IN OUR last issue SANADJA, member of the PST (Socialist Workers Party, supporters of the Fourth international in Algeria) explained the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Here she looks at organisations in Algeria and the national question in the Berber region of Kabyle. BEFORE 1988 the FLN was the only legal party. After 1988 we saw 60 parties legalised, along with various associations. Women also organised themselves, notably around the Family Code.
There were three associations led by different political currents.
Socialist The Stalinists controlled the L'Association de Defense et Promotion des Femmes [ADPF - Association for the Defence and Promotion of Women]. In the Association Pour L'Emancipation des Femmes [APEF -Association for the Emancipation of Women] the majority of leaders were from our current, the PST. And the Association de L'Egalite Entre les Hommes et Devant la Loi [AEHDL - Association for Equality between Men Before the Law] where the majority were Lambertists (adherents of the French Trotskyist organisation, led by Pierre Lambert).
The two Trotskyist-led associations were for the complete repeal of the Family Code and for civil law, whilst the Stalinist led organisation was in favour of revising the Code.
However there were differences between us and the Lambertists. We argued that whilst we had to call for the repeal of the Family Code it was also necessary to conduct an educational campaign to combat the fundamentalists.
At that time the Lambertists considered the fundamentalists a secondary issue: they saw the main task as opposing the law and the government. However we often worked together, though the Stalinists frequently refused to join in.
In 1989 there were three or tour thousand women on demonstrations, but by 1990 over thirty thousand. After the abrogation of the electoral process the movement broke up over an important political question.
The ADPF and a current within the AEHDL were in favour of stopping the elections and the army taking power. The other organisations were for continuing the electoral process.
The problem that we encountered was that whilst politicised militants agreed that it was necessary to continue the electoral process, not stop the elections just because the fundamentalists were at the door, many ordinary women did not agree.
For them continuing the elections meant an Islamic state, with women being confined to the home.
They said they could not understand how we, as feminists, could have such a position. It's true that our position was, and still is, very difficult to understand within the feminist movement. It is a very complex We proudly announce our situation.
Unfortunately no third road exists at present. During the 1991 elections there was a small opening. The FIS was in first position the FFS (Front de Forces Socialistes - Front of Socialist Forces) was second and the FLN was in third place.
But after the second round the FIS had a clear majority, the FLN was in second place and the FFS was unfortunately third. I could vote for this party, certainly not for the FLN or the FIS, but the problem is that it has very little implantation in the Arabic speaking areas. It is primarily in Kabyle.
There is a long history, dating back to colonial times, of governments fomenting divisions between the Arab and Kabyle (Berber) populations.
The government played this card a great deal. Anti-Kabyle and conferences. That is because there are more facilities, we don't have the FIS on our backs, there isn't the state of siege that exists in the cities.
The rejection of the FIS in Kabyle is greater than in the Arabic speaking towns - not just amongst women, the whole population rejects them.
The fundamentalist phenomenon in Algeria is not primarily a religious project: it is, above all, a rejection of the exisung autordes.
There are a lot of young men who drink alcohol, even young women who wear mini-skirts who voted for the FIS. Disgusted by the FLN and lacking a third alternative they turned to the FIS.
National question However, in Kabyle there