In response to the coronavirus epidemic, the Algerian government opened at least five bank accounts at the External Bank of Algeria (BEA) to enable Algerians to “participate financially in the fight against the coronavirus”. This included two accounts in Algerian dinars, one in euros, one in US dollars and the last one in pounds sterling.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s illegitimate government dares to ask for the money they have stolen from Algerians! This is absurd! Shameful! Revolting! The capitalist state solicits the help of the poor to defeat the virus.
This is the typical approach of the capitalist system, which only works for short-term profits. On the one hand, they run down the public hospitals by not providing them with the necessary resources, equipment and personnel, under the pretext that they do not produce enough in the way of profits. On the other hand, they call for solidarity, trying to create surges of nationalism to regain support from the people. So, in the end, it is always the workers who pay!
Many Algerians have reacted quite rightly to the press release… “Let them go and fill the special emergency account with the money they have in their Swiss bank accounts,” was how one teacher reacted. Or, as one young student said, “I’m sure that if we chose the account of just one of them, we could save the entire public sector in Algeria!”.
We see every day that because of the present economic system that dominates the world, society is incapable of fighting a virus and one which was scientifically entirely predictable. It is high time to organise so that the fight of the workers’ movement, young people, the unemployed, women and other workers becomes a fight against the exploitative and failing capitalist system and for a fairer system, where the economy is nationalised and democratically managed by the working class and wider public: socialism.
For a free, democratic Algeria with equal rights for all: a socialist Algeria!
