A-Infos (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unpublished work by Benjamin Péret with an afterword by Nedjib Sidi 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particular, will be eager to read this unpublished text by the poet who 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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