Eyes to the South: French Anarchists & Algeria
David Porter
Language: English
Pages: 550
ISBN: 1849350760
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
“Eyes to the South makes a significant and valuable contribution to a small but growing literature analyzing the complex and problematic engagement of anarchists with decolonization in general, and Algeria in particular.” ?David Berry, author of A History of the French Anarchist Movement, 1917 to 1945 makes a significant and valuable contribution to a small but growing literature analyzing the complex and problematic engagement of anarchists with decolonization in general, and Algeria in particular.” —David Berry, author of A History of the French Anarchist Movement, 1917 to 1945
Eyes to the South explores important issues from the last six tumultuous decades of Algerian history, including French colonial rule, nationalist revolution, experiments in workers’ self-management, the rise of radical Islamist politics, an insurgent revival of traditional decentralist resistance and political structures, conflicts over cultural identity, women's emancipation, and major “blowback” on the ex-colonial power itself. David Porter's nuanced examination of these issues helps to clarify Algeria’s current political, economic, and social conditions, and resonates with continuing conflicts and change in Africa and the Middle East more generally. At the same time, Eyes to the South describes and analyzes the observers themselves—the various components of the French anarchist movement—and helps to clarify and enrich the discussion of issues such as national liberation, violence, revolution, the role of religion, liberal democracy, worker self-management, and collaboration with statists in the broader anarchist and anti-authoritarian movements.
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nationalism is a very powerful myth and ideology capable of recruiting, mobilizing, and uniting millions of peo ple to a " national liberation" or "national defense" populist political move ment through app eals to deep psychological emotions . This is all the more true when the trait of " common historical experience" is focused especially on social injustices of colonial racism and exploitation and, ultimately, on s evere repression of early stages of "national liberation. "24 Throughout
technological social networks of communications and transporta tion, their very physical survival is a socially arranged system of production. Anarchists' proper role in a revolutionary context is to state reality as it is. Too open to alternatives to inspire slogans with one blow, too rea sonable to appear original, demanding of each an effort to inform and educate oneself, their audience was and remains limited. That French Anarchist Positions takes nothing from the fact that by this
specific self-management structure to all bien vacant units except those deemed by the prime minister as of such national importance that they would be managed by alternative state s tructures. This text also provided specific details on the composition and responsibilities of the various autogestion organs involved. The most in clusive decision-making body was the Workers' General Assembly, which was composed of all regular workers in the enterprise present for at least half a year (thus
identified two maj or types of opponents to the regime and to the self-management socialist experience specifically: Newly rich or petit -bourgeois opportunists were ready to denounce any perceived failing of the governing coalition and to sabotage self-management. At the same time, an explicit " leftist" political opposition often concealed what actually were continuations of historical clan rivalries within the nationalist movement. Admittedly, this second group had legitimate targets-such as
denunciation of Nair et R o uge's support for a totalitarian regime that had its elf persecuted a vital Cuban anarchist movement among numerous other opponents .Sl Building on its earlier articles on critical support for Algerian national liberation, a June 1 962 article further developed this theme to apply to un derdeveloped countries of the Third World more generally. Writer Theo [Todor Mitev] welcomed the ever-growing political consciousness of the Third World oppressed and the crumbling of