Salem, a member of the families of Moroccan political
Amongst this protest, there has been an prisoners, and Gilles Perrault about the changes in Morocco important document, called the Text of the Ten, which has said that the proletariat must be the leading force of the national democratic revolution. Revolt is general inside the party.
After the municipal elections and the disorientation of a majority of its membership, the debate has pushed the PAGS towards a radical left position where its militants consider themselves as revolu-
10. То сон tionaries, estimating that the proletariat must play a leading role. The debate on the next congress will certainly counterpose the constitution of a national democratic front against the FIS, to the building of a workers and popular front on a class basis.
Since the disquieting victory of the FIS in the municipal elections, the rebellion of women has never been so great.
They have reacted superbly in a massive and spontaneous manner, even if the organized womens' movement is a little exhausted. They have put on the agenda the question of the proxy vote of men on behalf of women.
Today, and it is no coincidence, they participate in all the social and democratic struggles taking place in Algeria. Very often, they are even at their head.
The womens' coordination plans to organize a conference of the womens' movement, with the perspective of the
16 constitution of a unified womens' movement. *
"Victory is
certain";
interview
with Gilles
Perrault
OU TALK in your book about the worsening economic situation and the government's austerity measures. Would you say that the recent riots in Fez were the result of this?
The population is at the end of its tether. Of course, the regime does not bear the sole responsibility for the misery. As with all Third World countries, Morocco is caught in the vice of economic imperialism. Measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund led, in 1984, to bread riots and more than a thousand people were killed.
Nonetheless, the situation is made worse by the fantastic corruption surrounding the royal palace and the big commercial bourgeoisie. Inequalities are continually increasing. The most insulting wealth exists side by side with extreme poverty. The minimum wage is less than 700FF a month. Tens of thousands of qualified students have no job. The young are completely desperate, having no prospect of finding work. This is why they are ready to confront machine guns with their bare hands.
• The sentences handed down for those arrested during the demonstrations are very severe.
It is true — to us the sentences seem altogether excessive. But Moroccans themselves claim that they are significantly less severe than after the riots in 1981 and 1984. The regime remains brutal, but is no longer able to act as ruthlessly as usual. And further retreats will follow. How long this takes depends on how powerful international solidarity is. We must destroy the international support enjoyed by Hassan Il's regime. In fact, it is not quite accurate to speak of international support. There is total complicity between
February 4, 1991 • #199 International Viewpoint national and foreign exploiters.
• In their appeals for a general the CDT and UGT trade unions did not say that their action was aimed against the king. What is the place of the king in the Moroccan
Article 23 of the Moroccan Constitution says that: "The person of the king is inviolable and sacred." Even the mildest criticism of the king can be punished by 15 years in prison. On the other hand, criticizing the government, its ministers and officials is allowed, and the opposition press takes advantage of this. However, in Morocco it is the king and the palace that decide, thus it does not make a lot of difference to be able to criticize a govern-
In Morocco, the king is the regime. In my opinion, the development of democracy in Morocco will not come about through a frontal attack on royal authority, which is absolute. Many Moroccans want a constitutional monarchy of the Spanish type. In recent months, parallels between Hassan and Spain's General Franco have been drawn very often in Morocco. However Hassan II is only 61 years old.
• Nonetheless this royal dictatorship has kept certain appearances of constitutional and democratic functioning, including opposition parties, parliament, and even Communist Party deputies. Which opposition forces are tolerated and what
Hassan has put up a democratic shop front to deceive those foreigners who want to be deceived. Every Moroccan is well aware that for the past 30 years every election has been systematically rigged, and that the opposition knows that there is an invisible line which they cannot cross without being repressed. To an extent, the opposition provides the king with a democratic cover. Indeed, one can say that the Moroccan Communist Party is a pillar of
Nonetheless there are genuine democrats in the USFP (Socialist Union of Popular Forces). They know the role in which they have been cast and would very much like to get out of it. Real international solidarity would help them to do that. We can also ask what Moroccan socialists must think when they see their French "co-thinkers" give unwavering support to the regime.
Ilal-Amam, a banned Marxist organization, is a case apart. This organization has never made the slightest compromise with the regime. It is clandestine, but has real influence, notably among the youth. When the regime finally has to bail out, it is clear that democratic forces will appear who are presently invisible.
• The question of Western Sahara allows the monarchy to play the
"national unity" card. What has been the attitude of the opposition
The struggle for Western Sahara is a tragedy for the Saharans and a millstone for the Moroccan people. Even if the limits of freedom of expression in Morocco make it impossible to judge the real state of public opinion, it is clear that most Moroccans consider the Sahara an integral part of their country.
Hassan II has cleverly played with this sentiment for the past 15 years to rally the people around his regime. However, this near unanimity is starting to unravel. Moroccans are tired of the conflict and the sacrifices it entails. People know that 40% of the state budget goes on the war and the maintenance of order. This is unbearable. The king will not for very long be able to stifle demands of every kind by brandishing the Sahara issue. The sentiment is growing in the country that Saharans and Moroccans have a single enemy, the regime.
• Your book has made considerable waves and thrown a chill on Franco-Moroccan President Mitterrand has refused to condemn the repression that has followed the December 1990 riots. Thus, the French Socialist regime has maintained France's tradition of complicity with Hassan II. What is behind this complicity?
Here as elsewhere, but perhaps, above all here, the Socialists have revealed their double nature — they talk all the time about human rights, but in practise are as cynical as the right. More than 1,200 French enterprises are established in Morocco. They get big profits from the underpaid local labour force. The French bosses do not plan on giving up this manna from heaven, and they will support Hassan to the bitter end, since his pitiless repression keeps the whole system going.
The French foreign minister, Roland Dumas, has gone down on his knees to appease the Moroccan monarch's irritation with my book. François Mitterrand has refused to condemn the repression and has sent his new year greetings to Hassan. Everything is being done to make it clear to Hassan II that he has a free hand. A different attitude would help the freeing of political prisoners and
I am absolutely convinced that the
French Socialists will pay a very high price for this betrayal. They have not noticed that times change and that French public opinion, for its part, does not treat human rights as merely a matter for tine
• Morocco's Abraham Serfaty is
Africa's longest serving political prisoner. Despite the international campaigns, the appalling situation of the political prisoners, the disap-
MOROCCO pearances and torture continue.
No, things are changing. They are on the move, because Moroccans themselves are on the move. Thus, until six months ago, it was impossible even to talk about the Tazmamart penal colony where, for 17 years, people, most of whom have completed their sentences, have been kept in dark cells. But at the end of December 1990, some families of detainees found the courage to petition the Moroccan Justice Ministry. In France, other families are hiring a French lawyer to bring a court case against
In Morocco itself, more and more voices are being heard demanding a total amnesty for all political prisoners. As for Abraham Serfaty and his comrades, an international campaign is being set up. It will be of the same breadth as that for Nelson Mandela.
Here in France we are going to be holding mass actions demanding that the French government change its relations with Hassan II. This is a time of hope. The fight will be bitter, but if we put all our strength into it, victory is certain. *
"The
taboos are
falling";
interview
with
Soukaina
Salem
D O the general strike of
December 14, 1990, and the riots in Fez signal a change in the situation in Morocco? What has been the attitude of the opposition parties?
Apart from the immediate circle around the king, everybody wants a change, including the traders and the national bourgeoisie who can no longer accept the Makhzen system' nor the royal appetites.
The monarch has granted himself the right to the lion's share, and this annoys the business people.
Thus, for example, the Omnium Nord
1. Makhzen - the army, the royal palace, the king and 1 7 the tax officials.
International Viewpoint #199 • February 4, 1991
MOROCCO Africain (ONA), formerly a branch of the French Paribas bank, is now Moroccan. This means that it is 60% owned by the royal family and takes control of whatever
The dominant force in the legal opposition is the national bourgeoisie.
It is represented above all by the Istiqlal, the party associated with Morocco's independence, influential - like the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP), it now calls for a transition to a constitutional monarchy.
These parties are demanding a change in the constitution in the direction of a modification in the position of the monarch.
Another important sign is that leaders and parties that seemed to have faded away are waking up.
For example, Abdalah Ibrahim and the National Union of Popular (UNFP), which derives ultimately from Istiqlal's first split in 1959.
The UNFP is tied to the Moroccan Labour Union (UMT), the third union confederation, which did not join in the appeal for the general strike, but demands a change in the government.
The reappearance of its leader suggests that the UMT is going to decide to get in on the action with the two other unions, the Democratic Labour Confederation (CDT) and the General
The Party of Progress and Socialism (PPS — the Communist Party) cannot be considered an opposition party.
It is more royalist than the king, and its attitude has been shown once more during the Gulf crisis - apart from Hassan himself it is the only force to have taken the side of the West.
The Organization for Democratic and Popular Action (OADP) is small party, deriving from a clandes-
Marxist-Leninist that has decided to become legal and recognize the five statutory points - the monarchy; the inviolability and sacredness of the monarch's person; Islam as the state religion; Arabic as the national language; and the Sahara as an integral part
All these opposition parties support, in different ways, a move towards constitutional monarchy.
The problem is how to get the palace to pay attention to something that it does not
This legal opposition, which has been more or less dormant, has recently come
Thus in three or four months, the press run of the two big opposition journals, those of the Istiqlal and the USFP, has increased from 20,000 to 200,000.
• But these parties which are calling for a reform of the regime are in 18 such as in fez, apes parce. shey difficulties when a popular uprising, have accepted the job of giving a democratic cover to Morocco. How can they link up with the popular movement without blowing that cover or finding themselves outside
In fact, the strike was the unions tied to these very opposition par-
There are two currents in the USFP, a social democratic current, composed of intellectuals, and a populist current tied to the CDT union, whose secretary general Noubir Amaoui has become something of a popular hero after the strike. The UGT for its part is closely tied to the
These opposition parties did not openly support the Fez riots — which were a primordial outbreak of popular anger, not PLANTE directly connected to the general strike. But they immediately demanded commissions of inquiry and organized such investigations themselves to throw light on
They have denounced the trials that followed the riots as illegal, since people have been sentenced before the commissions of inquiry have completed their work. They have also been protesting through human rights organizations.
The repression has been more restrained than in 1981 and 1984. The regime knows that with the passing of time people are more aware of what is happening here than before. But the sentences are heavy, going as high as 15 years in prison. • Do you think that the appearance of Gilles Perrault's book has had an effect?
Without doubt the book had a shock effect in every sense of the term in Morocco and has allowed the unions to play their hand boldly. It is not the revelations as such which have been important here but the fact that the king has been exposed, as if a key has been turned in the regime's most important lock — the person of Hassan Il as a taboo subject.
The unions asked for a 50% rise in the minimum wage over a year. The bosses offered 25%, over two years. The king then made a speech and proposed 15%. In Morocco, you do not answer back to the
After three days, the unions came together and got round this ban. They addressed themselves to the government, saying that they could not accept a rise of
They decided to continue the struggle and move towards another general strike. This is the first time since independence that, even indirectly, the king has received such a reply.
By ignoring the king, they pushed him into the place of one who "reigns, but does not govern" - which is what the legal opposition wants.
Among the Moroccan people it is said: "we cannot speak, but someone has spoken for us." For the revolutionary militants the book was an occasion for joy. For the first time they saw another side of France: not only the ex-colonial power, but a France that supports the Moroccan people.
The taboos are falling; Tazmamart
[the prison where officers accused of a previous coup attempt against the king are kept in barbaric conditions], and the person of the king.
But nothing has been solved. There is the risk that the Gulf war will push the situation of the Moroccan people into the background.
I have myself heard leaders of opposition parties say that the worst can be expected when there is no campaign
• Are the doors going to be opened in Morocco tomorrow?
I think that the king is not going to open up anything at all until the last possible moment. I don't know when that moment will come, nor what will provoke it.
What is clear, is that without French money, the Moroccan regime would have already fallen. This point needs to be more widely known. The Moroccan army is a school for some of the Black African regimes, but only some - Sudan, Zaire and Gabon, to name the three most impor-
You can see their officers in uniform, here to learn how to keep a people under control, how to make a dictatorship work. But who are their teachers? These, also in Moroccan uniform, are French officers.
It is they who train the officers of the Black African dictatorships.There are some 170 to 200 of these French military functionaries in Morocco. *
Hoxha's heirs
Miles
Ashkoder
ALBANIA despite the fact that Albania had been presented as one of the countries which had best preserved its environment. Finally, there is talk of a Christian Democratic Party, founded around one of the martyrs of the Catholic community. There is also
Tirana
**
Elbasan
NIA a Republican Party.
Our general ignorance of this country explains in part the difficulty in analyzing the different political currents on the ground and the layers which support them. As in the case of other countries in the region, the political parties are still barely structured and created for the most
TOWARDS the end of 1990 the winds of change blowing through Eastern
Europe finally reached Stalinism's last secure bastion - Albania. Cecilia
Garmendia and Janette Habel talked to
Edith Lhomel, who has written many articles on Albania, notably for Le
Monde diplomatique, about the limits and prospects for the current changes.
W
HAT lies behind the discontent of the Albanian people, indicated by the massive wave of people trying to leave the country in July 1990 (see IV 189), and, in
December, by the rioting which took place in the principal towns and industrial centres, Skoder, Elbasan, and then Tirana?
Have the economic reforms introduced by Ramiz Alia been responsible for a decline in the standard of living of the population?
The essential reason for the economic deterioration resides in the total erosion of the apparatus of production. The quality of chrome, for example!, can no longer be improved because of the absence of certain products; the production of petrol has slackened off because of lack of equipment; all this is the result of the technological strains which undermine Albania.
Then there is the problem of unemployment, provoked by the enormous influx of youth onto the labour market?, something which Ramiz Alia himself referred to in his speech as a cause for alarm.
In my opinion, it is premature to speak of a recent degradation because of the economic reforms; on the contrary, the private greater autonomy accorded to landholdings, and the possibility of selling products freely on the small markets, have rather immediate beneficial effects on supplies.
Free markets of this kind have been de facto allowed, without being explicitly restored, since the last plenum of the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA —the ruling Communist Party), in the context of the reforms; if a peasant produces enough to feed himself and he has a surplus, he can sell it - this amounts to implicitly
### Saranda