Photo Credit: YouTube/KabylieTimes
A shopkeepers’ strike in Algeria’s eastern coastal wilaya of Béjaïa devolved into violent protests on January 3. An anonymous call for a general strike circulated [Fr] on social media over the preceding days after the Parliament passed the 2017 finance law on December 28. The new budget includes [Fr] broad tax increases across various sectors to compensate for deficits the global drop in oil prices has created in Algeria’s heavily hydrocarbon-dependent budget.
The demonstrations began as a peaceful strike against the finance law in the morning, devolving [Fr] into more violent protests in the afternoon as hundreds of youth joined. Videos and reports have surfaced [Fr] of widespread looting and tire fires. Clashes between protesters and security forces broke out when anti-riot forces attempted to disperse [Fr] demonstrators after they began to throw stones at authorities. Protesters then reportedly overturned [Fr] police vehicles to block roads and burned a public transportation bus. The majority of those who took part in the violence in Béjaïa were reportedly young, some adolescent, with few job prospects. Several demonstrators were arrested [Fr] by security forces and several were injured as anti-riot police deployed [Fr] tear gas. Multiple civil society organizations, including the Algerian Defense of Human Rights League (LADDH), came forward to denounce [Fr] the violence.
In 2011, the government responded [Fr] to similar protests with public sector salary raises, subsidies and youth loan programs. Due to the drop in oil prices, however, the authorities no longer have the means to instate these costly policies to calm social unrest. The Interior Minister, Noureddine Bedoui, announced [Fr] that the situation in Béjaïa has been “managed” and store owners have begun to cautiously reopen their businesses as calm seems to have been restored [Fr]. Many still worry [Fr], however, that these protests represent a deeper, underlining social unrest that requires a larger economic and political solution to the financial hardships created by Algeria’s dependency on oil revenues.