ALGIERS, Mar 04, 2011 (AFP) - A major opposition party urged Algerians on Friday to engage in a "peaceful struggle" for change in the nation a day ahead of a planned anti-government demonstration in the capital.
"We need a peaceful struggle everyday. It's this civic exercise that... will bring change," Socialist Forces Front (FFS) first secretary Karim Tabbou told a gathering of some 3,000 people in Algiers.
"We will not get caught in confrontation and violence," he added, speaking in a room decorated with portraits of historical opposition figure and Berber leader Hocine Ait-Ahmed who founded Algeria's oldest opposition party.
All obstacles to freedom of assembly and speech must be removed, Tabbou said.
The FFS distanced itself from the National Coordination for Democracy and Change (CNDC), an umbrella group that was founded in January in the wake of riots that killed five and wounded over 800.
One of its splinter groups Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), which urges continued street protests despite a government ban, has called a fresh rally on Saturday.
It will begin in three different locations to make it harder for police to shut it down. It will be the group's fifth attempt to demonstrate, previous bids having been foiled.
Several left-wing members of the Moroccan and Tunisian opposition were invited to the meeting.
They called for the creation of a new pan-North African group "Maghreb for the people" as opposed to the now-defunct Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), founded in 1989 by Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia.
The UMA broke down in 1994 due to political differences among its members and the longrunning conflict between Algeria and Morocco over Western Sahara.
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Copyright AFP 2011.
