Interview with Messali Hadj
TAS, SAL
The 'Father of Algerian Nationalism,' freed by de Gaulle amnesty, outlines his program for a 'sensible, dignified' solution of the Algerian problem Interview With Messali Hadi By Sal...
...Nations today live in larger communities...
...What is your position on that...
...It was no small thing to pardon them in the heat of war...
...5-10,000 imprisoned Algerians were freed, 200 rebels condemned to death were pardoned and the prison conditions of Ahmed Ben Bella and four other National Liberation Front (FLN) leaders were eased...
...Organizational and personal rivalries between the FLN leaders and Messali Hadj's Algerian Nationalist Movement (MNA) rapidly became embittered...
...A man like Ferhat Abbas, for example, was an opponent of Algerian nationalism when I founded the MNA...
...But real leadership knows when to stop them...
...France-Maghreb (France with North Africa) at the side of the French-Central African community...
...Tunisia and Morocco know that now: so does President Sekou Toure of Guinea...
...They will rebuild my organization...
...a round-table conference is needed, to which all representative groups will come...
...Their contact with me will have immediate effects in Algeria...
...This gives particular importance to a man like Messali Hadj...
...The 'Father of Algerian Nationalism,' freed by de Gaulle amnesty, outlines his program for a 'sensible, dignified' solution of the Algerian problem Interview With Messali Hadi By Sal Tas Paris President Charles de Gaulle's recent amnesty of Algerian nationalist leaders and rebels marked the beginning of a determined effort to solve the French-Algerian crisis...
...My whole life has been one long struggle against Stalin and his allies...
...He could become the center of a more realistic, less demagogic and less intolerant form of nationalism...
...I am astonished at the enormous progress the\ have made in 40 years...
...Don't forget...
...But whereas the FLN is largely influenced by the methods and ideology of the United Arab Republic, the MNA is much closer to Western Socialist movements and ideologies...
...And that movement is supported by outside powers who sooner or later will present the bill for their aid...
...but it never found the courage or the strength to move in the right direction...
...Forty years ago...
...Once independent, we will have lost all inferiority complexes and all causes for friction with France...
...I do not represent all of Algeria: but I do represent an important part of it...
...Through this knowledge, through international understanding and cooperation, we could lay the groundwork for a sensible, dignified solution of the Algerian problem...
...Outlawed in Algeria, he organized the Algerians who had found work in France and Belgium, and was instrumental in having them join trade unions...
...But to govern a whole country requires much more...
...When Messali Hadj organized an Algerian trade union, however, they joined it in huge numbers...
...When we first used the expression, national independence, we did it in order to wake up an entire people...
...His pardon of the 200 doomed rebels has made an enormous impression on the Algerians...
...Let me show that other Algeria...
...The FLN is a heterogeneous group that contains people from ultra-left to ultra-right...
...I would like to have the opportunity of traveling abroad, to show the world that other Algeria which it does not know...
...He is a politician with long experience and many contacts among prominent Socialists, a man who still retains a large following among Algerian workers in France (and through them among the masses in Algeria...
...But now I am free and can attend to the organization of mypart v. "Half a million Algerians live in France and Belgium...
...Even when he speaks of the FLN, the organization responsible for the killing of so many of his closest friends, this passionate man maintains a moderate tone...
...Toward this end...
...A million Frenchmen live in Algeria...
...But de Gaulle will go on...
...They represent a great reserve of culture, of organizational power and, in their own milieu, of democratic experience...
...I am an optimist, because the web of lies about Algeria which had enmeshed the French people has been ripped asunder...
...The tall figure at whose appearance they had risen, and who now beckons me, is Messali Hadj: strongly built, gray-bearded, wearing a red fez and a fine green djellaba...
...Certainly the Fourth Republic had laudable intentions...
...It would be a model for the future...
...In the hallway, a dozen young Algerians loll about, but suddenly they come to their feet and make some effort of standing at attention...
...I know what you mean...
...I propose that an independent Algeria collaborate in the closest possible way with France, within the framework of a Commonwealth along British lines...
...they were born there and have lived there all their lives...
...The majoritv of them have remained loyal to me...
...All dictatorships start with such terrorism...
...It is because of his potentially crucial role that I obtained an exclusive interview with him, his first after his release...
...There are whole regions of the country where the Ivlldfin have joined the rebellion because Messali Hadj asked them to do so...
...I am an optimist," he began, even before I had an opportunity to pose a question...
...I interrupted, "de Gaulle needs a partner for negotiation...
...I asked...
...During his long absence, Messali Hadj lost touch with his associates in Algeria...
...no doubt, valuable elements in the FLN...
...The world's attention has been focused on the FLN because of its spectacular acts of terror...
...the father of Algerian nationalism, who has been in exile for 40 years and in French prisons for 25 years...
...We must break away from revolutionary intoxication...
...We Algerians can govern a small town or community...
...With him de Gaulle could eventually negotiate...
...But to succeed...
...but there is no chief there...
...We face tremendous economic problems, which independence alone cannot solve...
...It is clear that France needs time to digest this step before de Gaulle can take the next step...
...He has his plan, and he will certainly execute it...
...I receive many hundreds of letters from Algeria, and they all tell bow deeply moved the Algerian people are by this humane gesture...
...I am the father of Mgerian nationalism...
...When we see what de Gaulle has said, what he has not said and especially what he has done, it is evident that progress has begun...
...Let us be frank...
...they were paupers...
...And what is your program for a solution of the Algerian question...
...now they are an elite—modern workers with organizational experience and discipline and knowledge of tradeunion affairs...
...they come here in the hundreds...
...Let my friends abroad help us fight for its recognition...
...Some are rich, some poor...
...Inside, the right wing of the hotel is practically an MNA encampment...
...The traditional Moslem attire seems to be part of the political "make-up" of this former Marxist...
...One man stands guard at a window, another at the door that leads to the street...
...There are...
...The word independence is evolving and gaining broader meanings...
...Many of them, working and living in the most difficult circumstances, were drawn into the Communist-controlled General Confederation of Workers (CGT...
...Such a conference...
...De Gaulle has both...
...This is not real independence...
...This is surely what de Gaulle, too...
...And let our discussions be public, so that the Algerian people can judge who are its real defenders and who are the intransigent impossibilists...
...Let the FLN come too...
...which is indispensable to Algeria...
...Foremost among those released was Messali Hadj...
...You don't believe that Cairo or Moscow does anything for nothing...
...One result of this was a split in the nationalist movement, which gave rise to the FLN...
...And should the fighting stop, human contacts could be resumed...
...And if the FLN refuses to come, we will proceed without them...
...For many months the FLN conducted bloody raids and other brutal acts of terrorism against the MNA in France, and after a while the MNA began to respond in kind...
...For a time he was close to the Communists, but later broke with them completely...
...We have learned a lot since then...
...It was Messali Hadj who first organized a nationalist mass movement, with strong socialist overtones...
...He smiles, bows slightly and greets me with a soft, almost flute-like voice...
...where thousands are being freed from prison camps—including a great many who are Messalists...
...In addition...
...Both movements are, above all, nationalist, and it would not be correct to say that Communism is behind either one...
...The Hotel du Pare, his residence in Chantilly, 45 miles from Paris, is a large and rather nice provincial hotel...
...I ask my Socialist friends to help me...
...I assure you, would be the beginning of indispensable human contacts and would have a tremendous impact...
...Benelux, the European Common Market, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization members: Together they live and defend themselves...
...Now he tries to make up for his past, and this accounts for his extremism...
...has in mind: a new community...
...Across the road, opposite the entrance, two soldiers keep watch in the most inconspicuous way...
Vol. 42 • March 1959 • No. 10
