August 31, 1962
After over seven harsh years of war, Algeria claimed its independence from France in 1962. However, internal turmoil threatened Civil War. On August 31, 20,000 workers gathered in a square in Algiers for a rally organized by the General Union of Algerian Workers to protest the fighting between the two rival factions. Union leaders gave speeches to the assembly and the demonstrators shouted, “Seven years is enough!” The entire rally voted in favor of a general strike if a civil war began. The leaders of the one province addressed the crowd and called for them to stand without weapons before the tanks and machine guns and to shout in anger at the troops to prevent them from fighting. Several times unarmed citizens stood in rival factions way to prevent fighting. In the area of Boghari, when two groups of rival troops were about to meet, local villagers stood between the two groups and shouted to them, “No more bloodshed!” In another instance, local Algerians laid down in the road to prevent troops from moving towards each other. At the border between two provinces unarmed citizens again intervened with a demonstration, blocking the troops. After talking with the soldiers they were able to convince first the soldiers, then the officers, to lay down their weapons and shake hands with the other side. Although bloody confrontations continued, the peacemakers were able to leverage the memory of the devastating seven-year war for independence in order to deter an all out civil war.
