WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, OCL CA #361 - READ: From the Conquest to the Insurrection in Algeria (1830-1954) by Benjamin Péret (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

From the Oradour massacres of the conquest in Algeria... ---- ... To the class war against the Rif War in Morocco. ---- "There, my good friend, is how we must wage war against the Arabs. Kill all the men from the age of 15, take all the women and children, load them onto ships, and send them to the Marquesas Islands or elsewhere; In short, annihilate everything that doesn't crawl at our feet like dogs" (De Montagnac, Letters of a Soldier, Plon 1885, letter of January 24, 1843, p. 334).

"In August (1840), Ben Ganah (an auxiliary of the conquerors), after remaining inactive in Constantine... sent General Galbois 500 pairs of human ears, flags, and his own saber, badly chipped from the terrible blows he had inflicted... This fortunate event... earned Ben Ganah the Legion of Honor and a monetary reward of 50,000 francs." (Marshal de Saint-Arnaud, Letters, vol. 1, Paris, M. Lévy frères, 1858)

These two quotations are recalled in the latest issue of Acratie editions, co-published with the friends of Benjamin Péret, From the Conquest to the Insurrection in Algeria (1830-1954). This is an unpublished work by Benjamin Péret with an afterword by Nedjib Sidi Moussa,[1].

This is an essential book for understanding that the violence of colonization, which unfolded over more than a century, is a major factor in grasping the current difficulties in relations between France and Algeria. All lovers of Surrealism in general, and of Benjamin Péret in particular, will be eager to read this unpublished text by the poet who tirelessly denounced the capitalist and colonial order.

To remain within the realm of colonial horror, let us mention the photograph of smiling French soldiers displaying the severed heads of rebels, published on the front page of L'Humanité on January 3, 1926, as recalled in Alain Ruscio's article "The Strike Against the Colonial War in the Rif," published in the Spring 2026 issue of Les Utopiques (of the Solidaires trade union) dedicated to "The Strike."

This article reveals another facet of colonial history: that of its rejection, the one that cries out, "You have killed the fathers, you will not have the sons, no!"

An article in which we also find Benjamin Péret, who, following the death on the Rif front of Sergeant Condamine de la Tour, whom the French Academy wishes to honor, writes[2]:

"... Rotten Condamine de la Tour, rotten
With your eyes the Pope will make two hosts
for your Moroccan sergeant
and your tail will become his marshal's baton
Rotten Condamine de la Tour
rotten boneless filth"

This reminder of the anti-colonial struggle through the strike against the Rif War in 1925 is part of an issue of Utopiques which, in some twenty in-depth articles, explores, both historically and in terms of current struggles, everything that the concept of the Strike, inscribed in the revolutionary collective imagination, evokes in terms of reflections, hopes, and sometimes even fantasies.[3]

Notes
[1](130 pages, EUR15 postage included, Acratie 4, L'Essart 86310 La Bussière)

[2]"The Heroic Death of Lieutenant Condamine de la Tour," in La Révolution surréaliste, March 1, 1926.

[3](EUR15, Check payable to USSolidaires, 31 rue de la Grange-aux-Belles, 75010 Paris 3-issue subscription for one year, EUR30)

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4736
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Source:A-infos-en@ainfos.ca