79 The Algerian elections april 2014.

THE ALGERIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Algeria and Egypt share much incommon inherited from Boumedienne and Nasser’s time. These two similar nationalpopular projects of industrialisation and modernisation achieved importantpositive social progress, but were unable to move beyond their limits and thusopened the way to reversal. Reactionary political Islam took advantage of thesocial disaster produced by thesubmission of post Boumedienne and post Nasser regimes to the neo liberal recipes. Yet in the twocountries this sad false alternative was defeated, at least for the time being.Nevertheless there are major differences between the two countries which oughtto be mentioned.

The Algerian pre-colonial societyhad been thoroughly disintegrated by the onslaught of the French colonisation;and the political power of its former aristocratic ruling class plainlyremoved. The result was that Algeria became a plebeian society whosecitizens aspire to equality to an extent unknown elsewhere in the Arabcountries. The Algerian liberation war further reinforced these exceptionalaspirations. In this respect the historical travel of Algeria differs fromother. In Egypt modernisation was constructed from the very beginning, in thetime of Mohammad Ali Pacha, by the Egyptian ruling class which unwrapped intoan aristocratic bourgeoisie, albeit accepting later its submission to theImperial British and later US order.

In Algeria the “Islamic SalvationFront” revealed its criminal face throughout the civil war that it initiated byits own decision. It was defeated by the Army and the State with the support ofthe people. The Algerian State, under President Bouteflika, also defeated theproject of establishing in the Western Sahara of a so called Islamic “State”(named “Sahelistan”) at the expense ofAlgeria, Mali and Niger. This “emirate”, on the pattern of the Gulf States,would have monopolised the oil, uranium and other mineral wealth and aligned onthe US pattern of globalisation.

Chadli Benjedid who succeeded toBoumedienne had proceeded along the same extreme policies as those of Sadat andMubarak : unlimited privatisations, personal involvement of top officers in theplunder of State property, dismantlement of the national control of oil, uncontrolledopening to transnationals, corruption. The Islamic Front intended to pursuethese policies, but to the exclusive benefit of its “emirs”, just like Morsidid. But in Algeria after the civil war, with Bouteflika, these policies werepartly corrected with steps taken to restore State control over the economy andin particular oil, including re-nationalisations, along with concessions to thedemocratic and social demands and the rights of the Amazighs far more actual thanelsewhere in the Arab region. Therefore no surprise that Algeria offers signsof a stronger capacity to resist imperialist global order than many othercountries. The Algerian ruling class is certainly divided and ambiguous; butnational aspiration is still alive among many of its leaders, in contrast with,for instance, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan, where the local bourgeoisie isentirely aligned and submitting to global imperialism. For all these reasonsAlgeria is a potential enemy that the West intends to destroy, if not throughan Islamic regime (which was defeated), at least through the manipulation ofthe legitimate democratic demands, eventually the secession of the Sahara andthe Kabyle region.

The election of Bouteflika is nosurprise. In spite of his age and health a majority supports his plan for therecovery and certainly rejects a come-back of the Islamists. Moreover hiselection gives time to settle the internal conflicts among the ruling classesand avoid chaos. But the people voted with no enthusiasm; they expect more thanwhat has been achieved. The future of Algeria remains unsettled. Aconsolidation of an independent policy associated with social progress, whichis the condition for its success, implies, as elsewhere in today’s world,significant advances in the democratisation of the society. Whether thischallenge is understood and taken up by the political forces both supportingthe regime or fighting it remains uncertain.

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