A Voice from Algeria
Hadj, Messali
Because of the immediacy and urgency of the Algerian crisis and the repressive movement it has called forth we are advancing publication of the exclusive interview given to DISSENT by AMessali...
...We are fully aware of this situation and we would like this to be understood at the very moment we are fighting for national liberation so that we might establish good neighborly relations of mutual help and understanding...
...Si How do you view the conflict in Algeria...
...They neither wish assimilation, nor integration, nor any reform...
...After sixteen months of armed struggle it may be stated that the development of the situation has equally enlisted the sympathy and understanding of an important section of French democracy...
...This is so true that the insurrectional struggle in Algeria extends beyond its two frontiers despite the internal autonomy of Tunisia and the independence of Morocco...
...Until the (French) aggression of 1830, the Algerian government had diplomatic and commercial relations with the American government...
...Reconciliation with the French or total independence...
...This is also true of the national reformists...
...It is precisely because of all this that Bourguiba and the Sultan of Morocco ask the French government to find a quick solution to the Algerian problem...
...What are its relations with Morocco, and Tunisia...
...IV) How do you see the role of the American people and its government in this matter...
...By virtue of these ties, it should urge France to recognize our aspirations by respecting the principles of the Charter...
...That is why the disappointment of the Algerian people was so great when it subsequently saw the indifference of the Americans at the time of the May 8, 1945 repressions when 45,000 Algerians were murdered...
...During the Second World War and especially after the North African landings on November 8, 1942, contact with the Americans was resumed...
...Once independent, our country will be in need of aid on the economic, financial and technical levels...
...The growth in national consciousness of the Algerian people and its political maturing have resulted in the elimination of all assimilationist movements...
...At the time when Algeria was included in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization without being consulted and without its claim being taken into consideration, the Americans should have opposed this violation of the Algerian people's right of self-determination...
...That is why we struggle to give a voice to the Algerian people so that they may, through a sovereign Algerian Constituent Assembly elected by universal suffrage, without discrimination as to race or religion, choose their own political future and select their true representatives...
...1111 What role does Algeria play In the larger conflict taking place in North Africa...
...The speech of the American representative before the United Nations declaring himself against any discussion of the Algerian problem and the words he used to justify his attitude not only disappointed our people but made them indignant...
...The United States has close ties with France...
...Today, the Algerian people unanimously aspire to independence...
...Thus, all those who do not have a truly national policy as part of their ;grogram will disappear from the political scene...
...This new phase has clarified Algerian realities...
...Our position has not changed...
...Thus, not one of these three countries can be detached and treated apart from the others...
...The French colonialists did not regard this understanding lightly...
...The latter chanted the Koran on the Algiers radio and assured our compatriots of the American people's willingness to help them liberate themselves from French colonialism...
...Since the time when the Algerian people lost their sovereignty our relations with the Americans, as well as with other powers, have been suspended...
...For all these reasons, the Algerians believe that if the Americans promised them freedom at the time of the North African landing it was only to use them as strategic pawns...
...This disappointment was heightened when the United States opposed putting the Algerian question on the agenda of the United Nations meeting...
...By virtue of its central Mediterranean position, Algeria is intimately linked with the Maghreb bloc...
...They oppose the government with every possible means to prevent even an examination of the Algerian problem...
...The population of Algiers, which had greeted them as liberators, established good relations with American officers of Syrian or Lebanese origin...
...For them Algeria is a wonderful garden whose sole beneficiaries they intend to be...
...To tell the truth, there are no frontiers between the three North African peoples who have the same religion, speak the same language and hold the same aspirations...
...Algerian independence does not mean that our country is going to live in total isolation and have no dealings with the French people...
...The struggle of the Algerian people is further clarifying the situation of the political parties and will end by leveling all differences...
...We are for complete independence...
...111 What is your position today...
...Certain Algerian workers who, at the start, had profited from equalization of wages preached by the Americans, were quickly subjected once more to discrimination...
...It is against this that we issue our call to all liberals and to the conscience of the world...
...Because of the immediacy and urgency of the Algerian crisis and the repressive movement it has called forth we are advancing publication of the exclusive interview given to DISSENT by AMessali Hadj, Algerian nationalist leader...
...Taught by more than 30 years of struggle, the Algerian people will not tolerate any political divergence on the fundamental idea of an "Algerian nation...
...It is against such schemes that our people have risen and taken un arms in behalf of liberty and dignity...
...Having said this, I would add that the role of the American government should be to conform to the principles of the United Nations Charter which proclaims "the right of peoples to self-determination...
...They intervened with the Americans to set them against our compatriots...
...V) What is the importance and consequence of the differences between the various Algerian political parties...
...The anti-colonial struggle is no easy one...
...Now exiled by the French governmment to Belle en Mer, an island off the coast of Brittany where he is held in complete isolation from the world...
...On the other hand, those militants who were led into error will, as the situation develops, rejoin the ranks of the Algerian National Movement, a movement which today enjoys great prestige and the confidence of our people...
...It also matters much to us that the Algerian cause should become well known among American democrats and socialists so that colonialist propaganda, disposing of immense means, may be counteracted...
...However, our future relations with France depend much more upon the French and their government than upon us, for, to the extent that they grant satisfaction to our people's national aspirations our relations can only be bettered...
...This is why we address ourselves to the magazine DISSENT and to liberal circles so that the truth and our wish to live in freedom may be propagated...
...I regard the conflict in Algeria as an event which increasingly involves every social layer of the Algerian people and sets into motion the most hesitant, even those who formerly sided with the colonial administration...
...The last trip of Guy Mollet to Algiers, the manner in which he was received by the colonists and their behavior with respect to our people demonstrate irrefutably that the "masters of Algeria" do not intend to give up at any price an atom of their privileges and interests...
...Today, the Algerian people believes it can count only on itself to win freedom...
...That is why we maintain that the Maghrebian problem is one and the solution one...
...This was to have appeared in the Summer issue of DISSENT which will be devoted in large part to the African continent...
...They will not be diverted from their goal: independence, the right of self-determination and the right to choose their own representatives...
Vol. 3 • April 1956 • No. 2
