The Battle Of Algiers

For weeks Algerian workers had staged wildcat strikes at state-owned enterprises, including Air Algerie and the Post and Telegraph Service. Last week the growing anger over high prices and unemployment exploded into the worst riots to rock the nation since it won independence from France 26 years ago. For three days gangs of youths rampaged through Algiers, attacking government buildings, supermarkets, foreign airline offices, restaurants and nightclubs. On Friday some 6,000 demonstrators chanted Islamic slogans.

President Chadli Bendjedid declared a state of emergency, imposed a curfew and called in the army to restore law-and-order. Total property damage was estimated at more than $100 million. The government said 900 people were ! arrested, and without disclosing figures admitted that people on both sides were killed during battles between protesters and security forces. Whatever the toll, the outburst jolted Bendjedid’s ten-year-old regime, which has sought to revive the country’s petroleum-depressed economy with an austerity program that included cuts in subsidies for food and other commodities. The result has been sharply rising prices: a pound of beef now costs about $12. With popular discontent still unaddressed, the outlook could well be for further unrest.