Climax in Algeria:
TAS, SAL
Moslem revolts in Algiers and Oran have put a new factor in the power balance between the FLN and de Gaulle Climax in Algeria By Sal Tas WE HAVE ENTERED the last phase of the Algerian war. For...
...It has become a fact changing the balance of power...
...Without the Algiers and Oran incidents, de Gaulle might have gained his objective, and even now it is still quite possible that he attained much of his goal...
...De Gaulle no longer need worry about the loyalty of his Army, but he now needs the referendum as a popular mandate to negotiate with the FLN...
...And if the French can now bury many illusions, there is one the FLN can bury as well—the illusion that de Gaulle will accept United Nations intervention...
...But the Algerian massacre put the matter in a wholly different perspective...
...The Army could not very well act against a policy confirmed by the French people...
...The Moslem procession was confronted by a European group whose only political program was all or nothing, and it was clear that if the French won, the Moslems would indeed be reduced to nothing...
...Whatever slogans these Arab multitudes have shouted in the streets, in the Arab quarters or the European centers, one thing is clear: They want indépendance...
...The FLN would have gained control of the Moslems in any case, for it is the only organization in the community: There is no place in the Casbah for well-shaped differences of opinion...
...This was the spark that suddenly struck the flame of political consciousness, and the masses of the Casbah descended their narrow streets to enter the scene of history...
...Whatever the situation in the Moslem community before the French rioters threw them into the arms of the FLN, no other leadership but Abbas' is available among the Moslems so long as the war continues...
...To abstain from voting may not be militant enough for those Moslems still excited by the December revolt...
...The result was a clash —a minor one in Cherchell, but sufficient to destroy many official lies...
...He is still popular in Algeria, more so than ever...
...Under General Jacques Massu they had purged the Casbah before and left bloody scars in virtually every Casbah family...
...Faced with the accomplished fact of a "Gaullist" independent Algeria, the FLN would probably accept the package deal which de Gaulle had in mind...
...De Gaulle went to Algeria for two reasons: to test the discipline of the Army and to win the support of the Moslem community for his referendum...
...The French ultras could not win the battle for a French Algeria, but by their reckless and criminally stupid actions, they destroyed almost any reasonable alternative to their own policy...
...When all is said, the tears dried and destruction removed, there is one important fact apparent: Algeria has entered the last phase of the war, and the end, however somber, is at last in sight...
...He understood that the course of events had been accelerated and that he had to move faster too...
...The masses have shown their political affiliation, not by their votes but by their banners, and they have clearly identified themselves with the FLN and with Abbas...
...Autonomous with France, federated or confederated in a French union, brother nation or ally: French and Algerian leaders may quarrel about these, but for the masses they are abstractions...
...The issue there is simple and primitive: freedom or slavery...
...The peaceful pro-Gaullist demonstration in Cherchell cannot be underestimated...
...He had planned a referendum for this week to get metropolitan France to vote in his favor so that he could continue his policy of self-determination for Algeria...
...The police tried to keep the two communities—French and Moslem —apart and were, in general, successful without being brutal...
...Whatever tie General Charles de Gaulle dreams of creating between France and an independent Algeria can be forged only if the political and social power of the Algerian French is broken...
...What struck them even more was that this Moslem demonstration was tolerated, and even favored, by the authorities...
...It is still possible that the countryside—"the bled"— will deliver an imposing number of yes votes in the referendum when all the votes are counted this week...
...Algérie Algérienne, Algérie musulmane— whatever the slogans, they have no real meaning for the crowds in terms of juridical formulas...
...But could one expect moderation from these Moslem multitudes who, for six years, had eaten humiliation and drunk tears...
...The Algerian French are the realities of colonialism...
...No greater folly could have been committed than sending these men to the Casbah...
...Completely unaware of the changes that had taken place, and of their implications, they knew only one tactic: to crush and to kill...
...Everyone had felt that the ultras were losing ground, but here was new evidence: In many places, de Gaulle was greeted by two crowds, a French one jeering him and a Moslem one applauding...
...It is obvious that no peaceful solution in Algeria is possible without FLN collaboration...
...And the Moslems, spurred by Abbas and the FLN, met this violence with violence...
...Once hatred was aroused, it took the most primitive forms: lynching of defenseless French, killing Jews, desecrating synagogues...
...Nevertheless, it was obvious that most of the French had lost confidence in the cause of the ultras...
...The answer is not intervention but negotiation...
...This first public demonstration of a Moslem will in Algeria opened the eyes of the masses of the Casbah...
...What is cruelly real for them is that they want to get rid of the yoke of the Algerian French...
...They fired the salvo that killed scores and wounded hundreds, and that salvo turned the demonstration into a revolution...
...De Gaulle thought he could create a number of faits accomplis which would embody a policy of self-determination in harmony with justified French interests...
...For this, he would mobilize the bulk of the non-extremist majority which would act as a so-called third force...
...in fact, he deliberately left them out of his itinerary...
...The wisdom of this FLN tactic is open to question: Surely it would have been wiser to advise the Moslem masses to support de Gaulle's policy of an "Algerian republic" and to push him along that road...
...If the UN came in no one would be able to control the Moslem masses, surely not a UN army, and no French leader would for a moment think of turning Algiers into a second Leopoldville...
...weary and disheartened, they had resigned themselves to the fact that de Gaulle would proceed toward emancipating the Moslem community...
...The most important participants, the nine million Moslems, remained in the background, but they have now flooded the proscenium...
...For the first time, the two communities confronted one another, both of their own volition...
...As for the Algerian French, de Gaulle had no illusions about them...
...De Gaulle returned to Paris embittered but more resolved than ever...
...Surely it would have been much safer to march behind banners inscribed, "Vive de Gaulle...
...When the French ultras of Algiers began their riots, the matter seemed minor...
...Moreover, the paratroopers had just been brought back from the front, where they were fighting FLN armies, to be met in the capital of Algeria with the FLN flag on the rooftops and flying from Moslem cars...
...His personal behavior was exemplary and that alone would have carried the day for him had not other events intervened...
...Then he would talk to Abbas and the FLN leaders...
...For years attention was centered on various protagonists: the riotous French in Algeria, the French professional Army, Ferhat Abbas and his National Liberation Front (FLN...
...This was neither anger nor spite...
...And it was precisely because of this that the young ultras fought so wildly—a despairing, hopeless fight...
...This does not mean that de Gaulle has no cards left to play...
...The Europeans themselves, in fact, had turned the streets of Algiers into rubble, shattering shop windows, painting walls with slogans insulting the legal authorities, etc...
...But the fights became unusually grim, with police and rioters exchanging regular fire with hand grenades and "Molotov cocktails" for the first time...
...The Army—and the police— remained steadfastly loyal to de Gaulle and the Moslems indicated strong support...
...This in itself is not new, but it has now been brought home to the entire world with a violent conviction that has made it a truth of greater dimension...
...And even in the big cities, many Moslems will prefer to take the reverse position of the French ultras, who will certainly vote no...
...the enlisted, non-professional soldiers—more than three-fifths of the Army in Algeria —would never follow their officers in a revolt against a policy for which their families in France had voted...
...The French Army pretends that Abbas profited from the European riots since he was able to send FLN rank and file into the Casbah, but the point is meaningless...
...The revolt showed what would happen if the UN liberated Algeria in one stroke: One of the ugliest phenomena of the revolt was the revenge so many Moslems took upon Europeans and fellow Moslems...
...They realized that this was a sign that the beginning of the end was approaching...
...The FLN decides the issue: war or peace, evolution or revolution...
...But the Moslem revolt in Algiers destroyed this plan...
...But the situation was completely and drastically spoiled by the intervention of the paratroopers...
...All the talk about the FLN as a small minority in the midst of the Moslem masses has now become irrelevant...
Vol. 44 • January 1961 • No. 2
