IN THE TIME OF THE ALGERIAN NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLES

DVD REVIEW

BATTLE OF ALGIERS, 1967

I first saw the French film, subtitled in English, of the fictionized account of the Battle of Algiers in the early 1970’s when I, along with other like-minded political types, were under the influence of the vanguard role that ‘third world’ national liberation struggles against the imperialist heartland played in world politics. Moreover we were under the strong influence of Frantz Fanon’s concept of the ‘cleansing’ nature of such struggles on the revolutionary organization and the population, especially compared to the ‘bought off’ workers in the West. Much water has passed over the dam since then but it is still fair to say that the Algerian struggle for independence against the hated French occupiers was still an important liberation struggle to support if not for the same reasons as in those days.

After a recent viewing of the film what is surprising is that with due regard to differences in time, geography, political conditions and other factors the drama of this film could reflect today’s reality in Baghdad, including some similarities in the Islamic political programs of the insurgents. Most of the scenes in the film took place in 1957 as the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) initiated various actions including supportable acts of individual terror against military targets and insupportable acts against civilian targets, a general strike that the French frantically tried to break and on-going urban guerilla warfare against the occupying forces.

Some of the issues raised in film that were capable of making my blood pressure rise then still do so today. The foreign occupation’s indifference or hostility to the ‘natives’ and their political wishes. The endless arbitrary searching of houses and persons by the occupiers in order to pacify the population, the old 'destroy to save' theory of counter-insurgency. The escalation of military tactics by both sides as the body counts rise. The ready and refined use of torture by the French occupiers. Moreover, a point not appreciated by this writer at his first viewing was that when the seasoned (from Indo-China service ) professional French Army ratcheted up the ante they were able to destroy, for a time, the urban guerilla infrastructure. But in the end they had to leave, just as the Americans had to leave Vietnam and will have to leave Baghdad. Yes, this all seems very, very familiar.

A point about one of the central characters, Ali. The above-mentioned theorist Fanon in Wretched of the Earth, his most famous work that chronicles the Algerian struggle, highlights the key role in revolutionary struggle of what is commonly called the 'dregs' of society, the criminals, the footloose, etc., in short those with nothing to lose. Marxists use the term lumpenproletariat. Ali as a self-professed and convicted con artist is just such a character. According to Fanon’s theory if revolutionary forces can recruit enough Alis then a real revolutionary organization can be formed. Naturally that assumes that an Ali, at least as he is transformed into hardened revolutionary in the film, is a true prototype of this kind of recruit rather than an exception. A quick glance at revolutionary history, however, belies that notion. More frequently this layer of society provides the shock troops of the counterrevolution. Moreover, this is a very unstable base on which to form an organization. There was an extremely good reason that the Paris Commune inscribed ‘Death to Thieves’ on its banners. The Black Panthers here in America also learned the hard way the difficulties of recruiting (and, more importantly, holding) that layer as they attempted to draw the lessons of the Algerian experience.