The Hirak, a massive popular protest movement for democracy in Algeria which began in February 2019 and continues to challenge military authoritarian rule in the country today, is most potent when it can sustain mass mobilization against the regime across cultural, ethnic, linguistic, ideological, class, and racial lines.
1Elsewhere, I discuss the importance of sustained, cross-cutting mobilization in efforts to end military authoritarian rule. See Stephen J. King,
The Arab Winter: Democratic Consolidation, Civil War, and Radical Islamists (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). This was largely the case throughout 2019 as the Hirak gathered millions of protesters in weekly demonstrations across Algeria, initially spurred by the cynical announcement of the candidacy for president of military-backed, aged, and seriously ill Abdelaziz Bouteflika for a fifth term.