As protests by millions of workers and youth demanding the removal of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika have continued and escalated this past week, strikes against social inequality, layoffs and exploitative working conditions are spreading rapidly. The French-language daily El Watan reported on Monday that a new call for a three-day general strike beginning Tuesday to demand the removal of Bouteflika has spread on social media, independently of the trade unions. A similar call earlier this month led to a nationwide strike on March 11-12, hitting some ports and oil fields, most public transport networks, and the entire education system. "Although the (strike) call is anonymous we must expect that it will be followed like the previous appeals for marches and the previous strike," the newspaper stated. On Monday, a wildcat strike erupted at the Tosyali Algeria steel plant in Béthouia, Oran, Algeria's second-largest city, employing 4,800 workers. The morning shift walked out in protest at an attempted suicide by a worker at the plant. Workers staged a sit-in outside the plant and circulated a petition on the premises for an immediate withdrawal of confidence in the local union, "considered to be in cahoots with the factory management," and the election of a new representation. The workers are also demanding a 100 percent base wage increase, an increase in individual and collective performance bonuses, and an end to abusive layoffs against workers. The workers' rejection of the trade union is part of a widespread hatred of the official union bureaucracies, which function as corrupt agents of the employers and the government. The head of the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) is backing Bouteflika against the mass protests demanding his removal. More than 1,000 workers at the Turkish-Algerian construction company Ozgun-Nurol-Engoa (ONE), who are involved in building the Tizi Ouzou-Bouira roadway, began a strike on Sunday to oppose the sackings of dozens of workers. They are also demanding payment of bonuses tied to the construction of tunnels and the road. The protests demanding the removal of the military-backed regime headed by figurehead president Bouteflika have continued to grow over the past two weeks. On March 12, the regime announced that Bouteflika would not contest upcoming elections, but extended his rule indefinitely, postponing elections until after 2019. The announcement included cosmetic changes, including a cabinet reshuffle, the announcement of a "government of national competencies" and a "national conference" picked by the regime. The working class opposition to Bouteflika is driven not only by the demand for the removal of the regime, but for an improvement in the conditions of life for the broad mass of the working class and an end to intense social inequality over which the regime presides. — Agencies
