[Marxism] Proyect, Pontecorvo, and Algiers

["James Holstun" <jamesholstun@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to Louis for his fine essay on Pontecorvo and Algeria, which includes
a link to the whole script. There?s a speech by Ben M?Hidi to Ali LePoint
that points toward the two-phase quality of the revolution (anti-colonial
revolt, socialist revolution): ?Do you know something Ali? Starting a
revolution is hard, and it?s even harder to continue it. Winning is hardest
of all. But only afterward, when we have won, will the real hardships
begin.?

This is the division that Pontecorvo?s dramatizes so brilliantly in the
two-part structure of his Queimada!/Burn!: first the black and mulatto
struggle against Portuguese colonials who maintain slavery, then the free
black struggle against mulatto and white capitalist sugar production.
Brando?s William Walker is a classic Quiet American figure?only here, he is
a gabby Brit, with pastel-colored scarves and Brando?s best, plummy Fletcher
Christian accent; he said it was his favorite performance.

If you get a chance, have a look at the new three-disc Criterion collection
edition of Battle of Algiers, which includes a documentary on Pontecorvo
narrated by Edward Said (a great admirer?he has an essay on Pontecorvo in
Reflections on Exile) and a 2004 discussion between Richard A. Clarke,
Bush?s fired former National Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, and Michael A.
Sheehan, former State Department Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism. Both of
them side instinctively with the French and discuss such issues as how best
to fight an insurgency, whether torture is effective, etc. In their
continuing discussion of ?terrorism,? not once do they mention the French
colonialist bombing of the Casbah, which is the first terrorist attack in
the film, as Louis notes?thus confirming the operative contemporary de facto
definition of terrorism: violence by Arabs.

For a modern-day American descendant of the film, have a look at Edward
Zwick?s The Seige (1998), about terrorist bombings by depraved Arabs in New
York City, with Annette Bening as a CIA agent, Denzel Washington as a
virtuous FBI agent, Tony Shaloub as his trusty Lebanese-American sidekick,
and Bruce Willis as an authoritarian general?modeled on Pontecorvo?s Col.
Mathieu?who supervises the internment of Brooklyn Arabs and the torture of
Arab suspects. It?s awful in a lot of the ways you might imagine, and justly
pilloried by Jack Shaheen in Reel Bad Arabs. But it?s also remarkable for
showing the terrorism arising from what Chalmers Johnson calls ?blowback?
(i.e., a betrayed Iraqi anti-Saddam effort), for showing concentration camps
full of Arab Americans, and for making the very center of the film the
scream of an Arab prisoner being tortured to death.

Camus?s quote about bad Arabs who want to kill his momma (which Benny Morris
has recently quoted to justify the killing and ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians) elicited this response from Jules Roy, another pied-noir: ?It
is not a matter of choosing one?s mother over justice. It is a matter of
loving justice as much as one?s mother.?



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