'Left' nationalists conspire against Saharoui people

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Saturday s demonsitanor organised by Anti Apartheid in London In a striking display of statesmanlike moderation, the president of 'socialist' Algeria replied earlier this month to the latest in the long-running series of violent messages from King Hassan II of Morocco.

•The two states have been economic and political rivals since Algerian independence in 1962, with bitter disputes over territorial boundaries.

Officially, the Algerian government has not been on speaking terms with its Moroccan neighbour for three years, although Hassan has continued to bombard Algiers with ritual denunciations of •"Algerian aggression'.

Gracious dignity

In his reply President Boumedienne ignored all this with gracious dignity.. His letter made a moving appeal to "the indissoluble ties which link our two peoples together' and solemnly proclaimed that there wás 'no area of contention' between Morocco and Algeria.

This sudden diplomatic thaw has been brought about by the intensifying heat from the war in the Sahara between the Moroccan army. and the Polisario Front.

With its immensely rich and largely unexploited phosphate deposits, the Western Sahara was subjected to Spanish colonial rule until 1975.

The economic attraction of this territory to its two most powerful neighbours was obvious enough.

Geographically, it was scarcely less important.

Hassan's long-standing political ambition has been to rebuild the territorial integrity of 'Greater Morocco' by absorbing Mauritania, the Western Sahara and other areas.

The Algerian regime could have seriously frustrated this ambition by controlling the Western Sahara itself.

The Saharoui people themselves seemed to be a negligible factor in any calculațion-sparsely inhabiting a large territory, they had apparently developed very little political organisation and were certainly only primitively armed.

But these rival interests were expressed in different forms.

Mindful of its left' reputation, the Algerian regime declared its support for the self-determination of the Saharoui people, and for the Polisario Front which had emerged in the struggles against Spanish colonialism.

The petty bourgeois nationalists in Algiers looked for a reliable and dependent ally in the inexperienced leadership of a newly independent Sahara.

But this prospect was not one that pleased Franco, who entered into negotiations with the governments of Morocco and Mauritania.

When Spanish forces withdrew in 1975, the Moroccan and Mauritanian armies moved in to replace them • and carve up the spoils.

Boumedienne's government continued to give political and, to a lesser extent, material support to the Polisario Front, and recognised the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic when it was set up by the The battle-lines seemed to be clearly drawn, but Polisario fighters they have begun to blur and break up as the conflict has developed.

The occupying armies from Morocco and Mauritania were disappointed in their expectation of a swift and easy victory.

Not only were their positions within the Sahara under continuous attack, but the war was also being carried over their own borders by the forces of the Polisario.

With the continuation of the guerrilla war social tensions within Morocco and Mauritania began to increase as rapidly as military expenditure.

Antagonisms

The burden of the war was not simply financial, but above all political.

Conscription and other aspects of the 'war effort' aroused the class antagonisms which both regimes worked most strenuously to suppress.

While the Moroccan government unceasingly denounced the Polisatio as being in reality sections of the Algerian army, the Algerian government itself was becoming increasingly embarrassed by this conflict which threatened to plunge the whole of the area into turmoil.

When French imperialism intervened directly with air attacks on the Polisario, Boumedienne's regime sought with desperate urgency for a way to resolve' the conflict.

Weakest link

Their first opportunity came earlier this year, with the overthrow of Ould Daddah's one party dictatorship by a military coup in Mauritania. The weakest link had snapped.

The attacks by the Polisario had succeeded in totally disrupting the iron Mlles 500 CANARY IS.

WESTERN SA Tiris el Partition Gharbia Line MAURITANI, NOUAKCHOTT ENEGAL mining industry, and this combined with drought and other factors to produce a total collapse of the precarious Mauritanian economy.

Dragged into an apparently endless war by the dominance of Morocco and the lure of apparently easy booty, Ould Daddah's regime was cracking up under the additional pressure of increasingly organised mass opposition from workers and peasants.

But the new military dictatorship could only retain its power by balancing between two forces-the pressure from the masses for peace, and the pressure from its Moroccan 'ally'expressed in the Moroccan army which controlled Mauritania in all but name.

Compromise

Responding to peaceable noises from the new head of state, Lieutenant-Colonel Mustapha Ould Mohamed Saleck, the Polisario Front declared a unilateral truce with the Mauritanian army.

These developments opened up for the Algerian leaders the possibility of a negotiated compromise solution.

At the same time, the overthrow of Ould Daddah provided a clear warning to both Hassan and Boumedienne of the dangers posed to their less fragile but still insecure 'governments by the continuation of the war.

This new situation has opened the door for two other forces to enter on to the scene.

Scenting deals and bargains in the air, Spanish Prime Minister Suarez and Libyan dictator Gaddafi are now vying for the part of honest broker' in any peace talks.

"Liberal' policy

The Spanish bourgeoisie has its own private quarrels with its Moroccan competitors, and Suarez has seized the opportunity to cultivate the image of the new 'liberal' foreign policy of the 'democratised' Francoist dictatorship.

Suarez's own party, the Union of the Democratio Centre has recognised the Polisario Front and even sent a delegate to its recent Fourth Congress.

This action and other recent initiatives have not been greeted warmly by the Moroccan government.

Hassan's foreign minister responded by . reviving Morocco's claim to Ceuta

SPAIN

CEUTA MELILLA Rabat MOROCCO El Aaiun ALGERIA MALI and Melilla-two enclaves on the African mainland maintained since colonial days by the Spanish state as military bases.

For good measure, he threw in the remark that the Spanish-ruled Canary Islands were only a few miles from the Moroccan Atlantic coast'!

More success Gaddafi's overtures have so far met with more success. Negotiations are at present underway in Tripoli between the Polisario Front and the Mauritanian government.

This development has brought Moroccan diplomats hotfoot, seeking talks with Gaddafi.

In the past Gaddafi has given verbal support to the Polisario Front-without ever recognising the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic.

Now this revolutionary' leader has announced that the question of recognition will be "put to the Libyan people" for their decision!

•The likely outcome of this bargaining will be the proposal for an independent statelet in the Tiris elGharbia, the southern part of the Sahara at present occupied by Mauritania.

'Acceptable'

Such a 'solution' would leave the phosphates and the bulk of the territory to Moroccan colonialism.

The support of French and US imperialism for such an "acceptable' settlement might well prove sufficient to force Hassan's reluctant agreement.

There can be no doubt of the eagerness with which it would be greeted by the Algerian leaders.

Immediate steps are necessary if the struggles of the Saharoui people are not to be sold out and betrayed by those forces which have claimed to support them.

Continuing the guerrilla war against the Moroccan army and into Moroccan territory is not and never has been enough.

The power to end the war lies with the Moroccan masses, and it is the proletariat and peasantry of Morocco which must be mobilised to halt the aggression of the 'revolutionary' despot, Hassan II.

If the Polisario Front confines its appeals to the Organisation of African Unity and fails to make this turn even at such a late stage, then it will bear a heavy responsibility for the betrayal of the struggles which it claims to lead.

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Wednesday 1978