Lyon: Screening of the film “The Battle of Algiers”

We share an unofficial translation of a report by La Cause du Peuple.

On the evening of Wednesday, July 2, in an association building near the États-Unis district, a screening of the film “The Battle of Algiers” was held, organized by the Anti-Colonial Association and the Ligue de la Jeunesse Révolutionnaire.

The film, by Gillo Pontecorvo, is a quasi-documentary that recounts the battle between the national liberation forces and the French colonial occupation in Algiers in 1967. This film, a masterful demonstration of the people’s strength, is a success in every way. Yacef Saadi, leader of the Algiers region in 1957, plays himself in the film.

In front of nearly 90 people, including political, community, and religious activists, local residents, and the simply curious, excerpts from the film were viewed and discussed. The evening’s hosts and the audience discussed the lessons of the Battle of Algiers, which was a tactical French victory but a strategic defeat for the occupation.

The conclusions of these discussions are simple: first, it is the masses who make history. It is the Algerian people, led by the FLN, who won independence. Second, the strength of the Resistance comes above all from its leadership, its political orientation, and its armed struggle linked to popular mobilization. When one leadership is eliminated, another takes its place. If the people are mobilized around its vanguard, then the struggle is invincible. Finally, struggle and revolution are both the cause and the result of the transformation of the souls of men and women, who, in the struggle, profoundly transform themselves and transform the people.

At the end of the event a photo in support of Yamin, repressed pro-Palestinian militant from Lyon for his support to Palestine, was taken.