“I think that they participated in something that was not very proper and was very pitiful, not only for the Algerian people, but also for the other people who counted on our support.”

In two years, there were 22 military coups d’etat, essentially in Africa and the third world. The coup d’etat of Algiers, in 1965, is what opened the path.

Algeria was therefore only the beginning of something that was in development: this is why I say that it’s the global capitalist system that finally reacted against us.

I can say now: all the combatants who participated in the fight for freedom in South America came to Algeria; it’s from there that all those who fought left.

At that precise moment, several countries were still colonised or had barely overcome colonisation. This was the case in practically all of Africa. We supported them.

We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France

Those who are leftists, once in power, are not different from other parties.

Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d’etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again.

Peace does not include a vendetta; there will be neither winners nor losers.

Algeria is not breaking up.

I spent 24 and a half years in prison

In the past, we spoke of poverty, misery only in the south. Now there is a lot of misery, a lot of bad that creates victims in the north as well.

I’m optimistic because I’m pragmatic: Neither of the two sides, the military government nor the Islamic front, is capable of winning. If they continue to fight, they will both bleed to death.

The liberation movement which I led in Algeria, the organization that I created to fight the French army, was at first a small movement of nothing at all.

Yes, my life is a life of combat; I can say that this has never stopped for a single instant. It is a combat that started for me at the age of 16.

This has become manifest: the global system was not made to serve the good of all, but to serve multinational companies.

Colonialism is an idea born in the West that drives Western countries – like France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain – to occupy countries outside of Europe.