Algeria - tanks on streets as fundamentalists split The Algerian Islamic Salvation Front(FIS) appears to have split in two, while troops and tanks have recently flooded the streets of Algiers, killing at least eight protestors.
The FiS has taken advantage of a wave of was a double-edged victory: the FIS took control of local councils starved of funds by the central state in the midst of massive poverty, unemploment and a housing crisis.
Forced to impose austerity on the masses, the FIS have also failed a number of other important tests. An appeal by the FIS to ignore a general strike against falling living standards called by the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) was largely ig nored, with the action winning 95% support.
And a strike called by the fundamentalists on May 25 to protest at gerrymandering by the Chadli regime in the legislative elections was a patent failure. Demonstrations attracted only a few hundred and only handfuls stayed away in large factories.
But the youth of Algiers, particularly in the bab ti-vued area, moblused in large nunt bers against the Chadli regime. It is this, as well some large. fundamentalist demonstrations, that has forced the split in the FIS into the open and brought the regime's tanks out onto the streets.
The split between FIS leaders Fakir Bachir and Abassi Madani appears to be a disagree ment over tactics towards the Chadli regime. Madani advocates a continuation of the strategy of mass mobilisation on the streets, while Bachir calls for negotiation with the tion of movement (Pass WORKERS F COSATU MASS RALLY defence forces, which AUTRYING TOL ORGANISA TIC CRUSHOVA election of a constituent as-