We need Detol to kill 99.99 percent of the gang”
[referring to members of the regime]</p>
<p>And this one from a medical student: “We are vaccinated
and we have developed anti-system IgGs (antibodies) …
and we keep getting boosters every Friday”</p>
<p>“The problem is the persistence of idolatry and not the
replacement of the idol”</p>
<p>Some slogans were directly targeting French complicity
and interferences:</p>
<p>“France is scared that if Algeria takes its
independence it would ask for compensation for the metal
it used to build the Eiffel tower”</p>
<p>“Allo Allo Macron, the grandchildren of November ’54
are back”</p>
<p>And in reaction to calls by the chief commander of
armed forces, Gaid Salah, to apply article 102 of the
constitution, which would allow the leader of the upper
house to take over and to organise elections 90 days
after the presidency is declared vacant by the
constitutional council, people replied:</p>
<p>“We want the application of article 2019 … You are all
going”</p>
<p>“We asked for the departure of all the gang, not the
promotion of some of its members”</p>
<p>“Batteries are dead so no need to squeeze them”</p>
<p>“Dear system, you are a piece of shit and I can prove
it mathematically”</p>
<p>“Here Algeria: the voice of the people. The number 102
is no longer in service. Please call people’s service at
07” (in reference to article 07 stipulating that the
people are the source of all sovereignty)</p>
<p>When it comes to international solidarity, the
downtrodden and oppressed people in the region and
beyond are in a dialogue. The Sudanese and Algerians are
followings each others’ struggle and get more inspired
and more determined to follow with their own revolution
and topple the systems that crushed them for decades.
There is a funny cartoon by Algerian journalist Ali
Dilem showing Sudanese so far winning 2-1 against
Algerians because they toppled two heads of state
compared to only one in Algeria. The Moroccans are also
inspired by what is happening.</p>
<p><b>While the events of 2011 swept much of the region,
important local differences shaped the divergent
outcomes. For instance, in Egypt it was youth-led and
relatively loose, which meant it lacked institutional
and social weight at crucial times. In Tunisia, the
national trade union centre – especially its lower
ranks – was very important. What kind of social forces
have been leading the movement in Algeria? Are there
organisations or ideas of particular prominence?</b></p>
<p>The Algerian uprising has its own specificities,
strengths and weaknesses.</p>
<p>First, what makes this movement unique is its scale,
peaceful character and national spread, including in the
marginalised south. The movement is also characterised
by significant participation of women and especially
young people, who are the majority of the population.
Algeria has not witnessed such a broad, diverse and
widespread movement since 1962, when Algerians
celebrated their hard won independence from French
colonial rule.</p>
<p>Second, one can see this uprising as a continuation of
the anti-colonial struggle of the 1950s and 1960s to
regain popular and economic sovereignty. Many references
have been made in the protests and marches to the
anti-colonial revolution and to its glorious martyrs who
sacrificed their lives for Algeria’s independence,
reaffirming that formal independence has no meaning
without popular and national sovereignty – the ruling
elites have been selling off the country and its
resources for more than 30 years. These anti-colonial
sentiments are reinforced by a staunch hostility to
foreign interference and imperialist intervention.</p>
<p>Third is the unshakeable and eternal solidarity with
Palestinians: Algerians understand that their liberation
won’t be complete without the liberation of Palestine.
This is unique in the Arab world: alongside Algerian
flags, you always see the Palestinian flag. And people
commemorate Algerian and Palestinian martyrs without
distinguishing between them. This can be explained by
Algeria and Palestine being the only countries in the
region that experienced racist, genocidal
settler-colonialism.</p>
<p>Fourth, the arid political landscape that resulted from
the decimation of a genuine political opposition – the
bankruptcy of party politics within the country –
coupled with the repression and co-option of trade
unions led people to organise differently. In the last
few years, growing dissent and discontent have
increasingly been expressed through sectional protests
or the emergence of horizontal social movements,
especially in the gas and oil-rich Sahara.</p>
<p>There is an entrenched hostility toward political
parties. Similar to Egypt, the movement is youth-led and
relatively loose. There are no clearly identifiable
leaders or organised structures that are propelling it.
It is a popular uprising mobilising mass forces from the
middle classes and from the marginalised classes in
urban and rural areas affected by decades-long
neoliberal policies and a corrupt rentier economy within
the framework of a predatory globalisation that
facilitates the pillage of the country’s resources,
financial and natural. Students, workers (especially
those in the oil and gas sector), autonomous trade
unions, judges and lawyers are playing a very important
role in these mobilisations as they participate and
organise their own protests, call for strikes and keep
the momentum going. Unlike Sudan, where the Sudanese
Professional Association is playing a leading and
organising role, in Algeria it looks like things get
organised mainly through social media.</p>
<p>Finally, I am not one of those who, if they don’t like
the outcome of a revolution – or its forces, demands and
strategies – rush to downplay or deny its revolutionary
character. However, we need to be critical,
intellectually honest and learn from the mistakes of
previous revolutions. The valorisation of spontaneity
and “leaderless” movements, and the hostility to any
form of structuring, is not unique to the Algerian case
but has been seen in other revolutions in places such as
Egypt and Tunisia.</p>
<p>Spontaneity and leaderless movements will generate
large inter-class mobilisations that give the impression
of unity despite class, gender and ideological
differences. However, this can become dangerous when the
question of the socio-economic rights of the
marginalised are expelled from any debate. In such
scenarios, legitimate questions of popular sovereignty
and social justice will give way to vague liberal
notions of democracy, freedom and equality at the
expense of the fundamental demands of the wretched of
the earth.</p>
<p>This situation has been dubbed the “revolution without
revolutionaries” or “revolution without organising”.
These amorphous, non-structured and leaderless dynamics
and movements are extremely vulnerable. These
characteristics can be fatal weaknesses, especially when
repression starts.</p>
<p>This is the reality on the ground. But it is amazing
and inspiring to see people regaining their confidence
and starting to trust a collective “we”. I have seen how
they have not been fooled by the various ploys advanced
by the different factions of the system. The movement is
growing stronger and its demands are getting more
radical by the day. What unites them is that all the
symbols of the old system must go and must be made
accountable for all the pain and depredation they
caused.</p>
<p><b>The leading role of women in the protest movement in
Sudan has increasingly come to the fore, most
dramatically in the person of Alaa’a Saleh. This is
not a surprise for those who have studied history;
revolutions have often been described as festivals of
the oppressed. Can you talk about the situation in
Algeria in relation to women, the Berber minority and
other oppressed groups? What are their grievances and
what has their involvement been in the protests so
far?</b></p>
<p>Revolutions cannot happen without women and without
their active participation. The Algerian revolution is
no different. From the start of this popular dynamic,
women have played an important role linking their
demands against the patriarchy with the democratic
demands of the whole movement. I’ve seen how women’s
involvement has grown week after week. Their numbers
were significant in the protests I’ve seen in Algiers,
Bejaia and Skikda. They are also very much involved in
the student and trade union movements.</p>
<p>However, much of Algerian society is still conservative
and macho. One episode helps illustrate this: feminists
were harassed and attacked on one march in Algiers and
have been exhorted (by men) not to make feminist demands
– because they allegedly divide the movement. There was
also a video circulating, in which men threatened to use
acid against women who dare to advance such claims. This
might be an isolated and extreme incident, but it shows
the entrenched sexism and opposition to women’s rights
that are present in our society. A few days ago, the
police arrested four female activists and humiliated
them by forcing them to strip themselves of all their
clothes!</p>
<p>Despite all the achievements that women have made in
the last few decades in education, employment and
involvement in political life, their struggle for
equality with men and against patriarchal oppression and
violence is still far from over (as in all parts of the
world). They are still resisting a reactionary vision of
their role in society.</p>
<p>As for the Berber minority, I want to make a
correction: it is not a minority. The majority of
Algerians are ethnically Berbers (Amazighs). We are
Arabo-Berbers; Arabic is also an important part of who
we are as a cultural and political community. These
identity issues have created a lot of tensions in the
last few decades because our cultural diversity was
ignored for a narrower conception of our identity. The
Berber dimension of the Algerian cultural heritage was
marginalised and reduced to folklore.</p>
<p>However, the struggle to recognise Tamazight language
as an equal element to Arabic and Islam in our cultural
identity has achieved much since the Berber Spring of
1980, when the Cultural Berber Movement rose in the
Kabylie region in the north of the country. The Berber
Spring was the first large scale political challenge to
the regime since the early 1960s, when the Kabyles
articulated their grievances against regime
authoritarianism, its disdain for rich Berber linguistic
and cultural identity and its neglect of the region’s
economy. This true democratic mass movement inspired a
decade of continuing struggle and revolts.</p>
<p>In April 2001, an insurrection started in Kabylie and
in 18 months, a strong popular movement called La’rouche
occupied the front of the political scene and put the
question of democracy back on the agenda. This movement
organised a very impressive march on Algiers and
inspired many citizens in other regions to revolt
against Hogra (humiliation and social injustice).
However, that movement was co-opted, infiltrated and
crushed.</p>
<p>When people in the West talk about the Berber minority,
they mainly mean the Kabyle population. For reasons that
go back to colonial times, this region has been at the
frontlines of struggle against oppression and
authoritarianism. In the current events, this is no
different. The same goes for other Amazigh groups such
as the Chaouis, Mouzabit and Touaregs. All are involved
as Algerian citizens confronting the “divide and rule”
tactics of the ruling elites. Slogans were clear in the
marches: “We don’t want division, we are all Algerians”,
emphasising their popular unity.</p>
<p><b>What are the main strands of leftist thought in
Algeria and to what extent does the organised left
play a role in this movement?</b></p>
<p>The left should be the force that can bring freedom and
equality together. Not only political equality, but
socio-economic equality that eliminates class
disparities in society. Democracy cannot be complete
under the framework of the domination of capital and the
dictatorship of the markets. That’s why we need social
and economic democracy too. What would a young Algerian
do with freedom if they don’t have a job or decent
housing?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, for various reasons, including global
ones, the organised left in Algeria is fragmented,
atomised and weak. However, in revolutionary moments it
can revive itself and grow if it wants to play its
historic role as a tool for the masses to express and
achieve their fundamental demands of freedom, dignity
and justice. To do so, it needs to have a clear vision
of that desired future, it needs to be autonomous
intellectually and organisationally and must rid itself
of paternalism and become mass organisations in the
service of the masses.</p>
<p>The biggest lefty party in Algeria is the Workers’
Party of Louisa Hanoune, which is Trotskyist.
Unfortunately, for reasons beyond comprehension, Hanoune
supported Bouteflika for a long time because she
considered him a bulwark against imperialism. This
misguided “anti-imperialist” stance that ends up
justifying authoritarianism has been seen before,
especially in the case of Syria with Bashar al-Assad. It
is ironic when the Bouteflika era is the most
ultra-liberal era in the history of independent Algeria,
with many concessions made to multinationals and Western
capitals. It is the era of the compradorisation of the
ruling elites by aligning their interests and
subordinating national ones to those of international
capital. Simply put, Bouteflika’s system dispensed with
popular legitimacy to benefit domestic and international
capital.</p>
<p>There are other smaller organisations and political
parties, such the Socialist Workers Party and the
Democratic and Social Movement, trying to multiply
initiatives such as calls for the self-organisation of
workers, students and popular masses. This initiative
should be encouraged and strengthened. We are already
seeing this within the student movement and in attempts
by some rank and file trade unionists to re-appropriate
the country’s largest union, the General Union of
Algerian Workers, and to oust its corrupt, pro-business
and pro-regime leaders.</p>
<p><b>In places such as Egypt there is a strong political
tradition defending the military based on its supposed
“Arab Nationalist” past. Are there similar illusions
in Algeria regarding the government’s roots in the
National Liberation Front (FLN)? And how much have
people absorbed the lessons of the military’s
reactionary role in the Egyptian revolution?</b></p>
<p>The National Popular Army in Algeria has a unique
history as it originated from the anti-colonial struggle
against the French and has played a predominant role in
the political sphere ever since. So it still has some
revolutionary legitimacy despite all its excesses since
independence in 1962 – including the killing of hundreds
of youths in the 1988 Intifada, the military coup of
1992 and its implication in massacres and in the war
against civilians in the black decade of civil war that
followed.</p>
<p>Because of the deep militarisation of society, there is
justified fear of the army and what it can do. The
military high command and the generals have participated
in parasitic accumulation and entrenched corruption
within a military-oligarchic nexus that denies the
Algerian people their right to self-determination.</p>
<p>The FLN has been completely discredited as the civilian
façade of an authoritarian corrupt military rule. The
decisive entrance of the people onto the political stage
forced the military high command to distance itself from
the presidency. The military intervened to put an end to
Bouteflika’s reign to safeguard the regime. Bouteflika’s
abdication is a significant moment in the popular
dynamic as this is only one victory in the long struggle
for radical change that must include the overthrow of
all the symbols of the system, including major general
Gaid Salah, 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.</p>
<p>The army leadership is not to be trusted. This was made
clear by Salah’s initial threats against the movement
before he adopted a more conciliatory tone. In a 10
April declaration from Oran, a port city in the
north-west, the general said there is no other solution
to the crisis except through a constitution designed in
the first place to safeguard the ruling elites and their
interests. Basically, he is giving his support and
weight to a transition controlled from above – to a coup
against the popular uprising. Salah and the military
high command are the spearhead of the counter-revolution
that has shown itself openly, including in the violent
repression of peaceful protesters. Those with illusions
in him – and in his announcements that he is on the side
of the people and their aspirations – have become much
more cautious.</p>
<p>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. The Algerian people –
especially the popular masses – need to be wary of the
interventionism of such actors to avoid a scenario à la
general Sisi in Egypt. There too, Sisi claimed that he
intervened on behalf of the people when he executed a
coup against Morsi. We all know what has happened since.
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. The Algerian people need to be more vigilant
and determined than ever to stop the
counter-revolutionary forces from hijacking this
historic uprising.</p>
<p><b>What are the immediate tasks and challenges facing
the movement?</b></p>
<p>In this, the 9th week, despite all attempts to
manipulate through propaganda – to divide, to instil
fear – the movement is not faltering. It is growing and
spreading. No one expected that judges would come out
and support the popular movement and even refuse to
oversee the next presidential elections scheduled for 4
July. Students are still organising huge protests and
marches all over the country to support Al Hirak Acha’bi
(the popular movement) and have called for a national
strike. Some autonomous trade unions are maintaining
their calls for strikes to support the ongoing dynamic.
This week, around 40 mayors declared their refusal to
organise elections in their localities. Some
organisations of civil society are determined to
re-appropriate public spaces by organising public
debates and activities, which are not allowed in the
capital Algiers and which end in repression and arrests.</p>
<p>We’ve also seen how various ministerial visits were
disrupted or cancelled as people chased several
ministers from Tebessa, Bechar, Tissemsilt and Tipaza.
It is becoming clear that people are rejecting the
regime’s transitional plan and we are living in a
revolutionary situation that could escalate and
radicalise, depending on the reaction of the ruling
classes and the level of political consciousness and
organising in the movement. What the protesters are
calling “members of the gang” have huge vested interests
in maintaining the status quo. They will do whatever it
takes to preserve these, including sacrificing
scapegoats to gain time and save the system.</p>
<p>We cannot be naïve; revolutions come at a cost and
repression will be in the mix. The peaceful or violent
character of a revolution is always determined by the
oppressor and its methods. The balance of forces must be
shifted significantly toward the masses by maintaining
the resistance (marches, protests, occupations of public
spaces, general strikes, etc.) to force the army command
to yield to people’s demands for system change and the
removal of the entire old political guard.</p>
<p>Some of the challenges facing the movement can be
summarised:</p>
<p>It must structure itself by encouraging local
self-organisation through neighbourhood committees,
student collectives, independent local representations
and the opening up of spaces for discussion, debate and
reflection to have a solid platform or a coherent
program.</p>
<p>It must be endowed with popular and democratic
structures and mechanisms that allow us to strategise:
how to formulate clear demands, what kind of tactics to
adopt and when to escalate resistance or negotiate. We
cannot rush into elections as it will be always the
structured forces (including the ancient regime) that
will take over.</p>
<p>At this crucial juncture, it is very important to
insist on individual and collective freedoms of
expression and organising all the time, not just every
Friday.</p>
<p>We must categorically oppose any transition managed by
the comprador oligarchies and the military and call for
a sovereign and popular constituent assembly to come up
with a popular and democratic constitution that will
consecrate social justice and popular sovereignty over
natural resources. The democratic transition must be in
the hands of the people, managed by its forces and for
the people.</p>
<p>We must continue to reject any foreign intervention in
the ongoing events.</p>
<p>Finally, we must wed social justice and socio-economic
rights to democracy because this revolution expresses a
general will of the downtrodden to defend their common
interests.</p>
<p>Radical change is not a programmed push-button
operation; it is a protracted political process,
requiring confrontation and sacrifices that, at certain
times, lead to a path prepared by long struggles and
accumulated experiences. To paraphrase a saying familiar
to Muslims: “Let’s work for radical change as if it
would take an eternity to realise, and let’s prepare the
ground for it as if it’s going to happen tomorrow”.</p>
<p><em>This article was originally published by <a
href="https://redflag.org.au/node/6759">Redflag</a>
on April 17, 2019.</em></p>
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