This has become manifest: the global system was not made to serve the good of all, but to serve multinational companies.
AHMED BEN BELLAI’m 90 years old now, and my motivation hasn’t changed; it’s the same fervour that drives me.
More Ahmed Ben Bella Quotes
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The French colonisation of Algeria lasted a long time: 132 years.
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When I was engaged in the struggle for my country, I was very young. My horizons were open.
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I accommodated practically all of the liberation movements, including those of Latin America.
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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.
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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.
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I am the son of poor peasants who came at a very young age to live in Algeria. I only recently saw the place where they were born, near the city of Marrakech.
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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.
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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.
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With my government, we engaged in bringing our help to fights for national freedom.
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We were but some tens of people throughout Algeria, a territory that is five times the size of France
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Peace does not include a vendetta; there will be neither winners nor losers.
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Those who are leftists, once in power, are not different from other parties.
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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.
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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.
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I’m 90 years old now, and my motivation hasn’t changed; it’s the same fervour that drives me.
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Algeria is not breaking up.
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Yes, I am Algerian of Moroccan origin through my parents, but all my life is Algeria. I was born there.
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Colonialism is an idea born in the West that drives Western countries – like France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain – to occupy countries outside of Europe.
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My life has been a bit special, this is true. I participated in the liberation of my country.
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I spent 24 and a half years in prison
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We trained them, we arranged for the weapons to reach them, we created networks.
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These are the multinationals, like General Motors and Nestle; these are the big industrial groups that weigh, on the monetary scale, much more than big countries like Egypt.
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I am not a Marxist, but I place myself resolutely at the left.
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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.
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It is obvious that taking the country from a state of war to being a lawful state won’t be easy.
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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.
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