November 1 -- Date When Algerian Revolution
Began in 1954
Montreal, November 3, 2024
At the weekly march held in Montreal on November 3, a young woman of Algerian descent spoke eloquently about the commitment, heroism and profound striving for freedom of those who fought, seventy years ago, to achieve Algerian independence. She said:
"... in the early hours of November 1, 1954, the sound of bullets rang out across Algeria to herald the outbreak of the war of independence. If you do a quick search of the archives surrounding November 1, 1954, you'll see that the international press unanimously condemned the attacks by the rebels, describing them as barbaric, bloody, terrorist and unjustified.
"As you can see, the vocabulary of the press has not changed since then, nor has its capacity for discernment. November 1, 1954 was orchestrated by six heroes of the revolution, six men who France was quick to call terrorists, condemn to death and forbid the population from even uttering their names. Yet these men had a dream that they shared with 8 million Algerians, that of a free Algeria. [...] Once again, people whose names you can't speak, that sounds awfully familiar today."
She drew attention to the similarities between the Algerian and Palestinian struggles, "so that you know that today is not so different from yesterday, and that the colonizers, whatever their name, whatever their face, always reproduce the same stratagem of ethnic cleansing, brutal repression against civilians and, of course, what they do best: calling resistance fighters who stand up against the injustices of the occupiers, terrorists."
"My grandfather, like all his compatriots, was called a terrorist when he fought against the French army. Did this defamation make them back down or stop? No, because they had promised to fight until total liberation. [...]
"The colonists think that with time we forget, they think they'll wear us down. But when will they finally understand that the colonized peoples do not forget, that their children do not forget, that their grandchildren will not forget, that generation after generation we will fight with ever greater ferocity.
"On the other hand, those who forget, those who have a short memory, are the colonists and their offspring. They believed until very recently, until a year and almost a month ago, that the Palestinian cause was dead.
"They believed that the Palestinian children of today, whose parents stood steadfast in front of Merkava tanks during the first and then the second Intifada, they believed that these children had forgotten the noble struggle of their ancestors.
"The colonizers thought that these brave parents had given birth to cowards. But tell me, who are the cowards who today, from their planes or in their tanks, decimate the civilian population and consider it a military victory?
"Today, I'm going to speak to the sceptics, to those who doubt, who wait, who count the days, who despair, because it's been over a year, because the death toll is rising, because they've killed our leaders, because a priori there's no way out: a lie!
"Let me tell you that after November 1, 1954, eight years of bloody war followed, eight years of war. I'm not talking about 132 years of colonization, but eight years of war, during which France killed the Algerians in every possible way, — starved them, burnt them alive with napalm, killed them in their villages, in their towns, killed them in France, drowned them in the Seine.
"And France murdered many, if not most, of our Resistance fighters. Among them was Larbi Ben M'hidi, the mastermind behind November 1, 1954, and to this day, as we speak, we still don't know where his remains lie, or those of many of our resistance fighters.
"Today is not so different from yesterday. Despite eight years of torture, eight years of colonialism, eight years of fighting, eight years of lost battles too, and after more than 1.5 million Algerians had shed their blood, victory was achieved.
"Today, Israel is repeating the same stratagem, only worse. We are telling them today that they can continue their barbaric crimes against the population. They can continue to target our leaders, [...] they can continue to try to humiliate the Palestinians. But they will never succeed in taking away Gaza from the Palestinians."
This article was published in
Friday,
November 15, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/ITN2024/Articles/TI54514.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca