A powerful wave of workers’ struggles has rocked Algeria in recent weeks. Shelagh Smith investigates how battles in the workplaces have evolved alongside the Hirak protest movement. More than two years since the Hirak protest movement erupted in Algeria against a fifth mandate for President Bouteflika and the regime which has ruled Algeria since independence…
As his personal exhibition, ‘Tears that taste of the sea’ opens at the October Gallery in London, Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi tells Almaas Yahye and Julie Henri about his project in Zarsis, Tunisia, a memorial garden commemorating the lives of people who drowned trying to cross the sea to Europe and how his work reflects…
The Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) reported on 25 May a serious escalation in the repression and violence facing the opposition to the Algerian regime. A few days before the parliamentary elections on 12 June which are supposed to bring about a ‘New Algeria’, the regime is resorting to all-out repression…
by Shelagh Smith During 2020 and the start of the coronavirus pandemic, repression of Hirak activists, human rights activists and especially journalists has increased. Over 90 people are currently in prison in Algeria for acts related to the Hirak. On 15 September an appeal court in Algiers sentenced journalist Khaled Drareni to a two-year prison…
The Algerian regime hoped that a referendum on constitutional changes would draw a line under two years of mass mobilisations from below, writes Shelagh Smith, but the low turnout and continuing strikes tells a different story. November 1 is the celebration of the start of the Algerian war for independence from the French in 1954.…
By Shelagh Smith The strike of the workers of Numilog in Bejaia, Kabylia, is playing an important role in building confidence and solidarity in the Algerian workers movement. Their conflict with the transport and logistics firm, part of the huge Cevital group, began in July when three workers were sacked for setting up a trade…
By Shelagh Smith On 15 September an appeal court in Algiers sentenced journalist Khaled Drareni to a two-year prison sentence over his coverage of the Hirak protest movement. Two activists, Samir Benlarbi and Slimane Hamitouche, were each sentenced to a year in prison, eight months of which were suspended, in the same sham trial. The…
By Shelagh Smith An Algerian court on August 10 sentenced journalist Khaled Drareni to three years in jail. Drareni was charged with “inciting an unarmed gathering” and “endangering national unity” based on his Facebook posts. He had been detained since March awaiting trial. This harsh verdict is being widely condemned by Algerian and international human…
by Shelagh Smith This is an article from the current issue of Middle East Solidarity magazine – help us continue our work by donating £2 for a digital copy online Seventeen months after the protest movement, or Hirak, exploded onto the streets of Algeria in February 2019, there has been no fundamental change to the…
For the past year, a massive popular movement has repeatedly shaken Algeria. Shelagh Smith draws up a balance sheet. This is an article from the current issue of Middle East Solidarity magazine – help us continue our work by donating £2 for a digital copy online On 12 December 2019 a new president was declared…
