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Algeria

“A repressive headlong rush unprecedented since 2001”

Parti socialiste des travailleurs (Socialist Workers’ Party) (Algeria)

Monday 20 September 2021, by PST - Socialist Workers Party of Algeria

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The regime, which is struggling to build a new popular legitimacy, is embarking on a repressive headlong rush unprecedented since 2001. Under the sign of a war against ghosts, it undertook to establish a climate of terror on the territory of the wilaya of Bejaia and at the national level.

This climate is characterized by a hunt for hirak activists under the guise of fanciful accusations of belonging to a terrorist group. Several arrests and kidnappings have been carried out, provocations and insults are uttered, a manhunt is underway and simple expressions through Facebook posts lead to prosecution.

A willingness to submit

The ongoing repression and arrests in Kherrata, Aokas, Adekar, Ait Rezine and so on aim to inculcate fear in the population. The reinforcements of police officers sent to the territory of the wilaya which remind us of the sinister days of April 2001, emphasis this desire to subject a historically rebellious people committed to the pursuit of the hirak.

Beyond the hirak, this offensive is part of a desire to break people’s mentalities and inhibit any social resistance in view of the attacks on social gains that are being prepared. Hasn’t the government announced the upcoming privatization of banks and state-owned enterprises for the benefit of a new oligarchy? Didn’t it announce the end of social subsidies the day after the local elections?

Should we participate in the elections?

In this context of indiscriminate repression, the locking of the political field and arbitrary detentions of innocent activists, is it politically and democratically sustainable to participate in the formal establishment of APC/APW whose announced mission is to manage the misery promised for the broad popular masses and predation for the new oligarchies? [[APC = assemblée populaire communale (communal popular assembly) ; APW = assemblée populaire de wilaya (wilaya popular assembly).
In these conditions, is participating in these elections not endorsing the imposed pursuit of the institutional normalization of a regime with a lack of legitimacy? Is it not turning our backs on the millions of Algerians who aspire to change, progress and freedom, but who showed their rejection of the elections, in their tens of millions, at the election of 12 June?

The PST section in Bejaia denounces this repressive drift which calls into question democratic freedoms and infringes on the fundamental rights of citizens. The PST calls on the population not to give in to panic, to build solidarity and coordinate initiatives.

Bejaia section

16 September 2021

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