Africans Meet in Tunis

...By Lorna Hahn AFRICANS MEET IN TUNIS Violent speeches mark All African Peoples' Conference TUNIS A GREAT MANY Africans have a great deal to say, little opportunity to say it and are becoming increasingly impatient with the situation...

...This was the plan for a "decolonization" conference first voiced last year by Bourguiba, a scheme which envisions Africans and Europeans meeting to work out plans for independence step by step...

...But the Africans were delighted, and cheered "fellow African" Bourguiba as the savior of their children, as well as of their sovereignty (though few could understand the Arabic in which he spoke...

...Thanks largely to the efforts of Tunisian labor leader Ahmed Tlili, who served as chairman of the conference, it was agreed to form an all-African trade union with "its own central organization...

...And, although it was somewhat lost in the shuffle, the Tunisian delegation voiced a positive suggestion for ending colonialism in a peaceful manner...

...The Communist countries know this and are trying to do something about it, but the United States doesn't seem to care very much...

...The resolutions dealing with independence, including a message to the American Government, were couched in the usual anti-imperialist jargon, but were on the whole milder than one had expected...

...Blaming American support of French colonialism for his country's present plight...

...But as for official observers or U.S...

...Ahmed Douiri of Morocco's Istiqlal party, for example, tried to point out that Mahjoub ben Seddik, who had just spoken in the name of the Union of Moroccan Workers, did not really represent all the Moroccan laborers...

...Openly encouraged by such organizations as the Asian-African Peoples Solidarity Conference, and more quietly egged on by the numerous "observers" from the Communist bloc, they got things off to a rather negative start...

...Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba, catering to his guests, organized a mass rally in which he demanded that the French leave Bizerte immediately unless they agree to "leave Africa to the Africans...

...The first day was particularly dramatic, with emphasis on the proposed French A-bomb test in the Sahara...

...He asked that the conference note that there was no freedom of trade unionism in his country...

...The fact that this was a gathering of "peoples" rather than "governments" meant that opposition movements as well as ruling groups, dependent territories as well as independent nations, were represented...

...As for the presence Americaine, Irving Brown, in his capacity as an International Confederation of Free Trade Unions representative, was busy trying to counter a Ghana-Guinea plan for an all-African trade union having no outside affiliations...

...These are the net impressions left by the second All African Peoples' Conference which opened in Tunis January 25 and ended on the 31st—two days later than expected...

...literature, there was none...

...The next few days brought several anti-American outbursts by such figures as young Felix-Roland Moumie, leader of the Union of Peoples of the Cameroons, now in revolt against the pro-French premier...

...who is enjoying his exile on a Kremlin-paid expense account, further stated in a press conference that he would be willing to aid other African countries to expel imperialists...

...The "outs," in fact, far out-talked the "ins...

...The conference also acted as a forum for airing internal disputes...

...But while the gentlemen talked of violence, the Communists were passing out peace badges and stacks of literature covering everything from schemes for decolonization to the wonders of life behind the Iron Curtain...

...Rather than discussing positive steps for achieving these ends, however, speakers ranging from representatives of Algeria's National Liberation Front (FLN) to members of Zanzibar's three nationalist movements vied with one another in denouncing "racism," "imperialism" and "fascism" in all its forms...

...Despite all these disturbing rumblings, however, a great deal of good work was done in committee meetings by the less volatile elements...

...Perhaps most important, concrete suggestions were made on the economic and social level: Creation of an all-African investment bank, removal of customs and trade barriers wherever possible, an all-African youth festival and sports program, organizations to finance the training of students, technicians and cadres, and other constructive measures were proposed...

...The assembled Tunisian masses, having heard little in their own country on this subject, were on the whole fairly apathetic...

...The theme of the conference, intoned in speech after speech, was "Independence and Unity...

...the question of affiliation was not mentioned, thus disappointing the professional neutralists...

...Moumie...

...In a speech made February 8, however, he withdrew the ultimatum...

...LORNA HAHN, who teaches history at Temple University, is currently on an extended tour oj North Africa...