How sad the Workers Party (PT) has become. Like the other parties of the Algerian pseudo-opposition, it has come to represent only the strongest of the undesirable tendency in Algerian politics. Loud mouthed, full of angst and at a loss for action-oriented principles, the PT has contracted a virus that munches away on its host and then moves on to gobble up yet another. It is the myth of participatory opposition. Its leadership will deny that description, but its activities and activists will persist in naming it so. Like the MSP, it is ready to sacrifice what is left of its popular legitimacy for cabinet post and more parliamentary seats. Like most Algerian parties, its role in corruption and the preservation of the ruling class become more evident and more powerful as one goes up the food chain towards the houses of parliament from the municipal aide. Its popular marginality as a half-way communist group preclude it from posing an ideological or operation threat to the ruling castes, but its moderate following and image of anger make it useful in Algeria’s managed democratic show business. In a broken polity, it represents a rising star, along side the “nationalist” Algerian National Front, where most so-called opposition groups are in regime-sponsored decline or confusion. Recent events suggest that in its success it has taken lessons from other, larger parties — and has opted to move with the dominant breeze rather than be crushed by those who make the rules in Algeria’s political games. Continue reading
