15,000 workers demonstrate in Rouiba

Ech Chourouk, El Khabar, Liberte, El Watan: 15,000 industrial workers from 80 factories, led by local UGTA union secretary M. Messaoudi, demonstrated in Rouiba over a 3-km march, demanding higher salaries, no privatization, and no closing of factories, and criticizing mismanagement. The demonstration was described by Liberte as the largest in Algeria since independence, while Ech Chourouk called it the second largest (after a demonstration in 1998.) Slogans included "No to Privatisation - Our Children Need to Live!", "No to Closing Factories - No to Starving Families", "We're fed up, [Minister of Trade] Temmar!"