Algerian revolutionaries: now get rid of the lot of them!

Those who have never known any ruler but Bouteflika have risen up against his perpetual presidency. Those who lived through the “Black Decade” between the hammer of military rule and the anvil of the terrorist groups have overthrown fear and destroyed illusions, bringing the masses once again to centre stage by forcing Bouteflika to go back on his decision to stand for a fifth presidential term.

Even before the fall of the regime and getting rid of Bouteflika completely, the Algerian uprising represents a huge leap away from a past which shackled Algerian society, towards a future which the masses can create.

When the Arab Revolutions began in Tunis and Egypt and Syria and Yemen and Bahrain and Libya, Algeria remained calm in the midst of the storm. This was not the calm of contentment and acceptance, but the fear of chaos. The regime had succeeded in sowing the belief that any attempt at opposition or protest would return society to the 1990s, when Algerians paid a terrible price for the bitter struggle between the Algerian authorities and the terrorist groups. The regime used the horror of this period to make any mass mobilisation impossible.

Algerians have have overthrown the illusion that Bouteflika and his kind are secure in their posts. The uprising has opened the way to a future that is not overshadowed by the past and is not weighed down by illusions.

In the past Algeria remained calm while the revolutions erupted around her. Today as the counter revolution has taken hold, and authoritarian regimes have been established, uprising is dispelling illusions inside Algeria and renewing hope for peoples who have suffered tyranny, exploitation and repression.

Revolutionary Socialists in Egypt
12 March 2019