The main slogan, shouted again and again, was "Pouvoir Assassin" (The rulers are assassins), referring to the more than 80 deaths in Algeria of demonstrators protesting the April 18 killing of a high school student under police custody in the Kabylia region of the north African country. Many carried signs with pictures of those killed by Algerian government forces.

"In Algeria, there is no work," explained Hadjeb Hanafi, a 52-year-old worker at the Alstom transformer plant outside Paris. "Young people graduate from school with diplomas, but there is nothing to do. Why have I been here for 31 years? In my district in Algeria there are 20 villages. During the last year 27 young people have come clandestinely to France to look for work. Others have gone to Spain and the Czech Republic." As an example, he pointed to a 29-year-old friend at the demonstration who arrived in France four months ago.

Hadjeb stated, "Young people in Algeria aren't going to stop. They say if we stop we're done for. They want to go all the way--to install democracy." Another demonstrator, Aziz, said, "This is the only way to go forward. Getting democracy is a problem of all Algerians, it's not a Kabyle problem." Both Berber and Algerian flags were prominently displayed throughout the crowd.

Demonstrators chanted demands that the Berber language Tamazight be taught in schools. Another slogan was, "Generals, on your knees!" referring to the top military officers who seized power at the behest of the French government in 1991 in order to annul an election that would have brought an opposition Islamic party to power.

Banners indicated that participants had come from as far away as Belgium, and Rouen and Mulhouse in France. Many came from local Berber cultural associations. Hadjeb said he thought the "political parties, the Regroupment for Culture and Democracy (RCD) and the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) have been discredited by their collaboration with the government. That's why it's the cultural associations and an immigrant radio station, Beur FM, that organized the demonstration."

A week later, on June 24, around 4,000 people attended a meeting and cultural event in Paris to commemorate the anniversary of the assassination of popular Berber singer Matoub Lounes. He was ambushed on a road in Algeria three years ago under circumstances that left many Berbers suspecting government complicity. The meeting called for a genuine investigation into the singer's disappearance and that justice be done.

Another 1,000 people gathered elsewhere in Paris to welcome 15 Berber marchers who had left Rouen, 100 miles from Paris, five days earlier. The marchers had stopped in towns along the way with large Berber communities to drum up solidarity with the actions against repression in Algeria.

During the rally demonstrators sang the hymn of the Algerian Revolution that forced an end to French colonial rule during an eight-year war that cost the lives of 1 million Algerians.

Derek Jeffers is a member of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and an auto worker at the Peugeot plant in Poissy.  
 
 
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