This resulted in the development of a rank-and-file current that fought bureaucratization led by USFP activist Omar Benjelloun. He did not want to form 1. Under Spanish colonial rule up until 1975, the Wester Sahara was claimed by Morocco. Polisario, the Sahara Liberation Front, which had waged a struggle against the Spanish, demanded the independence of the territory after 1974. The Spanish withdrawal gave rise to a war between the Moroccan troops, who had invaded Westem Sahara, and Polisario. This conflict is still continuing. 2. Mehdi ben Barka, secretary of the National Union of People's Forces (UNFP), the future USFP, was sentenced to death in absentia by the regime of Hassan II in May 1963. In October 1965, he was kidnapped in Paris and has never reappeared. Omar Benjelloun, a leader of the USFP, was assassinated in 1974 by an Islamic fundamentalist in the pay of the regime. 3. It was called the Communist Party up until 1959, when it was banned for the first time. Then, it was called the Socialism and Liberation Party up until the end of the 1960s, when it was banned for a second time, until 1976. 4. The name "March 23" is a reference to the workers' struggle of March 23, 1965.
another union, but after his death his comrades organized the split. The CDT also
Another left organization, the Demoriots and a general strike against price rises. According to official figures there were 66 deaths, hundreds of wounded and more than 2,000 arrests. In January
1984, the north of the country saw further uprisings agains, angion. y air ime there were 29 dead, 12 17 wounded and many arrests.
June 4, 1990 • #186 International Viewpoint rapidly became bureaucratized.
although it remains independent, especially if you compare it with the Algerian union movement, which is closely tied to the government. Nonetheless,
MOROCCO
The masses make a direct link between the deterioration of their living conditions and the Sahara war. Among the political cratic People's Action Organization
(OADP) arose in 1983 as a continuation of the old March 23 Marxist Leninist
Organization 4, which came out of the same current as the two USFP fractions.
The OADP publishes a legal journal, and lines up with the rest of the reformist left, notably by participating in the national consensus on the Sahara. It is BREAD!
WE ARE HUNGRY an organization with little influence.
As for the far left, the underground organization Ilal Amam (Forward), the result of a split in the CP, was officially founded in August 1970. It then devel-
CP with Maoist populist oped a rather superficial critique of the quickly ran up against repression. coloring. It great majority of its activists were arrested at the beginning of the 1970s. Those arrested in the repressive waves of 1971-
73 and 1984-86 are still in prison.
Ilal Aman remains a revolutionary curcontinues to declare the need for a revolu- rent, active mainly among students. It tionary communist party. But this organization is not developing theoretically, and has no journal in Morocco. The political and theoretical education of its activists remains on a low level, which is a general feature in Morocco. Ilal Aman exists today only in the student movement and in the cultural associations in the big cities given impetus by National Union of Moroccan Students veterans of the (UNEM).
Ilal Amam activists have a sectarian attitude toward the workers' movement. They do not involve themselves in trade-union activity on the pretext that the unions are opportunist and reformist. • What is happening today in the workers' movement? The CDT in general is more militant than the UTM. It is mainly based in the public sector (education, health), while the more bureaucratized UTM is in industake place despite the union bureaucracy and not under its leadership.
After the 1981 general strike, the CGT, which led the struggles, was practically dismantled. But struggles resumed after
1985. The Jerada miners waged a monthlong struggle, but suffered a defeat because of the policy of the union leadership, which thought that priority had to be given to the Sahara war and that therefore
PROPAGANDA! "to be responsi-
1986, the biggest struggle in thirty years in the phosmines in Khormka and Youssoufia, the two biggest fields. In Youssoufia, the struggle, led by the UMT, lasted two months. The CDT, which organizes the workers in the other mining center, did not even call for a solidarity strike, and limited itself to a 24 work stoppage!
This defeat created a climate of demoralization among the miners.
Once again, in the name of the "national interest," the CDT took the same attitude toward the new struggle of the
Jerada miners in December 1988 and January 1989, which lasted two months and was very militant. It should be said that the mine proletariat is young, recently unionized and lives and works in very difficult conditions. The 7,000 miners won a partial victory, even if the union leadership once again did everything possible to halt the conflict.
The workers' families, especially their wives, took part in the struggle, and the high-school students demonstrated in the streets. This gave rise to a nation-wide solidarity movement, but did not manage to touch off other solidarity strikes.
The Jerada mines continue to be organized by the CDT. Of course, the local leaders are militant, because they are under strong pressure from their base, which counterbalances that of the national union leadership. To give you an example, the mines were occupied when the union leadership called for an end to the strike after a week, and the union had to go along with the workers in their struggle. The lack of self-organization in Morocco is linked to the fact that the revolutionary left plays no role in these conorganizations, only Ilal Amam has courageously supported the Saharans' struggle, a position for which it has paid very dearly with prison terms as long as 20 and 30 years. Hassan II has said, moreover, that he could accept anything except a challenge to the "Moroccan character" of the
In the unions during the upsurge of struggles between 1978 and 1981, USFP activists champed against the bit imposed on them in the name of the Sahara question. They said that the fight for the liberation of the Sahara had to go through against the bourgeoisie. Since then, the USFP has abandoned this posi-
Among the people of southern Morocco, there is sympathy for cause. But in other regions, the demagogy of the regime and the reformist parties has led to the masses seeing Polisario as no more than a body created by Algeria for expansionist aims at Morocco's expense.
• What is the state of the conflict in the Sahara today?
With the building of the walls in the
Sahara, the war is being conducted in a different way. The conflict has subsided, and there has been a resumption of diplomatic relations with Algeria. But nothing has been settled. The two protagonists are sticking to their positions. Polisario is not inclined to give in, and Hassan II isn't either. With the renewal of relations with
Algeria, the masses cherished the hope of seeing an end to the war and its expenses. • Can you describe the economic situation and its effect on the standard of living of the masses?
Since 1977, the economic crisis and the foreign debt have accelerated the decline in the standard of living of the population. With the 1978-1983 five-year plan, the debt problem grew, and in regime agreed to apply all the IMF's recattacks against the already weakened buy- ommendations - an austerity ing power of the masses and their social gains (spending on health and education has been cut respectively by 42% and 25% since 1983). The state is no longer hiring people, while up until 1983 it was the main employer. We are seeing rising unemwhich above all affects the prices of the main foodstuffs. This explains the explosive events of 1981 and 1984.5 try. In the mines, the influence of the two unions is equal.
5. In June 1981, Casablanca was the scene of popular
Besides holding back struggles, the
UMT does not even function like a union.
It is a bureaucracy with links to the state,
• Most of the opposition parties join in the national consensus on the Saharan question. What is the attitude of the Moroccan working class and popular strata toward this
W
International Viewpoint #186 • June 4, 1990
MOROCCO / COLOMBIA leading the student struggles, despite the willingness to fight that young people have demonstrated in recent years. The crisis came out into the open
HAT the
Unión is
Patriótica's position the elections toward after the murder of your presidential candidate,
Bernardo Jaramillo? cussed the current election campaign. It was agreed virtually unanimously that we should withdraw from the election campaign. In fact, as we said publicly when Jaramillo was killed, we have been driven out of the election campaign at gunpoint. The only area where the state is still hiring people is the police and the army. To deal with popular discontent, the police apparatus has been beefed up to keep all organizations under surveillance. The cultural associations in the big cities have been virtually dismantled because of the involvement of far left activists in them. You have to realize that, unlike the Algerian regime, the Moroccan monarchy has conceded no reforms after the riots. • Does that have anything to do with the different weight of the Islamic fundamentalists in the two countries?
Over the summer of 1983, there was a wave of arrests in fundamentalist circles that led to people getting up to 30 years in prison. In Essfi prison alone, there is group of 71 fundamentalists. But in general, the fundamentalists in Morocco are weaker than in Algeria. Nonetheless, they have been stepping up their activity in recent years in student circles (the bulk of the activists arrested in 1983 were students) and in the poor neighborhoods.