textfiles/politics/SPUNK/sp000676.txt

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ALGERIA SAME BOSS SAME STRUGGLE

 Algeria no longer seems to  be  hitting  the  headlines  with  a
string  of  communiques  listing  the  assasinations  of militant
syndicalists, intellectuals and ordinnary  and  anonymous  people
who made the mistake of letting be known their desire to live and
dress outside the boundaries of religious dogma.
 A certain fatalism lies behind the bloody stories in most  press
commentaries.
 This brings us back to the basic stereotypical image, which  has
always  been  presented, of an uncultured and ignorant people who
are incapable of adapting to the modern world. This devaluing and
criminal    representation   has   fed   racism   and   justified
colonialisation and 'French' exploitation.
 After each report of  a fresh assassination, it is not  rare  to
hear  this  sort  of  comment: they got what they deserved, these
Arabs. They wanted their independance! Look what they do with it.
Things were better as they were!
 There is a certain triumphalism when they speak of the political
stalemate  and  the  social and economic misery which affects the
vast majority of Algerians. This voyeurism  hides  a  desire  for
revenge  and  ignores  the  French State's responsibility for the
genesis of the current situation: 150 years of colonialism  can't
be rubbed out in a day.
 The Socialist  Party  calls  for  a  memorial  to  those  32,000
Frenchmen who died during the Algerian war as though they have no
shame, no unease faced with the million Algerian deaths which are
France's responsibility.
 A whole generation of youth was decapitated, all of which weighs
heavily  when  there  is  a need to reorganise an anaemic country
which the former colonist was trying  to  strangle  economically.
Since  then  normal commercial relations have been resumed in the
interests, of course, of the respective middle classes. But there
is  no  doubt that French capital has always known how to use its
weight  to  influence  the  Algerian  economy.  For  example,  by
imposing  renegotiated  gas prices and capitalising on the urgent
financial needs of the Algerian state.

 And then there is always the problem of an immigrant work force,
the  object  of  blackmail  fron  one  quarter or another. It's a
question of there being colossal sums at stake simply because  of
salary  transfer. Today France still intervenes to help determine
the level of IMF loans in order to influence the decision  as  to
when the funds should be released and in order to determine under
what conditions and with what levels of  redundancies  and  which
economic  policies  will be financed by this money. Of course all
this is done discreetly and  only  in  the  company  of  reliable
people.
 All the same we must ask ourselves what the aims  of  the  State
and the French managerial class are in all of this. This group of
Frenchmen who govern us, have they any interest in ssing  Algeria
get  out  of  the  social stagnation or have they more to gain by
seeing the whole population trying to survive under  martial  law
imposed  by  the military under the pretext of getting rid of the
fundamentalists? I don't want to expose too much Machaevellianism
but  27  million  people are currently crushed and neutralised by
the implosion of their own society... all in accordance with  the
workings  of  capitalism. Whilst people struggle among themselves
it's business as usual.
 If the FIS and its most fundamentalist militants have managed to
carry out high profile operations it is because they have managed
to catalyse social discontent and denounce the incapacity of  the
bureaucratic FLN.
 But without financial support from Saudi Arabia and  Iran  could
they  have  laid  on the food and health provision or the Islamic
education?
 Today it is the same sources that are  funding  the  network  of
armed  groups. Why? Who gains? Could this happen without at least
the neutrality of the American and French states?  Is  the  issue
inseperable  from the hightened efforts to normalise economic and
diplomatic relations with the Iranian and  Iraqi  states?  Surely
not.

 There is also, without a shadow of a doubt, a desire to 'manage'
the moderate faction of the FIS in order to constitute at the end
of the day  a  political  compromise  between  the  military  and
religious   groups  in  order  to  run  Algeria  and  assure  the
continuity of French influence in this part of the world.
 And it is not just by chance that even here in France Pasqua  is
making   such  strenuous  efforts  to  canalise  and  favour  the
emmergence of a French  Islam  with  an  Islamic  University  and
support to set up French Imams.
 On the left nobody has anything further to say in so far as  the
muslim  religion allows for the control of a part of the youth in
the suburbs. Better that than riots.
 In Vnissieux [a suburb of Lyon] the communist local authority is
congratulating  itself  on  seeing  young muslims joining Islamic
associations and returning to the police cars and  other  objects
stolen  the previous night by other young people. Where will such
collaboration lead us?
 For sure the Algerians are in a cul-de-sac and no one  can  tell
them  how  to  get  out.  For  sure,  we  are also in a political
impasse, and nobody can say how things will turn out.  It's  easy
to  make such a statement. We must continue to realsie that it is
the same capitalist logic which leads to the same situations  and
noone  can convince us that they are different or in our interest
simply because the opposition is not  being  slaughtered  on  the
streets of Paris.
 Let us be clear that the same rumblings are being heard here  as
well  as  over  there.  Will  we  be able to state and define the
convergeance of interest which unite the exploited everywhere  in
order  to breach the arrogance of the police and the ministers of
all religions?

Bernard Le Monde Libertaire 30/3/94.