[Marxism] Re: 50th Anniversary of a calamitous adventure

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Exactly 50 years ago, a dissident, secret, armed faction of the 
Algerian mass party MTLD (Movement for the Triumph of Democratic 
Freedoms) launched a series of armed attacks against French government 
facilities in Algeria.  There followed a long "liberation" war marked 
by a mounting series of atrocities on both sides.  The result was 
separation of Algeria from the French Republic, forcible expulsion of 
the whole "European" (largely working class) population of Algeria, 
destruction of France's Fourth Republic and installation of the 
semi-dictatorial deGaulle regime, establishment in Algeria of a 
semi-fascist military dictatorship (Boumedienne), and an endless series 
of calamities for the Algerian workers and peasants.  Who in Algeria 
(except a handful of Officers, Bureaucrats, and Capitalists) is not 
today much worse off from every point of view than if Jacques 
Soustelle's offer of full integration had been (per impossible) 
accepted?

Shane Mage

"Mortals immortals, immortals mortals,    living their deaths, dying 
their lives"  Heraclites of Ephesos, fr. 62
_____________

Perhaps we can make a general rule applying Mage’s principles:

The Cuban leaders should have laid down their principles and arms and 
agreed to reintegration with the United States.

Most applicable, the Vietnamese should have accepted the return of the 
French.

And all of the colonial and semi-colonial masses were idiots to have 
struggled against imperialism and should have continued their 
“tutorial” under the North American and European “advanced” countries.

And don’t workers make a terrible mistake in going out on strike for 
better conditions and higher wages? Sometimes they lose their jobs, 
their homes, and their factories are closed. Even if they win, it may 
take years to make up for their losses during strikes.

And don’t get me going on the Irish. They shouldn't have fought for 
independence at all. At least they had the wisdom to concede North 
Ireland. And there has been no trouble since.

Brian Shannon

    "If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
    -Frederick Douglass
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