For the past two decades, workers in Algeria have been fighting for the right to form trade unions independent of the government and the official trade union organization UGTA. And, for decades, the government has responded with systematic harassment and repression. A 2014 Human Rights Watch article, Algeria: Workers’ Rights Trampled, traces their struggle and sums it up in these words: “The government punishes peaceful protesters and strikers, including with retaliatory suspensions or dismissals from public service jobs, and arbitrarily arrests and prosecutes union activists on politically motivated charges.”
Trade union militants now face a double-barreled repression. They are targeted as trade unionists challenging the monopoly of the UGTA, and under attack for their role in driving and sustaining the ongoing democracy movement, the magnificent Hirak which erupted in February last year.
The Hirak dislodged Bouteflika, but could not shake the structure of power, at the heart of which is the military. The street could not prevent the December 12 electoral farce which millions of Algerians understandably view as thoroughly illegitimate. Behind the façade of an election in which citizens were asked to select one of five presidential candidates approved by the military, the crackdown on civic activists, including trade unionists, has intensified.
